WordPress SEO For Beginners: Getting Started

Search Engine Optimization is a fast-growing and extremely competitive industry. Thousands of experts with myriad explanations and theories are claiming to know how to influence your rankings, giving you an invaluable edge over your competitors. The amazing thing is that SEO isn’t exactly a science, considering no one really knows how Google’s robots lurk through […]

By Caitlin Mekita

Search Engine Optimization is a fast-growing and extremely competitive industry. Thousands of experts with myriad explanations and theories are claiming to know how to influence your rankings, giving you an invaluable edge over your competitors.

The amazing thing is that SEO isn’t exactly a science, considering no one really knows how Google’s robots lurk through the murky waters of the internet to pull out the sites they believe will be most informative to the visitor. What we do know is that they are well aware of the SEO tricks. For example, years ago it used to be common to put hidden white text in your page that was chock-full of keywords. Theoretically, visitors could not read this text but Google bots could. Sound like a good idea? Not anymore. Google doesn’t like cheaters. They want to give the user a genuinely informational experience – and they do a great job at it.
Search engines are looking for experts. They are looking for people who know what they are talking about, and do so often, while creating conversation and generating lots of information about their niche.

WordPress is a great content management system when it comes to SEO. You need to set up your site and maintain it properly in order to get the best rankings.

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Setting up Your Site:

-Choose your site’s name wisely. Is it simple and direct? Does it have unnecessary words or irrelevant information? Will people remember it without having to write it down?
-Change your permalink setting. A permalink is a URL that points to a specific blog within your site. If you write a post called “Best Mushroom Pizza in Manhattan”, you want your link to look something like this:

yourblog.com/pizza/best-mushroom-pizza-in-manhattan

-Make sure your privacy settings ensure you can be indexed by search engines. Unblock any search engines from accessing your site.
-If it is possible and appropriate, enable commenting. Generating conversation will pin you as an expert.
-Use Alt tags to give words to your images. Search engines can’t see your photos but they can read the titles that you give them.

Do Your Research:

-So you want to use keywords to convince Google that you’re the expert? Make sure you know what they are! Google AdWords offers a Keyword Tool that can give you insight into what potential visitors are looking for.
-Decide on a specific niche. Don’t decide you’re the expert on pizza – decide you are an expert on vegetarian pizza in Manhattan.

-Like Google suggests, “be the authority in your niche”. Write often and write with purpose. Become a resource for others like you who are looking to learn more. Encourage sharing and discussion.


Get Social!

-Did you know that Bing and Yahoo use Facebook likes to help influence ranking? Google gets help from Google+, and Tweets linking to your site can help too. Nowadays, social media is necessary to having a strong online presence.

There is tons of information out there on the ever-changing art of SEO. If you nurture your site and slowly but surely become a trusted expert in your chosen niche, you should see improvements in your rankings.

Customer Success Manager