No joke. In the sea of information about getting higher search engine rankings, this is the ONE tip you can’t skip.
And when you get in the habit of using it day in, and day out, for each one of your articles, you can start seeing some exponential traffic growth over the long term.
What’s the tip? It’s much easier to implement than you think, and you don’t need to know anything about “technology” to pull it off.
How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog for High Search Engine Rankings
This is going to sound so simple, but seriously, it’s one of the best things you can do for your blog.
When you write content, make each one of your articles target one specific keyword.
Now I’m not telling you to create content for the sake of ranking for specific keywords. That’s a horrible strategy.
What I mean is, after you write blog reader focused content, make sure you have a “dream keyword” that you’d like to rank for on your new article.
For example, the video I shared with you last week in our article about how to increase blog conversion rates.
It was helpful content, tailored directly towards you, the blog reader, but eventually, I’m hoping that article will rank for Blog Conversion Rates.
What If You’re Dealing With Highly Competitive Keywords?
That takes a lot more work, for sure, but that’s where resource pages come into play.
I’ll explain.
Instead of having a dream keyword for one article, you come up with a dream keyword for a group of articles.
And then you group those articles on a resource page.
For example, look at our resource page about WordPress SEO. Yes, we’re putting high quality content out about search engine optimization, but ideally, we’d also like to pick up some rankings for WordPress SEO.
And instead of trying to do it with one single article, we’re doing it with a group of articles because we know search engines like content that’s complete, and exhaustive.
One Word of Warning about This Simple Tip
I’ve got to say this because many people make this huge mistake.
When you start using this strategy, do not begin stuffing your content with keywords that you’d like to rank for.
The goal is to take your regular content, and just keep a keyword in the back of your mind while you’re writing it.
Don’t use the keywords for the sake of using the keywords. Remember, you want to put your reader first… always.
Because, even though the search engines can be gamed, they’re actively trying to combat “cheating.”
And while you may get away with some shady tactics for a short while, it’s not worth risking your blog… your blog that you’ve poured your time and effort into… because you tried to take a shortcut.
Then, of course, there’s Thesis…
Here’s a dirty secret about WordPress SEO:
There’s only so much you can do to your blog… on your own site… that can help you rank higher in search engines.
Aside from this simple tip, the other thing that you can do is sport rock-solid code that will supercharge your SEO.
For example, small changes like having h2 tags surrounding your headlines on your home page… and h1 tags surrounding your headlines on your single post pages.
Or, as another example, if you’re using a left sidebar, right content layout, you’ll want your content loading “before” your sidebar… even though it looks like it comes “after it.”
Things like this matter when it comes to optimizing your blog for search, and Thesis does all of that for you… right out of the box.
So, if you don’t have Thesis, pick it up today. If you do, take comfort in knowing that we’ve got your back when it comes to optimal SEO settings for your WordPress site.
