In order to drive more traffic to your website, it is essential to enhance your WordPress SEO. Unfortunately, most WordPress SEO guides are too complex for beginners to get started.
If you are serious about increasing your website traffic, then you need to pay attention to the best practices of WordPress SEO.
In this guide, we will share the top tips for WordPress SEO to help you enhance your WordPress SEO and attract more organic traffic.
You might have heard experts claiming that WordPress is SEO-friendly. This is the very reason why many individuals opt for WordPress to initiate a blog or a website.
While WordPress ensures that the generated code adheres to SEO best practices, there is a lot more you need to do to optimize your SEO efforts.
We have several practical steps that you should take to effectively optimize your WordPress SEO.
To make things simpler, we have created a table of contents to help you navigate our definitive WordPress SEO guide with ease.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Basics of WordPress SEO
The Best WordPress SEO Plugin
WordPress SEO Best Practices
Speed and Security for WordPress SEO
Finally, see more SEO tools and resources to expand your WordPress SEO efforts even further.
Introduction
We understand that the idea of optimizing WordPress SEO can be overwhelming for beginners, particularly if you lack technical expertise.
However, rest assured that it does not have to be complicated. Start by understanding the basics, and then begin implementing them on your own website.
What is SEO?
SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, is a strategy used by website owners to increase traffic by ranking higher in search engine results.
SEO is not about deceiving search engines or manipulating the system. It simply involves creating a website with optimized code and formatting that makes it easy for search engines to find your content.
When individuals search for topics related to your website, your search-engine-optimized content will appear higher in the search results, leading to more clicks and a higher volume of traffic to your website.
Why is SEO important?
Search engines are often the primary source of traffic for most websites.
Google and other search engines utilize advanced algorithms to accurately assess and rank pages in search results. However, these algorithms are not flawless - they still require your assistance in comprehending the content of your website.
If your content is not optimized, search engines will not know how to rank it. Consequently, your website will not appear in search result pages when people search for topics related to your content, resulting in missed opportunities for traffic.
It is crucial for business owners to prioritize making their website search engine-friendly in order to maximize their search traffic.
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Basics of WordPress SEO
Although SEO can be a technical field, it does not have to be. Simply becoming familiar with a few basic SEO tips can significantly increase your website traffic.
You do not need to be a technical expert to implement the techniques below. If you are already using WordPress, you have the necessary tools!
Let us begin optimizing your website.
Check Your Site's Visibility Settings
WordPress includes a built-in option to hide your website from search engines. This feature allows you to work on your website privately before making it publicly accessible.
However, sometimes this option can be unintentionally enabled, making your website unavailable to search engines.
If your website does not appear in search results, your first step should be to ensure that this option is disabled.
Simply log in to the admin area of your WordPress site and go to Settings » Reading page.
Scroll down to the "Search Engine Visibility" section and verify that the box next to "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unchecked.
Do not forget to click the "Save Changes" button to apply your changes.
Using SEO Friendly URL Structures in WordPress
SEO friendly URLs contain words that clearly describe the content of the page and are easily readable by both humans and search engines.
Here are a few examples of SEO friendly URLs:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/how-to-install-wordpress/
https://www.wpbeginner.com/common-wordpress-errors-and-how-to-fix-them/
Observe that these URLs are easily readable, and users can deduce the content they will find on the page by simply examining the text in the URL.
So, what do non-SEO friendly URLs look like?
https://www.wpbeginner.com/?p=10467
http://example.com/archives/123
Notice that these URLs employ numbers that are unrelated to the content, and users cannot discern the content simply by examining the URL.
By utilizing SEO-friendly permalink structures, you improve your chances of achieving better positions in search results.
To check and update your WordPress site's permalink structure, visit the Settings » Permalinks page. Select the "Post Name" option and click the "Save Changes" button to apply your settings.
For more detailed instructions, refer to our guide on creating an SEO-friendly URL structure in WordPress.
Note: If your website has been running for more than 6 months, please avoid changing your permalink structure unless you are currently using the "numbers" option. If you are using the "Day and Name" or "Month and Name" option, continue using those.
Changing your permalink structure on an established site will result in the loss of social media share counts and may jeopardize your existing SEO ranking.
If you must change your permalink structure, it is recommended to hire a professional who can set up proper redirects. Please note that you will still lose your social share counts on the affected pages.
WWW vs non-WWW
If you are starting a new website, you need to decide whether you want to use www (http://www.example.com) or non-www (http://example.com) in your site's URL.
Search engines consider these two URLs to be different websites, which means you need to choose one and stick to it.
You can set your preference by visiting the Settings » General page. Add your preferred URL in both the "WordPress Address" and "Site Address" fields.
Contrary to what others might claim, there is no SEO advantage in using either www or non-www from an SEO standpoint.
For more detailed information on this topic, refer to our guide on www vs non-www - which is better for WordPress SEO.
The Best WordPress SEO plugin
One of the best features of WordPress is the availability of plugins for various purposes, including SEO. There are numerous WordPress SEO plugins to choose from, making it difficult for beginners to select the most suitable one.
Instead of installing separate plugins to perform individual SEO tasks, we will help you choose the best WordPress SEO plugin that can handle all tasks, and the best part is that it is 100% free.
Choosing the Best WordPress SEO Plugin
When it comes to selecting the best WordPress SEO plugin, you will likely narrow down your choices to the two most popular options: All in One SEO (AIOSEO) or Yoast SEO.
AIOSEO is the original WordPress SEO plugin used on over 3 million websites.
This is the plugin we use on the WPBeginner website.
It offers powerful features such as TruSEO on-page analysis, rich snippet schema markup, social media integration, breadcrumb navigation, advanced eCommerce SEO support for WooCommerce, local SEO, internal link assistance, and much more.
In short, AIOSEO takes care of all technical SEO optimization for your WordPress site.
In this tutorial, we will be using AIOSEO for screenshots and examples.
For more details, you can refer to our comprehensive guide on how to set up All In One SEO for WordPress.
We previously used Yoast SEO but switched to All in One SEO because it offers more powerful features and innovative updates. For more information, see our article on 9 reasons why we switched from Yoast to AIOSEO.
Add XML Sitemaps in WordPress
An XML Sitemap is a special file that lists every single page on your website, making it easy for search engines to discover all of your content.
While adding an XML sitemap does not directly impact your search rankings, it helps search engines find and index your pages quickly, leading to improved rankings.
If you are using the AIOSEO plugin, it will automatically generate an XML sitemap for you. To find your sitemap, simply visit this URL (replace "example.com" with your own domain name):
http://example.com/sitemap.xmlWe will show you how to submit your XML sitemap to Google in the next step.
Add Your Site to Google Search Console
Google Search Console, also known as Webmaster Tools, provides website owners with insights into how search engines perceive their content.
It offers reports and data to help you understand how your pages appear in search results. You can also see the actual search terms people are using to find your website, how your pages are displayed in search results, and how frequently your pages are clicked.
All of this information helps you evaluate your site's performance and plan your content strategy accordingly.
Google Search Console also notifies you of any problems with your website, such as when search crawlers are unable to access it, duplicate content is detected, or if there are any restricted resources.
If you are using AIOSEO, you can follow this guide on how to add Google Search Console.
If you are not using AIOSEO, watch our video for an alternative method:
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