Five WordPress SEO Tips You Must Know

The number of websites that do not rely on search engines for business are only a handful. Almost 99.9 percent of websites rely on search engines and therefore continually strive to rank higher in search results. WordPress makes building and managing a site easy. But it doesn't necessarily take care of the SEO (search engine optimisation) part of it. SEO determines where your site shows up in search engine results. If your site's SEO ain't right, even the most beautifully designed site would not have the reach it deserves. The following are some WordPress SEO tips and practices that would help make a major difference to your site's rankings. Why not consider hiring an SEO expert to take the hassle out of the task.

Permalinks Should Be Right

Your website posts and pages' URLs are called permalinks. In other words, these are links users type in the address bars to access a site and view its contents. Search engines and other websites would use these links to establish connections (backlinks) to your site.

WordPress comes with standard permalink settings that let you alter them according to your needs and convenience. It is recommended that you modify the standard setting to the name of the post as users and search engines would then find it easy to remember the page.

Create a Sitemap

It's important a search engine knows your site's structure, especially if your site has hundreds of pages. Create an XML sitemap and make navigating your site easier for search engine robots. WordPress provides you a plethora of extremely handy plugins that would automatically generate a sitemap for your website.

Employ Google Analytics

Google Analytics, by Google, is a free analytic tool that lets you stay atop your site's traffic details and other data. It lets you carry out several different chores, which includes detecting 404 error pages, examining visitor behaviour and combating referral spam, among others.

Use Search Engine Optimised Themes

WordPress offers you a range of themes to provide your site a strong foundation. When choosing a theme for your site, make sure it is not just aesthetically pleasing but also search engine-optimised. An optimised theme would have the proper codes and be much snappier to load.

Optimise Media

Media (images and video) are crucial to a website. Based on how well you use them, it could either improve or completely sabotage your SEO efforts. How your images get tagged and named would affect your SEO. With correct tagging, picking the right SEO consultant, your site's chances of ranking higher in image-specific searches would go up.