Best WordPress SEO Plan for Higher Rankings | Complete Guide

20 Seconds Summary

This article will help you explore the best guide for search engine optimization of your WordPress website. Not just that, you will learn about the best SEO Plugins that will make your optimization easier for you, along with a few tips throughout the blog post, which will boost your WordPress SEO performance most easily and definitively.

The first thing that comes to the mind of a person entering the blogging world is just having a website and then producing and writing content over it. But in reality, things are not that simple. Your website does not just start ranking on the first page of search engines by just adding content to a website domain.

After creating a website, you need to follow some specific optimization strategies to bering your website to the top results in SERP. These strategies strongly involve Search Engine Optimization.

In this article, we are going not just to define SEO but also guide you about it in the most layman’s language, so that you not only understand or learn it but can immediately implement our WordPress SEO strategies for your website as well.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular seo friendly content management system. WordPress is considered the top CMS by many famous websites like Forbes & WPBeginner. A CMS is basically a platform that allows you to build and easily manage your website.

Usually, languages like JavaScript or HTML are used to create websites. Still, a content management system like WordPress does not require you to use coding and makes it easier for you to create your website without having to learn coding or programming first.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization is basically a technique that is used to rank your website at the top of the search engine results pages. You basically use specific keywords to rank in SERPS and also follow some SEO techniques along with keywords to help rank your website in search engines like Google.

WordPress SEO

WordPress and SEO, when both come together, simply mean that you will be doing search engine optimization for a website that you have created using WordPress.

To make things easier to learn and implement later on, we will divide SEO into its four basic forms and then explain each individually, learning to implement each in its way. Generally, SEO can be divided into the following four categories:

All of these four main SEO types are used in combination, and you need to include them all in your website’s optimization process.

Let’s have a look at each in detail!

On-Page SEO

This is the part where your content becomes the focal point of WordPress SEO. You have to consider each factor of optimization whilst writing your content and also choosing the images, tags, descriptions, and URLs for it. Let us break it down to understand it better:

Keyword Research

 Keywords are your best friends when it comes to SEO. Your keywords are basically the search intent of the audience you are trying to target and bring to your WordPress website. You will need to identify the relevant keywords around your niche that your target audience is looking for.

Searching for keywords is not that difficult. You can use either Google’s Keyword Planner or different websites that offer this service. Some famous keyword search websites that we can recommend include:

Although your domain name is not a ranking factor, we will still advise you to consider having your main keyword in your domain name and keep your domain name concise. This may not be a ranking factor, but it helps your audience to identify with your website and later on supports your SEO too.

Post Length

Generally, not many will guide you regarding the post length, but this can be a very important factor for your website’s SEO strategy, too. Usually, it is suggested to have between 1500 and 2500 words per post, but posts can have more word count based on their complexity and the requirement of discussion of the title.

When writing your blog post, we recommend that you look at your competitors’ websites and posts relevant to your post. Try to increase your word count than your competitors, but it should be a meaningful addition to the content and something new as well. This way, readers will find something new, and they will know that you provide updated information and will come back to you again.

The search engines also prefer websites that add something new to the previous information and help them rank better.

Content Optimization

Make sure that the content you are writing is engaging. You are using the keywords in a way that they blend into your content and not just stuffing them in your post. Your content should be meaningful, and it should add value to your customers.

Image Optimization

WordPress optimization also involves optimizing the images that you are using in your posts.

•  Make sure that the pictures that you use are smaller, as small images load faster.
• Several plugins like Imagify or Shortpixel help you compress your images without compromising their quality.
• Add captions and descriptions to your images, including target keywords.
• Use alternate text for images and add your keywords to the alt text as well. Alternate text appears in place of your image if it cannot be loaded for some reason. Alt text plays a vital role in your SEO.
• Alternate text for images also helps as an accessibility feature of your website. This feature allows people who are visually impaired. Screen readers can read the image description from the alternate text to the visually impaired audience, which enables them and makes your website more inclusive for people with disability too.
• Create a sitemap for images as well, so that they can be indexed too. Images SEO also plays an integral part in the ranking of your website.

URL Structure

URLs are a very important factor for on-page SEO.

• You should use short URLs.
• Make sure that they include keywords relevant to your content.
• Use hyphens to separate the words in the URL.
• Never use underscores within your URLs.
• Always use small-case letters in your URLs along with hyphens to separate the words when needed.

