You are about to complete work on a new website. Of course, the design looks impressive, the calls to action are bold and beautiful, and the content is incredibly engaging. So, what could you be missing?
When you reach the end (or near the end) of your web design project, it is important to assess the SEO situation.
While it's easy to believe that just one SEO plugin is enough to get you started, that would be a mistake. There is much more you need to do (even before your site is available) if you want a site really optimized for research. It is better to do the job now than to report to you 6 months later that nobody visits your website because of a lack of optimization.
In order to maximize your SEO, your site must be ready to meet the high expectations of the search engine, including:
- High quality content
- Optimal performance
- An intuitive user experience
- Regular updates
If you can support as much point as possible before your launch, your WordPress site will be well prepared to meet the challenge of beating the competition on the search, from day one.
Now let's explore how you can optimize your new site for research.
Don't be intimidated by the steps here. Many of them are already part of your daily life. I just wanted to include them here for good measure, as they are an essential part of the SEO maximization process.
Step 1: Domain Verification
If your site is quickly approaching launch, then you have probably already purchased a domain. No matter where you are in the process, do a quick check of your domain's history. You can use internet tools like the WayBack Machine or a WHOIS search. You will be able to see if your domain has been used before and what history can be appended to it. This is important because it can affect the popularity of your site.
Step 2: Checking Your Web Host
Again, this may be another step you've already taken, if you're far into the development process, but it's still worth taking a quick look. The reason ? Because a reliable host whose servers are often unavailable can compromise the availability of your site, which could seriously affect the SEO of your site. Do your research and make sure you're signing up with a host that doesn't have availability issues.
Step 3: Secure HTTPS
If you haven't seen it yet, Google updated Chrome browsers earlier this year to let visitors know when they're on a secure website or not. For Google, the “insecure” label is no longer a label reserved for hacked websites or those with mixed content. Any website running over HTTP that accepts sensitive customer data is now insecure. Rather than scaring off visitors, you need to have an SSL certificate.
4 Step: SEO Friendly Theme
There is a lot of WordPress themes that claim to be SEO-friendly simply because they integrate with SEO plugins. Do yourself a favor and check into the actual performance of the theme. A truly SEO-friendly theme will be responsive, clean coded, fast to load, and have a modern design.
Step 5: Searching for Keywords
Ideally, all keyword research for the content and metadata of your site should be completed before any copy is written. If it hasn't already been done, there is no better time than now to achieve it. You can use tools like kwfinder et Answer the public to identify the keywords that work best for your site. They must be relevant, memorable, and less competitive if you want to improve your chances of being visible on the search engines.
Step 6: Optimize your pages
Once you have your keywords selected, you'll want to optimize all of your content around these keywords. In other words, make sufficient use of keywords where it's easy for visitors and search engines to determine what an article is about. Typically, you'll want to use one focus keyword per page. While it's okay to infuse a few secondary keywords within the page as well, you'll notice that SEO plugins (to step nine below) usually ask you to designate a main keyword for each page or article.
Step 7: Inclusion of labels
On the labels page (as opposed to the labels of the articles or categories), these should be used to establish hierarchy, increase readability through easy scanning, and to convey a clear indication of what your content is carrying. The keyword of focus within these labels also.
Step 8: Correct permalinks
The default value of the permalink structure on WordPress is not impres- sonning. In the following image you will see (in red) the configuration that WordPress makes by default and in verse is the ideal SEO structure.
Website + article or truncated page name = SEO perfection. The focus on the truncated keyword should also be displayed on the article / page name.
Step 9: SEO Plugins
Here is where you can start thinking about an SEO plugin. The plugin « SmartCrawl Can help you increase your PageRank and drive more traffic to your site with a simple configuration. Once you have the plugin installed on your site, run an SEO analysis and you will have results on how to improve your search results. With SmartCrawl, you can also configure sitemaps, Moz integration, customize metadata, create automatic links, and more.
Remember to include the focus keyword in the title and description in order to continue this consistent email thread on every page.
Step 10: Use pictures
Every page of your WordPress site should have at least one image attached to it. Once you have selected and uploaded your image, use the metadata fields to add alternative text (if you want the picture to be in the search also). If you can link the focus of your keyword to your page in the alt tag, which is even better. Next, you need to set an image in front of each article, so that when your content is shared on social media (which also contributes to your SEO), he receives a commitment relating thereto.
This list is not exhaustive, there are certainly tips that you can share with us. If so, feel free to do so in the comments area.
