WordPress is one of the most used content management systems the world over. According to Searchenginewatch, 1 in 6 websites use WP as its content management platform.

Though the WordPress platform is future proof, it is not enough to just download and install it and begin using it. If you are serious about your business, you must try out the following tips to improve your site for SEO and user experience.

1. Removing defaults from your site

You must remove or change the “Hello World” and “Sample Page” sections from your WordPress website. If you are a new user, then these sections may be useful for layout testing but as your site gets established, they may not be of much help.

Try relying on better content by downloading the WP Content Example Plugin. Another thing that you can do is deleting the “Uncategorized” category. Replace it with clearly defined category terms. Default pages may not affect the SEO of your site but they do have a negative impact when it comes to user experience.

2. Make your content look good

We all know content is the king and it is a crucial element to get good search engine results. But not only this, to make this content look good is equally important to keep your website visitors engaged. It is a human tendency to value the content more highly when it looks attractive. There are two main elements which can make your content look good;

• Typography
• Formatting

Consider the following to make your content look engaging;

• Make short words and short sentences
• Highlight the key points
• Use headings and sub headings
• Use tables, quotes, images wherever you can

Remember, creating content is not just about compelling content but overall presentation too!

3. Optimize your permalinks

Many users are unaware that the default permalink structure may not be good for the site SEO. You may consider setting your permalinks so that the Post Name come first (/%postname%/) in the url structure. Others use (/%category%/%postname%/) for better SEO performance. Google advises against using the same URL structure again and again.

4. Indexing your site

This step is important if you want to index your site fast enough. Search engines take their own time to crawl and index the various pages in your site. It may so happen that some of your pages may lose out in the indexing game when it comes to big organic search opportunities.

Expert WordPress development company can help you to keep your site updated. Please install the following update services. You may go to the General Settings Page and do the needful.

• http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
• http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
• http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

For more tools, you may visit this site.

5. Selecting the right Homepage

Many bloggers do not realize the importance of optimizing the Homepage-whether it should be a Static Page or a Blog Posts Page. This is so because bloggers often view WordPress as a blogging platform. It is much more than being a blogging platform and has evolved to being a content management system.

The default settings of many WordPress sites set your latest content on the Homepage. If you want to change it to a Static Page, follow these steps;

• For your latest content, create a blank page
• Settings>Read Settings
• Select latest posts or Static Page on your Front-Page Displays
• Show the excerpts for each article in the feed
• Untick the dialogue box containing this message “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”

Please note that the above steps may vary according to the themes.If you follow the above steps, the site search ability may improve and so will the indexation of your individualpages.

6. Google Analytics

If you haven’t been using Google Analytics for optimizing your site performance, then you must do it immediately. Integrate your site with Google Analytics for WordPress . You do not have to copy paste any code to get this tool.

After you have done this, ensure that site search is enabled in this tool.

Having Google Analytics is great for your site. You can determine which of your posts are performing and which are not. Find out which geographical area is contributing more traffic than the others. Track which operating system is bringing more traffic to your site. Track your visitors by their usernames and ignore administrators who are increasing your site visit time. Of course, one important result that you get is determining the bounce rate on your site. An equally important measurement is the returning visitor ratio. Locate the 404 pages and fix the errors. Discover your broken links and fix them.

Summary

If you nail the above mentioned points, you will certainly be able to make your blog ranking better in search engine results giving better user experience. Although there are still many more points that define the success of a WordPress blog and many more efforts too.

Let us know here in the comment section what other measures you feel like taking and what other challenges you may be facing in popularizing your WordPress blog.

The post Essential Tips to improve WordPress for SEO and the User Experience appeared first on IceCube Digital.