An updated slideshow from my talk at WordPress North East (WPNE) on 16 January 2020 at Proto in Gateshead. I take a look a the search engine basics for WordPress websites, from permalink settings and index settings, to page content, headings, internal links and more.

1. SEO basics
for WordPress websites
WordPress North East
16 January 2020
Proto, Gateshead @PeacockCarter

2. What is Search Engine
Optimisation?
@PeacockCarter

3. Search engine optimisation
(SEO) is the process of
improving and monitoring
your website to improve its
rankings in search engines.

4. Onsite SEO is
… how your website is built
… the content on your website
… the relevance of your content

5. Offsite SEO is
… external links & references
… Google Business listings
… (and a few other bits we
won’t cover)

6. Healthy websites
use a mix of both offsite and
onsite optimisation.

7. 1. Make sure search
engines can find you
@PeacockCarter

8. Check search engines can
read (“index”) your website
Settings > Reading
“Discourage search engines
from indexing this site”

10. 2. Use search engine
friendly URLs
@PeacockCarter

11. A URL is a page address
It’s unique to that page on
the web.
E.g., website1.com/about is
different from
website2.com/about

12. Good URLs (page addresses)
1. Contain relevant words
2. Don’t change frequently

13. Example
cheeseshop.com/about-us
is better than
cheeseshop.com/?p=123
or
cheeseshop.com/page123

14. WordPress URL options
Settings > Permalinks

15. Use a sensible title for your
page, & you get a sensible URL

16. 3. Use relevant, unique
page titles
@PeacockCarter

17. A page (or post) title
…is one of the main factors in
your onsite optimisation
…gives a strong indication of
what your page is about

18. Good page titles
... are relevant to page content
... contain your brand or
business name
… are unique in your website
e.g. “Stilton cheese – The
Cheese Shop”

19. Bad page titles
… are very generic
… are spammy
… duplicate other page titles
e.g., “Home”, “Blue cheese
cheddar cheese red Leicester…”

20. Editing your page title

21. 4. Keep your content
relevant and well-
written
@PeacockCarter

22. Good page (& post) content
… is at least 300 words long
… is unique to that page
… makes use of headings to
separate content
… links to other relevant
content

23. Editing content

24. 5. Use internal links in
your content
@PeacockCarter

25. An internal link is a link to a
page or post in your own
website.

26. Good links
… use relevant text in the link
anchor
… are added sparingly. A few
per page is fine

27. These can help your onsite
SEO.

28. 6. Use image alt text
@PeacockCarter

29. These provide a description of
images in your page content

30. When images are relevant to
the content, this can help
SEO

31. 7. Pick your WordPress
theme carefully
@PeacockCarter

32. A good WordPress theme for
SEO
…is mobile-friendly (responsive)
…uses good HTML markup
(harder to spot!)
Ask on the WPNE Meetup or
Facebook page

33. 8. Install a good
SEO plugin
@PeacockCarter

34. Yoast SEO for WordPress

35. Yoast SEO plugin
…provides a lot of SEO tools
…for free!
…see yoast.com

36. XML sitemaps
…tell Google of new pages
…help ensure “indexing”

37. Breadcrumbs
…help search engines understand
the hierarchy of your pages

38. Breadcrumbs on your website

39. Breadcrumbs in search results

40. Knowledge Graph
Feeds Google’s Knowledge Graph
box for branded (ie, company
name) searches

41. Knowledge Graph in Google

42. 9. Monitor and refine
your website over time
@PeacockCarter

43. Google Analytics or Jetpack
…both free to use
…provide visitor data
…WordPress plugins exist for both

44. 10. Pick a good website
hosting company
@PeacockCarter

45. A good host helps ensure
good website loading times

46. A good host can help you add
a security (SSL) certificate

47. A few basic SEO tips
and tools
@PeacockCarter

48. Use site:yourwebsite.com

49. What can you see?
… page count
… whether your
pages are
all indexed

50. Sign up to Search Console
… tells you of issues with your
website
search.google.com
bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

51. Moz’s introduction to SEO
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

52. Questions?
@PeacockCarter