Find Out Four Easy Steps to Get Your WordPress Website on the first page of Google

Use our handy WordPress SEO checklist to make sure you’re not ignoring the basics

The Beginners WordPress SEO Checklist

It’s a common mistake to have a great new WordPress website designed and built but no idea how to let everyone know it actually exists. Websites are different to physical businesses in that you don’t have the option of natural footfall or traditional marketing, but by following the four easy steps in our WordPress SEO checklist, you can let the internet know you exist and increase your audience.

Without putting in the extra effort, your website could be hidden on page 53 of Google when potential customers do a search, never to be seen. So why not try our WordPress SEO checklist below for starters to boost your online presence.

Step 1: Add Google Analytics code to your site

Visit Google Analytics and set up an account. They will supply a code to add to the head of all pages (before the closing tag is best) so Google can start to notice your website and you can understand the current traffic on your website.

Once you know what is popular on your WordPress website currently, you can know which areas to target and build upon.

Step 2: Choose your primary web address (canonicalisation)

If you own both the .com and .co.uk then canonicalise – basically, have one domain forward to the other to stop them competing with each other for rankings and so all traffic is shown under one single domain.

Google will view these as two separate sites and it’s much better to have one website ranking well rather than two websites doing averagely.

This also applies to www and non www addresses – if www.yoursite.com/pagename and yoursite.com/pagename show the same content, then a canonical rule will need to be set up so that one redirects to the primary address.

Step 3: Use permalinks

Have pretty URLs (page addresses) which describe the page the user is on e.g. using /website-design-bristol/ for a web design portfolio page, which highlights website design work for a designer targeting clients in Bristol.

Step 4: Add SEO keywords to the right areas of each page

Write pages that clearly describe the content and contain keywords that users are likely to search for.
Add title tags to all pages. These are used in your Google listing as your page title, and should contain key search words. The title tag can also be seen on the page tab, usually near the address bar. Try to make title tags less than 70 characters, with keywords occurring as early as possible.
Add meta descriptions to your pages. The meta description appears in your Google listing under the page title and will ideally accurately describe the contents of the page. This isn’t used for rankings by engines but will encourage a user when they see their search terms highlighted in your description.
Add descriptive and accurate alt tags to images.

the seo checklist in full

Add Google Analytics code to your site
Choose your primary web address (canonicalisation)
Use permalinks AKA pretty URLs
Add SEO keywords to the right areas of each page

So now you know you have an onsite SEO checklist, implementing them will get you started on moving up Google rankings. Some searches are more competitive than others, so will require further work to get on the first page of Google. If you still need help from a web agency Bath, Bristol or Devon then why not try contacting Sheer Design for help here.

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