{"id":1033,"date":"2021-08-29T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/?p=1033"},"modified":"2021-08-29T08:11:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T08:11:59","slug":"wordpress-seo-tips-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wordpress-seo-tips-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress SEO Tips\/Guide For Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Improving your WordPress SEO is critical for boosting the number of website visitors. Unfortunately, the majority of WordPress SEO tips are just too technical for beginners to understand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to increase visitors to your website, you should follow the WordPress SEO best practices. We&#8217;ll walk you through the best WordPress SEO tips in this post to help you enhance your SEO and obtain more organic traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. Check Your WordPress Visibility Settings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress offers a feature that allows you to hide your website from search engines. This option is intended to allow you more time to work on your website before it is ready to go live.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a possibility that the option is left ticked, and your website is not accessible to the search engines. If so, you need to check that the option is unchecked from <strong>WordPress Dashboard &gt; Settings &gt; Reading<\/strong> so that your site can show up in the search results. You can select the <strong>Post name <\/strong>option and click on the <strong>\u2018Save Changes\u2019 <\/strong>button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/bQ2TH2GfdotMHQJNk2AL3JCazrcvZYbLqi9hBXSBGf67wGhgo6F8VczL66AwSvY7mYhoKFmFCW6xj3D8kc-eKai1tt57jmfmykfeQlugzaW3UPbFrDiubOpeHd_HTcAomr036DR2=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2. Change Your Permalinks<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A permanent URL or link to a certain article, page or blog on your website is known as a permalink. Permalinks clearly describe (in the URL itself) what your article, page, or blog is about, so visitors know what they&#8217;re clicking on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only should you modify your permalinks to improve user experience, but you should also do so to boost your SEO, as search engines read permalinks to find out whether your website contains answers to specific search queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A URL that is not easily readable is shared less than a readable permalink. If you have a new website, it\u2019s important to change the permalink settings by navigating to <strong>WordPress Dashboard &gt; Settings &gt; Permalinks.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/GwtsI3mP0BFboDqwVZwvvkEB4cljAoGzfbb8AGYHl9Z79D_QmcoL58dDn6Nlc8Gq_vZZZOuq0oN7-NjhDnzWQ8_0YdpGS5AGtvaCohGyrM0C1oFeKkAPiIgCNNHJF32llXsg4QeD=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3. Choose an SEO Plugin<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Plugins for WordPress improve the functionality of your website by adding capabilities that aren&#8217;t included with the platform. There are thousands of plugins to choose from, many of which can assist you in improving your SEO. However, if you&#8217;re unsure which plugin you want to use on your site, you can look through the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/search\/seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WordPress plugin library<\/a> for suggestions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmath.com\/wordpress\/plugin\/seo-suite\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rank Math<\/a>, the best SEO plugin available, as it provides an all-in-one solution for your SEO needs. It\u2019s simple to install Rank Math.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To do so, navigate to <strong>WordPress Dashboard &gt; Plugins &gt; Add New. <\/strong>Look for Rank Math in the search bar, and simply install and activate the plugin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/W6zwRIAMazQjPUFX5jfRLekkPGfLY-8lP_dtX_kt-EGAebdHnWIlbimCuFRdlQW2fbHElJoQkkwT5ER7tLoa6pXVWl7shF00r9bYz1DoDSsu03BD8mGz5XvqRHu6iGCZ7b7o11vs=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4. Use XML Sitemaps<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>An XML sitemap is a code file on your web server that lists all your website&#8217;s pages. Search engines employ XML sitemaps to identify, assess, and rank the data on your site.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless you have substantial coding experience and wish to generate your XML sitemap manually, the quickest approach is installing an SEO plugin, such as Rank Math SEO, that automatically generates <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmath.com\/kb\/submit-sitemap-to-google\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">search engine compatible sitemaps<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>5. Add Your Site to Google Search Console<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Google Search Console is a set of tools provided by Google that allows website owners to understand how Google and the various search engines view their content.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It gives you information and data to assist you to figure out how your pages appear in search results. You can also see the search phrases people use to locate your website and how often visitors click on your sites.