WordPress SEO checklist: 12 things you need to do
Want to learn how to do WordPress SEO? Here’s Web Consultants’ checklist of things to do to help you optimize your WordPress site:
- Choose the right hosting provider
- Install SEO plugins
- Find the right keywords
- Optimize your URLs
- Improve your WordPress website’s load time
- Add internal links to your WordPress pages
- Check your site’s visibility settings
- Submit your XML sitemap
- Optimize your WordPress page headings
- Craft unique title tags and meta descriptions
- Add alt text to images
- Focus on the user intent
Keep reading to learn more!
1. Pick the best hosting company
The first item on our WordPress SEO checklist is picking the best hosting company. In order to be sure that your website is optimized for search engines, you need to pick a reputable hosting company.
You can host your website with one of the many hosting companies available today. The various kinds of website hosting are listed below for your reference:
- Shared hosting: With shared hosting, your website is kept on the same server as other websites. Sharing the cost with other companies makes this option more reasonable, but you run the risk of your website loading slowly due to the shared hosting.
- Hosting on a dedicated server: This type of hosting is an alternative to shared hosting. You can host your website on a private server and take care of its management with this option. It’s a terrific approach to guarantee that you have control over your host, but it has a price.
- Cloud hosting is an additional choice for website hosting. With this choice, you can distribute your resources among several servers without the requirement for infrastructure to establish your hosting. This solution scales as your firm expands as well.
- Managed hosting is an additional choice for hosting your website. In this case, a business will give you the hardware you require to set up your hosting. They will also take care of the regular maintenance of your hosting.
In general, managed or cloud hosting is the best solution for SEO. These choices fit your budget better and provide you with enough assistance to raise the search engine ranking of your website.
You can choose a variety of fantastic website hosting options, such as:
2. Install SEO plugins
Find and install WordPress SEO plugins first if you want to optimize your WordPress website. With the help of SEO plugins, you can modify your website to make it more search engine friendly and improve your position in search results.
Yoast SEO is the most well-liked WordPress SEO plugin. This plugin offers all the tools you need, such as meta tag optimization, page performance enhancements, and more, to help your website rank in searches.
Additionally, you can use SEO plugins like:
The ranking of your website in search results depends on the use of an SEO plugin.
3. Find the right keywords
Finding the appropriate keywords is the next item on our WordPress SEO checklist. In order to find relevant results, users enter keywords into the search field when conducting searches. You must optimize your WordPress sites for relevant terms if you want your company to show up in relevant search results.
How do you discover keywords that are pertinent to your pages? To find terms, you can utilize a keyword research tool like KeywordsFX. Use long-tail keywords that have three or more words because they are more precise and attract more relevant visitors.
You’ll include the keywords you’ve chosen for your pages into the content all throughout. Use keywords sparingly in your:
- Title tag
- Meta description
- Headings
- Subheadings
- Body text
Your page will appear more relevant in search results for those keywords if you use your target keywords frequently. It’s one of the best methods for boosting the position of your sites in pertinent search results.
4. Ensure your URLs are Optimized
You need to optimize your URLs if you want to use WordPress for SEO. The context that your URLs provide for search engines and website users to your site is crucial.
Consider that you click on a page from the search results to find where you are on the company’s website by checking the URL. However, all you can make out in the URL is a jumble of letters and numbers, and you have no idea where you are on the company’s website.
This issue frequently occurs if your URLs aren’t optimized.
You should optimize your URLs in order to give both search engines and website users a clear understanding of where your page is located. By doing the following steps, you can configure the option to generate a custom URL:
- Click Edit on your post or page
- Click the Gear icon
- Click on Permalink
- Edit your URL slug
You may make it simpler for search engines and website users to understand where they are on your site by using these methods to make a unique URL for each of your web pages!
5. Improve your WordPress website’s load time
Examine your website’s load time if you want to learn how to optimize your WordPress site effectively. You absolutely need to include this item on your WordPress SEO checklist. Each year, businesses lose $2.6 billion in revenue as a result of slow-loading websites.
Use Google PageSpeed Insights to check the loading time of your website right now. You may make improvements to your website by using this free tool, which will provide you with a full report on what’s slowing it down.
Not sure how to put Google’s advice into practice? To have a team of professionals assists you in reducing the load time of your website, think about investing in page speed services with our knowledgeable staff!
