How To Make Your WordPress Website SEO Friendly?

What is WordPress? It is an open source website. It is emerging as the fastest growing CMS software. It can be installed quickly and start functioning within a few minutes. However, it is not that SEO friendly. You can make your WordPress website SEO friendly through the following steps.

Privacy settings

During the development phase, uncheck this box. This will discourage search engines from indexing this site. When you are ready for launching, then go back to configuration settings and check this box. For permalink settings, select the custom structure option in the text box and configure search engine friendly URLs.

Rename uncategorized category

Under the Posts menu, you hUncategorizedories. Select the Quick Edit option from there. Rename the Uncategorized Category with a suitable name appropriate to the blog. You do not have to adjust the default group in the writing panel.

Customize page titles

WordPress website will use your page title as the HTML page title automatically. It does not include the meta description tags or meta keywords tag. You can customize these tags with a few plugins. Some of those plugins are very simple to use. They also remind you if your settings are not yet configured.

Reduction of 404 errors

If you try to access a Category page after the first page, then you will end up with 404 errors. However, if you include Category pagination fix plugin as part of that installation process, then you can avoid these types of mistakes. You can activate and start working. No additional configuration is needed.

Remove unnecessary links

The images you upload in WordPress website are automatically inserted by default. This is unnecessary wastage of time. Unfortunately, the user will have to take resort to the back button of this browser each time because he does not have an option to navigate once he opens the image. To tackle this problem, you have to install the Remove Link URL Plugin.

Add Google Analytics

There are many ways of adding Google Analytics to your website. If you configure this option, then the administrators can work on the site without disturbing the reports. Activate this plugin when you are ready to launch.

Selection of an appropriate theme

You may want to consider selecting a theme from the theme directories. Choose one with a responsive web design. Having such a type of design will ensure that the layout and menu items will be automatically adjusted on desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Make sure that your website is easily accessible. An appropriate responsive design will ensure a better online experience.

Review your theme code

After selection of the WordPress theme, it is good to analyze it for technical optimization errors. Different tools are available for this purpose. Most of the times in WordPress themes there is a presence of logos in H1 tags.

Force one version of the URL

Do not load both the www and non-www versions of the URL. Loading both the web pages will attract penalty. You can force a release to differ by adding a few lines of extra code to your .htaccess file. A 301 redirect will work. However, a simple JavaScript redirect will not work.

Other plugins also available

Apart from the tips mentioned above, there are numerous other plugins to optimize your WordPress website. Each site is unique in nature, and therefore they require different SEO strategies.