Search engine optimization (SEO) is starting to make a strong impact alongside paid search engine advertising. It’s predicted that achieving results with search engine advertising will become increasingly challenging in the future, so it’s high time to invest in your company’s organic visibility on Google. While search engine visibility has always played a significant role in digital marketing for businesses, I strongly recommend starting active search engine optimization now.
In its simplest form, search engine optimization aims to make an optimized page rank as high as possible in Google’s free, organic search results. Achieving a high search engine ranking aims to attract visits from potential customers. And what could be a more potential customer than someone who has just searched for your services using relevant keywords? Improving search engine visibility is an ongoing effort, as there’s always room for improvement. But next, I’ll introduce you to a few effective methods to easily get started with improving your WordPress site’s Google ranking.”
Does your page’s content match the search results?
The content on your page is the most crucial factor in determining how you want it to appear on Google. Therefore, it’s important to put yourself in the shoes of consumers searching for your products and services. Using relevant keywords for consumers is the first step in improving search engine visibility. Using keywords in headings and subheadings helps search engines better identify your page’s content. The cliché of using a specific keyword repeatedly in the body text holds partially true, as maintaining a keyword density of around 1-2% is recommended—mentioning the desired keyword 1-2 times per hundred words.
The length of individual page content matters too. Google may view pages with too little text as poor sources of information. While longer text content might not be an issue with blog posts, it could be challenging to reach Google’s preferred word count on pages like the homepage, where visual elements are often used instead of text. Generally, the recommended optimal content length is around 600-700 words. Longer text beyond the optimal length doesn’t harm search engine visibility, as long as it remains relevant to the reader.
Are your site’s technical aspects in order?
In addition to the visible text content, there are several technical aspects behind the scenes that are just as important as the content itself. Besides text, Google aims to identify and understand page content through related elements. For example, images on a page and their alt text (alternative text) are Google’s way of understanding what those images contain. When writing alt text for images, remember it’s for people, not just search engines, so avoid listing keywords.
Metatags often come up in discussions about search engine optimization, and the term might not be familiar to someone new to the topic. Metatags refer to the page description that appears in search results under the page title and link. Google states that metatags don’t directly affect search engine visibility, but they offer an excellent opportunity to provide additional information about your service directly in search results. This likely leads to more clicks to your site, which indirectly benefits search engine visibility. In other words, metatags have an indirect yet positive impact on search engine visibility.
Credibility and Linking
Google also ranks pages based on their general credibility. The more people visit your site and spend time on it, the more credible Google considers your site. Linking your site to other sites is a way to increase traffic. If there are many external links leading to your site (backlinks), it enhances your site’s connectivity. A quick way to increase backlinks is to mention your site on all possible social media channels. In Google’s eyes, every backlink is essentially a recommendation for your site, indicating that its content is worth exploring.
Apart from backlinks leading to your site from external sources, outbound links (external links) and internal links (links within your site) are also important. You have better control over these types of links compared to external backlinks. These links, which I also use in my own blog, enhance your site’s connectivity and consequently improve search engine visibility.
But how does the link maze actually improve search engine visibility? Google indexes sites by following internal and external links using bots. These bots visit your site’s homepage, begin to understand it, and follow links from there. By following links, Google determines relationships between different pages, articles, and content. This helps Google understand which pages on your site cover similar topics. Internal links practically facilitate bot navigation on your site, giving Google a clearer picture of your content and allowing for better ranking.
WordPress and Rank Math
Starting with search engine optimization can sometimes be challenging if you’re not sure where to begin, especially if you have limited experience. The best way to succeed in SEO is to have an assistant guiding you and giving advice. For me, that assistant is the WordPress plugin called Rank Math. Rank Math provides detailed data on the search engine friendliness of individual articles and pages on your site. It notifies you if something is amiss. You can download Rank Math from the “Plugins” menu in your site’s admin panel. Rank Math’s tools cover nearly all the details and actions mentioned in this blog post. So, start optimizing!
