One reason WordPress is the most popular website CMS in the world is because of its SEO features. Many of these features are ready to be used out of the box but there are still some steps you need to take to improve your site’s organic ranking.
Here are some tips you can use to make sure your WordPress site is ready to rank on Google SERPs.
Make sure pages can be indexed
This may seem obvious but one reason some people don’t see their site showing up in Google search results is because it can’t be indexed. Making sure your site can be crawled and indexed by Google Search Bots is an important step for SEO on any site.
Make sure there isn’t a noindex tag preventing search engine bots from crawling your site by going to Settings > Reading > Search Engine Visibility.
Configure permalink settings
Permalinks set how the urls on your site are formatted and are an important part of SEO. The post name option in the Settings > Permalinks tab in WordPress admin is often the most SEO-friendly because it makes it easy to add keywords to page urls.
There are some situations, like a daily news site, where using the default date settings make sense because there might be multiple posts with similar titles.
Changing permalink settings on a WordPress site that’s already showing on Google is risky because it can lead to broken links that are indexed. 301 redirects should be set up for any old urls leading to error pages after permalink settings are updated.
Install a WordPress SEO Plugin
It’s much easier to manage important SEO settings on different pages and posts with a WordPress SEO plugin. Yoast SEO gives you the ability to update meta info, add structured data, monitor how effectively page content is targeting important keywords, and more. The Yoast SEO plugin is available in the WordPress Repository and can be installed directly from the plugins tab.
Generate a Sitemap
Sitemaps make it easier for search engines to discover all pages on your site so it’s important to generate one. Yoast SEO has a XML sitemaps option in the SEO > General > Features tab that needs to be enabled to have an active sitemap.
Install Google Analytics
Being able to see how visitors are interacting with your site and which pages are the most popular on your site is an essential component of SEO optimization. Google Analytics allows you to see how much traffic your site is getting from various sources and which pages users find the most interesting among a wealth of other performance data.
Google Analytics can be installed with a plugin or manually with instructions available in the Analytics Dashboard.
Connect Site to Google Search Console
Google Search Console will allow you to see how your site is performing in Google’s organic search results pages. Data regarding the queries a site is showing for and which pages are showing on SERPs is valuable when determining which site content is the most valuable.
A site can be connected to Google Search Console with auto-verification through access to an Analytics account or a number of other methods.
Add Unique Page Titles
Unique page titles are an essential part of any SEO optimization plan and the most common way to organize content on a WordPress site so making sure each page has a unique title is essential. Duplicate content will hurt organic page rankings. Combining any pages with similar titles will help give each page a clear purpose and make it easier for Google Search Bots to index pages for the correct terms.
Stay Relevant with New Content
Going through the steps listed above is a great way to make sure your site is ready to rank on Google but that’s only the beginning. Competition for the top spots on SERPs for valuable keywords is tough. It’s important to keep you site fresh with new content focused on important keywords to show you’re an expert in your field.
Posting new content regularly is the best way to make sure Google notices your site and page rankings improve. There are many different types of content that can be published for SEO but each piece should be unique and have a clear goal.