How do we make the pages and the posts on our WordPress sites optimized for search engines? Besides adding SEO plugins, there are several techniques we can use when creating content to enhance our search engine results.
Let’s start with the plugins. There are two plugins that come highly recommended. They are both free.
Plugins
All In One SEO Pack
This plugin lets you include a Document Title, a Description, and keywords for each post and each page. It’s a great way to make sure each unit of content has the recommended fields set for best optimization. Find out more about the All in One SEO Pack plugin.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
This plugin is one of the most robust SEO plugins. You can set options for XML sitemaps, breadcrumbs, canonical tags, robots, Google analytics, and more. Find out more about the WordPress SEO plugin.
Additional Plugin
If you want to see how your posts and pages will do in the search engines, the Scribe SEO is a plugin that lets you evaluate each page and each post. It also provides recommended steps based on the evaluation to improve the optimization of your content. This is not a free plugin. It’s a monthly subscription. If you really want your content to be optimized for search engines, consider this plugin. This plugin integrates with the previous two plugins or will integrate with theme-based SEO.
Techniques
There are several techniques one can use when adding a page or a post to your site to make sure the content is optimized.
Use of Keywords
Keywords in Title
Be sure to use your main keywords in your title. The title of this article is SEO plugins and SEO techniques for WordPress sites. The main keywords I’ll use for this post are SEO, WordPress, and plugins.
Keywords in Description
Include your main keywords in the description of your post or page. This doesn’t effect the search engine results so much as it will increase the number of click throughs to your site. The description shows up under each search engine result. Using the right keywords increases the possibility of a visitor coming to your site if they notice their keyword within the description.
Keywords near Top of Content
Also, place your main keywords towards the top of your content area. Usually, this happens naturally. In the introduction of your content, it’s likely your already using the keywords. Don’t overload your keywords at the top of your content area. You want the content to read naturally, not rewritten so that it’s keyword heavy and awkward to read.
Keywords in Alt Text for Images
When adding images to your content, don’t forget to all the alt text. In WordPress there is a field for this whenever adding an image. Using keywords naturally in this field also improves the optimization of your content.
Links
Links have significant affect on optimizing your content. Linking to other pages or posts on your site improves optimization. Refer to previous posts or direct a visitor to another page on your site when writing content. Often at the bottom of a post you may see a list of Related Posts. This enhances link building options for optimization. Internal links, external links, and social media links effectively increases search engine optimization.
Those are a few of the techniques one can use to improve optimization.
What other techniques do you employ? What has been your experience with SEO plugins?