Optimizing WordPress Blog Posts

Search Engine Optimization is crucial not only for your site in common, but for every WordPress post you create. If you have already created a unique text and visual content, but have not optimized it for search engines, the chances of losing potential readers are quite high. It makes no sense to risk huge losses among the target audience, as modern tools for WordPress offers convenient features for fast optimization of any post.

One of the most important instruments for optimizing is the Yoast SEO plugin. Today we look at all the possibilities of this plugin for easy optimization of each new WordPress posts. The main advantage of Yoast SEO plugin is its versatility. With this tool, you will be able to optimize not only the pages` meta tags while creating a new post, but also the settings of social sharing and more advanced options.

There are other useful tools for the optimization of WordPress posts. Also, do not forget about the built-in capabilities of the WordPress admin panel. We will analyze all these features in detail in this article. With the help of this walkthrough, you will be able to easily build SEO-optimized content, which will be better ranked in the search engines results.

So, you have already installed the Yoast SEO plugin and create content for a new post in your blog. Now let us consistently pass all stages of the optimization process together.

Yoast SEO Content Tab

Scroll down to the bottom of the page while creating your new blog post. Here you should see the Yoast SEO plugin section with the Content Tab opened by default. If you do not see the Yoast SEO plugin section, check the Screen Options menu on the very top of the page:

If you already have added the title and the text content of the post, then you will see the auto-generated title and description at the Content Tab. Click the Edit Snippet button to start using this tab. Despite the fact that the title and description are generated automatically, we recommend that you enter them manually to the appropriate fields. This will avoid any problems when reading your site’s meta tags by search engine.

The title of the page should not exceed 65 characters. All other characters will be ignored by the search engine. The optimal number of characters is in the range of 40-60 characters. Try to convey the main theme of your new post briefly and clearly. If you have complied with this rule, the keyword has to be included in your title. If it is not there, then consider options for adding it. The closer the keyword is to the beginning of the title, the more weight it has for the search engine.

The next field is called Slug. In this field, you can edit page URL, which was automatically generated from the heading. It is also necessary to observe brevity and capacity. According to the URL, many users will determine the post`s relevance to the result of search engine results. Do not make the URL too long, otherwise it will not be fully visible in the search engine results. URL can not exceed 40 characters.

The last field in the Content Tab is the description meta tag. In this field, you can provide readers with more common essence of the new post. The data you have entered will be displayed in the results of the search engine queue and can serve as an additional incentive to visit your site. The maximum length of description is 156 characters. All subsequent characters will be automatically cut off by the search engine. The optimal length of description is in the range of 70-120 characters.

If you look below the filled strings, you will see the automatic evaluation by Yoast through two criteria — SEO and Readability. SEO mark is based on the correctness of filling the above strings, as well as on an assessment of the relevance of the title and the page`s text content. Yoast will also take into account the proper registration of images and many other additional factors. Readability mark evaluates the ease of perception of your text in terms of automatic analysis.

Evaluations can be of three types: Good, OK and Needs Improvement. The bad score is not a sentence for your post, but should push you to a critical analysis of its content and design. Yoast will also give you some tips on the criteria that you need to improve to get a better assessment from the automatic tool. Remember that search engine robots also evaluate your site not as a living person, but as an automatic tool. Therefore, the opinion of Yoast really matters for your post.

Yoast SEO Advanced Tab

Yoast SEO Advanced Tab includes the settings for experienced administrators. Here you can set special rules for meta robots index, disable the indexing of content by search engines and make your own rules for handling meta robots files by search engine. You could also add a canonical URL for a page of your blog.

You can change these settings only if you are familiar with the effects of their editing. In other cases, we recommend to ignore this tab as the default settings do not require administrator intervention.

Yoast SEO Share Tab

Yoast SEO Share Tab allows you to set custom title, description and image for Facebook and Twitter social networks. Social networks require even more compressed information format, so separately register these settings will not be superfluous, if you want your content to look perfect on the social networks.

Social networks, in turn, can bring you a lot of new readers and subscribers, so do not neglect this channel of traffic.

WordPress Post Heading

Title of your post is not limited to a certain number of characters, and will always be displayed on your site in full, as opposed to the overly long title or description. However, this does not mean that reasonable restrictions on long headings do not exist. Like the title, it has to carry the main idea of the post and to be brief.

Another important rule applies to the presence of multiple H1 heading on one page. Avoid this common mistake. H1 heading should only be one on every page. Naturally, the standard WordPress interface eliminates the need to write HTML code for the heading. But you should avoid the use of H1 in the text of the post.

WordPress Post Images

While adding images to the post, you can add a title and alternative text for each of them. It is strongly recommended to fill these tags in with appropriate names or keywords. If you (for some reason) do not add title and alternative text once, you can do this in the visual post editor using the Edit button in the allocation of the image:

Another simple way to add a title and alternative text to the image is to go for the text editor and to write the tags manually.

Links and Buttons

Never be afraid to add links to other internet projects. Your readers will only appreciate your sharing of a good content, and search engines will evaluate the positive links to authoritative resources (as you show proof of the above content).

Do not neglect the possibility of to add a button for an important link. Button is good Call-to-Action element which motivates users to interact with your site more. Try to make the buttons visible due to the bright colors, but do not use them too often, so as not to irritate the readers.

More Tools for Auto Checks

Now you have done all the manual work on post optimization. But there are still some important things that should be left to automatic tools.

The first required automatic function is the control of broken links. Sooner or later, broken links appear on any site even with the most attentive and scrupulous administrator. Monitoring their appearance manually is almost impossible. But this is not necessary, because there is such a tool as Broken Link Checker. This plugin performs automatic search for broken links and notify you about their appearance immediately.

The second important element of optimization is the speed of your site. Google has long been openly stated that faster sites get better positions in search systems. But it is impossible to independently take into account all the factors affecting the download speed. For this purpose W3 Total Cache plugin was created. This tool automatically optimizes the many elements of your site, so its total download speed significantly improves.

Use these two tools is mandatory if you want to achieve the best performance of your site.

Final Words

There are numerous techniques to optimize the text and visual content. In this article we have shares with you the simplest, but also the most proven methods of optimization for WordPress blog posts. Over time, you will discover other techniques and tools, but it should start with what is described here.

We wish your WordPress site to constantly develop and improve due to the ideal content optimization!