Are you looking for help maintaining and optimizing your WordPress site? Prism Web Design, the best web design company in Dubai, has created a checklist that is simple to use, easy to implement, and jam-packed with valuable information.
Raise your hand if you spend every day working on your WordPress blog.
If you’ve got an embarrassing number of plugins, unpublished blog material from early 2015, too many broken links to count, spam-filled comments, and numerous ugly URLs, keep it raised.
Don’t worry; I’m still guilty. I’ve somehow been accustomed to ignoring my WordPress account between my 9-to-5 job and assisting my freelance clients. It doesn’t have to be that way, though.
There are certain items that any small business owner should know how to do, such as filing taxes or writing the ideal business plan. Those must-have abilities can also apply to your WordPress account.
You don’t have to worry, though; I’ve got you covered. To help you streamline your WordPress site (without sacrificing the features you really need), I’ve compiled a list of my favorite SEO tips that do double, triple, or even quadruple duty, allowing you to accomplish more with less.
This checklist will have you upgrading your underperforming website into a sleek ROI-boosting website in no time, from choosing an SEO-friendly theme that will juice up multiple devices to one-and-done plugins.
It makes no difference what degree of WordPress expertise you have right now. You’ll be a boss at all that matters in 2021 and beyond by the time I’m through with you.
Before you start using WordPress, there are three things you should know.
Simply put, I find the task of managing my WordPress daunting. Now, I know it can’t be that difficult – after all, if it were that difficult to find out, the site wouldn’t have 70 million new posts every month.
Despite the fact that it has a lot of fans, certain stuff for WordPress users and their SEO must become second nature. I began optimizing my clients’ websites with better plugins, quicker web hosting, and other things over the last year or so. That’s when I realized how valuable WordPress is for SEO:
- There is no other application that has all of the same features.
- To get started, you don’t need to know how to code.
However, getting into the SEO swing and seeing results does not happen immediately. To successfully explore the deepest, darkest corners of WordPress, you must first learn how to build the foundation of your website. Here’s what I learned (it’s a lot! ), and think of it as a beginner’s checklist for diving (headfirst!) into WordPress SEO.
Web Hosting
Setting up web hosting is the first step in successfully navigating WordPress.
I’m all about taking care of my virtual private server (VPS) and backing up my files, but there are some things you just don’t have time for – and others you do. So, when it comes to time, energy, and a website that everyone can set up, I’m all about paying a little extra for a hosting solution.
My bounce rate will rise and users will abandon my site if it is sluggish and unresponsive.There’s a big difference between a site that loads in one second and one that takes ten seconds, and the latter is more likely to lose users. A page load time of 0.4 milliseconds is long enough for users to search less, according to Google engineers.
Ask yourself the following questions before committing to a hosting service provider:
- Do they provide plugin support?
- What kind of backup services do they provide?
- Is a staging environment available?
- What is the bandwidth capacity?
- What kind of operating system do they have? What is Linux? If you have any windows?
- What other websites do you have in your IP address range?
Recommendations for web hosting services:
- Kinsta.
- Flywheel.
- SiteGround.
- Cloudways.
SEO benefits:
- The website now loads faster.
- Content Delivery Network
Anyone who wants a little extra pace for their website understands the value of a CDN (Content Delivery Network).
The way your site handles static content including images, javascript, and CSS is altered by a CDN. A CDN caches your static content to speed up page loading, response time, and overall website speed – all of which helps you rank higher in search engines.
Isn’t that cool? Yes, it is. I adore everything that makes it seem as though I put more work into making my site faster than I really did. And, after a lot of trial and error, I’ve discovered that using a CDN is the simplest and quickest way to make your site speed look awesome to search engines.
CDN recommendations:
- Cloudflare.
- MaxCDN.
- Incapsula.
SEO benefits:
- The website now loads faster.
- Reduced time to respond
- Theme that is SEO-friendly
Let’s face it: discovering the most SEO-friendly WordPress theme isn’t something most of us are concerned about.
It would be nice, but you’re more likely to spend your time deciding which theme is the most attractive. Those business owners who go to the trouble of finding an SEO-friendly theme deserve special recognition.
I’ve put together an impressive list of key features to help you move from admiring beautiful designs to installing perfectly SEO-optimized themes. You’ll be cleaning out your bookmarked themes in no time.
- Clean and quick code: You can reduce page load time and improve crawlability by using a clean code structure.
- CSS and Javascript files: Google believes that less is better, so keeping the number of CSS and Javascript files to a minimum would help. You’ll also save time by not having to minify them later.
- Users would find it easier to move from page to page if the interface is basic.
- Responsive: As we all know, Google favors responsive sites in mobile searches, so selecting a responsive WordPress theme will give you a better overall user experience.
- Schema Markups: Schema Markups tell search engines where on your site the most important content is.
SEO-friendly WordPress recommendations:
- Divi- theme
- Genesis theme.
- Astra theme.
- GrowthPress theme.
SEO Benefits:
- The speed of the website has improved.
- More sites have been indexed.
