Unlocking WordPress for SEO Power
Powering more than 75 million websites, WordPress is the world’s largest and most widely used content management system (CMS). Created by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, it allows users to create brilliant, fully functional websites without having to mess with complicated code. You can add new content, modify existing content, update your site design and more, all from within WordPress’ what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor.
Granted, you can technically build a website using nothing more than Notepad or your preferred document editing program, but doing is a tedious, monotonous task that really doesn’t make since given the sheer power of WordPress. But the real beauty of WordPress is its ability to encourage higher search rankings with minimal effort.
Search Engine-Friendly URLs
Rather than using generic, nondescript URLs (e.g. www.yoursite.com/xyz123), you can set up WordPress to create new pages using a more meaningful URL structure such as www.yoursite.com/marketing-tips. This is done by logging into the WordPress dashboard and choosing Settings > Permalinks, at which point you can choose from several different formats. If you want your site’s URLs to contains the respective page’s title, select “Post name” – this is the recommended option, and it works for both post and page URLs.
Auto Pings New Content to Search Engines
It’s not uncommon for search engines to index new WordPress posts and pages within minutes of it being published. How in the world can Google find, let alone index, your website’s content in such little time? By default, WordPress notifies pingomatic.com when you publish new content, which then notifies all of the major search engines.
While pingomatic is the default pinging service used in WordPress, you can add your own to the list under Settings > Writing > Update Services.
Post and Page Scheduling
If you keep up with our blog here at PixelProductionsInc.com, you’re probably well aware of the importance of publishing fresh content to your website on a regular basis. According to Google, content is the single most important element on a website, so this is one step you shouldn’t overlook.
Unfortunately, not everyone is able to research and write high-quality articles every other day, which is where WordPress comes into play: it features a nifty scheduling tool that allows users to schedule posts and pages to be published at a later date. Using this tool, you can create several articles, scheduling them to be published every couple of days.
Visitor Commenting
The SEO benefits of WordPress don’t end there. This highly popular content management system comes with a built-in commenting feature. If a visitor wants to share their thoughts or ask a question related to an article, they can do in the commenting section.
How can this benefit your site’s search ranking? Each time a visitor leaves a comment, it creates new content for your website – content that search engines LOVE. Yes, you’ll probably receive some spam comments (consider it a badge of honor), but you’ll also receive some constructive comments from real human visitors, and those are the comments that will boost your site’s ranking and overall level of engagement.
