WordPress SEO: Guide To Optimizing WordPress Sites For Killer Rankings

WordPress is one of the most useful content management systems and website builders on the internet.

It is a great tool to help creators build websites and their brands and spread their message to the right audience.

However, you must master SEO on WordPress to optimize your website and marketing.

If you’re looking for tips and tricks for SEO writing, we will take you through the WordPress SEO best practices to follow so that you can make your blog stand out from the crowd.

Is WordPress Good for SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is essential for every website.

SEO will improve the visibility of your landing pages, bringing more traffic to your site.

Google, Bing, and other search engines use SEO to determine which pages rank high in searches.

And because WordPress is one of the top website builders on the market, it obviously has several tools for SEO for website owners.

You can use these tools to improve SEO and manage your website and its growth.

Pro Tip: Managing SEO without a plugin or tool is very challenging, so you should use an SEO plugin to improve your skills.

Is WordPress SEO Easy?

Like anything, WordPress SEO takes time to learn and understand.

If you have never used WordPress or something like it before, you may have trouble managing it at first.

Fortunately, once you spend some time using its tools, it will become easier.

WordPress makes it easy for new users to learn and understand its SEO tools.

There are tutorials available so that you can learn quickly.

Additionally, when you create a new tool, there is a section at the bottom of the page which gives you an SEO grade.

It also provides you with things you can do to improve your score.

Why Is SEO Important for WordPress?

SEO is one of the most important things to understand as a website creator.

Without stellar SEO, your website will be unable to thrive.

Instead of ranking high on Google, your pages will fall back several pages in search results.

It is crucial to get a strong understanding of SEO to find an audience for your content.

However, before you start to learn the basics of SEO, we want to explain what you will get from strong SEO.

1. Increase Website Traffic

The most crucial reason to improve your SEO in WordPress is to increase traffic to your website.

Strong SEO makes it more likely for your pages to rank high on Google.

Search engines use bots to quickly look through sites on the internet.

They go from site to site, scouring pages for keywords and putting them all together.

The search engine then uses an algorithm to determine which pages should rank highly when people search those specific keywords.

If you have a page with strong SEO, it will rank high on Google when someone searches for a topic related to it.

While some sites pay to rank high on Google, others rank high thanks to good SEO on WordPress.

2. Builds Trust and Credibility

Think about the last time you Googled something. When you were looking something up, you probably didn’t think about going to the second page of results, let alone the third.

Most people stick to the first page of search results except in desperate situations.

Part of the reason for this is laziness, but it is also because they are more likely to trust the high-ranking pages.

Whenever you Google something, there are millions of results.

Not every result is reliable, but the top ones are usually credible.

By having good SEO practices, your results will rank higher in the results.

As a result, people will learn the name of your website, and you will build trust and compatibility.

3. Builds a Better User Experience

You will not retain readers if your site has a poor user experience.

They might find your site, but they will not stick around if your site and its pages are disorganized and unclear.

When you improve your SEO, you will provide your users and customers with a better reading experience.

As a result, they are more likely to return to your site in the future.

4. Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy

SEO also acts as a cost-effective marketing strategy.

Many sites pay thousands of dollars, if not more, to rank at the top of Google search results.

However, you can achieve similar results by maintaining strong SEO.

It is far more cost-effective to improve your SEO and get your pages to rank high naturally than to pay for high rankings.

WordPress SEO Comparisons

While WordPress is a fantastic option for people looking to build a website and improve their SEO practices, there are other options.

Here we will look at a few comparisons to consider.

Is WordPress or Shopify Better for SEO?

One of the main competitors of WordPress is Shopify, another website builder you can use as the owner of a startup.

However, we generally prefer WordPress to Shopify.

WordPress is better for blogging and is more forgiving to new users.

It has more optimization options and is simple to understand.

Which Is Better for SEO: Blogger or WordPress?

Blogger is another tool you can use if you want to start a blog.

It is easy to use, secure, and provides plenty of flexibility.

However, Blogger is better for beginners who want to start a personal blog.

If that is all you need, Blogger will do everything you need, including managing your SEO.

However, WordPress is better for website owners that want to maximize their traffic, business scale, and potential growth.

