11 Tips for Effective On-Page SEO for Your WordPress Website

When you're running a WordPress website, your number one priority should be ranking high on search engine results pages. Why? Because organic traffic is the biggest source of the traffic to your website. You can create exciting content, add stunning visuals, and have brilliant ideas, but you won’t get very far without a good SEO strategy.

SEO is used to improve your ranking and make your website appealing to both regular visitors and search engines. On-page SEO is an essential aspect of your SEO strategy, which is why you need to learn all about it. To help you nail it, we've put together a list of 11 tips for effective On-page SEO for your WordPress Website.

Let's break it down.

Create High-quality Content

Before you even start thinking about promoting and improving your content ranking, you need to make sure you have a solid base. Writing high-quality content should be a top priority for you. The content you publish needs to be:

• Informative
• Valuable
• Relevant
• Original

You should share tips, write tutorials, advise, explain, and help, depending on what your website is about. For example, a website about blogging and content writing could share tips like:

• Creating stunning visuals for your blog
• One-click WordPress Install
• Boosting your website through social media

Provide value, and you'll boost your traffic.

Title Keyword

Keywords are essential for powerful SEO. Once you research and choose the keywords to use, start by adding the main keyword in your page’s title.

Having a relevant keyword in your title will help the search engines understand what the page is about and link it to the right organic searches.

Here’s what we have in mind:

• 6 Best Tips to Quit Smoking Today
• DIY: Best Tips on How to Start Composting

It will tell potential page visitors exactly what to expect on the page, and that will improve your traffic even further.

Insert Keywords Naturally

You need to do proper research and select the right keywords. You also need to insert them in the content naturally so that they don’t ruin the quality of the text.

Keyword stuffing is the practice of inserting as many keywords in the text as possible without paying attention to its quality. The truth is, it's bad for your ranking and ruins the value you’re trying to share.

Use H1 and H2 Tags

A better way to insert keywords and signalize to search engines and page visitors what the page is about is to use H1 and H2 tags. Organize your content using subtitles with other relevant keywords and phrases.

This will provide structure, and guidance and give you a chance to boost your on-page SEO by using more keywords.

Write Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are those short paragraphs of text you see under the page title on the search results page.

They need to:

• Summarize the page content
• Include main keywords
• Be attractive to make people interested in

Write unique meta descriptions for each of your WordPress website pages, and always pay attention to your meta tags. They make it way easier for people to find exactly what they are looking for on your site.

If you use an SEO plugin like Slim SEO, it will generate a meta description automatically if you miss it.

Write Long-form Articles

Long-form articles help you make your website the go-to resource for industry-related information and news. Writing elaborate, information-packed articles will draw more attention to your website and give you a chance to apply all the other on-page SEO strategies we’ve discussed.

Create a Clear Structure

Clarity is another factor that can influence how page visitors like your content, how long they stay on your page, and whether they come back for more.

Well-organized website page contains:

• Subtitles
• Bullet points
• Short paragraphs
• Lists

The content is divided into segmented wholes, which allows the users to find information faster and enjoy your content more.

Provide Outbound Links

Outbound links are the links you place within your content that lead your page visitors to other reliable and credible websites and sources of information. This way, you’re showing the search engines that your content is connected to other worthy websites, which will help you rank higher.

It also shows your page visitors you base your content on facts from trusted sources.

Optimize URLs

Optimizing your URLs is essential if you want to boost your on-page SEO. Don't leave them looking like a bunch of letters, signs, and numbers. Instead, optimize them as follows:

• Make them readable
• Include keywords
• Use them to explain page content

Let’s compare:

• http://yourwebsite.com/index.php?=77324=?s565=922
• http://yourwebsite.com/products/wodden-armchairs 

The second optimized URL will make the difference that you need and help search engines and visitors understand your content better.

Optimize for Mobile, Local & Voice Searches

Nowadays, so many people are using their smartphones or tablets to search for information and browse the web. In addition, voice searches are becoming more and more popular. This changed the way people search for information.

So, firstly, make your website mobile-friendly by adapting your page layout to all screen sizes. Test before you publish.

Then, consider including keywords used in location-related and voice searches, which include:

• Long-tail keywords
• Searches in the form of a question
• Specific locations

A person doing a voice search is more likely to say "What is the best restaurant in Chicago?" than to say "good restaurant in Chicago".

Add Internal Links

Finally, adding internal links to the mixture will help you reinforce your website and boost its organic traffic even more. Internal links are the links leading to other content on your website. But, be careful how you do it.

Here's what we suggest:

• Only add links that are relevant to the given content
• Don’t add too many links
• Come up with creative anchor text - don’t just do “click here”
• Insert them naturally

Adding internal links will help you boost your page’s value in the eyes of Google’s search engines. So, make sure to add the right links and make your WordPress website more valuable and visited.

Final Thoughts

Optimizing your WordPress website using on-page SEO is obligatory if you want to rank higher and improve your traffic.

Use the 11 tips we've shared above to nail your on-page SEO strategy. Soon, you’ll start enjoying the benefits we’ve covered in this article.