If you’re fed up with the old saying “content is king,” I’ve got a new one. The content is next to nothing if it’s not visible on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Do you want the gold medal and always take the first spot with your content? Well, be prepared to do this the hard way. The online environment evolves, Google’s algorithm is constantly changing to crawl & index relevant content. A good Search Engine Optimization strategy helps you stand out with your website in SERP. Consider today’s article, Why is Search Engine Optimization Vital for Your WordPress website, as an introduction to the SEO world.
Why is Search Engine Optimization Vital for Your WordPress website
Search engines crawl, index, and understand your site’s content.
As we all know, search engines are that one friend that knows everything you ask him. When a search query is received, the algorithm deeply analyzes millions of pages in milliseconds to deliver you the most relevant and related pieces of content. In short, Googlebot first crawls the content’s code. Then, if the information is eligible to appear in the search, it’s indexed.
If you want to find more in-depth information about how search works, you should check out the Google story on organizing data, search algorithms, etc.
S comes from “search,” E stands for “engine,” and O is for “optimization.” The SEO acronym means “search engine optimization,” and it’s the non-paid method to make your brand known in the search results and naturally increase the site’s traffic.
Read Also: Complete SEO Checklist for your Website
Why do you have to make a strategy?
Why is Search Engine Optimization Vital for Your WordPress website? A good SEO strategy tells Google, “hi, this website publishes real and valuable information” until the complicated algorithm agrees & indexes your pages to show them on SERP. So, you have to get Google to trust you (actually, it’s your website, not you as a human.)
How much do you love data analysis? Even if SEO is very much related to the content, you must analyze and test every tiny detail. And still, you can’t make it work like magic. Why? Because SEO is evolving every day, and so should you. What works today may not apply tomorrow. So, you need an SEO strategy that you can easily adjust.
Let’s start with the basics. Whether we’re talking about text, images, or any other media files, you need to optimize your website and enhance the content for search engines further. So, your work goes on-site (on-page) and off-site (off-page). Remember that on-site SEO efforts refer to a complete strategy all over your website. This means your titles, tags, post content, pages, categories, internal linking & others must be logically organized because nobody wants a negative user experience. Also, if a website looks like a jungle with nothing interchangeable, Google will not show it as the top one. External linking from reputable sites is the best off-site SEO method you can use on your site. If you want to understand the Google Algorithm related to search, look no further than what the Search Engine Journal highlighted in their “How SEO Works Exactly” article.
Benefits of well-done SEO
A great strategy means you have to take care of each page or post you publish on the site. Keywords also represent On-page SEO efforts, meta descriptions, alt text on images, title tags, URLs structure, minimize CSS or Javascript where you can, and enable the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer.) On the other hand, social media posts and domain authority must be part of your off-page SEO plan. With all the search engine optimizations, your website will be visible in search, and you’ll get a boost in traffic and a quality audience. Moreover, you can convert traffic into genuine buyers.
Most popular SEO plugins to use with your WordPress theme
If you’re looking out for a new SEO plugin or you’re just starting, here’s a shortlist of the most appreciated ones:
- Yoast SEO
- All in One SEO Pack by Semper Plugins
- WordPress SEO Plugin by Rank Math
- The SEO Framework
- SEOPress by Benjamin Denis
The Final Note
In this article, we’ve focused mainly on Google. However, there are many other search engines such as Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, AOL, or DuckDuckGo and vocal searches of the Voice Assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, where you can put your SEO efforts to work. On the Reliable Soft website, you can find a great article that gathers info on the best ten search machines. So, you have to organize your website to provide a friendly UI to ensure a great UX. Also, it would be best if you found your business keywords to add them everywhere on the site and improve your pages and posts.
SEO achievements are paid in time. Be patient and wait for results! They’ll come if you’re resolute.