Tips + Tricks for WordPress SEO Optimization

Voted #1 Best Branding Agency in Nashville, Brentwood & Franklin TN

Written by: Nice Branding Agency

Categories: Other Tips

Published On: 4.1.2019

Website design company Franklin, Nice Branding Agency, often explains WordPress website SEO: three little letters have business owners all up in arms. And for good reason. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of working to have your website appear toward the top of the search results online. All major search engines show local listings, web pages, and other content as a result of a search. What shows up on page one, and closest to the top of that page, are the results that the search engine deems most aligned with your search terms. So, how do you get the search engines to deem your content most in line with the search? That, my friends, is where Search Engine Optimization comes in. As our website design company Franklin mentioned in our blog post about having a site that’s SEO friendly vs. SEO optimized, you’ve first got to set in place a structure that is easy for the search engines to crawl and digest. Then, you’ve got to work to optimize the content on your website for the search terms, or keywords, that you want to match.

Why Is It Important?

Your marketing mix should include various outlets aimed at reaching your targets. WordPress website SEO is just one of those outlets. However, it doesn’t require an investment in paid media placement. Unlike SEM (search engine marketing), the only cost associated with SEO is the cost required to build and optimize the content. According to WordStream:
Lots and lots of people search for things. That traffic can be extremely powerful for a business not only because there is a lot of traffic, but because there is a lot of very specific, high-intent traffic.
I mean, just think about it. If you’re selling pink doodads with ruffles, imagine the power of capturing the attention of people who are searching for … you guessed it. Pink doodads with ruffles. This has powerful implications for your marketing budget. Of course, other paid avenues must also be utilized. But being able to target content around search terms that match your offerings is mindblowing, don’t ya think?! So how is this power harnessed?

How a Website Design Company Franklin Assesses SEO

Let it be known that Google is looking for high-quality and relevant information. They are “looking” by crawling your site. Relevancy is determined based on the keywords the search engine finds within your content. Quality is assessed in a number of ways, but one of the more prominent means of assessment is based on the number and quality of the other websites that link to yours. Other factors include mobile responsiveness, page load times, unique content (as opposed to duplicate content), bounce rates, and more.

Using SEO

Aside from hiring a website design company Franklin to handle your ongoing WordPress website SEO, there are a few things that you can do to help your ranking.

Assess Page Load Speeds

Ensure that all pages on your site are loading quickly and without error. Your pages should load in two seconds or less, ideally. You can check the speed of your page loads with a handy, dandy online tool like the one here on the Uptrends site. If your page load speeds aren’t up to snuff, take a peek at your image library. Nothing in there should be larger in file size than 1MB.

Optimize Your Pages

You can use online tools to help ensure that your pages are optimized for the keywords that you’re after. It would be wise to first work with a website design company Franklin like Nice Branding Agency on keyword research so that you know exactly what you’re trying to optimize for. Pages should have relevant keywords throughout the copy, especially at the beginning of the text. And links to both internal and external pages should be included as well. Additionally, images should be named and sized appropriately. Finally, the meta description, site title, and URL need to be optimized accordingly.

Ditch Duplicate Content

For crying out loud, don’t plagiarize someone else’s work — or your own, for that matter. The search engines may ding you for having duplicate content. This means that once you’ve posted your blog, you really can’t copy/paste that text onto another page of your website. It has to be rewritten if you need to use it again. This goes back to the search engines’ relentlessness in finding quality, relevant content.

Create New Content

To be considered a thought leader IRL, you’ve got to be putting new ideas out into the universe on a pretty regular basis. Same goes for setting yourself up as an expert online. The search engines are looking/crawling for new content. They want to provide users with the best information, after all. So, in order to stay relevant, you’ve got to be creating and publishing content on your website on an ongoing basis. No, you can’t just put a ton of stuff out there and then slack off for months on end. Just like your credit score wants to see you making payments, the search engines want to see you pouring into your content drip by drip. Now, our website design company Franklin knows SEO isn’t a one and done type of deal. It’s an ongoing effort that takes time, patience, and some skill. Also, just like most things online, best practices are constantly evolving as technology seeks to be a better resource to the user. Are you ready to harness the power of WordPress website SEO for your business? If so, reach out to the Nice Girls. It’s even likely that you found us through our SEO efforts, so hey, you know it works! Give us a holler and we’ll help you raise your rank.