Mention running a website to any small business owner and the first thing they’ll respond with is a worry around SEO. Search Engine Optimisation is one of the biggest buzzwords AND the most misunderstood phrases linked to having your own website. But it doesn’t have to be big or scary!
Plugins – designed to make life a bit easier for you
The great thing about WordPress websites is their ease of use. Not only are they simple to set up, they have the ability to be easily customised and tailored to suit your individual needs. You simply search and install them via the WordPress ‘plugins’ section of your dashboard and, once you’ve activated them, they’re ready to use.
Plugins are little snippets of code, designed to do a specific thing. Whether you want to add in an opt-in form or install a banner image across the top of your site, there’s a plugin that will do that for you – and SEO is not different!
SEO – there’s a plugin that can do that!
When it comes to your website SEO, there IS a plugin that can do that too – actually there’s several! With both paid-for and free options available, it’s often a case of doing your homework and comparing the different plugins. I like to also base my decision on what’s popular and recommended – and that’s where Yoast comes in.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
Yoast enables you to easily set up the right SEO for your site. Yoast options are available at the bottom of every page and post you are creating, giving you both blank space to type in, and a prompt, for all of the important SEO features. The main ‘general’ tab of the Yoast section will show the most important SEO features, such as:
- Keyword
- H1 (title) for your page or post
- Meta description (this will be the short snippet of text that shows in the search engine results)
Once you’ve filled the boxes, it also tells you whether your keyword is appearing in these three important areas (the results will show as green when correct, red if missing), along with how many times it appears, making SEO super easy.
On the additional tabs, you also have access to:
- Page analysis – for in-depth details on your page or post SEO
- Social – to link with your Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts
- Advanced
With so much to offer on this free WordPress application, Yoast is an excellent SEO plugin – so why not check it out? You can get Yoast for WordPress free, here: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
Do you use Yoast on your WordPress website? Maybe you’ve got a different SEO plugin on your site? Have you been avoiding using an SEO plugin, as it’s too complicated for you to install or are you struggling with WordPress generally? Whatever your WordPress worries or hesitations, why not have a chat with me, and let’s see if we can ease your plugin and WordPress worries?
Image courtesy of destina/Dollar Photo club