WordPress SEO optimisation is a skill that all website creators must master. The Google search engine receives more than 1,000 new websites every day, all competing for the top spots with thousands of other sites already on the web. It is therefore essential to know how to stand out by applying SEO optimisation techniques that work every time. Committed to your success, the experts at WS Digital Consulting, who specialise in website creation, have decided to teach you how to optimise your website. From basic settings to linking, content adaptation and SEO performance optimisation, you will know exactly what to do.
Basic WordPress settings for high-quality SEO
Being in the top 3 or top 5 Google results is no easy feat. And if you want to set the bar high, you need to be meticulous in everything you do. When creating a WordPress site, WS Digital Consulting advises web developers to consider SEO optimisation from the very first click. This requires well-structured basic settings. Here is what you need for the optimal configuration of a new website with the WordPress tool.
Prerequisites for SEO optimisation in WordPress
Before you start configuring the basic settings for a website, you need to understand the ins and outs of SEO optimisation for search engines such as Google. And that's not difficult at all! You just need to ask yourself one question: what does Google expect from my website?
Generally, the elements that website owners focus on when creating their pages are the amount of content, keywords, and the insertion of images and links. That's all well and good, but it's not enough. It's difficult to stand out if you follow the same trend as everyone else.
To succeed on Google, you need to know that it loves unique, high-quality content.
Yes! Quality is the key word to keep in mind when creating a website. And quality means the ability to attract, retain and satisfy visitors. So, contrary to what everyone thinks, you need to focus on internet users and not on techniques to seduce Google.
In a nutshell, to shine on Google, you must first focus your efforts on the well-being of your visitors. Let's take a closer look.
WordPress SEO settings to attract and retain visitors
The basic settings for a website in WordPress involve several elements. Knowing how to do this while taking visitor experience into account is an SEO optimisation tip that can help you stand out. In the settings tab, create, fill in or configure with care:
- Your website title: this is the first SEO element, which should be simple, captivating, interesting and encourage clicks.
- The URL: it should be as short as possible and enable users to locate you at any time.
- The different pages: these are the home pages, category pages, and blog for blog articles. Good structuring of these with a good site map allows visitors to navigate easily, knowing where they are going, which has a positive influence on SEO. If it is a showcase site, structure it into different sections to facilitate navigation.
- Display and readability: this is a very important factor in limiting the bounce rate on a page. With a good font and pleasant, captivating colours, users feel comfortable and stay on the page longer.
- Extensions: adding the Yoast SEO extension will enable you to optimise your content and achieve a score of over 80 %.
- Indexing: to enable robots and spiders to easily access your pages.
- sitemap.xml: considered the root of a website, it tells Google which pages to display in its listings. It is usually combined with robots.txt for best results.
Once you have completed all these settings, proceed to the next step.
Adapting website content for the web
When it comes to SEO, content is king. Everyone knows that. But how many people manage to elevate the royalty of their website's content?
To make your website content appear among the top Google results, you must first find relevant keywords related to your industry. This is an essential step that determines the success or failure of your work. That is why it is crucial to use all available means to find the best keywords.
There is free software available on Google. Search Console, UberSuggest and paid (Yooda Insight) that enable you to select good keywords for better content optimisation.
Next, you need to consider Google's optimisation criteria. These are:
- The title, heading and subheadings : this point covers the quality and structure of titles. The content available on the website must have a compelling title tag as well as well-structured and consistently arranged subheadings (H1, H2, H3... H6). Each title or subheading must contain essential keywords for better SEO.
- The meta description of the meta tag : to give visitors a preview of the site.
- Logical insertion and bolding of keywords with the aim of highlighting an idea or information that is useful to the reader.
- Adding hyperlinks Whether it is an internal or external link, its insertion into the content is not random. It must not only direct the user to information that complements what they need, but also, and above all, to high-quality information.
- Media coverage of content : To make your pages more dynamic, easier to read and understand, and keep visitors on your site longer, add videos, images or stickers. Be sure to optimise them by adding subtitles that contain keywords using the Alt tag. Before uploading media, consider their size and weight. They should be reduced as much as possible while maintaining quality in order to minimise page loading time.
- The volume of content The more content you have on your website, the more traffic you attract and the better signal you send to Google. And with quality content, you will have subscribers who will spread the word about your articles. This promotes good search engine optimisation.
When optimising your website content, you need to consider internal and external linking. This will be covered in the next section.
SEO and Linking: for quality optimisation
It is impossible to effectively optimise the SEO of your WordPress website without mastering the concept of linking.
Linking is an SEO optimisation technique that involves inserting internal and external links into content or a page.
What is an internal link? It is a redirect that takes the reader to another page on the website.
As for external links, these are links that connect the content of one website to the content of another website.
All these links are included with the aim of supplementing or better explaining the meaning of a term used in the text. They are sometimes added simply for illustrative purposes and have a very positive impact on the SEO quality of the page.
The more relevant the information found by clicking on the button or link is, the more the reader will approve of the quality of your content and the better your page will be ranked on the search engine.
On WordPress, to add a link, simply open the page containing the additional information and copy its link into the address bar. Then select the word that will carry the link (anchor), click on the «add link» button and paste the previous link. The shortcut Ctrl+K will be useful here.
As for external links, the process is the same. The only difference is that the link you are copying belongs to a site other than your own.
There are long-tail and short-tail links, which contain several or a single keyword in the insertion anchor.
Did you know that the number of links in a piece of content also influences the quality of a website's SEO?
Yes, indeed! In SEO optimisation, nothing is left to chance. Depending on the volume of your content, there is a specific number of links to insert. Especially when it comes to backlinks (links from your site to other sites), it is recommended to add only 2 to 3 links per 1,000 words and, above all, to ensure the quality of the link. Once the parameters are well defined, the content optimised and the linking integrated, consider optimising the overall performance of the website.
Website performance optimisation
Optimising the performance of a WordPress site involves adding a cache plug-in. There are several available, which allow you to store a site's pages on the browser. This makes it easier and faster to access these pages multiple times.
After connecting a plug-in to your site, you can continue to optimise its performance by optimising images. To do this, simply:
- Check the image size : The ideal size for an image in a blog post is 600 x 1200 pixels. Use Photoshop or Gim software to adjust the size of your images. You can also find faster and easier-to-use tools online.
- Choose the right resolution : To make a page load faster, use tools such as the free version of remov.bg to reduce the image size. The smaller the file size, the faster your website pages will load. Be careful not to reduce the image quality too much.
You now know everything you need to set up a well-optimised SEO website. When creating your website or updating it, the web developer in charge of the work should be able to take all of this advice into account. This will ensure that your website is readable, well-structured, with good titles, links and high-quality media for a better visitor experience. After that, all you have to do is sit back and be patient to start seeing the first results.
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