When it comes to getting started with WordPress, there are four steps to follow.
As we begin the simple SEO rituals of setting up your WordPress website, you’ll want to start combing through the basics and digging through WordPress tutorials about this time. You sometimes come across old content to delete or plugins to deactivate, but you often come across new gems that are worth using.
Cache Plug-In
With a single click, a caching plugin transforms your website (especially on mobile) from “meh” to “great.” Unlike other plugins, a caching plugin is seldom regarded as a waste of time. Instead, this plugin boosts website efficiency and converts dynamic content to static content, resulting in faster page load times.
It might seem like a lot to take on (especially if your site isn’t plugin-based), but this is one of those things for which you’ll need to adjust your style.
Recommendations for cache plugins:
- WPRocket (my personal favorite).
- W3 Total Cache.
- Cache Enabler.
- WP Fastest Cache.
- WP Super Cache.
Remember to enable your cache for mobile devices once you’ve enabled the plugin in the settings.
SEO benefits:
- The speed of the website has improved.
- Site efficiency has improved.
- Categories
The last time I took over a client’s website, they had a “Travel” tab and a “Travel” tag, which resulted in redundant content and names. I eventually decided to noindex the Tags and began manually cleaning them up (this was one big headache). If your pages aren’t useful to search engines (e.g., archived pages), noindex them.
Your categories in WordPress are the broad topics of your blog posts, whether you’re writing about food, travel, fashion, or something else. Think of categories as a table of contents for your website. Also, if you don’t categorize your post on WordPress, it will end up in the “uncategorized” folder, which is useless to everyone.
Category recommendations:
- Stick to broad subjects. Personally, I choose five generic products with new content every month.
- Each post should only have one or two categories.
- Remember to update the taxonomy and archive pages with new material.
- Every category should reflect a keyword that a user might type into a search engine.
SEO benefits:
- The user experience has been improved.
- Allows quick access to pages that need to be indexed.
- Tags
Gone are the days when tagging your content in WordPress meant you were either fascinated with keywords, perplexed, or simply enjoyed mentioning 20+ related words. If you want to learn the fundamentals or improve your current tag situation, your WordPress tags need a revitalization that goes beyond keyword stuffing.
Continue reading if you haven’t already; one of my clients receives 100,000 unique visitors each month. Tags mentioned in the SERPs are referred to by more than 3% of those.
Tag Recommendations:
- Keep your tagging to the topics you discussed in the post.
- Not every post needs tagging.
- Tags should be short and sweet, with no more than two sentences.
- Delete tags that are overused or underused on a monthly basis.
SEO Benefits:
- The user experience has been improved.
- Increased engagement.
- Permalinks
Permalinks are useful for a variety of purposes on WordPress, including keyword structuring, shortening links, and improving search rankings. There are numerous ways to update this on WordPress, if you simply want to look at SEO-friendly URL structures, are considering changing your URLs, or want to give your search rankings a boost.
Permalink recommendations:
- According to Google, the default WordPress plugin is not SEO-friendly, so change your settings.
- The post name option is a good bet since it shortens URLs.
- If your site is bigger, you might want to put dates or categories before the post name option.
- In the URL, remove the characters “&,” “?,” and “!”
- Instead of underscores (_), use hyphens (-).
SEO Benefits:
- Search engine crawlability has improved.
- When keywords are used, search rankings improve.
- Spam Comments
Your time is almost up, spammers. I won’t miss you, WordPress, because the newer versions nofollow links posted in comments – viagra, words I didn’t realize existed, stuff only seen on Booble, I won’t miss you. A slew of spam comments crammed into a single blog post that isn’t important to the subject can do serious harm to your web.
At the end of the day, spam comments will hurt your website’s efficiency.
Spam comment recommendations:
- Make it impossible to post anonymously.
- Avoid automated spamming by using CAPTCHAs.
- Use the “nofollow” attribute to prevent people from following your links.
- Hyperlinks must not be used.
- To keep track of spam comments, use the Askimet plugin.
SEO Benefits:
- Credibility of the website has improved.
When it comes to WordPress optimization, there are seven steps to follow.
Anything WordPress touches (or, more accurately, creates) seems to transform to gold. From themes to plugins, the platform understands what linked, business-minded consumers want – and how to address any website issues they can encounter.
And the features mentioned below are SEO-friendly in every way. This segment is for those who can’t seem to find the time to study SEO from the ground up (we’ve all been there).
Meta Descriptions, Meta Titles and more.
Let me begin by saying that I am a huge fan of the Yoast SEO plugin. I like the meta names, meta explanations, and the well-organized placement of XML sitemaps (not to mention the bulk editor) – all about it. Meta titles and descriptions have been shown to improve traffic and interaction, so they should be included in 2021.
Meta titles and descriptions recommendations:
- Yoast SEO is a free plugin that can be downloaded.
- Make your Content Type settings as efficient as possible.
SEO Benefits:
- Increased SERP click-through.
- XML Sitemaps
As previously stated, the Yoast SEO plugin includes a sitemap feature, which you must understand how to use. When it comes to SEO, having a sitemap is a necessary evil. A sitemap is a list of all your posts and pages that search engines can read quickly.
