By: Ayush Munshi

September 25, 2024

Tips to Improve WordPress SEO

Now, any Australian company that wants to maintain its digital presence needs a well-optimised website. And WordPress presents a great choice. This goes for both small businesses and large enterprises. 

Optimising your SEO with the help of an SEO company Australia will, in a short time, result in your site being ranked higher in Google and thus increasing more traffic and opportunities. 

In this blog, we’ll discuss some useful tips on how to improve WordPress SEO, considering that site visibility is very critical in a saturated Australian market. 

Understanding the Basics of WordPress SEO

SEO, or search engine optimisation, represents the process of enhancing your site ranking on search engines like Google. WordPress is a content management platform. It comes with many features to improve the SEO of WordPress websites.

To Australian business owners, optimisation of your website with the help of SEO company Australia makes it possible for your local customers to find your business, and that’s why it is the focus of online marketing. 

SEO consists of several elements, like content, structure and layout of the website, and even backlinks. The end goal is to increase the chances of search engines ranking your site higher for a number of search queries and attract more web users. 

If executed appropriately with the help of a professional SEO company, SEO brings a consistent flow of targeted visitors that is free, unlike paid advertising.

How to Improve Your WordPress SEO?

Choose An SEO-Oriented WordPress Template

One of the most important building blocks of WordPress SEO lies in the choice of the right theme that embodies good aesthetics and meets the minimum standards for search engine rankings.  

An SEO-optimised theme is about as much worth as a good marketing strategy. You can hire WordPress experts to create a custom theme or modify one. The correct theme will also largely guarantee that your pages load fast, that the page renders properly on mobile gadgets, and that there is user-friendly navigation.

Here’s what a professional SEO web design theme should have:

Mobile-Responsiveness

In regards to SEO, mobile responsiveness is crucial as Google uses mobile-first indexing- the primary focus is on the mobile version for ranking the site. With a large percentage of Australians using the net on a mobile phone, mobile browsing is the most preferred mode. Hence, responsive design has to be a priority. When you hire WordPress programmer, they can help make your website mobile-optimised. 

Speed Optimisation

Next to good design, web speed is among the most important factors contributing to the overall ranking of a site. A site that is not responsive and fast enough is annoying for users, driving them away. This increases the bounce rate and lowers the ranking. Therefore, with the help of a WordPress developer in Sydney, you need to design a theme with cleaner code and only necessary aesthetic features, thus lowering the loading time.

Customisable SEO Features

WordPress themes allow for some changes to SEO elements such as description tags, title tags, and even heading tags. These components ensure that your pages have accurate descriptions and relevant headers and that content is arranged following a logical structure.

SEO compatibility of the theme

Ensure the selected theme is friendly with the commonly used SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO. So, many WordPress developers Sydney also create themes with SEO functionalities built-in, which make it easier to edit page titles, meta tags, URL structures and more.

Installing an SEO Plugin

These plugins present a non-complex means through which users can deal with the technical aspects of SEO without writing much code.

Recommended Plugins 

• Yoast SEO: This is perhaps the best plugin offered among the numerous ones for SEO management. It comes with various tools to manage meta tags, generate XML sitemaps, and even provide readability analysis for your content.
• All in One SEO Pack: Another highly popular plugin, All in One SEO Pack, seeks to achieve a similar set of objectives. It is easy to use, and it offers a comprehensive range of functionalities. Your WordPress developer Sydney can use the advanced features to improve your site’s SEO. 

Key Plugin Configurations

• Meta Descriptions: The chances of increasing the click rate of the website content can also be facilitated by the use of Meta descriptions for every page and content posted on the website. Meta descriptions are short summary descriptions of every page and use targeted keywords. Meta descriptions are different for every page and post on a website.
• Schema Markup: Due to the schema.org markup, search engines understand the content better and also give recommendations in the form of rich snippets. It is possible to find a lot of SEO plugins that offer the option of embedding schema markup within your pages with great ease.
• XML Sitemaps: Some plugins, such as Yoast SEO, can generate XML sitemaps which are important to aid in the indexing of the website by search engines. It is, however, important to ensure submission of the sitemap to the search console after sitemap creation so that all the pages within your site are effectively crawled and indexed.

Sounds complex? You can always hire a WordPress website developer to help you install, configure and manage the plugins. 

Optimising Your Website’s Content

Content is definitely essential. In the field of SEO, the effectiveness of your strategy will be determined by content relevance and quality. It is true that WordPress makes it simple to create and publish content. But it is vital to optimise your content for search engines.

Keyword Research for the Australian Market

Keyword research is the first step of content optimisation. SEMRush, Google Keyword Planner, and Ahrefs can be useful for finding some popular search queries related to the niche topic. 

