WordPress SEO – 2016 Checklist

Hello guys,

I want to share with you the most important things you should do in order to optimize your WordPress blog or website for optimal SEO performance.


Use SEO-Friendly URLs

SEO-friendly urls will boost your results because they help Google to understand what your page is about

Optimize your titles for SEO

Titles are probably on of the most important on page SEO factor. For best results start your title with your keyword or place it in the beginning.

Add modifiers to your title

Use modifiers like “2016”, “best”, “guide”, and “review etc. They will help you to rank for long tail keywords.

Optimize your descriptions

Your descriptions are very important because they will help you to increase your CTR and this will help you to climb in SERP.

Eliminate thin or duplicate content

Duplicate content decrease the quality of your blog or website and send link juice down the drain.

XML sitemaps

They help search engines to crawl your websites

Content Optimization

Content marketing is a growing trend. In fact the safest way to build or earn links is through 10x content.

• Create in depth 10x content
  
  
• Use LSI keywords - keywords related to your main target keyword
  
  
• Link out to quality resources
  
  
• Interlink other pages on your website
  
  
• Use content Resurrection - updated old content
  
  
• Keyword sweet spots -Put your keyword at the beginning and the end of the article.
  

Boost Time on site

The time your visitors spend on your site is vital ranking factor. If the time your visitors spend on your website is longer compared to your competitors Google will boost your rankings.

Use Responsive Design

There are more searches on Mobile than on desktop. Google even started to penalize mobile unfriendly sites.

Use responsive themes

Boost Site Speed

Speed Factors:

• Image Optimization
  
  
• Group JavaScript and CSS files
  
  
• Use Caching Plugin
  
  
• Caching information (expires header)
  
  
• Add LazyLoad to your images
  
  
• Gzip compression
  
  
• Widget/Plugin Overload
  
  
• Optimize your WordPress database
  
  
• Disable hotlinking and leeching of your content
  
  
• Fast WordPress Theme
  
  
• Use CDN for static files
  
  
• Use solid web host
  
  
• Decrease the number of Ads
  
  
• External Embedded Media
  
  
• Control a number of post revisions
  
  
• Turn off pingbacks and trackbacks
  
  
• Optimize your home page
  

I created a detailed guide if you need any help with anything above - http://fortunelords.com/wordpress-seo/

 

Thanks for the share most of the SEO stuff you can do with yoast seo

 

Aha, because it's not this article, just rewritten... http://backlinko.com/on-page-seo

 

I think one of the most important thing for WordPress SEO is anti-hacking: turn off XML-RPC, change admin panel url, regular update wp and all plugins etc..

 

Spot on bud...ya nailed it!

 

Nice Guide !!

Thanks For Share..

 

nice share thanks buddy.

 

nice cheklist, thanks for sharing this info.

 

Thank you guys. let me know if you have any questions here!

 

Your thoughts about WordPress post/page updates with 1-2 paragraphs with new content?

 

This is one of the best SEO hacks at the moment Google prefers fresh content and will give you a boost if you update your content from time to time. Check the post, there is a part where I explain this with more details.

 

Just had a few sites hacked, and def. agree with this sentiment.

 

Thanks for this list, its helpful. which Wordpress hosting service do you recommend?

 

Good content but you need to go for some high quality links + high quality content

 

Nice checklist mate. It will help for the newbies to handle the SEO in their sites.
Best of luck newbies.
Good sharing man.

 

It looks like the same one I read in 2006 !

 

Thanks for sharing this list mate.Hope it will help more BHW members.

 

Thanks guys

For starters I recommended Bluehost or Asmallorange in the article. If you have a little more to spend use wpxhosting.com.

 

good share

 

You'd be surprised at how many people still don't know these things or don't implement them.

OP, you forgot internal links, statcounter (or your choice of tracking), and a strong security plugin.