If you want to turn a profit, WordPress is the better option.

Is WordPress Better Than GoDaddy for SEO?

GoDaddy is the closest competitor to WordPress.

It provides many of the services available with WordPress.

Both are impressive website builders that feature SEO plugins and eCommerce capabilities.

However, we still give WordPress the edge by a small margin.

It provides more flexibility and is easier to use than GoDaddy.

What Are Your WordPress SEO Options?

To optimize your WordPress SEO, you will need to use plugins and other tools.

Here we will look at a few of the top plugins and other tools you can use to improve your SEO.

WordPress SEO Plugins

There are a few different plugins you can use to support your SEO content.

• All-in-One SEO for WordPress: All-In-One SEO is one of the most popular SEO plugins on the market. Once you install it, it will help fix all SEO issues in your content.
• Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO is a plugin designed for WordPress users. The plugin specializes in improving on-page SEO.
• Rank Math: Rank Math is a tool you can use to find the right keywords for your landing pages. The plugin ensures your content remains high-quality, improves speed, and is mobile-friendly.
• MonsterInsights: MonsterInsights is a tool you can use to get access to deep website analytics. With it, you can analyze every aspect of your SEO and how it drives traffic. You can see your page views, bounce rate, average session duration, and more. It is also compatible with Google Analytics, making it easy to combine analytic programs.
• SEOPress: SEOPress is a great plugin you can use without plugins. It supports 12 plugins and will work with those tools to improve your SEO. The best thing about this plugin is it is free. You get access to the entire tool, without ads, for free.
• Rankie: Rankie is a smaller plugin, but a useful one. It allows you to track your rankings on Google so you can easily see which page’s keywords are working.
• Schema Pro: Finally, Schemo Pro is a simple plugin to help you optimize your SEO. You can easily configure a Schema markup and apply it anywhere on your website.

WordPress SEO Without Plugins

If you do not want to download plugins to help with your SEO, there are some things you should focus on to keep your SEO strong.

1. Focus on Optimized Content

Whenever you write an article, ensure you optimize it for SEO and readability.

These two factors are strong contributing factors to how your page ranks on Google.

2. Use a Tool Like SEMrush or Ahrefs

While plugins might annoy you, you shouldn’t ignore SEO tools completely.

You can use SEMrush or Ahrefs to get SEO insights.

You do not need to download these tools, but you can use them with WordPress.

3. Use the Built-In Functions

It does not matter if you are a beginner or have years of experience, you should use the built-in functions on WordPress.

These functions allow you to check your SEO and improve things before you publish.

4. Use SEO-Friendly URLs

When you make a post in WordPress, it will make a URL based on your title.

You should always edit the URL so that it is SEO friendly and not cluttered.

5. Manual Title and Meta Data Descriptions

Like your URL, sites will automatically generate titles and metadata for your content before you publish.

However, you will not have strong SEO with the generically generated titles and meta descriptions.

You should always input these things manually, so your SEO is as strong as possible.

6. Optimize Images

Optimizing your images is crucial for strong SEO.

Ensure their descriptions and alternative text have your focus keyword.

Additionally, having images throughout your article will improve your SEO score.

7. Create a Sitemap

A site map is a useful tool for users whenever they visit a new website.

It helps users navigate the site and find everything they need.

If you do not have a site map, users might not be able to find most of your content.

8. Boost Site Speed

Nothing will make users switch to another website quicker than if yours loads slowly.

You should invest in tools to ensure your site loads quickly on desktop and mobile devices.

Two resources we recommend:

• Optimize Images For WordPress Websites & Save Page Load Time
• Best WordPress Speed Optimization Services

Frequently Asked Questions

By now you should understand the basics of SEO.

However, we want to answer a few more questions before concluding.

Wrapping Up

WordPress SEO is crucial to the success of your website.

You should use all the tools and plugins at your disposal to optimize your website’s SEO to bring more traffic to your site and gain followers.

If you read SEO-focused blogs, you can learn about the on-page SEO best practices that will help you strengthen your skills.

How do you use SEO?

Let us know in the comments, and If you have more questions, drop them there as well!