WordPress is the most popular CMS (content management system) in the world. It powers over 40% of all websites on the internet.
It's completely free. It's easy to adopt. It’s responsive. It’s open-source. And, above all, WordPress is SEO-friendly.
However, creating a website is just the beginning of the journey. To ensure that your WordPress website ranks well in search engine results, you need to optimize it for search engines.
That way, you can rank higher on search engines and get an ocean of organic traffic.
In this article, we’ve put together a WordPress SEO checklist that covers the essential SEO optimization strategies using the free Yoast SEO plugin. Let's get started…
WordPress SEO Checklist For 2023
Here are some tips that can help you optimize your WordPress SEO:
1. Choose Quality Hosting
Many aspects of SEO are affected by your hosting, especially site speed, uptime, and security.
You should choose a reputable hosting provider to make sure that your website is search engine friendly.
There are several things to consider when picking a hosting provider - such as high uptime, free SSL certificate, server location and quality support.
Nowadays, it’s more important than ever before to make sure that your website is hosted by a reputable, reliable, rapid hosting provider.
If you're puzzled by where to start, some of the most well-known hosting companies are Namecheap, Hostinger, Siteground and Bluehost.
Remember, investing in a good hosting plan is definitely worth it. Having secure, stable, and speedy hosting is the first step in ensuring that your work yields results.
2. Install SEO-friendly Theme
There are numerous WordPress themes available to help you build your website. However, you must choose a theme that supports your WordPress SEO strategy.
Ensure that the theme you choose is lightweight and loads quickly. The best WordPress themes optimize your SEO efforts along with providing a great user experience.
Astra, OceanWP, Neve, and Divi are some of the most popular and fastest-loading WordPress themes that follow the latest SEO trends.
3. Install Yoast SEO Plugin
A good SEO plugin can help you optimize your WordPress site for search engines.
There are numerous SEO plugins available, but the most popular one is Yoast SEO. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin for optimizing your site for search engines without any technical expertise or hiring a web developer.
Once you install the Yoast SEO plugin, it will guide you through the process of optimizing your website's SEO. It helps you to set up metadata, create sitemaps, enable breadcrumbs and optimize your content.
4. Optimize WordPress Settings
It's worth your time to go through the WordPress Settings menu because many of the options there can affect your site SEO.
Do double-check your visibility settings in Settings -→ Reading to make sure you're not by mistake preventing search engine crawlers from indexing your website.
One of the next steps is to modify your permalink settings, which can be found in Settings -→ Permalinks.
We advise you to use a structure like “example.com/post-name/" or "example.com/category/post-name/".
Both of these options are perfectly suitable for most WordPress sites.
The very next step to optimize your WordPress website is to decide whether or not to use the www site URL. Because Google thinks about www and non-www URLs as separate, sticking to one domain format can help boost rankings.
You can do this by simply heading to Settings -→ General. Make sure the version that should appear is clearly conveyed.
It used to be that all URLs included a www. Today, most websites do not use it. Ultimately, it comes down to your personal preference.
5. Setup Webmasters Tools
The next step is to set up webmaster tools, such as Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics.
You can use these free tools to measure the success of your SEO efforts and track your website's progress over time.
For example, using Google Search Console, you can find out what keywords people use to find your website, submit sitemaps, find errors that might prevent your site from ranking, etc.
Google Analytics is a further essential add-on to install on your WordPress website. It's a free tool that gives you plenty of information about your site visitors, including their demographics, origin, how engaged they are, and much more.
6. Follow SEO Fundas
The SEO fundamentals are the same for every site on the internet, regardless of whether you’re using CMS or if your site is fully coded.
SEO fundamentals mainly includes On-page SEO practices, Off-page SEO practices, Local SEO practices and Technical SEO practices.
You can follow these guides to learn more about SEO fundamentals:
No one can stop you from ranking at the top of Google if you follow the guides above to optimize your WordPress website.
7. Proper Keyword Research
Keyword research is the backbone of any successful SEO strategy.
You have to define the keywords that potential consumers use to search for products or services similar to yours.
