You just got into the business of search engine optimization (SEO), and now you are thinking of ways to optimize your WordPress website for better ranking, understanding how the SEO works can be a little too difficult.
You might have already read a number of articles about search engine optimization tips and tricks for your website, basics of SEO, tips to increase website ranking, or how to build an SEO friendly website, etc. But you might still be confused about where you should start. You might have even considered hiring the top web development service in USA.
No need to worry, because you are not the only one. Many people out there are looking for such tips and tricks regularly. However, here we are, making an attempt to make things easier for you. We are going to tell the most common WordPress challenges and how you can pass through them easily.
Let’s have a look at these challenges and learn how you can level up your game
Picking The Right Theme
First, ask yourself: How did I pick a WordPress theme when creating my WordPress website?
Of course, you must have gone with the one that appeared visually attractive and thought it would hook your customers at first glance. A mistake that people make is that they usually pick themes that are too common or premium. They do it because they think they are some sort of shortcut to creating a successful website. What they do not know is that many complicated themes have poor codes, and that affects the speed of their website. The site speed might not appear as a matter of top priority, but it actually has a huge impact on your site’s ranking.
It is wise to select a theme that represents the nature of your site. Some minimalist themes can work better than complicated ones. Also, make sure you check how often the ones you plan to choose,get updated. After all, you would not want an outdated theme to drag your site down the hole with it.
Game of Plugins
WordPress plugins are blessings for a website’s SEO. However, most people get greedy and end up adding a lot of them. As a result, the site becomes too heavy, taking longer to load pages. If you wish to improve the user experience and ranking of your website, it is necessary to pick the right plugins.
Adding multiple plugins means that you are allowing all of them to utilize your server resources. It is why most WordPress hosts refrain from allowing websites that have too many resources.
Sitemap Issue
A basic website of WordPress does not offer too many controls and features. As a result, you have to install SEO plugins, and most of them have sitemap options. You are allowed to create several sitemaps by adding more plugins. It is a way to get more control of your website.
The problem with this is that many people usually forget to make their sitemap submission to Google Search Console. As a result, search engines refuse to recognize their sitemap and sadly, their sites will not show up anywhere, even with a ton of customized plugins.
Stuffing Links
Adding links to your site is considered as one of the essential SEO techniques, and it can surely benefit your website ranking. Most themes bring pre-set links that can help you in this regard. However, it can turn out unhealthy in two ways:
Over-stuffing
Overstuffed things never look attractive, and overstuffing links is no exception. If you add too many links, you will distract viewers, and they will abandon your website. A rule of thumb is to add up no more than twenty links on your website, that too those with high domain authority.
Stuffing Nonsense
The content you are feeding to your viewers holds much more importance than you think. It is necessary to provide your website visitors, useful, relevant, and original content that builds trust on your site, convincing visitors to spend more time on it, which contributes to a high rank of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
Alt Text For Pictures
Most people only focus on optimizing their content, and they end up compromising on the optimization of their visual content. However, it is a huge mistake. You must focus on giving your images a correct name and describe them briefly. Bear in mind that it can be a long term investment for ranking, accessibility, and functionality of your website.
Make sure to give a proper name and description to all existing images on your website. Also, you can use the SEO Friendly Images WordPress Plugin.
Permalinks
The internet is filled with information regarding permalinks. It is a difficult task to get these right. Your website can face a good amount of loss if you compromise on these.
An ideal permalink must not be filled with a lot of numbers and names. They should be simple and clear. Here is an example: “/%category%/%postname%/. “
Permalinks allow search engines and users to understand what a webpage is about.
Related Posts & Internal links
Creating links between articles and pages on your website increases the time that users spend on your website. It also provides apositive signal to search engine bots that leads to an improved high SERP rank. However, adding links that are not relevant or links with poor quality will not do any good; in fact, you will be at a loss.
If you do not want to use too many internal links, you can add relevant posts. Add a plugin to your website that works to pick related posts and show them to users. It is a useful way to establish a balance between related posts and internal links.
Takeaway
These are some common challenges that you must address to create a functional and top-quality WordPress website. Also, the WordPress community is always there to help you when you are stuck. Search engine optimization is not easy, and it is tricky, but if you do it step by step, you can improve and level up your SEO skills.