These Actionable Steps Will Make Your WordPress Site SEO-Ready

Do you manage a website powered by WordPress? If so, you don’t need me to tell you how easy it is to add content on your site! It’s used by more than 75 million website owners, and it makes website management a cinch.

The only downside to everyone’s favorite blogging and CMS system is its lack of SEO. Out of the box, it offers little in the way of search engine optimization features. But, every cloud has a silver lining, as they say! It is possible to make your WordPress-powered site SEO-friendly.

If you want to know how to do that, keep reading and the following tips will explain how!

These Actionable Steps Will Make Your WordPress Site SEO-Ready Photo via Pixabay

Edit your permalink structure

Hidden in the depths of your site’s settings is the permalink structure options. In a nutshell, the “permalink” is the URL you see in your address bar. What these settings do is enable you the choice of different URL styles.

Each page and post in WordPress has a unique ID. The default permalink structure is to display those IDs in the URL. For instance: http://<yourblogsite>/?p=123

Instead, you can have SEO-friendly URLs that humans will also appreciate too. That means the above URL can be converted into examples like:

http://<yourblogsite>/your-category/your-post-or-page-title/
http://<yourblogsite>/2015/05/01/your-post-or-page-title/
http://<yourblogsite>/2015/05your-post-or-page-title/

According to Nitch SEO, changing the permalink structure should be the first thing you do. Post-installation.

add new post at wordpress Photo via Pixabay

Install a WordPress SEO plugin

The next step is to go ahead and install a plugin that will help you to make your site more SEO-friendly. Arguably the most-used (and free) one available is “WordPress SEO by Joost.” Of course, there are other ones just as good, such as Michael Torbert’s “All In One SEO Pack” plugin.

Both of those examples do the same thing to an extent, and they both offer premium versions that unlock more SEO features. But, I recommend using the free plugins for now. In fact, most people don’t need to upgrade to the “pro” versions for a while.

Use a responsive theme

In case you didn’t know, responsive web design refers to the practice of creating a site that works well for most device types. The “responsive” element is where the site resizes according to screen size and device type.

It doesn’t matter whether you are using a laptop with a 15-inch screen or a smartphone with a 5-inch display. A website with responsive design will adapt to either screen size accordingly. The brilliant thing about responsive sites is that they are mobile-friendly.

Google and other search engines want to ensure that websites work well in mobile browsers. The way to do that for your WordPress site is to install a responsive theme. There are plenty of free themes if you check out the WP Theme Repository.

But, if you’re after something a bit more unique, you could always check out premium theme websites like ThemeForest.

By following the above tips, you’ll soon end up with an SEO-ready WordPress site. I hope they’ve been useful to you today; let me know if you’d like to add any of your tips in this post!

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