Optimizing WordPress for SEO

A lot of new content appears on the web every day. The number of active blogs is constantly growing, and new ones are popping up all the time. The Google search engine is bombarded every second with the number of queries that users make.

Imagine... 40,000 requests are made every second, for a total of over 3.5 billion per day. In any case, visit this page and see for yourself the power of these numbers. Just yesterday, before midnight, the counter showed 4.5 billion requests made. And to think that there are only 10 sites on the first page of the Google search engine - of which practically only the first 3 results are the most important.

As you can guess, there is a huge fight for these positions. How to get closer to the top lines of the results with your own blog? Optimizing your post for SEO.

WordPress Post Optimization - Introductory Tips

I'm going to show you an effective way to perform some useful tricks to increase your online visibility. Since we love WordPress the most, our login optimization tips will be based on it. There is no need to introduce the WordPress CMS itself, just take a look at how many possibilities there are for using this system. As you can see, it is used not only for blogs, but also for business websites.

However, before you start working on improving your post's online visibility, it's worth thinking about the keywords that should be included before you start writing. Of course, your main goal should be to write for readers, that is, simply, clearly and concisely. However, you still need to keep the key phrases in mind. Remember that you do not need to saturate your content with them. It will only hurt you, but more on that later.

The choice of a keyword should also not be random. For a better selection of phrases, you can use Google Trends, which will tell you which topics are most popular at the moment. You can also analyze keywords and even explore semantic keywords. As you can see, there is something to use when choosing relevant phrases.

Bottom line. Now let's say your new blog post has just been completed. Now it's time to take a look at how to optimize a WordPress post with basic knowledge and a useful plugin!

What does SEO WordPress post optimization look like?

The optimization described below will be based on the Yoast SEO plugin. The plugin simply and intuitively tells the user what to look for when writing a post, and points out aspects that need improvement.

In fact, there are a whole bunch of similar plugins. In fact, they all work very similarly. The presented aspects will be useful even if you are using another tool of this type. What matters is what elements you should pay attention to.

Before proceeding with the implementation of specific tips, you must, of course, install the plugin.This is done as standard, like all other add-ons installed from the WordPress cockpit. Once installed, the Yoast SEO plugin window will appear in the post view (below the section where you enter and edit content).

Having prepared the plugin in this way, you can start working directly. You will see for yourself that optimizing a WordPress post for SEO is not a difficult task at all. Get to work!

1. Entering a passphrase

The first step we suggest to take is to enter a passphrase. After you paste it, the plugin will process the content of the article you wrote, and in return you will get the results in the form of colored dots. They can be compared to a traffic light on the road when you get three light messages. Of course, at the initial stage, not everything can be "green", so we are making the rest of the changes. Green indicators show what state the current WordPress post optimization is in.

Tip: The phrase should only be used once. Otherwise, the same articles will theoretically compete with each other for position, which is what you don't want after all.

2. Meta Description, Title and URL

We recently talked about meta description on our blog, so there is no need to discuss it again.

It can be entered in two ways. If you click the 'Edit Snippet' button, additional options will appear, including 'Description'. Enter the content of the description, considering its length. The green bar will inform you about the status of the description as it is filled to the end. It is important to use all available space and at the same time not to exceed it. Another important point is to use the page description in order to entice the user to visit your site. Regarding this, check out the tips given in the link above.

The second way to add a meta description is in the email subject line. It all depends if you are using it in the current WordPress theme for your site.

Now it's time for the title, or "SEO title". There are also 50-60 character limits here. The headline should contain your key phrase first and foremost and be both enticing and intriguing - so that users will happily click on it. Once again, I refer you to the guide, which deals in more detail with the issue of writing effective headlines.

Tip:  There are two ways to enter a name. Either in the box above or in the box just below the post title in the WordPress cockpit. Both areas have a certain relationship. The field from the first method is used only for SEO and only appears in search results, while the second method is used equally for SEO and as the title of the article on the page. It is better to use the last method.