Here are some keyword research tips for you:
- Find keywords with high search volumes and low competition.
- Look for long-tail keywords that have three or more words.
- Use LSI keywords that are related to your target keyword.
- Make use of conversion optimized keywords.
- Use Question-based Keywords.
- Understand user intent
You can do keyword research with tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Aherfs.
You can also use our free long-tail keyword research tool to find long-tail keywords that are tailored to rank your WordPress website.
8. Proper Keyword Optimization
Once you've identified relevant keywords, the very next step is to optimize the keywords all over the web page.
Here are some keyword optimization tips for you:
- Use your target keyword in Header Tags.
- Use your main keyword within the first 100 words.
- Naturally sprinkle your target keywords in body text. Include the keyword in image ALT text.
- Mention the keyword in Call-To-Action.
- Avoid Keyword Stuffing and Keyword Cannibalization.
You don't just help search engines by including keywords in the right places. Additionally, they confirm to visitors that they're in the right place.
9. Create Great Content
Creating high-quality valuable content is not only an excellent way to improve your WordPress SEO; it also helps you to attract the hot buyers to your WordPress website.
Content is the king of communication, and it also rules SEO.
Great content is valued by both search engine crawlers and your target audience.
Creating valuable content is thus one of the most ongoing steps in this WordPress SEO checklist.
10. Right Schema Markup
Schema conveys search engines what your web page is all about.
Furthermore, adding the right schema can greatly increase your click through rate (CTR) by displaying site information that is more relevant to your user intent.
Yoast SEO plugin handles all of the basic markup for you based on your site settings and the information you provide during the setup process.
You can also use a free Schema plugin like EasySchema to add schema to your WordPress site.
Then, using Google's structured data testing tool, you can put it to the test.
11. Submit Sitemap To GSC
Google will almost always find your site on its own. However, submitting your XML sitemap to Google Search Console can help quicken the process.
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of your web pages in a way that search engine crawlers can easily understand.
To submit your sitemap, log in to your Google Search Console account and navigate to the "Sitemaps" section in the left menu.
Then paste your sitemap URL > hit the “Submit” button and you're all done!
12. Optimize Site Speed
Website speed is an important factor in search engine optimization (SEO) and can impact a website's search engine ranking. Google, for example, has stated that website speed is one of the ranking metrics used by its algorithm to rank pages.
A simple way to speed up your WordPress website is by using the WPRocket plugin. It lets you boost your site speed in just a matter of clicks.
You can find more tips by going through our guide to speed optimization strategies.
13. Create SEO-friendly URLs
WordPress creates URLs based on page titles. This results in very lengthy URLs on your site.
To succeed at WordPress SEO, you must create SEO-optimized URLs. URLs are crucial to helping search engines and site visitors understand where they are on your site.
Your URLs should also indicate what topics the page covers. It will make it easier for your readers to find the content they're looking for and will help you with search engine optimization.
14. Track SEO Efforts
SEO is an ongoing process, and it's essential to continuously measure and monitor your SEO efforts.
You can use tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Yoast Insights, bestSEOtool to track your site's performance and identify areas for improvement.
FAQs
Q. Is WordPress Good for SEO?
Yes, WordPress is excellent for SEO. By following the WordPress SEO steps outlined above, you can easily rank on search engines like Google and Bing.
Q. Best WordPress SEO plugin?
Yoast SEO, All-in-One SEO, and Rank Math are three of the most popular all-in-one SEO plugins. Of course, there are numerous other excellent SEO plugins available for WordPress.
Q. Do Blog Posts help with SEO?
Yes, absolutely. A SEO optimized blog is an excellent way to boost your site's SEO score.
Q. How long do SEO changes take to drive results?
This depends on what you're trying to achieve. Some changes will take effect right away, whereas others might require several months to drive results.
Final Thoughts
Using SEO effectively can make a big impact in the success of your business.
The WordPress SEO strategies shared in this post are the exact ones that we use in our WordPress websites to drive significant change in terms of organic traffic.
The rewards of having a website that ranks on a consistent basis are well worth the effort. And a great content management system, such as WordPress, will definitely help to boost your SEO performance.
