As one of the most popular and easy-to-use content management systems out there, WordPress has come a long way from a simple blog creation and editing platform. Over the years there have been many version releases which have added more features and functionality including plugins, widgets and themes. Today, WordPress is the platform of choice for over 60 million websites (or roughly 18% the web). The fact that the number of websites using WordPress continues to skyrocket by the hundreds of thousands per day is a testament to WordPress’ longevity and ability to deliver results for its users.

WordPress is extremely popular because it is intuitive and easy to use, but it’s not a build and ignore option. WordPress websites still require an investment of time and resources from businesses looking to stay competitive and up-to-date with Google’s ever-changing SEO algorithms. Here are some important steps your business can take to boost your WordPress site’s ranking, which will help ensure you’re seen by more of your audience.

Key Strategies for Optimizing your WordPress Blog

Use key search words and phrases

Make better use of Google’s available tools by using the search function to find keywords and phrases that are relevant to what you want to rank for, as well as to uncover other keywords and common questions your customers are looking for information about.

Use a few key plugins

Plugins essentially act as functionality add-ons to your website to help display content or add features that you might not be able to access otherwise.  Be careful, however, as certain types of plugins can slow your site down. We recommend using a few well-placed WordPress plugins such as Structured Content to add extra SEO driven content boxes to your blog posts and articles.

You can choose what type of content to create, but a popular choice is to add a FAQ section which incorporates key phrases and questions that are related to your industry. This strategy gives you the ability to answer these key questions for your audience, which Google will see as useful information, which in turn will help you draw more organic traffic to your site.

Focus on quality content

Plugins and other media, including images and videos on your site are great, but delivering valuable content that your audience is truly looking for is the backbone of your website. Authentic, useful information is what Google really loves to see. Use those focused keywords in your titles and body of your blog posts and website pages, but don’t overdo it – keep the language natural and add in a couple of links to other high-quality, trustworthy websites for an additional SEO boost.

Submit updated blog posts to Google Search Console

You don’t need to spend a lot of time on this with old blog posts but if you have a few new website pages or blog posts then it’s worth submitting them to Google Search Console to assist with getting recognized. Not only will this strategy help you showcase the added value that your site provides to users, it will also help your blog get indexed faster. You may have to wait a bit while your submission goes through the Google queue, but you can check how your page is ranking by searching for one of the key phrases or questions you used.

Improve your mobile and voice experience

Most folks searching for information these days are doing so from their phones or through a voice search. Keep them in mind when it comes to optimizing your WordPress site to ensure that they can navigate and read all the content easily. If they can’t, chances are they won’t stay on your site for very long. Using keywords and phrases that are commonly used for a voice search will help ensure your site is included in a voice response by Amazon or Google.

With all these tips the key is to give your audience a solid user experience. When you do, they’ll keep coming back for more updates from you. Are you interested in developing more quality content for your WordPress blog but don’t have enough time to write or make updates yourself? We’d love to help! Contact us to learn more about how our talented team of writers can create content that speaks to your specific audience.

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