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions might not directly relate to your SEO, but they are really an essential factor that impacts your CTR (click-through rate). These descriptions appear below your post title in search engine results pages. If you have written a correct description, which is short and has a call to action, then the user will click on your URL.

Device Compatibility

Search engines rank websites that are device-compatible, especially considering their mobile friendliness. Mobile friendliness is a key factor in WordPress SEO. Search engines like Google give priority to websites that are mobile-friendly and can adapt to different devices’ screen sizes, providing the best user experience.

Page Speed

Website speed matters a lot in WordPress SEO. You need to use themes that load faster.

You also need to make sure that your website shows results within a few seconds. As per research, users make decisions about a website within seconds. If a page takes longer than a few seconds to open, chances are people will not stay on your website.

Hence, you need to know that your website loads faster.

There are certain websites, like GTmetrics, that help to measure the speed of your website and show where you are lagging; you can use these websites and install plugins like WPRocket in WordPress directly into your website to improve your website’s speed.

Internal Linking

Internal linking also impacts WordPress SEO significantly.

• This basically involves linking your various articles throughout your website. One good strategy to do this is to place the link to your articles in articles that are related to the topic. This way, users who are reading the current article might click and read the other article on the same topic as well.
• Having internal links also helps search engine crawlers to crawl your website better, and this way, crawlers understand the structure of your website better and are able to index each page, which improves your WordPress SEO ranking.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO includes all the WordPress optimization done outside your website to promote your website, add to its authority, and improve its ranking.

There are many key factors of Off-page SEO, and all major ones are explained below:

Link Building

Once you have set up your WordPress website, posted most of the content on the website, and done the On-page optimization, the next step that will help in WordPress optimization is getting backlinks for your website. If you can get reputable backlinks for your website, then it will build trust and domain authority for your website and attract more traffic to it. Domain authority is the sixth factor that can help improve your website’s ranking, as per Semrush’s ranking factors analysis.

One good way of getting backlinks is acknowledging a website with a high Authority Domain ranking and requesting them to let you write for them as a guest blogger, and in return, you could ask for a backlink to your website on their sites.

Social Media Promotion

Social media comes really handy in off-page optimization. You can place the links to your website articles on different social media platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram, which will get you extra traffic from these channels. This may not directly impact WordPress optimization or website ranking, but it will create enough attention for your website and bring traffic as well, which can indirectly influence your SEO.

Building an online Reputation

Try to maintain a good word of mouth around your website and the services it is offering. It shall create a good reputation for your brand image. You can attend podcasts and have your website’s link shared via the podcaster. A good online reputation will earn you trust and authority.

Influencer Marketing

You can also use influencer marketing as an off-page seo technique. You can promote your website’s links and services by doing collaborations with famous online creators who can post links to your website through their social handles, and this way, you get to bring more traffic to your website from their following, and this helps you reach a new audience as well.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is an integral part of on-page SEO and the total opposite of off-page SEO. The ultimate goal of technical SEO is to make a website crawlable, indexed, and user-friendly, which improves the visibility of the website and helps to improve its ranking.

If your WordPress website is not getting crawled and is invisible, then there is not even a chance of getting closer to search engine optimization or ranking.

Integrate Google Search Console

Linking your WordPress website to Google Search Console can help you immensely with your technical SEO. You can see your website’s performance, diagnose any issues related to indexing and crawling, or pages with broken links, and fix them.

With Google Search Console, you can manually submit your pages for indexing or update your pages as well.

Use Robots.txt File

A Robots.txt file is a file that basically allows or blocks the search engine crawlers from visiting specific pages of a website. It will enable or disallow the crawlers to visit particular pages on a website. This is very integral for SEO because with its help, you can optimize the crawling and indexing of your website.

This improves the performance of the website by reducing unnecessary crawling or indexing.

Manually Index Your WordPress Website in Search Engines

Manually indexing your WordPress website’s sitemap not just in Google Search Console but in other search engines is also an essential factor of technical SEO. In order to do so, you simply need to type in your website’s address, and at the end type (sitemap_index.xml). This shall open up a page showing your website’s sitemaps that you can copy and paste directly into Search Console and robots.txt file to index your website successfully, so that it is visible to search engines and crawlers.

Monitor Website Progress

Once you have done WordPress optimization, you consistently need to monitor your website and carry out audits regularly to see if there are any indexing issues, or if there are any broken links or duplicate links present. With proper monitoring, you have better chances to eradicate any problems in a timely manner, hence keeping your website in a healthy condition, which keeps its optimization in check and increases the chances of ranking higher.