For instance, an Australian business doing local SEO may appear in search results for the following keywords, “SEO company Australia, “WordPress developer Sydney” or “hire WordPress expert.” 

When you use location-specific keywords, your site ranks better for searches that come from particular locations.

Writing Optimised Content for Search Engines and Readers

• Use of H1, H2, & H3 Tags: Headings serve as one of the mechanisms that divide the text into separate parts and also help highlight the content more effectively to the search engines. While one H1 should be used for the main topic of the page, it is recommended to use H2/H3 for the other sub-topics.
• Place Keywords in the Right Place and Only Where It Is Necessary: While these are target keywords, do not repeat them over and over again. Google’s algorithm is smart enough to filter sites that are doing excessive and unpleasant ‘keyword stuffing’. Rather, assist in generating valuable content that meets users’ needs.
• Optimise the Meta Titles and Description: The meta title has to be appealing and the primary keyword must be included in it. The Meta description, in this case, comes in handy to provide a summary for the page. 

An SEO company Australia can help you with content creation and SEO optimisation for your WordPress website. 

Improving the Speed and Site Performance

The speed of the site is important not only for users when they visit but also for SEO ranking. A slow website inevitably translates into an increase in bounce rates, thus indicating to search engines that your site is not desirable.

Some Tips for Speeding Up a Website

• Images should be optimised: Images that are too huge often cause the slowness of your website. Take advantage of Smush or ShortPixel to reduce the size of the photos, that would still look great. Images should also be used in next-gen formats like WebP to reduce the loading time.
• Use Caching Plugins: W3 Total Cachers and W3 Super Cache are examples of cache plugins that save copies of your site, thereby decreasing the burden on the site’s server and making it quicker to load for users coming back to the site.
• Leverage a Content Delivery Network (CDN): CDNs transfer your site’s content to several far-reaching servers. This ensures that users from various locations can view your web pages quickly. Australian businesses can leverage these CDNs with data centres placed in or around Australia to increase efficiency.

Mobile Optimisation

Finding ways to make sure that your WordPress website is mobile-optimised has now become even more critical as mobile-first indexing is now a norm for Google. 

Mobile responsive websites allow re-arrangements of layouts and components in various screen dimensions, typically targeting mobile users in areas with ultra-high-speed internet. 

This is important as over half the global web traffic comes from mobile devices, and especially in the case of Australia, the country has very high mobile penetration. So, hire WordPress website developer to get your store mobile-optimised today. 

Steps to Optimise for Mobile

• Choose a Responsive Theme: Try to select a template that will fit any size of a screen, whether it is a smartphone, a tablet, or a desktop computer.
• Test Mobile Performance: Check how mobile-friendly your site is using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool and make amendments.
• Optimise Fonts and Buttons: Text must be legible on smaller screens, and buttons should be usable – without zooming in.

Leveraging Internal Linking

Internal linking is crucial when it comes to examining the authority of a particular webpage within the confines of your entire site as it eases the indexing process. Additionally, it keeps the users’ attention and encourages them to browse your site for a longer time period.

Best Practices for Internal Linking

• Use Descriptive Anchor Text: Make sure that the anchor text relates to what it is supposed to. Do not use click here or similar phrases.
• Link to Important Pages: Important pages that lead to conversions or pages that contain helpful content should include more internal links. For example, if you write a blog post on “hiring a WordPress developer in Australia”, make a link to the page where your visitors can contact you to hire a WordPress expert.

Apply Local SEO Techniques

Local SEO is particularly recommended for Australian businesses. 

• To achieve a high ranking in the local search engines, it is almost mandatory to incorporate local keywords within the content, meta tags, and URLs.
• The business listing services such as Google My Business and others are of great importance to local SEO as they make it easy to manage the user’s presence of the business across the various Google assets such as Search and Maps.
• Make sure that your business information is current and up to date, and ask customers to leave feedback as they improve your local SEO.

Getting Quality Backlinks

Having backlinks from sites of other well-known companies serves as an assurance to the search engines that the information on your site is credible and authoritative. 

Target local Australian domains, industry blogs, and local directories to obtain good-quality backlinks. You can do this by making extremely helpful materials like infographics or blogs that other sites would wish to direct to.

Final Thoughts

Optimising your WordPress SEO will positively affect the growth of your business in Australia. You’re on your way to improving your rankings, getting new clients, and expanding your business reach by choosing an SEO-efficient template, writing relevant content, speeding up the website, and concentrating on local search optimisation. Do not forget that SEO is never a one-time process. It needs continuous updating and analysis to stay competitive. Hire a WordPress website developer today to start optimising your website today.