&nbsp; Not only this, but you can also keep a watch on your websites and find out if something goes wrong in your site, such as when your site is not accessible, or there are restricted resources, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the help of Rank Math\u2019s built-in <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmath.com\/kb\/google-site-verification\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Search Console Integration<\/a>, it\u2019s extremely easy to keep track of your website\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>6. Use Structured Data Markup<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Structured data helps the search engines to understand the site\u2019s content in a better way.&nbsp; Structured data is important for any website, as it acts like a dictionary to the search engines. You can make it clear to the search engines what your content is all about by using structured data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It could be challenging to add structured data to your posts\/pages, but the entire process is straightforward with <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmath.com\/kb\/rich-snippets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rank Math\u2019s structured data<\/a>. Rank Math supports various Schema types and you can use them on your site to grab more eyeballs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>7. Perform Keyword Research On Your Website<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The process of selecting profitable and strategic keywords for your WordPress website is known as keyword research. Without <a href=\"https:\/\/mythemeshop.com\/blog\/keyword-research\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">keyword research<\/a>, WordPress SEO optimization is completely pointless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rank Math makes keyword research simple. There&#8217;s no need to make educated guesses when it comes to identifying prospective keywords for each post. The integration of Rank Math with the Google Trends tool <strong>(Rank Math PRO only)<\/strong> allows you to check and compare search trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/B0pmzsF5n8qrIyRRgktfa-vmbV93Sf8s4jRhYycWoiyi_WQ8BvVjtQa-b2dxWImpWCf79HiQ-NKkwgjDuh2ZoteGFV1pmLFhUnpE0uIcjZaCBczMe_Ao4Z3husivYFSTTkBf84Ea=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>8. Optimizing Your Blog Posts for SEO<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To gain broader visibility in the search engines, you must optimize your content regularly. Each post and page should be optimized in a way that they have a title, description, and target keyword, and all of the best SEO plugins allow you to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some of the best practices to optimize your posts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Use subheadings (H2, H3, H4)&nbsp; in your post, so it\u2019s easier for the readers to read the content.<\/li><li>Make sure that the focus keyword is included in the post\u2019s permalink and it\u2019s readable. Please avoid keyword stuffing.<\/li><li>Use Alt attributes for the images to describe them accurately.<\/li><li>Follow proper naming conventions for your media files. Do not use generic names such as \u201cIMG_12334567.png.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>9. Use Internal Linking<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll need to boost your website&#8217;s authority to improve your SEO. The amount of internal links to your pages, posts, blogs, and other content is one of the key ways search engines judge your site authority.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To link to other content, highlight the text you want to link to on your page, go to the WordPress toolbar, click the link button, then copy and paste the URL you want to link to.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/s4LHpYf2ovHA1lyMHU1KNEGtBaZmM2Ufg_tVH0PIqhcKTz77Pv6__3ydX-UNZwzmlPIrZi8Cbl3bj29yAKSIrSFRrNt2eCNL_gHN5iNDx08_Pzldm0mwq17v_RgT9mrSOVWKUwJ8=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Your linked words will change blue and contain the URL you want to redirect your visitors to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/lfa8yAt-rdpp_uYLBoXb6JG9dX1uJoSSHZLoSyLuTY_FnxGAcfO66u-ldMDGXQyLIhBkmHS1SVRS6-mloe8kMQmPVp9ShPurZfNUXMYAcZ5BhYaFAuLlopgb-x9ZUPaZsKtRvzqR=s0\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>10. Optimize Your Images<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On your WordPress website, you can optimize almost anything, even your images. Use Image-Alt-Text to optimize images. Image-Alt-Text, are the descriptions of your images, used by search engines to rank your site and assess whether or not your images include the information that users are looking for. You can add alt text to your images as shown below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/wHMCFrd2xbLOoZsc3bn34nS2ZMB_ccl3yyNOTir4eiJZyZXv0PknRtAGxZk2yrlltMCFpJ_O0MwcredTU-DYpK8J3wA2g-gRvMIqTWS-OAAVRZrER5D6vB9usNG-n4XwL7YnYx7Z=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have a description that has multiple words in it, use dashes to separate the words. Doing so will inform the search engines that there are multiple different words in the description of the image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>11. Implement Breadcrumbs Navigation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On-Page SEO requires the use of Breadcrumb. Breadcrumbs aren&#8217;t just for people to read; they&#8217;re also for search engines. Breadcrumbs aid in the visual navigation of a website and aid in increasing search engine traffic by helping you stand out from the rest of the results and assisting search engines in understanding your content hierarchy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Breadcrumb functionality is available in all major SEO plugins. But above all, Rank Math\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/rankmath.com\/kb\/breadcrumbs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">breadcrumb<\/a> functionality makes it easy to add breadcrumbs to your site.