SEO Optimization of WordPress Websites
Two Plugins
WordPress is made to be user friendly and there are plenty of fantastic tools and options to make the SEO Optimization of your WordPress website easier and more effective. I have listed here two effective web effective plugins to consider using in order to optimize your website with SEO in mind. It is not an all-inclusive list; however, with these two plugins you can address two major SEO components; site speed and onsite SEO.
First off, let me start off by saying something about plugins. Plugins are tools which extend the functionality of a WordPress website, however, they are not all created equal, nor do they all work! Not only that, they will sometimes conflict with other components of your website and/or compromise your site speed. Keeping your website loading fast is important for SEO. Be sure to install only trusted and needed plugins!
That said, as far as SEO for a WordPress website is concerned, I personally am a fan of two specific plugins: WordPress SEO by Yoast and W3 Total Cache.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
The WordPress SEO Plugin includes many features which help with optimization:
Meta Information and Snippet Review
– Not only does it give you instant analysis of your page in connection with your keywords (is it in your title, description, H1, body) but it gives you a preview of what it will look like in the search engine result page. It will even tell you if you are going over the character limits for titles and descriptions as you type.
Canonical Link Elements
– Designate which pages to show and not show in the search engine results pages as well as add pagination to series pages to address potential duplicate content problems.
XML Sitemaps
– Automatically creates xml sitemaps and notifies Google and Bing.
RSS Optimization
– Automatically adds a link to your RSS feed pointing back to your original content, letting Google know and combatting scrapers.
Breadcrumbs
– As long as the theme supports it, create easy navigation for visitors and search bots.
.htaccess and robots.txt files
– Edit these from within the interface instead of needing to deal with server files.
Social Media Integration
– Implements Facebook Open Graph tags.
W3 Total Cache
The W3 Total Cache Plugin is powerful in addressing the important technical issues that affect page speed and user experience:
Minification of Posts, Pages, CSS, and Javascript
– Removes unnecessary information or characters without losing its functionality.
Caching of Objects, Feeds, Posts, and Other Files
– Stores files allowing quicker page loads for return visitors, including search bots.
Sophisticated CDN (Content Delivery Network) Compatibility
– Serve content with a high availability and high performance with worldwide server utilization.
With these two plugins, one can accomplish a great deal of search engine optimization of a WordPress website without needing to know coding!
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If you would like assistance optimizing your WordPress website, contact us today for a FREE no-obligation consultation!
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