Although WordPress structured in a way that is generally quite good for search engines there are several things you can do to make it even better. Try our Search Engine Optimisation Course, Blogging Training, WordPress Training and Social Networking Training courses.

10 Top Tips to Rank your WordPress Site

Follow the instructions below to greatly improve our search engine ranking for your wordpress blog.

1. Permalinks in WordPress

Changing your permalink structure is probably the one most important modification to your site.  Permalinks are  the URL (the web address of your page) is created when you write a new post or page. Your default permalink in wordpress will look something like this  http://somethinglikethis.com/?p=N, the the words used in your URL can have a big impact on how it is ranked you need to learn how to change it into something more keyword specific.

How to change the permalink structure in WordPress

In  Settings open the  Permalinks panel, you can choose one of the “common” structures or enter your own in the “Custom structure” field using the structure tags.

• If you would like your URLS to be like this www.somethinglikethis.co.uk/cetegory/title-of-your-post/
  choose custom and fill in the box with /%category%/%postname%/

• If you just want your post name after your domain name  like this www.somethinglikethis.co.uk/title-of-your-post/
  choose custom and fill the box with /%postname%/

It is important to note that if your site is already indexed and does not use a permalink structure you will need to 301 redirect all your links properly so that any existing links to your pages on the web do not come up 404 not found. there are wordpress plugins that will help you with this: Permalinks Migration Plugin and Permalink Redirect WordPress.

2.Choosing your own Permalink Text

Google doesn’t really like urls that are too long, your title may have words like ‘and’ in it or may simply have too many words in it to be a keyword rich url. To make your permalink search engine friendly and keyword rich click on the “Edit” button (under the title) and change it to whatever you like.

3. Optimize Your Browser Titles

Just to clarify here now we are talking about the title in your browser (the meta title) and not the blog title. It is what will appear as your title when found by the search engines on the search results page. and also the meta title is what appears just above the window that your web page loads into. Search engines tend to put more emphasis on the first words of a post’s title. If you install the All In One SEO Pack –  you can specify the meta title tag without changing the title of the blog post.

4. Create Keyword-Rich Descriptions

The description is often what will appear below your post title in the search engine results. It can determine weather or not someone chooses to click on your page so grab their attention and include your keywords. the All in one SEO pack mentioned above gives you complete control of your descriptions.

5. Add Images To Your Posts

Not only do images make your posts look more appealing and will prompt more people to read them but they can also help with your SEO. You can attach  keywords to the “alt” and “title” attributes of each image. You images will then stand a good chance of being picked up in image searches. Also name your actual image with good keywords before you place it on the page.

6. Link Optimization

Not only can you use images to add keywords to your page you can also add keywords to your links.

7. Turn Your Comments On

Don’t forget to turn your comments on!  Every new comment will add  new content  being added to your site. Search engines love sites that are regularly updated. Also people expect to be able to interact with your site so give them the opportunity.

8. Update your blog regularly

If you don’t have the time to blog on a regular basis it is a good idea to write a number of posts in one go and then timestamp them so that they will be released at well spaced intervals (daily is best but three times a week is still OK and better than posting three article a week on the same day).

To timestamp a post – in the “Publish” click on edit after Publish immediately” and date and time options will appear. Select a date and WordPress will automatically publish your post on the date and time you’ve specified. Great for when you are planning a holiday!

9. Using Social Media in your WordPress Site

Add social media buttons to your posts. You need to make it as easy as possible for your readers to share your content.  This will create backlinks to your site as well as generating traffic, both essential for good ranking. Sociable is a great plugin for adding social media buttons to your site, you can choose the social media sites you want to add and sociable will  automatically add the icons for you.

10. Regularly Check your Site

Regularly check to see if your site is working properly, that there are no broken links to your pages. Sign up for a google analytics account if you have not already done so and also set up a webmaster tools account.

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