The fact that SEO is a major lifeline for your website ranking cannot be overemphasized. If you just launched your online business and WordPress website, the chances are that you are not very familiar with all these talks about SEO.
If you are just learning about how to optimize your website for search results, it may seem pretty difficult to navigate the SEO landscape. You do not have to worry. The challenges are surmountable. In this post, we will look at 7 common WordPress problems to look out for and how to solve them if you encounter them.
Choosing the Perfect Theme
A theme is the frame of your website. So, how do you choose a WordPress theme to optimize ranking in SERPs? Many new WordPress site owners would naturally go for the most visually appealing theme to attract their target audiences. Some others would choose the commonly-used or most premium themes believing they are the best choices for site optimization.
Unfortunately, this is always not the case. Complicated themes are often loaded with poorly designed code that significantly reduces the speed of your site. Now, when it comes to WordPress SEO, loading time and speed are critical factors that you should consider.
✔ Solution
• Choose a theme that aligns perfectly well with the theme of your website. The fact that a theme is complicated does not make it superior to the simple ones.
• Choose a theme that has less code. Premium and attractive themes can come with unnecessary codes that will reduce the loading site of your site. When this happens, it will seriously affect your SEO negatively.
• Ensure that your chosen theme is responsive. Responsive themes that function and respond speedily on all devices are preferred and more recognized on different search engines. Such themes can remarkably boost your WordPress site’s SEO.
• Look out for the update of the theme. Outdated themes generally slow down the loading time of your site. However, regularly updated themes increase the speed and enhance SEO. So, check to see that your preferred theme has regular updates.
Linking Issues
One of the major ways you can improve SEO for your site and increase the ranking is linking. Although linking is very critical to the success of your site ranking, it can also cause a major disaster if done incorrectly. When you have too many links on your site, they distract your site visitors.
When this happens, they lose interest and leave your site. Too many links make your site unattractive and when visitors leave your site frequently it significantly impact the bounce rate, which affects your ranking. Lack of links will also hurt your SEO initiatives and affect your site’s ranking on search engines.
✔ Solution
• Include links with relevant content to increase the usefulness and reliability of your site.
• Use both internal linking and external links. Internal links link original and relevant content from your site to other pages on your site. This will minimize bounce rates and enable your site visitors to explore more of your site. External links help your site to build SEO credibility. You can do this by asking other websites to share links from your articles in their content.
• Avoid using too many links. It is recommended that you do not use more than twenty links on your home page, and you should use less on other pages.
Too Many Plugins
The erroneous belief that using many plugins is the best way to improve your site should be dropped. Of course, plugins are very helpful for a functional website.
However, when you have too many of them, it can be very counterproductive. What this does is make your site heavier, which reduces the speed of your site. Remember, when your site is slow, it can hurt SEO.
✔ Solution
It is recommended that you choose only necessary plugins instead of downloading any plugins that catch your fancy. Most WordPress sites have restrictions on the server resources they have. More plugins mean you are using up precious space. So, reduce the downloads and stick to only the necessary ones.
Visualization is Key
Today’s world is visually-driven and search engines understand this fact. To improve your WordPress SEO, ensure you pay attention to both the visual content and text content on your website. Do not make your site overly worded without spicing things up with attractive images.
✔ Solution
• It is recommended that you use precise and relevant descriptions, alt text, images, and keywords to highlight your content.
• Do not just use images haphazardly. Ensure that you properly name the images with the right descriptions. This will improve the SEO of your website. You should note that SEO is enhanced when your site has more accessibility and functionality.
Sitemap Issues
Without a doubt, plugins come with numerous features and functionality that web owners should leverage. For instance, SEO plugins are a top choice for simple and basic WordPress websites in terms of getting sitemap features.
Many web owners believe that with these plugins, they have sufficiently taken care of their website sitemap on search engines. Well, this is further from the truth. Using an SEO plugin does not automatically list your sitemaps on Google or other search engines.
✔ Solution
• You must submit your sitemap manually to the Google search console. Until you do this, the SEO plugin that you use cannot be effective in improving your site’s SEO and ranking.
Wrong Use of Schema
Schema is the main code that enables search engines to identify all that your WordPress website is about. With schema, search engines know the name of your WordPress website, the phone number, and address, among others.
When this is done properly, it becomes easy for search engines to run your site’s details through algorithms and get better results to display in SERPs. This is very crucial as it is what Google uses to identify who you are and the kind of business you operate. If this is done wrongly, Google gets confused and the result of this is bad SEO for your site.
✔ Solution
• Take the time to understand how Schema works. You will find various resources online that will help you get a grasp of what schema is and how it works.
Wrong use of Permalinks
The irony of using permalinks is that it is one of the most straightforward and basic processes in getting SEO right but it is often the most forgotten aspect of the web design.
Unfortunately, when you do permalinks the wrong way, your website will suffer for it. It is crucial to make it easy for your site visitors to understand and follow what your site is all about.
✔ Solution
• You must include the post name and category of your content in the permalink. One other advantage of doing permalink correctly is that it helps your site’s SEO. It makes it easy for search engines to understand your site and display the right page from your site when a visitor searches for a keyword.
Conclusion
Some of the simplest things are what make a significant impact on your WordPress SEO. The problems highlighted in this post are very common and play an influential and significant role in your site’s SEO.
Therefore, getting started on these with the solutions will make a huge impact in getting your website ready for better ranking. Of course, as you grow your business and website, you may encounter more challenges. You never have to worry because you will always find resources online to guide you through the solutions.
