WordPress is one of the most popular website builders on the planet. With its user-friendly approach, abundance of themes and features, and unparalleled community support, many see WordPress as the ideal platform – whether it’s their first website or their fiftieth. Despite its advantages, there’s one common question: is WordPress best for SEO?
The answer isn’t a clear one. Why? Because it’s dependent on your approach to SEO. Still, with the right system, you can boost the visibility of your website, rocket up the Google search ranks, and enjoy oodles of organic traffic.
However, before that happens, you need to know how to do SEO on WordPress – and that’s where this guide will step in to help. We’ll explain how to set up SEO on WordPress, how WordPress SEO works, and answer a bunch more questions on this subject.
So, are you ready to learn WordPress SEO? Let’s get started!
How Does SEO Work on WordPress?
Going back to the question in the introduction – is WordPress best for SEO? – this really comes down to understanding how SEO works on WordPress. When you nail down the right strategy, your optimisation efforts will prosper on this platform.
If you’re wondering how to SEO your WordPress website, various ingredients need to be added to the broth. The right theme and a dedicated SEO plugin can go a long way to helping your site’s performance. Ultimately, you also need to know how to do SEO on WordPress – which isn’t much different from other domain builders.
Do I Need SEO Plugin WordPress?
It’s a common question that we see people ask Google. ‘Do I need SEO plugin WordPress?’ Excusing the lack of grammar this search term contains, the answer to the question is no. That might surprise you, but you can build a search-optimised website on the platform without an SEO plugin if you so wish. However, it is recommended that you do use an SEO plugin.
Plugins make SEO user-friendly and far easier. They take out the need for coding experience, WordPress savvy, and even SEO knowledge, making web page optimisation a piece of cake – even for beginners. Therefore, if you want to know how to increase SEO on WordPress – despite lacking knowledge – a plugin is one step towards achieving that objective.
Does WordPress Theme Affect SEO?
Along with ‘Do I need SEO plugin WordPress?’, other common questions we see about WordPress SEO revolve around the theme. Does changing WordPress theme affect SEO? The truth: yes.
WordPress themes come in all different shapes and sizes. They can impact the website speed, design functionality, content formatting, and so much more. Again, if you’re trying to figure out how to increase SEO on WordPress, selecting a good theme is essential (more on that next).
How to SEO WordPress Site: 5 Key Steps
We’ve gone through some of the main WordPress SEO FAQs. Now, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty and explain how to SEO your WordPress website.
Here are the five main steps to SEO on WordPress:
- Select the right theme: The first step in learning how to SEO your WordPress website is selecting a theme that is optimised for search – which is the foundation for your entire site. The theme should be fast and responsive, have a user-friendly design, and be built with SEO best practices in mind. An excellent design is important, so don’t be reluctant to splash out on a premium WordPress theme if your budget permits.
- Pick an SEO plugin: The next step in how to set up SEO on WordPress is to choose an SEO plugin. As mentioned, a plugin is one of your best allies when learning how to do SEO on WordPress. While various plugins are available, we recommend Yoast SEO – more on that later.
- Change the permalink structure: This change is small but effective. Simply go to “Settings”, then “Permalinks”, and change the selection to “Post Name”. This option will ensure your title is displayed in the permalink rather than an undefined link, the latter of which Google really doesn’t like.
- Use categories and tags: Do WordPress tags help SEO? Not directly, but tags and categories help structure your website – and that does help SEO massively. Using these tags and categories makes navigating your site easier for users, which keeps them around longer and reduces your bounce rate.
- Build your content the right way: This step isn’t just how to SEO WordPress site – it applies to every website. Keyword implementation, internal and external links, in-depth research, and the right formatting – these are all required for producing content on your website. You can learn more with our guide on how to write a content article.
While there are many other steps to take when learning how to increase SEO on WordPress, the above five tactics provide the ideal base to gain your footing.
How to Set Up Yoast SEO for WordPress
As mentioned in the ‘How to SEO WordPress Site’ section above, Yoast is our best SEO plugin recommendation for WordPress. It’s incredibly simple to use and provides templates for creating page titles and meta descriptions. It also analyses your pages to ensure your target keywords are covered and the content has a high readability score.
If you’re wondering how to set up Yoast SEO for WordPress, here’s a quick guide:
- The first step in learning how to setup Yoast SEO for WordPress is logging into your WordPress website
- Next, go to the “Plugins” section on your WordPress dashboard
- Do a quick search for “Yoast SEO”
- When you see the plugin, click to install it onto your dashboard
- Go to the plugins section and activate Yoast SEO
Voila! You now know how to setup Yoast SEO for WordPress!
Conclusion
With this starter guide, you now have the basic knowledge of how to do SEO on WordPress. While learning how to set up SEO on WordPress is relatively straightforward, it still requires effort from your side. Themes and plugins can carry much of the load, but it’s up to you to create keyword-rich content that appeals to search engines and your target audience.
Need Help with SEO, Content, and Digital Marketing in General?
Click Intelligence is one of the UK’s top digital marketing agencies with a 97% client retention rate. Having worked with clients in over 40 industries over the past two decades, we have the experience and expertise to devise bespoke, results-driven SEO strategies for all clients – no matter their unique niche and needs.
From SEO planning and reporting and content marketing to link building, website audits and migration, conversion rate optimisation, and a truckload more, we deliver on all aspects of digital marketing using techniques tailored to your business – and techniques that are proven to work. If you want to know our secrets and how they can levitate your online presence to levels you never thought possible, contact our friendly pros today for a no-obligation consultation – we’re a quick email or phone call away!