Now it's the turn of the link name. We enter it in the "Slug" field of the Yoast plugin. Again, what matters is the length (50-70 characters) and that it is easy for the reader to read.Don't use any numbers or special characters, just do your best for the best user experience. A good practice is to use the same title and URL (although this is also not a rule).

3. Post Content

Next, WordPress post optimization focuses on content. As you may have noticed, when you enter a key phrase, one of the colored "lights" indicates the density of the phrase in relation to the entire text. The optimal value of this indicator is from 0.5% to 1%. Be careful not to overload the content with phrases (the so-called keyword stuffing), as this is not welcomed by Google.

Tip: You can optimize your content for multiple phrases at once with Yoast SEO, but it's a paid solution. If you want to check the density of another phrase, just replace the current one. Then just enter the main one again.

Another thing to pay attention to is the placement of the phrase in the first paragraph of the text so that the topic of the entry is introduced from the very beginning of the content.

The use of headings is also an important aspect: H1, H2, etc. It's not the most important ranking factor right now, but it's worth taking care of all the time. This improves the readability of the page and allows it to be scanned visually. Thus, it is effective from the point of view of the reader, which is very important. Its use must also be reasonable. Remember that H1 is used only once per page, and by using each successive heading degree, you must create a logical structure. Use it as a table of contents in a book and create consecutive chapters, subsections, and so on.

• Incorrect header layout: H2 -> H1 -> H4 -> H3 -> H5 -> H6 
• Correct title layout: H1 -> H2 -> H3 -> H3 -> H2 -> H3 -> H4 -> H4 

External links should also come from your content. Links to other sites are good for SEO.

It is also useful to include images in the content. Visual content is easier for us to digest, so it should be used more often. The ALT attribute of an image is very important because Google searches for images based on this attribute. Be sure to enter in this field the content in which you want to see your image in Google Graphics. Also, don't forget to optimize the image's weight (I recommend TinyPNG) and its dimensions. The highest possible resolution is not always a good option, as you may find that your blog area is smaller than the image size anyway, making it appear smaller. This negatively affects the weight of the image, which, in turn, affects the page loading speed, which should also be taken into account.

A few final words about WordPress post optimization

As you can see, optimizing WordPress posts is not something you can't do on your own. By applying the tips above, your entry should "glow green".

If something is wrong, read the tips that the plugin offers. It is also worth noting that the presented plugin is just a tool, and it is not without flaws (for example, the lack of case sensitivity of the entered main phrase). Don't blindly follow the suggestions that Yoast SEO has to offer. This gives us a general idea of ​​what needs to be worked on.

Overall, this is a good tool for anyone who wants to improve their own SEO. This will allow you to take care of the basic things that need to be done to properly position the entrance. Remember also that the text you write should be, above all, practical and user-friendly.

Thus, optimizing a WordPress post for SEO should be carried out with the following points in a nutshell:

Checklist - Optimizing a WordPress post for SEO

Common questions before optimizing:

• A catchy theme and title that encourages clicks .
• Research the best keywords and choose 2-3 of them.
• Choosing an image for the record, which is also intriguing and does not let you pass by.
• Post content must be over 300 characters long.

Optimization issues:

Title:

• 50-60 characters long
• contains a passphrase

Description:

• 150-160 characters long
• does not necessarily include a passphrase
• describing and encouraging the user click on the button

Valid URL:

• as short as possible, 50-70 characters
• easy for the user to understand (no weird characters like "id=22")
• containing a passphrase if possible

Categories:

• use of H1 including keyword phrase
• correctly use lower ranks as needed with optional phrase inclusion

Image(s) with ALT attribute:

• ALT must describe the image
• contain phrases
• Compression

Links:

• Where possible, use outbound links as well as internal linking between subpages or articles

Final information: WordPress post optimization for SEO - this is a process that the plugin won't do entirely for you. The plugin provides only a number of recommendations. You cannot follow them completely blindly.