Even though there are dozens of platforms that bloggers and site owners can use, WordPress had become the one than many eventually decide to use.
Why do SO MANY end up using WordPress? Particularly SEO and Internet Marketing pros…kinda “obvi” that these guys might have a reason for that, huh?
A few months ago I met and had a few drinks with Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress. We talked specifically about why small business owners and entrepreneurs are choosing it to build their websites.
We both agreed that the main reason are that WordPress has great SEO capabilities out of the box, it’s easy to understand and is very user friendly.
However, being on page 1 of Google is only possible if you fully employ the maximum potential of WordPress, as it is not enough to have these types of features, if you do not use them to their full power.
To release the true strength of WordPress, you must use to the fullest some of the features in the WordPress blog. In order to get top rankings with major search engines, such as Google, you need to make getting these details right a priority.
A lot of people don’t realize how critical tags are on a WordPress blog. Many people don’t create tags when they make posts – don’t do this mistake. Google finds tags helpful when indexing the pages of your blog or website. A tag can be a keyword that’s one word or two long.
These tags need to be relevant to the post and give a description of it.
So, how does Google use tags in WordPress?
Tags allow your posts to be categorized and “sorted”, resulting in faster and more accurate indexing. What’s cool is that tagging your blog posts is very easy and does not take much time or effort to include. Internal linking between your posts and pages is also a good practice (I also recommend the SEO Smartlinks Plugin).
In this way, your posts will be linked together to indicate that they are related.
One of the easiest ways to get indexed by Google is to use a sitemap.Use the Google XML Sitemaps Plugin to develop a Google Sitemap. This enables Google to easily find all of your site’s pages. In addition to this, whenever you post something new, Google knows about it immediately.
Another great way to increase your interlinks within each post is to include a list of related postings under each new post you make.
This can be done by using one of the plugins that places a number of related posts using tags. The quantity of relevant posts that you want to share is simple to configure, and it makes it easier for search engines to index content which isn’t as new.
Overall, WordPress is simply an amazing platform in its ability to optimize your site for any of the search engines. Adhere to the quick tips within this article so you can achieve the best possible results.
Author Info: Brian Horn, of HornDog Search Marketing, is recognized by many as the "Glazer-Kennedy Secret Weapon", because of his role in helping not only Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer with search engine optimization and social media, but also many of the top Information Marketers in the world.
Brian shares SEO tips for small businesses over at at his blog, BeOnPage1Blog.com. Tags: bloggers, google, Internet Marketing, major search engines, small business owners, wordpress blog
Brian– another very valuable post!
I have been using Wordpress on my blog, along with several plugins, and yet was not having any Google rankings.
until I researched and discovered that there is a little “keep this blog invisible to search engines” that was checked…
So, in addition to the great advice above, make sure that box is not checked on your own Wordpress blog!
Brian – Great post.
I utilize Wordpress blogs as well to promote my clients’ sites and to get them to dominate the 1st page of Google because like you said, it is awesome for SEO.
I really like the All in One SEO Plugin as well.
Spring training is just getting under way, but Brian Horn’s batting average is already through the roof. Another big hit!
I have a Word Press page (and manage several others), but have not been maximizing the potential to the extent covered here with these great tips. Like John above I have been using the All in One plugin, but will quickly add and configure the other plugins mentioned above.
Having used Drupal and a couple of custom CMS packages I can say that not only is Word Press superior for SEO, but it’s also much easier to implement and maintain. The best solution all around.
…yes thank you… I also use wordpress…
I switched to wordpress from eblogger a few months…wordpress is cleaner, easier to use, gets better SEO rankings and you can incorporate so much more into Wordpress than most other blog sites.
lucky me, I’ve been using wordpress for 2 or 3 years. maybe by accident, maybe because I found it in Dan’s newsletter many moons ago. The trouble I have is when you copy text from a file, the formatting is a mess.
Scott – Are you using one of the two WYSIWYG buttons they have for that? There’s one for “Paste as plain text” and one for “Paste from Word”. I’ve found that using those strips all of the funkiness that Word docs sometimes add to what looks like normal text.
Many people don’t create tags when they make posts – don’t do this mistake. Google finds tags helpful when indexing the pages of your blog or website. A tag can be a keyword that’s one word or two long.
thank you Brian
great tips
Rob,
I am also using wp furiously here,
great SEO tool
[...] Tips for Using Wordpress for SEO Wordpress is by far out preferred platform for developing websites. We develop ALL of our websites on Wordpress because on the unique SEO benefits. Brian’s articles (@brianhorn) does a great job of outlining those SEO benefits. “To release the true strength of WordPress, you must use to the fullest some of the features in the WordPress blog. In order to get top rankings with major search engines, such as Google, you need to make getting these details right a priority. A lot of people don’t realize how critical tags are on a WordPress blog…” Read more… [...]
Wordpress + Google were made for each other! I’m not aware of any other platform that makes on-page search engine optimization so easy, even for newbies. I manage seven Wordpress sites (I don’t even call them blogs anymore) for myself and clients, and I’ve seen massive SEO success using the Wordpress platform and the various SEO plugins. If I had to choose just two, I’d say XML Sitemaps and All In One SEO are must-haves.
I launched a very basic, low-traffic site for a client about a month ago, and now blog posts from MyBPBear.com are indexed by Google within an hour. It’s early days but I’m sure we’ll start seeing organic search results within the next few weeks.
Please keep me informed about what is going on. Great job .
Brian;
Do you think it pays to go back to older blog posts and add in tags so Google will like them more?
I assume you’ll say yes…. right?
Rabbi,
in wordpress you can go back to any older blog and edit it… I have gone back and added tags and made corrections to errors.
I use Wordpress for all of my websites, and for the ones I put up and manage for my private clients.
Quick, easy and powerful = no-brainer decision.
[...] Brian Horn gives some great basics in terms of tagging and SEO. [...]
[...] Tips for Using WordPress for SEO | Small Business Marketing Blog … – Even though there are dozens of platforms that bloggers and site owners can use, WordPress had become the one than many eventually decide to use. Why do SO. [...]
I just turned today to wordpress, how my god, this is so simple, why did I wait so long ?
I just started using it. Do you think it will work better with a real domain name instead of wordpress.com?