How to optimize a WordPress Post

WordPress is among the most popular content management systems available in the market. Its popularity lies in the fact that it is efficient, has a user-friendly interface that even beginners can understand, offers a free version with many functionalities, supports a large number of themes and plugins catering to various needs of different kinds of websites and applications. The list of its advantages goes on. 

As more and more bloggers are opting to use WordPress as a CMS for their blogs, in this article we explain in detail how you can optimize a WordPress post for Google Search engine.

Advantages of optimizing a WordPress post

Millions of new pages are added to the web every day. In this teaming plethora of content, how will you make sure that the right audience reaches your blog that can result in regular readership and conversions. This is where optimization comes in. If your content is search engine optimized only then can it have the chance to rank for specific keywords and come on the first page of search results. 

Checklist to optimize a WordPress post for Google Search

Here is a complete checklist of things to take care of in an ideally SEO optimized WordPress post.

In-depth keyword research

Keywords are basically the exact words and phrases which SEOs and content writers are targeting to get ranked for by google. The search phrases which people ask Google are known as queries. Against every search query a list of pages is ranked by Google search algorithm based on their keywords for which the page has been ranked. There are a number of tools available like SEMrush, ahrefs, Google AdWords, to name a few, that can aid you in your keyword research and help you find the right keywords for your content. 

Choose a fast hosting provider for WordPress

For the optimisation of a website, speed is of utmost importance. Your choice of a hosting provider is an important factor here. Cloud hosting for WordPress is a very good option as it is fast as well as reliable. more and more businesses are moving towards the cloud as it is a scalable option as well as affordable also. If the hosting provider has fast servers, the website load time will be less and it will better serve the users. 

Optimize Metadata

The meta data includes meta title and meta description. Sometimes people confuse meta title with the title (H1) of the post, however meta title is the title that comes up in the Google search when you search for a keyword and meta description is the text that comes beneath the title. Hence it is imperative that the title and description contains the gist of the text so the user knows which link he should click to get his required information. 

you can be creative and innovative while writing the title but for the meta title it is best to be concise and compelling. It is usually recommended to include the focus keyword in the title and the secondary keywords in the description. you can also include the secondary keywords in the post title or H1 also. 

Use proper heading structure for readability

WordPress editor provides you with different headings which put emphasis on different text sections. There are options from H1 to H6 where H1 is the main heading or title of the page. There should be just one H1 for every post. H2 is the second most important heading, then there is H3 and so on. For listicles, for every item in the list, H3 is the most popular option. 

Headings should be properly used to give comprehensive structure and readability to the post and not just randomly thrown. You can use H3 within H2, H4 within H3 and so on but the reverse structure is not encouraged by WordPress users.

Use of images, videos and Infographics

One image is worth a thousand words, that goes without saying. In today’s fast paced world where we have newer content popping up on the internet everyday, how do we make our content stand out. Adding catchy and attractive images to our content is one way to do so. Use custom made images. tools like Canva, camtasia and Pic Monkey are a good investment for making colorful content easily. 

Proofread and edit content

It is imperative that the content you are creating is proofread by you as well as edited by a qualified editor. Preferably the editor should be a native speaker, otherwise use someone with reliable credentials and complete command over the language. As mentioned earlier also, there is a huge race among the content creators for producing newer and better content and there can be absolutely no compromise over quality. Also, another important point that people sometimes forget is to get the content read once again after it is published and made live.

Use contextual internal linking

One good way of making people stay on your website is to internally link relevant pages to the content. For example, if you are writing a guide about What is Multisite. You can easily add links in the article if you have relevant topics like What is WordPress multisite, Multisite domain mapping, WordPress Multisite plugins, How to manage a WordPress multisite network etc. 

However, make sure you are linking to relevant content only and not spamming the user with unwanted and irrelevant links. For example, if a user is reading about the difference between latte and mocha, he will be interested in knowing about different types of coffee beans, which type of coffee is the strongest, etc, and not about the best breakfast places, benefits of summer drinks and juices, etc. 

Taking care of on page SEO of the post

Although different topics mentioned earlier, like, internal linking, keyword research, optimizing the metadata are all part of SEO also, however since it is such an important and crucial point that we have mentioned it separately also. Check the keyword density of all the keywords which you have used in the content. The keywords in the blog post should not look forced, they should be naturally occuring and seem to be the part of the content. 

Add relevant tags and categories to the post. WordPress allows you to categorize your posts by providing options for different categories. It keeps the posts organized and relevant ones together. Also it is best to add SEO add ons to WordPress like YOAST seo is one of the most popular options. It gives valuable content suggestions like if the keyword density is too low or too high, headings are relevant to the text, where you can add more keywords like title or headings etc. 

These are some of the top tips to optimize a WordPress post for your blog or website. Follow these to rank on google and make your content stand out among the rest.