In the last few months I have been learning more about how I can give my blog a search engine optimization (SEO) boost. There are many things that you can do to help Google and other search engines find you easier. Last week, I shared 10 Spots in your WordPress Blog to add Keywords Today, I'm going to share 17 steps you can use to make sure that every post or page that you create has the highest advantage with SEO.
Some of the steps I'm sharing are likely something you already know, but I'll share them to be complete.
Steps to Create a Blog Post/Page for Search Engine Optimization for WordPress
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Create new post/page
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Add your title – Make sure to have your targeted keyword in the title. Google indexes the first 60-70 characters so putting your keywords at the front makes a difference. Note: Google may display more characters, but they only index the first few. Your title is the main thing that shows up in search engine results pages and is focused on the most in social media posts.
- Double check your Permalink title – Search engines use your permalink for SEO. If you have a habit of changing the title of your post, remember that your permalink is saved the first time you click save and will not change as you change the title of your post. The proper format for your permalink is all lower case, hyphens between words, no spaces.
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Type your content – As you are composing your posts, write for your reader, but where you can, integrate keywords. Note that the first few words here are also indexed by search engines unless you specify an excerpt (see step 10 below.)
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Format content – When you are picking your headings, start with the HEADING 2. I know that may be confusing, but the title of your page or post is already formatted to HEADING 1. SEO is only looking for one line to have the HEADING 1 tag (also known as the H1 tag.)
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Optimize your links – If you create links you can increase SEO by
- Highlight short phrases in your text and create the link. For example, “click here” type of links won’t help SEO as much. See link examples below.
- Title >> Use keywords here. This is what the reader sees when they hover over your link.
- “Open Link in a new window/tab = You want to check this if the link is to someone else's site and you might want to open in another window/tab even if it is on your site.
- Note: Visit this site if you want to create no-follow links.
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Add and optimize your images
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The faster your page loads, the better SEO you can earn. Many people will upload very large images and then use WordPress to size down. Instead, consider resizing before adding to your media library. This keeps the file size small and faster to load. Here is an awesome image resizer and sharpener.
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Before you upload the image, name the image file for seo using keywords– all lower case and no spaces and divide words by dashes. For example, the picture above was named “seo-building-posts-and-pages-links.jpg.”
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Then, upload the image. Once you add to your file library, there are a few more SEO steps you can take:
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Title >> Make it readable with spaces and keywords
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Alt Text >> This is what displays if the image cannot be displayed. You can copy what you put into the title and add it here.
- Quick productivity note: I add “blog post image” to the description of any image I load for posts. I do this because it allows me to search on “blog post image” in my WordPress media and find all associated images.
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Save your post or page as Draft
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Select the Preview button to see what it looks like.
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Create the excerpt / meta data – An excerpt is what shows in your reader’s RSS feed depending on how they have their reader settings configured – also facebook, G+, etc. I usually use the first paragraph of the post, however, there are instances where you want to change this. Keep in mind that the excerpt is what shows in the search engine results unless you change the meta data. If you would like to see what that will look like, install Yoast's SEO Plugin.
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Determine if you want comments or not and if you want trackbacks – When blogging first started, trackbacks were a fantastic way for a blogger to recognize another blogger. Unfortunately, spammers have taken over this technology, so very few experienced bloggers allow trackbacks anymore.
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Set your SEO settings if you are using the Yoast SEO Plugin.
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Choose a category (for posts) – Your categories are also indexed by search engines, so selecting relevant categories is important.
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Choose a page template if it is a page.
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Tags are not as important for SEO, but you can use them if they help your audience navigate your site better.
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Publish or choose to future date post
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Add page to custom menu – if you want it in the menu. Also, if you add the page to your menu, make sure to add a description in the menu build area. That helps with SEO too.
Note: In some instances you may not want a page to be found by the search engines. For example, maybe you have a page you have created for the delivery of a product. A few years ago I was doing a search and found a $2,500 product in the search results! I contacted the owner of the product and let her know. Use Advanced tab in the Yoast plugin to easily tell the search engines to not show the page.
Of course, search engine optimization for wordpress can go much deeper than the information I've outlined today. However, if you take the steps mentioned here when you write a post, you can make a big difference in your blog's visibility.
Special thanks to MaAnna Stephenson for teaching me how I can put more power behind my posts. If you'd like to go deeper into this topic, check out her Tips Tuesday posts as well as her training videos. She studies this stuff and makes sure to keep everyone updated on the changes that happen on a regular basis.
Alys Milner says
I love MaAnna! She helped me build my site from scratch a couple of years ago.
Great post, Stephanie!
Stephanie LH Calahan says
Glad you liked the post. Yes, MaAnna rocks!
Christine Alejandro says
Wow! I learned a lot from this article! I am so intent on just getting my blog written on a consistent basis, but there is so much more to learn. I will print this out and keep it near for future reference. Thanks so much!
Stephanie LH Calahan says
Christine – Yeah! Glad you learned a few things. I’ve found that it is pretty fast to pick up these different elements and make them automatic.
Janet Barclay says
Even though I knew a lot of this already, I picked up a few tips and will be referring back to your post again. Thank you!
Stephanie LH Calahan says
Glad you found some new tips Janet. Thanks for dropping by today.
Kimberly Eldredge says
Great tips, Stephanie. Here’s a question for you:
Do you research your keywords FIRST or do you let them arise organically from your article and then go back to your title to beef up the keyword power?
For my blog, I don’t get a lot of organic traffic but I get a LOT from social media efforts. Frankly, I’ve been less concerned with SEO but putting more focus on it is on my to-do list for Q2 2014.
Stephanie LH Calahan says
I have keywords in mind when I write my posts. I am like you in that social media has been a big source of my traffic. This was my year to go deeper into SEO. Sofar, I’m pleased.