WordPress is the most popular blogging platform for a number of reasons. They’re user-friendly; they’re completely customizable, but most important, they rank well with the search engines. And for beginners the most important thing you need to learn about blogging is search engine optimizations. Fortunately, with WordPress, it’s easy.
Here are 5 SEO Tips for WordPress Blogs.
Use a quality theme: The first thing every blogger wants to do is find a cool theme for their blog. However, most beginners don’t have a lot of money to invest in a premium theme. Free WordPress themes can be found all over the Internet, but you have to be careful which one you choose. A lot of those fancy, designer themes look good to your readers. Even so, the search engines have a hard time reading your content. A good theme to start with is Twenty Eleven, a free theme that you can find through your WordPress dashboard.
Install the All-In-One-SEO plugin: This is a free WordPress plugin that you can download through your dashboard. You can then set your meta tags, title and description for each post, which makes it easier for the search engines to see what your blog is about. After you’ve installed All-In-One you’ll need to go to the setting’s tab and create your homepage title, add a description of your blog and list some relevant keywords. Don’t forget to click ‘submit’ when you’re finished.
Do keyword research: Keyword research is a must – before you even start setting up your blog. You’ll need to identify your niche and then use a keyword rich domain name. You’ll also need to use keywords in all areas of your blog: Post titles, category titles, in your blog posts and articles, in your navigation and anchor text. Every aspect of your blog will focus on keywords and without them, you’re lost.
Configure permalinks: Permalinks determine the structure of your URLs, and those URLs are what the search engines read to determine the content of your blog. With WordPress, the default setting shows a lot of information that the search engines don’t need, and it just confuses them. Go to the settings’ page for permalinks and click the radio button for custom structure then enter /%postname%/ in the spacer box. This setting makes it easier for the search engines to read your content, and you’ll rank better for your keywords.
Alt tags: The search engines can only ‘read’ the text you have on your blog – they can’t ‘see’ images so you have to use alt tags to identify them. Each time you upload an image to your WordPress blog you’ll see a field where you can enter ‘Alternate Text’. Use keywords to identify your images for the search engines.
Learning search engine optimizations techniques is the most important thing you can do if you want to make money online with your blog. These are just a few of the steps you can take to SEO your WordPress blog but for beginners, they’re a good place to start.
