Creating Optimized Page Titles
Your keyword should ideally be placed somewhere early on in the title of the page. This is so that human readers scanning the title figure out straight away what it’s meant to provide but also so search engines can rank your webpage appropriately. Let’s hear Joost de Valk explain why effective SEO is unthinkable without a proper page title:
“The title, the contents of your page’s tag, is one of the single most important factors for ranking in the search results. Not only is it the literal title of the tab or browser window, it’s also the first line people see in the search results, followed by the URL and the snippet, usually the meta description combined with a date.”
Optimizing With Unique Page Descriptions
If a user searches for a keyword or a phrase and your meta description contains either, the search engine will present the description. Certain WordPress plugins can automatically create descriptions, which serves the function but barely. The ideal practice is to write an optimized, unique description for each post and page on your website.
Keyword Placement Is Also Important
If you find utility in a SEO plugin, you will probably see it calculate your keyword density and offer a suggestion on whether to decrease or increase it. That’s a commendable idea but you need to strike the right balance throughout your content by placing keywords on all the right spots. For example, your subheadings should have your focus keyword but the first and last sentences should have it as well. As always, ensure that the content is human-readable.
Use Contact Forms To Measure Your Success
How can you tell if your SEO efforts have been successful? Include a contact form and measure the response rate. WordPress has a slew of options for contact forms, which can also be set up to forward visitor messages to an e-mail address of your choice. Gravity Forms takes comment form functionality to umpteen, allowing you to do much more. As Search Engine Watch explains:
“This is the best plugin available. Although paid (from $39), this plugin is a must have on any WordPress installation and pays for itself. This plugin handles all kind of form generation and management from basic contact forms to complete content management. There’s so much you can do within Gravity Forms that I can’t cover it in this post alone.”
Using the SEO Settings For Your Theme
Whether you’re using a modern, premium or responsive theme, there are likely Master key SEO settings that you will have to activate. In this section, you can write out a unique title for the website and perhaps even list the keywords you would like the site to be ranked for in search results. If you don’t tinker with these settings, they might be set to a mediocre default.
Choosing an SEO Plugin
All in One SEO and Yoast have a solid reputation for being systematic about search engine optimization and effective at it. You might want to try out a few SEO plugins before settling on one, especially if it’s a paid plugin. Reviews are most commonly the best way to figure out what works, since they are based on other people’s experiences, letting you find the best possible plugin for your content or business.