After you have setup your WordPress site, the next step is to get it noticed by the search engines. Getting Google and other search engines to rank your site is vital to achieving any objectives you had in mind when creating the site.
Here are some tips to get you started.
Quality content is very important
Before you start getting yourself concerned about tools to promote your wordpress site, you must build a strong foundation of high quality and unique content. The content should be developed around relevant keywords and must be readable and understandable. The content must not be riddled with keywords, or you may land your website in trouble, for keyword stuffing, with the big search engines.
Name your images appropriately
Many newbies don’t know that image files affect your search rankings, as Google looks at them while calculating your rank. So instead of randomly naming your images, make the title of the content, the image file name. It increases the chances of someone finding the content in search. Use the alt tag, always, for better optimisation.
Relevant quality backlinks
Getting backlinks from high ranking websites that are related to yours is a good way to improve visibility. However, like all things SEO, overdoing it will do more harm than good. Don’t build too fast, and do make your link profile natural. Don’t forget, the links, content they are in, and sites they are going on, must be relevant to your site.
Always use SEO themes
In their crawling mechanism the search engines have to go through the source code of your website to find relevant content. Have themes with too much code in the layout and design makes that task more difficult. Lighter themes also make your website faster for end users. Steve, Digital Manager at one of UK’s best web hosting options says “new web owners often use the flashiest themes they can find and this makes things isn’t always the best idea; especially on shared hosting! A light properly optimised theme may be all you need to make a success of your site. Minimalistic design is a trend in themes at the moment, and for good reason.”.
Short permalinks are the best
Instead of allowing the permalinks to your website pages to be displayed in the default format, customise them in your wordpress settings. Make the links short and include one or two keywords in it. Try to get the keyword into the first four words on the permalink though, as every other word that comes after the fourth word is neglected by Google.
Use h1-h6 where appropriate
Using header tags, and the strong tag, you can highlight bits of important information on your site. Again overdoing it defeats the purpose and will mean the reader unconsciously ignores the emphasis.
Make sure your sitemap is in XML format
This is easy to achieve thanks to plugins like XML sitemaps. You can also use Google’s Website Optimiser and Webmaster Central.
Don’t cheat
Cheating may work in the short term, but it is only a matter of time before Google sniffs out what you are doing. If bigger sites can get hit by penalties what are the odds of a small fish escaping attention?
Get your posts on social media
There are many social plugins you can use to share your content. Place them strategically so your visitors will share with their followers as well. Promoting only your own posts on your social media platforms is a good way to get your followers to ignore you. Share other people’s work too and interact with your followers. Most web owners will return the kindness and your followers will be happy.
As a final tip, bear in mind SEO success is not easy to come by, but following proven SEO techniques and incorporating these tips into your work gets the odds firmly in your favour.