6. Add internal links to your WordPress pages
Internal links are another important item to cross off your SEO checklist for WordPress. Google can crawl and index additional pages on your website with the use of internal links, making them visible in search results.
Internal links can keep website visitors interested and entice them to visit other pages from your company.
Here are some pointers for successful internal linking:
- Make sure your anchor link text is at least two words long, so users don’t miss it
- Make certain the anchor link text is relevant to the link
- Only link to individual pages once
- Don’t overload your content with links and make it hard to read
7. Check your website’s visibility settings
Ensure that your website is visible to search engines as one simple check on your WordPress SEO checklist. Crawlers are unable to crawl and index a website if it is not available to search engines.
Click Reading under Settings to see if your website can be seen.
There will be a checkbox next to the category “Search Engine Visibility.” You should uncheck the checkbox if it is checked so that search engines can crawl and index your website.
8. Submit your XML sitemap
The next step in WordPress site optimization is to submit your XML sitemap. The important pages of your website are listed in an XML sitemap so that Google may crawl and index them.
Your website’s XML sitemap is automatically generated by WordPress, however, the feature isn’t very robust. It’s challenging to utilize because you have no control over which pages do and do not show up on your sitemap.
Instead, make a personalized XML sitemap with the aid of your SEO plugin. Many of the best SEO plugins in the list above let you customize sitemaps.
For instance, submitting your XML sitemap is comparatively simple if you utilize the Yoast SEO plugin. Just carry out these actions.
- Log into your WordPress website
- Click SEO in the left-hand menu
- Click General
- Select Features
- Toggle on the XML Sitemaps button
- Click Save
It will be simpler for you to modify your XML sitemap for search engines if you rely on your SEO plugin.
9. Optimize your WordPress page headings
The next item on your WordPress SEO checklist should be to optimize your page headlines. When someone visits your website, the first thing they will notice is the page headings. No matter whatever page these users are on, your title aids in setting the scene.
Headings are also crawled by search engines to determine the context of your page, therefore it’s critical to spend time improving them.
Use these guidelines to create headlines that are search engine friendly:
- Include your goal term in the heading’s first few words.
- Give readers clear headlines that explain what to expect on the page.
- Avoid cramming your headlines with too many keywords.
- The title of your page should only have one H1 tag.
You may develop headings that benefit your WordPress SEO by adhering to these recommended practices.
10. Craft unique title tags and meta descriptions
You must optimize your title tags and meta descriptions if you want people to visit your WordPress website. To properly use WordPress SEO, you must enhance your title tags and meta descriptions to persuade users to click on your listing rather than one of your rivals.
How may these tags be optimized to generate more clicks?
Use these guidelines for title tags:
- To demonstrate the relevancy, place your main term as close to the front as you can.
- Keep your title within 60 characters so it looks professional.
- Make sure the content of your page corresponds to the title tag.
- Make it interesting and visually appealing to entice customers to click.
- Utilize catchphrases like “Free” and “Amazing” to entice visitors to click.
Observe the following guidelines for meta descriptions:
- Use your main keyword in your description.
- Don’t exceed the allotted 155 characters.
- Make a brief description of what users can expect from your page.
- Avoid using too many keywords.
11. Add alt text to images
Adding alt text to your images is the next item on your WordPress SEO to-do list. Because it gives context, alt text is important for both search engines and website visitors.
Although search engines cannot see photos, your alt text aids in their ability to “read” the image. To help search engines comprehend the context the image brings to your website, you can describe what is in it.
The advantages for users are twofold. The alt text, which shows up if an image doesn’t load, tells users what the picture was supposed to be. The picture alt text can be spoken aloud to users of screen readers so they are aware of what is on the page.
Make sure the alt text is descriptive and concentrates on describing the image when adding it. When adding keywords, avoid doing so if it seems forced.
12. Identify the user intent for each page
Finding the user intent for each page is the last thing on your SEO checklist for WordPress. You must provide the information your audience is looking for in order for your sites to rank highly in search results.
How then do you ascertain the intent?
Look at the search results to see what is currently ranking. What types of information are shared on these websites? By observing which pages rank highly in search results, you can get an idea of the material you should provide.
For instance, if many 15-item listicles are ranking in the results, you should use the listicle structure to assist your page to outrank rivals.
Most business owners do not have the time or tools to complete such a lengthy checklist in their own time. And they shouldn’t have to either! Web Consultants provides top-notch SEO services! Connect with us regarding our SEO Solutions today.