SEO Benefits:
- Crawlability is improved.
- Internal Linking
The Yoast SEO plugin will show you how to accomplish this. I’m having a blast with it. This plugin helps me to build a seamless site architecture and submit connection love to the relevant pages on my site, rather than linking to posts at random.
Internal linking recommendations:
- Deep links to your website’s pages.
- For the reader’s benefit, make the connection as natural as possible.
- Keep the number of connections to a bare minimum (i.e., 100 internal links for a 1,000-word blog is not reasonable).
SEO Benefits
- Creates a site layout that is easy to navigate.
- Page authority is distributed around the site.
- Image Alt Tags
The beauty of WordPress is that you don’t need to know HTML or Javascript to change your image alt tags. I can optimize images not only with a single click of a mouse, but I can also do so without having to install a plugin.
Image Alt Tag Recommendations:
- Use a natural keyword-rich phrase as the name of your image file. I always mention my company’s name.
- Create a descriptive alt tag description for your picture.
- Fill in your brand name in the picture alt attribution description.
SEO Benefits:
- A more pleasant user experience.
- Increased chances of appearing in image searches.
- Header Tags
I have nothing against long-form posts with no breaks, but I like my articles to be a little more engaging. Sorry, minimalists, but I believe that more is better. I never get tired of seeing posts with H1, H2, and H3 tags all the way through.
Header Tag Recommendations:
- Use a natural keyword-rich phrase as the name of your picture file.
- Create a descriptive alt tag description for your picture.
- Fill in your brand name in the picture alt attribution description.
SEO Benefits:
- Readers would benefit from more readable, digestible content.
- User interaction has improved.
- The rel=”canonical” Tag
Nobody likes it when their material is stolen (at least, not me). And, I don’t know about you, but I’m still concerned about scrapers stealing my content. I’ve enabled the rel=”canonical” tag for pages on my clients’ websites to help combat this. It informs search engines where on their site the content’s source URLs are located. Duplicate material is no longer a problem.
rel=”canonical” tag recommendations:
- Use the Yoast SEO plugin to add the rel=”canonical” tag if your material is being published on another website.
SEO Benefits:
- Remove any problems with duplicate material.
- Robots.txt
I’d be making money right now if we had a dollar for all the robots.txt I’ve had to patch that were stopping search engines from finding quality content. For those unfamiliar with the word, robots.txt is a text file that tells search engines what to look for and what not to look for on your website.
This method of guiding the SERPs will save you a lot of time and money on search engines like Bing and Google, where websites are abundant.
robots.txt recommendations:
- In your robots.txt file, disable wp-admin.
- Allow the robots.txt file to index all other high-quality material.
- Include a link to your sitemap in your robots.txt file.
- In the Yoast SEO plugin > Tools > Editor, edit your robots.txt file.
SEO benefits:
- Remove any problems with duplicate material.
2 Steps to Keeping WordPress Up to Date
Content updates and lead generation types are popular ways for business owners to grow into new WordPress territories. This helps to justify higher prices and more sophisticated material than we’re used to seeing.
But don’t lose sight of the fundamentals that brought us to this stage. Maintaining your WordPress site can be time-consuming, what with backing up your page, optimizing your headlines, and cleaning up meta titles and descriptions. Discover some of the most effective – and easy – methods for securing your WordPress site in the sections below.
Broken Links
No matter how my broken links end up – with a gleaming server error or the obligatory semi-awkward not found – the broken link rite of passage (and cringe-worthy Integrity report) will still be fresh in my mind: the 504, the 404, and, most notably, the soft 404.
So I began to consider what I might do differently.
Nowadays, a report on Integrity (Mac) or Xenu (PC) will pull up all the nostalgic-inducing links you might need to repair.
Broken links recommendations:
- Install Integrity or Xenu and correct any external links that appear.
- To correct your 404 errors reported in Google Search Console’s crawl errors, use Yoast SEO’s Redirection.
SEO Benefits:
- A more pleasant user experience.
- Back-up your Site
Just because you’re good at backing up your website doesn’t mean you’re improving your online presence. It implies that you are conserving all of your SEO efforts.
Everyone benefits when you back up your site on a regular basis – daily, weekly, or monthly.
Back-up Recommendations:
- If you’re feeling tech-savvy, you can backup your website using cPanel.
- If your cPanel sounds like something out of Short Circuit, a plugin like Backup Buddy is a good option.
SEO Benefits:
- Peace
It’s difficult to keep up with the rapid advancements in WordPress technology. It can be daunting even for those of us who are up to date on the latest plugins and apps. (What is Sucuri? Come on, I just learned how to use Wordfence!)
It’s no surprise, then, that small business owners may experience some difficulty navigating the increasingly connected WordPress environment. Even the most well-intentioned and tech-savvy entrepreneurs will make mistakes.
Prism, a company that specializes in website development in Dubai, has it all, from caching the website to comment etiquette to robots.txt. Call us now and we will be happy to assist you.
