What is WordPress SEO in the first place?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. In short, this is the act of increasing your ranking in Search engine (Google) results. The obvious goal here would be to drive users to your website or digital asset and to turn that traffic into effective leads and conversions.
Applying basic WordPress SEO to your site helps users to find your site when searching for relevant keywords and phrases. Assessing which results to show users is Google’s way of applying quality control on websites.
SEO is divided into 3 main sections :
- On-Page SEO: everything we do on our pages to make them more relevant for users and readable by search engines.
- Off-Page SEO: this is the stuff we do outside of our page to let search engines like Google know that we’re trustworthy and useful to users. Incoming links, views, sales and social media shares all contribute to this section.
- Technical Optimization: The stuff we leave to pro’s. It includes all the behind-the-scenes engineering that make it easier for search engines to match the right site to the right user.
How do I get my ranking up?
The answer is simple: Content. Content. Content.
People share, reference and link to content that is interesting and engaging. This shows Google that your pages are authoritative. In other words, that you are trustworthy and know what you are talking about. Think of Google like a person that you are asking for advice from. That person will give you an answer based on what people are saying, who these people are and how long they have been saying it.
The more people reference your site, the higher Google will rank your page.
Common SEO misunderstandings
This it-word is being thrown around a lot and charge even more for, so it’s good to clarify what SEO is NOT.
- Paid-for traffic is not SEO. This is the type of SEO offers that arrive unwanted in your inbox or in spam comments on your blog comments. Black Hat SEO often includes article spinning and is considered very bad form. Essentially, this type of strategy tries to ‘fool’ or ‘crook’ search engines and should be avoided at all costs.
- Pay per Click Advertising is not SEO. When people refer to “paid traffic”, as opposed to organic search traffic on their website it refers to traffic that has been attracted through non-organic methods—such as Google Adwords advertising, for example.
- WordPress SEO does not happen overnight. Expecting sudden results from your SEO efforts will result in disappointment. Especially in the case of newly launched sites, indexing can take a few weeks to climb the charts (if at all).
- SEO is not rocket science. As soon as you understand that SEO is like building a good reputation for your business, it becomes easier to understand and apply.
Forever? For ever ever?
Like Tax regulations, SEO changes rapidly. The reason for this, that we should all be thankful for, is that Search Engines like Google are constantly improving their algorithms in order to give consumers more accurate and relevant results on their searches.
This means that the recommendations made in this article might not be relevant by the time that you’re reading them. We want to encourage you to make use of a web company (like us, yes), or SEO Expert to manage your SEO journey and stay on top of the curve.