When an SEO Plugin Is Not Enough
What is great about a WordPress website is that there are plenty of SEO plugins that you can use to optimize its content. Yoast SEO has proven to be very effective, as it has now become an industry standard. This made search engine optimization less complex, and easier to manage.
Unfortunately, SEO is not that simple. A plug-in may simplify the whole optimization process, but it doesn’t always guarantee high search engine ranking. It’s not fail-proof either. You need to do something else to augment the capacity of an SEO plugin. The good news is you don’t need to do much, and the work doesn’t have to be difficult.
Know which keyword to target
Search engine optimization revolves mostly around keyword use. It’s one of the simplest aspects to work with, but also the most difficult to get right. A lot of website owners don’t invest a lot of time and effort in keyword research, which results in posts and content that lack relevant key terms and phrases.
It is then your job to research for the right keywords to use, along with an SEO plugin. Take advantage of keyword research tools available, such as the Google Keyword Planner, Yoast Suggests and Moz Pro. Search for keywords that are high volume, low competition and relevancy. Look for words and phrases that are often used during search, but don’t compete with what the big companies use. They have to be relevant and related to your website or blog as well.
Work on on-page optimization
This is a process where you do anything and everything to help search engines understand what your website or post is really all about. On-page SEO is done directly within your website, both on the content and HTML source code. It can be as simple as using keywords in the title of your post, subheadings, content, permalink, and alt tags. Yoast plugin does a really good job of on-page optimization.
Other things you need to do include adding inbound and outbound links, speeding up your website, and writing engaging, in-depth and shareable content.
Do off-page optimization
As the opposite of on-page optimization, off-page SEO is anything and everything you do outside of your website that will boost its ranking on search engines. The idea behind it is to create many high quality backlinks, making your site highly visible on the web. Think of it as a marketing campaign that will get you sponsors. It’s what you need to do to be mentioned on social media and on high quality websites.
An effective strategy of off-page optimization is guest posting on other websites. Reach out to bloggers or website owners with high-ranking and quality blogs and sites, and offer to swap guest posts. It’s a win-win situation.
You also need to ramp up your social media activity, so followers and visitors would be interested to visit your website or even just click on your ad. After all, getting involved with social networking sites is not known as online reputation management for nothing. Media mentions, especially with a backlink, will boost off-page SEO as well.
Now you know what to do, start optimizing your website right away.
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