Lets chat SEO for WordPress.

Well, really these tips can be applied to any blog platform. You may feel lost or think its complicated… Its actually easier than you think doing some optimizing basics!

Lets set the base properly so your kickin’ ass and takin’ names post can go out into the big bad world and have a fighting chance. Yes?

I’m going to go over five basic tips to help you along with the internet beast. Ive been workin’ the SEO grind for 8+ years now. Heck, Ive been using the net since is was born… Yes Im that old! Ha ha.

Permalink Structure

WordPress offers multiple ways to set up your link structure. Setting up link structure is in the dashboard under Settings>Permalinks.

I have mine set up for ‘Post’ name. Setting up with post name creates the URL with the post title.

http://kastyles.co/post-title-name

Post URL’s and post content go hand in hand. Adding the post title in your link structure is turning your URL content related.

Search engines like clean links too. You don’t want ?p=245 in your link. It displays as a ‘pretty’ URL too. I highly recommend using post name only.

I’m not saying using other link structures wont make your site show in a search at all… Just make sure your title content is in the link structure.

Take a look at my search and see how Google has picked up my link.(the bold green) I actually rank Super well for ‘DIY glitter mason jars’.

Now, its more than just my link as this post is ‘meaty’, all over social media and over a year old… But, it certainly helped me along the way.

There is one of my posts images. #5, the purple-pinkish jar. I talk about this below.

I personally don’t use dates as I’m more of an Evergreen content provider or I just update old posts/add date to a post. Tech, medical, etc may want to use dates in their link structure and in posts. Do what works for you.

Post Titles

Post titles need to be related to your post content. Try to write post titles that are catchy and to the point. They shouldn’t be super long either.

Think about how it will share across the net with a super long title…

While not much to say here titles are important! Also don’t use some ‘catchy’ title just to have clicks on a post that is not related for views! Don’t be That blogger! LOL.

Not like my own posts have some perfect ‘catchy’ titles… But, they are content related.

Images

Title and Alt Text

The Title and Alt text is what a search engine reads. Title/Alt text are used on some social media channels as well. Today you can use your Alt text area for marketing/search strategies on platforms like Pinterest.

Thats a whole other post! LOL

What do you think the search engine will do with DSC_3489? Nada…zilch…zero… Instead of DSC_3489, give it a title about its content, same with Alt text. This tells a search engine what your image is about.

A search engine wont know what your picture is unless you tell it what it is. Ay?

A tip: Save images from your photo editor with an image title. Its better to have the original image name content related before even uploading to WordPress. Saves time too. When I upload the image to WordPress I just fill in Alt text.

If you are sharing a chocolate chip cookie recipe, title your images ‘chocolate chip cookie recipe’, ‘chocolate chip cookies, etc.

You can add to that as you upload to WordPress, for example if they are low fat and gluten free… when you add to WordPress add ‘Chocolate chip cookie recipe gluten free’.

The next image ‘Low fat chocolate chip cookie recipe’.

In House Links

What do I mean by in house links?

I call them in house as they are links to other areas on your website. You are internally linking related content to help your readers. You are providing more content on the topic they searched.

This can have your readers staying longer, the search knows when people ‘bounce’ or stay. You want people to stay and browse around. Keeping your bounce rate lower can help with your search ranks.

If you just always do it for your readers and not think about the search engine you are golden. I get more into why you should always do it for the people and not the search engine below in the Write for Readers section of this post.

Like this link below. Its related to WordPress. This is a post related to WordPress.

Related: How Much Does WordPress Cost

Write for Readers

This tip I cannot stress enough. Many can be about titles, keywords, etc…

How many keywords do I need?

How much H2 text?

Etc?

Forget the search engine for a bit…

While those titles and key terms need to be there and are important… don’t do it for the search, do it for your readers. I find many SEO articles do not mention how the SEO ‘tricks’ just fall into place naturally when you’re writing for the world to read.

You don’t have to think about how many times a keyword is there, H2 text, yada, yada. Its there already… your content was written for your readers. You’ve written your post with readability already just by writing for them right? 😉

Lets talk readability, what it is and the search.

Readability

Your readers and the search engine go hand in hand.

As they say you need some H1/H2 text, keywords, good title, link structure, images, etc… You’ll read these things in many tips post on SEO, you even read it here. While they do work… let me expand more on this.

This post is filled with ‘SEO tricks’. But, its not at all, even though its filled ‘technically’ speaking.

The H2 or any H text for that matter in this post is for You not a search engine. Not one word in the post is for a search engine even though there are keywords here.

Its all about you and how I hope to help you. I’m just providing the info I know and works. Ya know, Ive been working the grind for you all these years. 😉

I use H text all over this post, I use it all over my blog. Be it titled sections, breaking up text, making a point, etc. I do this with section titles, etc so You can skim the post and find what You need.

You may know link structure but, shitz, I had no Idea about my images! You skimmed to get to the ‘Images’ section of this post because I gave it a section header. I made it easy for you to read and find this info.

#writeforreaders

I use H2 text/images/graphics to break up a wall of text too. Are you really going to stick around and keep reading a giant wall of text to find the info you need? Its hard to read…

I write shorter paragraphs so its easier to read, specially on mobile. I don’t use super light or tiny text or funky font for my body text either. Cutesy funky font title, hashtag, etc sure but, your main body text needs to be clean and readable.

How can I make it easier for my readers is the goal, it should be yours too. If I cant read it, I assume You cant either if you know what I mean… I cant keep reading a wall of text with no structure like sub titles, paragraphs, bullet points etc…

So here we are, the basics needed for the search engine in my post content and its all for you. The H text, in house links, etc. Those SEO ‘tricks’ naturally fell into place.

What works for you works for the search engines. Its ‘Readability’.

#readability

Also if its not ‘readable’ you’ll have viewers just bounce out of your post, this can hinder your rankings. Its your ‘bounce rate’ like I mentioned above with your in house links.

The search will see, eh, that wasn’t good, lets drop this back in the search because that other site people stay and read…

Do you see how your readers and the search go hand in hand?

I hope you understand this, I’m not the greatest writer, its one of my weaknesses. I try to write for ‘dummies’ as I’m a ‘dummy’ if you know what I mean! 😉

Do anything to help ME soak in your fabulous content!

Like me with the short attention span.

Like so many others out there…

Like me because its harder to digest tons of text on mobile or a computer screen.

A paper book and screen are entirely different on the eyes.

Like me because my eyes are just not what they used to be…

Do you ever think about how your content is for others using tiny text, light text, funky font, no paragraphs, etc… for people that don’t see as well? Can your half blind grandma read it?

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Check out how you score: http://read-able.com/

You can read up on Flesh-Kincaid readability.

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Keyword Stuffing

I guess this is a ‘bonus’ 6th tip! 😉

Just dont do it, write for your readers. Google knows when you fill a post with stuff-n-fluff keywords for the search engine. It can drop your ranks.

Do you think your readers want to read your stuff-n-fluff? Um, no.

Ok wrapping it up!

Now there are all kinds of other tips out there like social reach, backlinks, meta, ect that give you juice on the net too but, thats for another day. This post is more for beginners to set your basic SEO foundation to start growing.

I’ll also say, if you just always write for your peeps, your tribe, what ever your thing is… always do it for them and you wont have to worry about changes Google makes. While Google is not perfect they have become clear on the direction they are going and I dont see that changing ever.

They have become a write for your readers search engine.

Did some of these tips help you? Please share any of your tips on SEO.

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