WordPress is the most popular blogging platform for a number of reasons. They are easy to use; they are completely customizable, but most importantly, they rank well in search engines. And for beginners, the most important thing to learn about blogging is search engine optimization. Fortunately, with WordPress, it’s easy.
Here are 5 SEO tips for WordPress blogs.
Use a quality theme: The first thing every blogger wants to do is find an interesting topic for their blog. However, most of the beginners do not have a lot of money to invest in a premium theme. Free WordPress themes can be found all over the internet, but you have to be careful which one you choose. Many of those stylish and designer themes look good to your readers. Even so, search engines have a hard time reading your content. A good theme to start with is Twenty Eleven, a free theme that you can find through your WordPress dashboard.
Install the All-In-One-SEO plugin: This is a free WordPress plugin that you can download through your dashboard. You can then set your meta tags, title, and description for each post, making it easy for search engines to see what your blog is about. Once you’ve installed All-In-One, you’ll need to go to the settings tab and create your homepage title, add a description of your blog, and list some relevant keywords. Don’t forget to click ‘submit’ when you’re done.
Do keyword research: Keyword research is a must, even before you start setting up your blog. You will need to identify your niche and then use a keyword rich domain name. You will also need to use keywords in all areas of your blog: post titles, category titles, in your blog posts and articles, in your navigation and anchor text. Every aspect of your blog will be keyword-focused and without them, you’re lost.
Set up permalinks: Permalinks determine the structure of your URLs, and those URLs are what search engines read to determine the content of your blog. With WordPress, the default settings display a lot of information that search engines don’t need and just confuse them. Go to the settings page for permalinks and click the radio button for custom structure, then enter /%postname%/ in the space box. This setup makes it easier for search engines to read your content and you will rank better for your keywords.
Alternative tags: Search engines can only ‘read’ the text you have on your blog; they can’t ‘see’ images, so you must use alt tags to identify them. Every time you upload an image to your WordPress blog, you’ll see a field where you can enter ‘Alt Text’. Use keywords to identify your images for search engines.
Learning search engine optimization techniques is the most important thing you can do if you want to make money online from your blog. These are just a few of the steps you can take to SEO your WordPress blog, but for beginners, they’re a good place to start.