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can navigate to the breadcrumbs settings from <strong>Rank Math &gt; General Settings &gt; Breadcrumbs <\/strong>as shown below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/0T6y8Ugn5qA_TUGOeEtTFDRXNbpdKiWon-rUN_zHdcinynOql0BGSyRET7jIN6O3Osz8F5iWJfCd3FYa1AlTc_mAvdpvDxT2UP_qVviKKAEdemBTKobIAOwVciItrhMT_s9wd4M_=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>12. Use NoFollow External Links in WordPress<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When you link to a website, you give that link a portion of your website&#8217;s SEO score. This is known as the &#8220;link juice&#8221;.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You should make sure you get more link juice from other websites than you give away in exchange for good search rankings. External links (links to websites you don&#8217;t own) with the &#8220;nofollow&#8221; tag are signalled by search engines not to follow them, which helps you save link juice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please keep in mind to use this option with caution. Nofollow can be added to affiliate\/sponsored links. It will convey the wrong signals if you add them to all external links. WordPress does not offer an option to make links nofollow. If you\u2019re using a plugin like Rank Math, adding nofollow external links is easy. To do so, while adding a link, click the <strong>Set to nofollow<\/strong> option as shown below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/HCDzCjiWcq-o-f2h34fjFoUhrZauNSylGAD4tqSblDVd5qyDz0kHxnOYf5eRL94Xrcn0PSID2kN-VzG3NwnAgs5t5dZ3qa3yA79sVz-ngXeIpIWrYmUS1Hyzju1EQqCxtK2a0noX=s0\" alt=\"WordPress SEO Tips\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>13. Optimize Website for Mobile Devices<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>After you&#8217;ve optimized your post, make sure your blog appears well on mobile devices as well. Why? It&#8217;s usually a good idea to optimize your content for mobile devices since more and more users choose mobile to desktop or other platforms.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use the <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AMP plugin<\/a> to assist your visitors to have a better page experience. If you&#8217;re using Rank Math, go to the <strong>WordPress Dashboard &gt; Rank Math &gt; Modules <\/strong>section to enable the AMP module. You may also use <a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/test\/mobile-friendly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google&#8217;s Mobile-Friendly Test<\/a> tool to see if your website is mobile-friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>14. Measure and Improve Your Site\u2019s Speed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As Google uses page speed as a ranking criterion, the performance of your website will be impacted if it is slow to load.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, a WordPress caching plugin can typically greatly improve page performance. There are numerous caching plugins for WordPress. <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/w3-total-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">W3 Total Cache <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-super-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WP Super Cache<\/a>, for example, provide a variety of caching options, including page, browser, object, and database caching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s always a good practice to keep an eye on your website\u2019s performance to monitor issues if any. You can also read this extensive guide that\u2019ll help to <a href=\"https:\/\/mythemeshop.com\/blog\/wordpress-speed-optimization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">improve the speed <\/a>of your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>15. Secure Your WordPress Site<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While WordPress comes with a number of security measures, there are a few things you can do to boost security. The good news is that keeping your WordPress site secure isn&#8217;t difficult.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using unique usernames and passwords for logging in is a simple way to keep your WordPress site secure. Your login credentials should be difficult to guess. You can go a step further by employing two-factor authentication, which is supported by a plugin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also consider limiting login attempts and installing top-notch <a href=\"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wordpress-security-plugins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">security plugins<\/a> that\u2019ll help you secure your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s easy to start with WordPress SEO and optimize your site. You can improve your website&#8217;s authority and visibility on all search engines by adopting some or all of the simple ideas in this extensive guide, and as a result, you&#8217;ll see an increase in website visitors, leads, and conversions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you have any questions for us? Join us in the comments section. We would love to hear from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction Improving your WordPress SEO is critical for boosting the number of website visitors. Unfortunately, the majority of WordPress SEO tips are just too technical for beginners to understand.&nbsp; If you want to increase visitors to your website, you should follow the WordPress SEO best practices. We&#8217;ll walk you through the best WordPress SEO tips [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[118,117,119],"class_list":["post-1033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo-tutorial","tag-seo-guide","tag-seo-tips","tag-wordpress-seo-guide"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mantrabrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}