Optimising a WordPress website may seem like a daunting task, and it can be if you are not sure where to start.
Did you know that Google has over 200 criteria they rank websites on to determine your ranking on their website index? The good news is that there are some basic and simple tips for optimising a WordPress website. We have highlighted a few in this article.
A few things to keep in mind when optimising a WordPress website
Make it mobile responsive
When I started building websites, mobile-responsive websites were just becoming a thing. Nowadays, mobile responsiveness is not just a gimmick; it has become a necessity.
Did you know that in 2018, Google made a big push to favour mobile-first websites over others when ranking them in their search index?
So, what can you do?
- Make sure your site is comfortably viewable on mobile, tablet, and desktop; you should keep this in mind when choosing a template.
- Make sure you compress your images. Many people search websites on their phones and downloading large images and content will use lots of data, not to mention decrease your website’s loading speed.
- Test your site as much as possible on as many sizes you can. Your browser comes with a lot of tools to test your site on various device sizes.
A mobile-responsive website, when built well, goes a long way in optimising a WordPress website.
Optimise your on-page SEO
On-page search engine optimisation (SEO) is your first step to being found on Google.
It is always good to have different titles, descriptions, and focus keywords for each of the pages on your site. Google reads these and can then better direct users to the correct pages on your website.
- There are some great plugins for WordPress that allow you to manage your on-page SEO.
- Make sure you have an awesome title.
- Define a focus keyword and include it in your title, meta description, and your text.
Website speed
Google says: “The average time it takes to fully load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds … yet 53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.”
Therefore, it is important that you take this into account when optimising a WordPress website. A big part of a website’s loading speed is the images; the larger the images, the longer the page will take to load.
- Compress your images; make them as small as possible without compromising on the quality.
- Make use of caching, there are multiple plugins that you can use to cache images and increase your website’s speed.
- If you can, start using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). This stores your images on the nearest server to your users, thereby increasing loading speed and bandwidth on your server.
A better loading speed provides a better user experience.
Great content
Google is a powerhouse because they provide valuable content to users based on their search results. If Google gave you terrible results on what you had searched, they would be out of business.
So keep it simple and don’t try trick the system. As long as you are providing quality content within your industry and referencing it well, Google will like you.
Link building
Be wary of some link-building strategies, Google may penalise you. You want links from quality sources.
- Try offering guest posting on various well-known websites, linking back to your own.
- If your company does press releases, try to get the digital posting to link back your website.
Thanks for taking the time to read this article.
