SEO for WordPress-based sites: best practices for optimisation

WordPress is a popular and versatile website development platform. Thanks to its flexibility and ease of use, it has gained widespread recognition as an online content management tool. However, having a WordPress-based site is only the first step in building online visibility. In order to succeed in today's competitive online space, it is essential to understand and implement optimisation strategies SEO.

How do I optimise my WordPress site? The most important steps

Nowadays, having a well-optimised website is indispensable for online success. And if you use the WordPress platform to build your site, you have a powerful tool at your disposal that enables even beginners to optimise for search engines.

Below you will read about some best practices to consider.

Choose the right WordPress theme

The first step in optimising a WordPress-based site is to choose the right theme. You should pay attention to factors such as responsiveness, loading speed and technical support. Try to choose theme, which is optimised for SEO and offers the flexibility to adapt to your needs.

One of the first decisions to make when choosing a theme is whether you want a free or paid theme. This is a fundamental question about the budget you can allocate to the site. Both options have advantages and disadvantages. First of all, when you buy a theme, you get the support of the developer in its price.

Use suitable SEO plug-ins

One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is the plugins available, which can make SEO optimisation much easier. Plugins such as Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack or Rank Math are just a few of the many options available. They provide tools for metadata management, keyword analysis, XML site maps and much more. Choose the plugin that best meets your needs and helps you optimise your site.

Optimise titles and meta descriptions

Ensure that page titles are unique, descriptive of the content and include relevant keywords. Meta descriptions should be attractive, influence click-through rates and reflect the content of the page. The SEO plugins described in the section above will help you implement optimised metadata.

Metadata plays an important role in the success of a site in terms of SEO. They provide the search engine with information about your website and determine how it is displayed in search results.

On-site optimisation activities, i.e. those within the site, usually start with the title tag. Why? Because it is the most important place on the page and has a direct impact on search engine position. The title is the title of the site and is located in the section of the site. Please note that the title and the user-visible title of the page (the one in the H1) are not the same thing!

The meta-description, on the other hand, is the section of page code that provides the user and robots with the most important information about the content of a given subpage. Like the title, it is located in the section. Users, in turn, see the meta-description on the search results page - at the URL and title. Acts as a headline.

Both meta description and title can be easily edited using a plugin such as Yoast SEO - no knowledge of the page code is required!

How do I change the title and meta description in Yoast SEO?

• log in to the webmaster panel, go to the plugins tab → add new
• using the search engine, find Yoast SEO, install and activate the plug-in
• go to edit an existing entry/page or create a new one
• go to the bottom of the editor to Yoast SEO settings
• here you can add the keyword phrase for which you want to optimise your entry/page, and then edit the title and meta description
• Yoast will show you if the content is too long. If it is, you will see a red bar below the content space
• in the SEO analysis section, you can ensure that the texts you have added are optimised for SEO and the phrase you have entered

Yoast SEO is an easy-to-use tool to help your website achieve better search engine rankings. There is a free version whose features are perfectly adequate.

Optimise content

Creating valuable and unique content is a key part of SEO optimisation. Using WordPress, you have easy access to a content editor that allows you to format text, add headings (H1, H2 etc.), links and images. Remember to use relevant keywords in headings, content and image descriptions. Adding internal and external links also supports content optimisation.

Ensure technical optimisation

Making the right technical settings is extremely important for optimising your WordPress site. Check that your site is optimised for page load speed by minimising files CSS and JavaScript, compression of images and cache usage. Additionally, make sure the site is responsive and looks good on a variety of mobile devices.

What else is important in terms of technical optimisation?

• URL structure - Features of a friendly link include: separator (hyphen) between words, no diacritical marks, avoidance of conjunctions, logical structure. The latter means that the links themselves give a great deal of additional information about the content and links between sub-pages 
• navigation - it should be simple to analyse for bots and easy to use for users
• site security - page secured by protocol HTTPSwhich protects the integrity and confidentiality of the data between it and the user's computer, is more reliable

Regularly update WordPress and plug-ins

WordPress updates and plugins are crucial to the security and performance of your site. Regularly check for available updates and perform them to keep your site in the latest version. Also remember to make regular backups to restore your site to an earlier state if necessary.

A backup is a copy of the databases and files that make up your website. With a backup in case of any mishap (e.g. a crash), you will recover your site. Although WordPress does not have a built-in solution for automatically creating and exporting a backup, there are plug-ins available that perform this task very well. These include, for example: UpdraftPlus, BackWPup, All-in-One WP Migration.

SEO optimisation of your WordPress site - the key to search engine success

Optimisation SEO for WordPress-based sites is a key part of achieving high visibility and success in search engines. Keep in mind valuable and unique content, optimised metatags, page load speed and appropriate keyword selection. By using SEO optimisation best practices in the context of WordPress, you can increase your site's reach and attract more visitors. Let these tips inspire you to continue to improve your site and gain more and more organic traffic.