Did you know that WordPress is the preferred choice of SEO professionals? WordPress’s success in search engine optimization is one reason why it is so popular.
SEO is an integral part of every business’ digital strategy. You must consider traffic when deciding which website builder to use and which platform to choose. You need to consider searchability and visibility to ensure that visitors are able to find your site quickly. Which content management system (CMS), would be the most helpful? WordPress is our answer.
WordPress is the most used CMS. WordPress is used by users all over the globe, from small business owners who want to expand their online businesses to experts in various niches. WordPress powers 43% of all websites!
What makes WordPress so special? Here are some ways to find out.
1. Pretty Permalinks
Permalinks refer to the URLs of your website. Your WordPress dashboard allows you to easily modify your permalinks. You can do this by going to the settings and changing the format. By default, it should look something like https://yoursite.com/?p=123.
When you customize it, a format like http://yoursite.com/%postname%/ is better for the search engines and for your visitors, who should be able to figure out the topic of your article from the link.
Your ranking can be affected by the permalinks in two ways:
- Ranking factors include keywords in the link.
- Beautiful permalinks can improve the CTR of your posts in search engines.
The click-through rate (CTR) for a link is a Google ranking factor. Google will penalize you if you receive fewer clicks than you expected. However, it will improve your position on sites with high CTR.
Finally, a non-SEO reason can also hurt your traffic. You will receive fewer visitors from social media and other sources if your link is visible, especially if you use ugly URLs. It is better to customize the URLs than leave them as they are.
2. Automatically Adding Metadata
Two of the most important ranking factors are the SEO title and meta description. These should be included on every page and post of your website. The metadata can help you improve your position.
They can also increase your CTR because they can be viewed on search engines. Install one of the free SEO plugins available for WordPress, and then add them.
The process takes only a few seconds. You can then use the same plugin to create every post. If you don’t add metadata manually, plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO will extract the required information from your title and first sentences.
3. SEO-Optimized Photos
Images are an excellent SEO asset and can help ensure that your content is engaging, interesting, and accessible. They provide search engine bots important contextual information. Moz estimates that Google Images accounts for a third of all Google search queries.
Optimized images, on the other hand, can speed up your site loading time, improve user experience, and offer additional ranking opportunities. Optimizing your images for SEO is essential if you want maximum exposure. This can be done by going to the Edit Options of an Image and entering the “Alternative Text” box.
Include a version of your keyword to get the best results. You can optimize any image on your site for SEO by customizing your articles. It takes only two clicks. You can also change the image’s size to increase page speed. This step can be done with a plugin. Many free plugins can automatically optimize the image size.
4. User Experience
Bad user experience could be any combination of a poor web design or poorly structured images and content that is not relevant to the copy. Google can assess how user-friendly a website is by looking at metrics such as bounce rate, average time on page, abandonment of shopping cart, and so forth.
Here are some indicators of a poor user experience:
- Low-conversion rate.
- Mobile has a higher bounce rate than the overall bounce rate.
- Your content isn’t being shared, commented on, or cited by users.
- Low completion rate when filling out forms, completing a purchase, etc.
A good user experience can help you keep visitors on your website longer, and more engaged with your content. What Google Analytics metrics are indicative of a great user experience?
- More pageviews
- Increase in subscribers
- High completion and conversion rates
- Low bounce rate
- Increased session duration
WordPress gives you many options to personalize your website with numerous plugins and themes. It is more powerful than any competing CMS. With WordPress, you can be creative and create amazing websites.
5. Site Speed
Google values speed, so it includes page and site speed in its ranking signals. Google actually considers page speed because it makes it easier for search engines to crawl websites and index them appropriately.
Page/site speed is also important for the user experience. A page that takes less time to load will have a lower bounce rate, and a longer average time on the page. Site speed shouldn’t be an issue for those who use WordPress. There are many themes that load quickly to suit every purpose. There are plugins available that can improve the speed of your site.
You can test your site’s speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights to make sure everything loads and works smoothly. The PageSpeed score is based on data from two important speed metrics, DOMContentLoaded and First Contentful Paint (FCP), along with data from the Chrome User Experience Reports (CrUX). These reports help to evaluate page performance on desktop and mobile devices and offer suggestions for how to improve it.
Poor web hosting, slow loading WordPress sites, and excessive plugin use are all common causes. Speed is very important. It’s crucial to understand what roadblocks may appear and how they can be dealt with.
6. Mobile Optimization
Over the past few years, the number of search engine users who use their mobile devices and tablets to search for information has increased. Hitwise estimates that mobile searches account for as high as 60% of all online searches. If entrepreneurs want to maintain their digital competitive edge, they need to adapt to this trend.
WordPress users don’t have to worry. Many themes can be optimized for mobile devices. You can also check the appearance of your website on different devices when you customize it. Although we assume that every theme should be responsive, there are still website owners trying to figure it out.
Google wants to see a mobile version your site. As such, it introduced mobile-first indexing in evaluating and ranking sites. If you want to rank well on Google, make sure that your mobile site is the same quality as the desktop version. Your site must load quickly and have an intuitive navigation so that users can complete various tasks easily.
7. Social Media Integration
When it comes to SEO, many online marketers ignore the importance of social media. Although social media does not affect website ranking or SEO, links shared across multiple platforms can increase brand visibility.
Your rankings will improve if you interact with your audience via social media. You can expect more engagement on your social media posts if you have a high rank. Your site will reach more people if it has more social shares.
It doesn’t matter how many followers you have. What matters is how active others are with your posts (likes and comments, shares). Search engines use signals such as likes, comments, and shares to rank your site. Search queries are influenced by how people talk about your brand online.
WordPress continues to be the leader in SEO and social media. There are many plugins that can help you maximize your social media exposure. These plugins can be used to automate your campaigns and to embed social media feeds on your website.
Conclusion
WordPress is not only beneficial for the user, but also for your brand and business growth. This platform is ideal for all businesses, thanks to its unique features. It is easy to use, flexible, and scalable, giving you the flexibility you need for your website.
Night Owl Sites has made WordPress our preferred CMS choice. We’ve helped many businesses grow and scale with WordPress. Contact us today to see what we can do to help you meet your KPIs, generate more leads, and increase your revenue.
