How to Optimize your WordPress site for Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a web development practice that not a lot of people understand, but if you are lucky enough to have a blog based on the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), you have numerous options when it comes to optimizing your blog for the search engines. If you are new to web development or running a WordPress blog, have a look at some of your options when it comes to implementing SEO practices to better your flow of organic traffic. In this article, we will show you how to optimize your WordPress site for Search Engines.

1. WordPress Plugins

The great thing about using WordPress for your blogging needs is that you will have access to thousands of free and paid plugins that could lead to better SEO with little effort from yourself. There are hundreds of SEO plugins available, and many of them offer to perform automated SEO so you’ll not have to do much from your end. Many of the plugins will create a sitemap for the search engines spiders to take advantage of, and some plugins will even let you know if your on-page SEO is good enough to get you ranked well for certain keywords.

Currently on our WordPress hosted websites we're using SEO by Yoast Plugin.

2. Start with On-page SEO to Better Your Knowledge

If you are truly interested in practicing SEO yourself without spending a lot of money on a professional or by using WordPress plugins, then it would be wise to start practicing SEO with on-page SEO techniques. The techniques can differ greatly, but if you start by implementing lengthy keywords and add good content to your website, you will be able to see improvements by going into the search engines to see where your keywords are placing you.

If you have a blog related to cars, instead of targeting the keyword “car blog” you could target the keywords “best car blog in the universe” and then play along with that for a while until you start ranking well. You could then target “best car blog” which may be a little more competitive, but as long as you keep varying your choice of keywords, you will greatly see a difference in organic traffic.

3. Hire an SEO Expert

If you are one of those people that still has to ask the question, what is SEO? Then you will find that the best option to get your website or blog ranked well in the search engines is to hire a professional that knows what they are doing. SEO can be expensive business depending on the keywords you want to be ranked well for, and it can also take a long time before you see any benefits from hiring a professional, but it’s certainly the way forward if you have the capital to invest and are serious about making your blog succeed.

When starting out in the world of SEO it’s very hard to know where to start which is why using WordPress plugins to begin with could be your best option until you start understanding how the whole process works. As long as you produce good quality content for your readers naturally, the search engines will reward you with good page rankings for your hard work.