WordPress SEO Guide
WordPress SEO Guide Steps For Search Engine Ranking
WordPress SEO Introduction :
Do you have a WordPress website ? Do you want your WordPress SEO to be the best ? follow the WordPress SEO Guide to get ranked in search engines. Web Design SEO Services ( WDSS ) offers this WordPress SEO Guide to put you on the right track get the WordPress SEO right.
WordPress is a search engine friendly website platform in its nature. If you have a WordPress website, then you are ahead of your competitors already. WordPress SEO is still very important to make sure you utilize all the WordPress website facilities to your favor in terms of WordPress search engine optimization and search engine ranking.
Before we start here are some WordPress SEO advantages to boast about :
- WordPress Platform Core passes W3C standards with very minor changes
- RSS Feeds are already integrated and ready to use
- Commenting is ready for your visitors pleasure
- WordPress SEO plugins are everywhere
The above are sample advantages of having a WordPress website that your competitors might have to buy or integrate them manually to get to your level of SEO friendly website. Lets cut to the chase, WordPress SEO Guide.
First Things First
WordPress SEO is not that different from Website SEO, Please note that this WordPress SEO Guide will cover the WordPress Website part of Optimization. Make sure to read our Website SEO Guide that complements this article for better understanding of WordPress optimization tips.
WordPress SEO Tip 1
WordPress Website Installation :
Before WordPress Website installation make sure that you block search engines for now, you can find this option when you write the WordPress Blog Name. Just uncheck the visible to search engines option. Installing WordPress Website is the first step, in this WordPress SEO Guide we assume that you have downloaded the latest WordPress website platform software and looking at your default WordPress Theme. Make sure that you have your WordPress website installed and ready to use, then login to your WordPress admin area following using this link http://www.your doamin.com/wp-admin/index.php.
WordPress SEO Tip 2
Install SEO Friendly WordPress Theme :
What is a WordPress theme ? a WordPress theme is the core of all your pages and posts, any error in your theme will propagate into the entire WordPress Website. On the other hand if you have an SEO Friendly WordPress Theme then the WordPress website will be SEO Friendly too.
When you install SEO Friendly WordPress theme make sure the WordPress Theme is W3C standard validated, meaning it has no HTML or CSS errors. You can validate your theme using W3C Validation Tool simply by typing the website URL and pressing validate.
Choosing an SEO Friendly WordPress Themes :
Choosing the right SEO Friendly WordPress Theme is very important and should be given the time and patience it deserves to have the WordPress SEO results. The following guidelines should help you Choose an SEO Friendly WordPress Theme :
- Do Not Choose a WordPress Theme filled up with scripts and code which hinders W3C validation and slows down your WordPress Website Speed.
- Make sure that the WordPress Theme is mostly done with CSS coding and not a bunch of heavy Images and graphics to improve WordPress Website speed as well.
- Pick a WordPress Theme that has non or few built-in plugins so that you can easily customize and optimize the theme and WordPress plugins later on.
- Simple layout is much better than complex themes for user friendly navigation and WordPress Website usage.
Following the above WordPress SEO Friendly WordPress Theme Guidelines should leave you with little choices to choose from but remember that you can always customize your theme to your needs and still meet the ultimate goal of having an SEO Friendly WordPress Theme.
WordPress SEO Tip 3
Install WordPress SEO Plugins :
Now that you have chosen an Optimized WordPress Theme and validated your theme by W3C standards, you can start by installing WordPress SEO Plugins. There are many WordPress SEO plugins out there, we will include the Best WordPress SEO Plugins for a WordPress Website.
here we will list the WordPress SEO Plugins, describe their usage in the WordPress SEO process, and give you SEO hints to optimize the WordPress Website.
First WordPress SEO Plugin ( All in One SEO Pack )
All in One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin is a plugin that no WordPress website can live without. The All in One SEO Pack WordPress SEO Plugin covers the most important features of WordPress SEO tasks, which are Permalink optimization and meta tags optimization.
WordPress Permalink Optimization using All in One SEO pack :
To install All in One SEO pack WordPress SEO Plugin go to plugins tab in your admin area, click add new then type All in One SEO Pack, it should show up number one on the WordPress plugins list. Click install and you are ready to start the WordPress SEO using this great WordPress SEO Plugin.
Once the plugin is installed go to the settings tab and click on the plugin named All in One SEO to go to the WordPress SEO Plugin settings.
WordPress permalink optimization using all in one SEO pack is very easy. Type %post_title% for your post titles, %page_title% for your page titles, %category_title% for your category title, and the rest can be filled as needed. If you use tags pages and allow them to be indexed then type %tag% | %blog_title%. The same goes for the rest of the fields.
There are more options to play with in the All in One SEO pack WordPress SEO Plugin that are different from one WordPress website to the other. This means that if you do not allow tags to be indexed then you should check the noindex for tags. Some websites find indexing tag pages useful but its not recommended.
WordPress Meta Tags Optimization using All in One SEO pack :
Now fill in the meta tags for your homepage. Title meta tag, Description meta tag, and keywords meta tag. Make sure those meta tags are related to your website main niche and that you pick the right targeted keywords to include in all three meta tags.
