7 Easy ways to improve your websites SEO with WordPress and Yoast SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be a mainstay in everyone’s internet marketing strategy. However, many feel optimizing their own website is too challenging and are afraid to go it alone. What those people don’t realize is you don’t need to be a programmer to optimize your site—you just need to be organized. Here are 7 easy ways anyone can improve their websites Yoast SEO:
- Have a friendly URL
The URL is the name of your site. It’s extremely important your URL matches the content on your site and the words are easy to read and understand. A clunky URL or one not relating directly to your site will hurt your SEO rank.
- Compress your images
Having smaller images will allow more people to load your site quickly. This is important because Google and Bing understand many individuals are unable to access high-speed internet and they reward website who make the same considerations. Try and get your images in the 150kb-200kb range for optimal results.
- Images must have alternate text
Another issue sensitive to Google is users who may not be able to see your images. Providing an alternate or “alt” text will allow individuals to understand what is on your page without necessarily seeing it.
- Use appropriate headings
Each page is allowed one “h1” heading. Subsequent headings—h2’s—should be used to properly organize data. As the information continues to unfold you may use an h3 heading under an h2 heading. But, remember, information flows downward on the internet so don’t put a lower heading under a higher one. For example, an h4 heading never supersedes an h2. Keeping your website’s headings in order will tell Google and Bing your content is easy to absorb and will be more user-friendly.
- OG Tags are king
An OG tag tells search engines how you want information displayed on social media platforms, SMS texting, and other commutation outlets. Having OG Tags for your site will massively improve your SEO rank. However, you may need to use OG and Twitter tags to achieve a max rank.
- “Funnel people down”
In other words, don’t let people leave your site when you don’t have to. Putting a link to another site is like telling people to leave your retail store and you would never ask a customer to leave. Every website should be pushing someone somewhere. For example, your site may be moving people to your store, if so, don’t give them a link that takes them away from your site. This is a surefire way to lose sales.
- Create awesome content
This is the easiest concept to understand but sometimes the most difficult to execute. Google and Bing both monitor the time people spend on your site’s pages. Consequently, if the content on your site is continuously keeping people engaged (reading, writing, whatever) your SEO score will increase. Investing in a copywriter or videographer might help you keep people on your site longer and this will not only result in a higher SEO rank but will likely result in more sales and leads.