This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO) for beginners. It discusses both on-page and off-page SEO factors that can help improve a site's search rankings, such as optimizing content, metadata, images, links, and site speed. It also recommends plugins like Yoast and caching plugins to help with SEO, and notes that while optimization helps, high search rankings are not guaranteed as off-page factors like links also influence results.

1. SEO for Beginners

2. SEO
= Search Engine Optimisation
≢ Search Ranking
Stuff you can do to
make your site as
good as possible
Where you appear in results:
the combined effects of
SEO, link signals etc
or On-page vs Off-page SEO

3. Some notes about search
EVERYONE gets personalised search results
Location
History
Social signals
Google wants to produce the best & most relevant
results, so BE relevant & be user-friendly

4. What contributes to SEO?
Speed
HTML
Theme
Plugins
Content
Content
Readability
Clarity
Metadata
Titles
Descriptions
Everything on your site!

5. Assessing your theme
Read the description
Look at the demo
Reviews
ThemeCheck (plugin or website)
w3 validator

6. ThemeCheck.org
Thesis 2.1
0
Genesis 2.1.2
56
LawyeriaQuark 1.3
100 96
Assesses security and code quality

7. validator.w3.org
Thesis 2.1Genesis 2.1.2
passed
LawyeriaQuark 1.3
2 errors passed4 errors

8. Content
Quality
Research
Words
Engagement
Freshness
http://searchengineland.com/seotable

9. Content in WordPress
Title
Don’t be obtuse
Formatting
Use it!
Headings & subheadings
Lists
Blockquotes

10. Content in WP: images
When uploading/
inserting images give
them a decent title
Give them a descriptive
Alt Text

11. Content in WP: links
Add or Edit links using the 🔗 icon in the editor
First select link text, then click icon
Use relevant keywords
Title ≢ link text
Easily find URLs on
your own site

12. Metadata
Title
URL (permalinks)
Description
Canonical URL
Robots
Keywords

13. SEO Plugins
WordPress SEO by
Yoast
All in One SEO
probably several others

14. WordPress SEO by Yoast
FREE: wordpress.org/
plugins/wordpress-seo/
Features: yoast.com/
wordpress/plugins/seo/
SEO Guide: yoast.com/
articles/wordpress-seo/
I ♥ Yoast

15. Text
Speed
image be Martin Heigan

16. What impacts site speed?
Hosting
Number of files
CSS
JavaScript
images
Code quality
Number of plugins
Caching

17. Text
Caching
FASTER
image from http://www.wpbeginner.com/
blueprint/w3-total-cache/

18. Caching plugins
WP Super Cache
Quick Cache / Zen Cache
Hyper Cache
W3 Total Cache

19. Minifying
Reduces file sizes
Reduces number of files
Plugins
Autoptimize
W3 Total Cache
Better WordPress Minify
AssetsMinify

20. CDNs
Content Delivery Network
Comprehensive services: Cloudflare, MaxCDN
Easy image CDN: Photon in

21. Text
A quick note on mobile friendly
google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

22. Guaranteed front page?
All of this doesn’t guarantee you front page search results ☹
There are still the off-page factors to consider
Who links to you
What text they use to link with
Social shares
But it gives you a MUCH better chance
SUCCESS
NOTGUARANTEED

23. Anything else I can do?
Webmaster Tools
Submit a sitemap
Monitor crawling
problems

24. Text
Even more info
moz.com/learn/seo/on-page-factors

25. Text
SEO Table of Elements
searchengineland.com/seotable