Improve your rankings! Gain more subscribers! Generate leads!

Does that sound like a sales pitch? Well, that’s because it is. However, it doesn’t make it any less true. You can accomplish all of these lofty feats through your WordPress site, with the added advantage of implementing effective WordPress SEO strategies.

 All it takes is a little SEO…

Why WordPress?
WordPress just happens to be one of the best content management sites out there. Sprinkle a little SEO on top and you’ve got yourself a powerful tool that will increase your traffic and drive leads straight to your door.

Time to Optimize
By itself, WordPress already does a fairly good job of optimizing for the web. However, there are still a couple of techniques you can use to improve it.

Permalink Structure
By changing the link structure to include the name of your post you can make it much easier to identify.

Stop Words
When you title one of your posts, be sure to remove all the stop words. These are generally “a” “and” “the” and so forth. By doing this you will avoid clunky and unwieldy URL’s. This makes your pages both easier to categorize and find by the search engines.

Optimize Titles
The title of your page is the first thing people will see in the search results. The search engines use the first couple of words to determine your rankings. For that reason alone, the beginning words of the title should be keyword rich. By doing this, you will not only rank higher but also let a potential visitor know what your page is all about.

Descriptions
When search engine results appear on your screen, the brief description beneath the title is called the snippet. These can be automatically generated but you’re missing out on a great opportunity if you go that route. Instead, use keyword rich descriptions that will rank you higher and entice readers to click on your link.

Image Optimization
You can drive more traffic to your WordPress site just by simply writing good ALT tags. Remember, the search engine bots can’t read images, but they do read what you write about them. So, use your keywords to name the files appropriately. This will also help your ranking in Google Image searches.

XML Site Map
By using an XML site map on your site, any updates that you make will be automatically submitted to search engines like Google and Bing. This allows them – and potential visitors – to easily find your new content.

Conclusion
By implementing these techniques, you will help to improve your WordPress site ranking. In my next post, I’m going to delve into the fundamentals and demystify WordPress SEO, making it accessible for everyone.

Stay tuned!