SSL Certificate

HTTPS, or HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure, is basically an encryption of your data transmission between the server and the browser. Google prefers websites that have an SSL certificate, and it is indirectly related to SEO because search engines prioritize websites with an SSL certificate, and hence, these websites have a high chance of getting ranked.

Local SEO

Local SEO involves registering your business on Google along with your address, website, and mobile number details. This way, if your business is present physically, then you can also make your information visible in local search results.

Google also provides a review option, where you can collect and respond to the reviews of your customers.

Two Best SEO Plugins for WordPress SEO

Although WordPress is SEO friendly itself and has many options where you can add your title, meta descriptions for SEO purposes, you will still need assistance from SEO Plugins that make your Search Engine Optimization really easy for you and provide additional SEO features built into them.

There are many paid and free plugins available to incorporate and use in WordPress, but below, we briefly discuss the two most preferred SEO plugins that will help you attain perfection in your WordPress SEO.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO has been used by millions since 2008 and is still a viable choice when it comes to SEO plugins.

• Yoast now helps its users to generate AI-based meta descriptions and titles that optimize their website for high click-through rates.
• We can add the Robots.txt file directly to the plugin.
• It also helps you generate sitemap.
• Provides SEO Analysis of your posts and pages.
• If you enter your focus keyword, the Yoast SEO plugin tells you your keyword density, how many times you still need to use it, and where it can be used.
• Yoast can connect with Google Search Console and then integrate the data into Google Analytics, which helps to see the data from both tools in one place using the plugin.
• Yoast SEO plugin also helps you identify if your post’s word count is good.
• It also provides you control over your website’s breadcrumbs, allowing seamless navigation of your site to search engines and your audience.
• It helps you enhance your readability with suggestions.
• You can also use Schema markup SEO using Yoast and implement schema in your blog posts, which is appropriate for your web pages.
• Helps to create and manage redirects.

Rankmath

Rankmath is another popular SEO plugin that is being used widely globally within WordPress for optimization. It is a very easy-to-use tool that can be installed and integrated easily into your WordPress website.

Just like Yoast, Rankmath also provides various SEO benefits that include:

• Detailed SEO analysis of your blog posts and web pages.
• SEO reports of your website will help you keep track of your website’s performance.
• It provides Google algorithm updates in the analytics graph, which saves you time from leaving the website and manually putting in efforts to find the updates.
• It provides automatic Video Schema generation.
• With RankMath, you can watermark your images.
• It helps to index, redirect, or unindex quickly.
• Rankmath helps you index your blog posts instantly by using instant indexing.
• It also provides you with insights on Google Trends.
• You can research keywords using content AI in Rankmath.
• It also has a feature of Rankbot that helps you find important information about your topic, helps you write efficiently, and saves a lot of research time.
• Its index feature lets you see which of your pages are indexed, excluded, or redirected.

There is a lot that these SEO plugins for WordPress can provide, and if we go on explaining them in detail, a dedicated post for both plugins will be required. To summarize, we can say that Yoast SEO & Rankmath incorporated into a WordPress website can help you scale your WordPress optimization and rank your website by improving its SEO, and also help you monitor your SEO as well to fix any problems related to SEO if they occur.

Final Remarks

WordPress is the most popular and widely used CMS platform. It helps you to create and run a website without any technical knowledge of coding, and not just that, it provides you with thousands of free plugins and many free templates to make your website visually appealing.

WordPress SEO can help you scale your website’s performance and rank your website high in SERPS.

Using SEO Plugins like Yoast or Rankmath can make your Search Engine Optimization easier, and not just that, they help you monitor your website’s performance with their analysis features and timely identify any problems that need fixing for the better health of your WordPress website.

WordPress SEO is basically the optimization of your WordPress website to rank your website in SERPS.

No, WordPress provides you with plugins and specific themes that you can use to build your website without using any coding.

For new websites with the proper SEO, it can take anywhere from 3 months to 6 months to see any results.

Free tools like Google Analytics & Search Console by Google can provide you with great analytics of your website. Other than that, you can also take advantage of SEO Plugins like Yoast or Rankmath to assess your website’s SEO performance.

Although not considered a specific part of on-page or off-page SEO, local SEO can still play a vital role in the online presence of your business, and reviews about it can help build authority for your brand.

SEO is not meant only for new blog posts. It is essential to update your old content regularly based on changing trends and information around the keywords or topics that you are writing about.