Optimize Your WordPress Site for SEO and Get More Visitors
Although it’s easy to write, doing it is not as simple as it seems; it’s a continuous and ongoing maintenance job. In this article, you will learn:
- How to create a content mold?
- How to configure the links for each of the WordPress pages?
Website Structure
You should know that Google will rank your page if you have clean content and if your website has a clear structure.
If this is not well done, it is possible that Google WILL NOT perform a complete crawl of your WordPress ,
Why? Because when reviewing your site, it will find a lot of disorder and will not really know what content you have there and how important it is (even if you add unique content).
As a result, Google won’t know in which search results to show you, which means there will be NO RANKING.
To avoid this from happening, a good practice is to choose and apply an SEO structural model.
SEO Structural Models for WordPress
Establishing a content distribution may seem a bit confusing; my recommendation is to search online for page templates to serve as a reference for your structure.
Once you have them, and depending on the creative strategy you design and the response logic of your WordPress mold, you will be able to define the SEO structure that best fits your site.
Below are two interaction models you can use with the user navigating your page:
- Sequential Model:
If it’s a single page or Landing page, the distribution will be made as the user scrolls down. That would be the entire dynamic and presentation.
These models are essentially useful when you have to make your user understand information in a chronological way.
The sequential model is the most used for WordPress SEO positioning.
- Hierarchical Model:
These hierarchical models can be the most complicated when it comes to indexing on Google.
Mostly they only organize the information that needs to be consumed temporarily. These molds are associated with distributing related content.
The main pages of websites that use this model will be the ones that rank more easily in search results.
Modeling My Content
With all of the above in mind, let’s do this theoretical-practical exercise together so you can establish the structure of your website.
First thing: define which content is important to you so that it goes on a single page; and which content has many pages but falls under a single classification.
This way you will have an idea of your entire site in general. Now you must lay down that information with the help of a mind map.
(I recommend using MindMeister to make your draft )
An easy way: place the name of your brand in the center and place the classifications around it.
Some very common content that can be classified are: the Blog and unique pages such as About Us, Product, and Contact.
Check out this reference example.
Mind map of Trópico Digital:
You can see that I have placed a maximum of three levels of depth between the content classifications. This is because the simpler and more visible the information, the better for your visitor.
To achieve easy user navigation, the number of clicks for the navigator must be limited.
It doesn’t seem as complicated as you thought at the beginning, right?
Next, I will show you the steps I have taken at Trópico Digital to create a distribution so that users can easily access most
Next, I will show you the steps I have taken at Trópico Digital to create a distribution so that users can easily access most of the content on our website.
How to Create a Coherent and Easy Content Distribution for Users
To organize the mind map, one of the essential elements to consider is the Navigation Menu, which will help us classify and sub-classify the content according to the hierarchical distribution we previously defined.
For example, on the Trópico Digital site, we find that the most relevant sections for the brand are in the main menu.
And the others are located in the secondary menu:
URL Configuration According to the SEO Structure for WordPress
One of the many fundamental bases of SEO for WordPress is taking care of the links associated with our content. URLs are your website’s business card to Google, hence their importance.
Here I share the types of links that exist and how you can identify them from your content mold:
- Permanent link: these are those that will not be modified for a long time and are the easiest to remember.
In your WordPress, you can find them by following the path: Settings > Permalinks. Once you enter there, something like the following image will appear.
Then, select “Post name” and click on “Save Changes”
Making this configuration will help you save all the Blog Posts or WordPress Pages with a simple and Google-friendly structure
- Slug: is the part of the URL that does not contain the domain, for example:
https://www.tropicodigital.com/papas_con_helado
With the slug being: “papas_con_helado”
Aspects to Consider for SEO-friendly URLs
Your URLs should be:
- Descriptive but short
- Contain the SEO keyword
- Avoid stop words like pronouns, prepositions, articles, etc., at all costs.
The best way to define them is to think about your audience: what content related to your brand are they searching for on the internet, how are they searching for it, and precisely those terms they are using are the ones you should include both in the URLs and in the content you create.
A very useful tool to know the search intent of your audience is the Google Keyword Planner; I leave the reference here
Remember, to position your WordPress it is essential to know your audience very well, their tastes, interests, and the content they usually consume. Read our article and learn how to achieve it.
Changing URLs on My WordPress Website
To change those URLs generated by some theme you installed, because you changed the domain, or because you have very old information that needs updating, I recommend using the Velvet Blues Update URLs Plugin
Once you have the Plugin active, you should go to Tools > Update URLs
Before doing this, PLEASE back up your website with a backup copy.
If visiting the updated links shows you a 404 error, it’s because certain Google indexes are still recognizing the old links in the searches.
To solve this, you must apply a 301 redirect with the help of a plugin.
One that is quite simple to use is Redirection Plugin. You place the old URL and indicate that you want to automatically send users to the new one
If you liked this post, leave us your comments or share it with your friends and acquaintances.
Remember that with good SEO practices, you can position your website in search engines and consequently have more visits from potential users.
Also visit: DON’T Cut Your Online Advertising Budget Without Reading This | CORONAVIRUS
