In today's session we are going to look at how we can improve our SEO rankings.
But what is SEO?
Search engine optimization refers to techniques that help you make your website rank higher
in search engine results.
The aim is of course to get more visitors to your site organically.
Search engines send bots to a site, to crawl through it and find out what the content is
about and where the site links to.
They also check out what the images are about, test if the site loads quickly and also investigates
if the layout of the site is accessible and good for mobile devices.
Once they are done crawling, bots figure out keywords from your site and then record
these keywords in the search engine database.
So now when anybody starts a search, search engines match a user's search query with
the keywords in the database to recommend sites that are a close match.
Let's look at some tips that we can implement.
Firstly, make your way to Settings, click on Reading and ensure that you have deselected
the search engine visibility box.
If this box is ticked, it will discourage search engines from indexing this site and
we don't want that.
This option is only used when a site is still being created.
The second thing to take note of is that search engines love sites with fresh content.
So keep your site up to date with new content as much as possible.
If your homepage and other pages really change, it is advised to have a blog page or news page
and ensure that you frequently post about your products, your brand, your clients and
various other topics.
The third tip is to make sure you have quality content on your website.
Google has published an EAT guideline which basically says that search engines look at
expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
So let's first talk about expertise.
Write about content you are knowledgeable and passionate about.
What about authority?
Well, if you have shown expertise, it will be viewed by search engines as authoritative
if others link to your site, if people talk about your site in social media and if you
link to repeatable sites in your content.
Lastly, the T stands for trustworthiness.
So make sure information that you share is trustworthy and factual.
Here is an important question you can ask yourself.
Is your content shareable?
Things to consider.
Is it funny?
Is it maybe too long?
Does it have good taste?
Does it use plain language?
Does it have a summary or TL:DR at the top?
It basically comes down to making sure your content is worth reading and worth sharing.
Next, let's talk about keywords.
Keywords and keyword phrases in your content make it easier for people to find your site
via search engines.
A well-optimized site speaks the same language as their audience, so to speak.
We therefore need to know what folks are searching for and include those words or phrases on
our pages and in our posts.
Keyword research will help you know what keywords people search for when looking for
similar sites.
You can use free tools such as WordStream or Google Keyword Planner to find those keywords
that you can use in your content.
The way you would go about finding keywords is to type the domain name of sites that are
similar to yours.
This will give you a hint of what words people use to search content on that site.
Once you have identified these keywords, use them in your site's content.
Search engines will prioritize what your content is titled when they decide keywords, but you
can also use them in excerpts, headings and content.
The way it is laid out here is generally the priority in which you want to use keywords.
Remember to use keywords naturally and to avoid keyword stuffing or overusing keywords
as this will damage your SEO.
Let's talk some more about linking.
Search engines will travel through your links to understand your site structure and to look
for more content.
So link to other posts already on your site as pages that are linked multiple times are
considered more important by search engines.
Also remember to set external links to sites that are reputable and also have good EAT,
expertise, authority and trustworthiness as this will make your site more credible as
well.
The next topic that we want to discuss is metadata.
Metadata are tags in your page content that are visible to search engines.
It is hidden behind the scenes but it does give critical information about your site
to search engines.
You might not have known this but meta descriptions is the information shown below each individual
search result.
Metadata is automatically created by WordPress so it's not easy to edit directly.
But most SEO plugins allow you to edit and modify the metadata to be more geared to
your content.
Usually no more than two sentences.
One of the things you can do is write an excerpt for post as WordPress uses these excerpts to
create meta descriptions.
So it is advised to use your keywords and hand write these excerpts.
Otherwise it just takes the top paragraph from your content.
Next, site speed is important.
Search engines definitely look at site speed when ranking sites.
So this is an important part of SEO.
Here are a few considerations that will help you to improve your site speed.
Does your host rank high with regard to site speed?
Does your host have caching enabled although you can also use a caching plugin?
Is your WordPress theme quick to load?
Some very snazzy WordPress themes that uses a lot of plugins can drastically change your
site speed.
So be careful.
Have you optimized images and videos?
Have you installed well-built plugins?
And does your theme and plugins work well together?
You can investigate your site speed by using tools such as GTmetrics or PageSpeed Insights.
Image optimization is another piece of the SEO puzzle.
Let's first look at a few steps that you can take before uploading images to your site.
Number one, choose a good file format such as PNG, JPEG or WebP.
In this example I am using the open source website Squoosh to change the file format for
free.
It also has some other settings worth exploring.
Number two, scale the image dimensions.
Images that are too large will be resized when it shows up on people's browser and will
affect the loading speed of your site.
So make sure you shrink the dimensions of very large images as most monitors in the world
are no bigger than 1920 by 1080 pixels in size.
Luckily WordPress does make three different size variations when you upload an image but
that large image still takes space up on your server.
Number three, reduce the image file size.
You want to reduce the file size of images without reducing the quality.
You can use programs such as TinyPNG or also Squoosh.
And lastly, rename the image files so that it explains what the image is about.
When an image has been uploaded to WordPress it is advised to add alternative text or ALT
text and a description of the image.
Search engines place a high value on ALT text and they use this information to understand
the context of an image, what the image is about and the purpose of the image.
Images should also have ALT text for accessibility purposes.
You also want to ensure that at least one of your images has your key word or key phrase
as part of the ALT tag.
The second last tip is about creating a sitemap.
It is something search engines use.
It is like a map or road map that helps search engines to figure out where all content is
on your website.
Sitemaps don't boost search ranking but it does help search engines navigate the content
on your site.
Most SEO plugins will generate a sitemap for your site automatically so it is not
something you have to code if you are not able to.
Finally, let's talk about local SEO to optimize your site to show higher in local search results.
Especially if your customer base is primarily located in the same city or metropolitan area.
There are a few things that you can do.
Do some local SEO keyword research, add your contact information in your footer or contact
page, post localized content and get local backlinks meaning get local sites to refer
or link to your site.
All the best as you endeavour to improve your own SEO rankings.
And don't forget to install and activate an SEO plugin that works best for you.