Second WordPress SEO Plugin ( Google XML Sitemaps )
Google XML Sitemaps WordPress SEO Plugin is integral to the success of your WordPress Website. Google XML Sitemaps offers automated website sitemap creation and search engine notification of new WordPress posts and pages. Installing Google XML Sitemaps WordPress Plugin will save you a lot of time and effort trying to update the website sitemap and submitting new URLs for posts and pages to search engines. We have wrote a WordPress Google XML Sitemaps Tutorial check it out for more information.
Make sure you do not publish the WordPress website to search engines yet
WordPress SEO Tip 4
WordPress Website Content Writing :
WordPress Website Content Writing is the main WordPress SEO factor to rank in search engines, ALWAYS remember that CONTENT IS KING. Writing Website content can be challenging to some people. Making sure that you picked the right website niche that you love to write about is very important. Writing Website Content is the most effective way of driving traffic to the website.
Before starting WordPress SEO website content writing make sure that the targeted keywords that you want to get ranked in search engines for are always kept somewhere close. Writing Website content without a focus on website targeted keywords is a waste of your time.
All in one SEO pack WordPress SEO Plugin allows the user to add meta tags for all posts and pages. Webpage meta tags and post meta tags should always contain the website targeted keywords. Writing website content should be done in main categories of the website niche written in static pages while sub targeted keywords written in the WordPress Blog posts.
Each WordPress Page should contain unique content about a main category of the website niche. Make sure that the static pages contain valuable information and differ from other pages to avoid duplicated content penalties from cool search engines like Google.
Writing Blog Posts should be done regularly to maintain search engines crawling to the WordPress website and target new website keywords to drive more traffic to the WordPress Website. Do not push your self too hard, just write new posts when you feel like writing.
WordPress SEO Tip 5
WordPress Website Comments Optimization :
WordPress Website comments optimization can be a double faced sword. Comments can kill the WordPress website. How ? WordPress Website Comments can attract spammy comments, linking to crappy websites and ruining website reputation in search engines, WordPress comments can also leak valuable Page Rank to other websites placing links in the comment name and comment content.
On the other hand there are some comment SEO measures that you can use to reduce the bad SEO effect of comments. Using the Robots Meta WordPress SEO Plugin allows users to add nofollow to comments which will reduce the effect of website links leaking Page Rank. This works for Google optimization but not for other search engines.
Adding the Akismet WrodPress plugin can dramatically reduce spammy comments and save you time by blocking spammy comments right from the start. Instead of having to deal with each comment at a time Akismet can take care of this job very easily by installing the plugin and getting the activation key for free.
Long Story Short, Only use comments if the website niche allows commenting and user interaction. Having a discussion focused website should allow WordPress Comments, other than that, comments are not recommended.
Another alternative to WordPress Commenting is to disable the URL in comments allowing only interested website visitors to comment instead of bad websites wanting links.
WordPress SEO Tip 5
Submit Website to Search Engines :
Create a Robots.txt file that contains only the website content directory. Robots.txt File can contribute to WordPress SEO by disallowing other directories contained in the Website Cpanel public html root to disable search engine robots from seeing them. We have created a Robots.txt File for SEO tips Post to assist in understanding how to make a robots.txt file for the Website. Configuring the robots.txt file correctly will give search engines a pleasent time crawling the website thus adding value to WordPress SEO.
Enable the website to be seen on search engines in the WordPress admin area first. You can enable being seen by search engines from the settings tab then click on privacy and change the setting to allow search engines to find the WordPress Website.
Submit Website to search engines manually. Do not use software submission tools yet, first submit website to major search engines like, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and AOL manually then use free search engine submission tools to submit the website to more search engines.
WordPress SEO Tip 6
Add Social Bookmarking to the WordPress Website :
Social bookmarking is an effective way of promoting a website, Social bookmarking can add great value to WordPress SEO allowing visitors to share the website pages and posts on social networks and generating massive traffic free of charge.
Allowing Social bookmarking on a WordPress website encourages visitors to get engaged with the website content and spread the word around to their friends on social networks. There are many WordPress Social bookmarking plugins out there that can be used to add to the WordPress Website. Our WordPress social bookmarking plugin recommendation is ” Social Bookmarks ver. 4.1.6 or latest “.
Social Bookmarks WordPress plugin offers many social networks to choose from and activate on WordPress pages, posts, homepage, and much more. It has cool options to place the social bookmarking buttons at top or at the bottom of the page. Social bookmarks allows custom text titles and fancy drop down effects for social bookmarking buttons.
WordPress SEO Final Tip
Understand that WordPress SEO is not done :
WordPress SEO is not just a one time shot, this WordPress SEO Guide helps to get the WordPress website on the right track to be ranked in first page of search engines covering basic grounds for WordPress SEO. Getting on top of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing and staying on top takes a lot of work. Like any other Website SEO, a WordPress SEO needs continous work and external SEO to cover all WordPress on page SEO and WordPress off page SEO. To make sure that the Website is optimized visit the Website SEO Guide to complement what you just read about WordPress SEO Guide.
