WordPress gives you control over the content, structure and technical details of your website. Using that control well is what makes the difference. An SEO plugin can help you manage settings; the strategy and implementation still need attention.
From an SEO point of view, WordPress is an excellent tool. But excellent tools are only effective if they are used correctly.
While WordPress comes with plenty of great SEO elements and plugins, few work well out of the box, and none of them alone will make your site rank.
You’re probably up against hundreds of credible websites, all fighting for page 1 glory. Yet only a handful succeed.
Those that do relentlessly stay on top of their game, constantly updating and fine-tuning their strategy to suit current SEO trends and best practices.
Build the foundations before expanding the campaign
Start with the pages that describe what your business does and the questions your audience needs answered. Make those pages useful, easy to navigate and accessible to search engines. Then build a plan for ongoing content and promotion around that foundation.
What WordPress SEO work includes
Competitor analysis
Competition is good — it’s exciting and it results in an environment that fosters quality. One of the first things we do when we service a website is taking a look at:
- who is competing
- how established their site is
- how good their content is, and
- just how much effort is going to be needed to compete against them.
This ties in closely with the next part of our process, keyword research.
Keyword research
When performing keyword research, we discover the exact words your customers or clients are using when they’re looking for businesses like yours. This can involve subtle differences, such as:
- 24 hour instead of emergency
- 4×4 instead of 4WD
- bespoke instead of custom
- packages instead of plans
- maintenance instead of servicing
…and so on.
Doing this helps us understand your target audience and your competitors. This helps later on with:
- Content planning — when we map out your site’s content as well as:
- optimizing existing content
- new content creation
- link building
This can sometimes be uncomfortable for business and product owners, as these terms aren’t always “correct”. However, some small changes to your website can often involve being seen by thousands of people each month instead of a hundred or so.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO involves optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, body content, internal linking, and URL structure. This is important because it helps search engines like Google understand what your website is about, and whether or not it’s relevant to what your customers are looking for.
We look at where to use keywords, and how often. We obsess over your heading hierarchy, write compelling meta descriptions that get more clicks, craft succinct title tags, and much more!
Link building and earned coverage
Relevant editorial backlinks can connect your business with trusted sources beyond its own website. Our digital PR service turns useful expertise into contributions for journalists and publishers, alongside a clear record of the resulting coverage.
Local SEO
E-commerce websites aren’t the only ones that benefit from SEO. Even brick and mortar businesses can leverage the power of organic search to increase footfall.
In fact, a good deal of our clients are local businesses with WordPress websites. They use our SEO experience to help generate sales leads and inquiries for their business.
Local SEO aims to target the people who live in your service area.
Let’s imagine you run a roofing company in Austin. If someone Googles roofing contractor austin tx, you’d want your business to show up, right? That’s what local SEO can do for you.
Content creation and optimization
Arguably the most important part of any sound SEO strategy is content.
Your clients and customers are looking for a solution to their problem — and often that solution begins with information.
They can’t be sure they are buying the right product without learning about it first. They can’t be sure they’re engaging the right service provider without learning about your company either.
Technical auditing and fixes
Review WordPress core, active plugins and the theme alongside the site’s search settings. Check changes in a safe environment, keep backups and verify important pages and interactions after updates. A technical audit should identify problems and lead to a clear implementation plan.
- broken images
- broken external or internal links
- duplicate content
- excessively large or broken JavaScript or CSS files
- issues with your internationalization or multi-language configuration
- missing tags
- redirects that are confusing search engine crawlers
- underperforming site speed
- URLs that cannot be crawled
- …and a lot more.
Reporting and monitoring
Track the queries and pages that bring relevant visitors, alongside enquiries, sales or other meaningful outcomes. Record completed work and explain the next priorities. Reporting should help you decide what to do, rather than simply list more numbers.
Choosing WordPress SEO support
When comparing WordPress SEO services, establish who will make the changes, what access they need and what the project includes. An audit report and a completed implementation are different deliverables. Make sure the scope matches the work your team needs help with.
For a defined technical project, our Technical SEO Audit & Fix service includes the implementation. To plan ongoing work, see our guides to managed SEO and choosing SEO packages.