WordPress SEO to grow your business

Improve your site's performance and visibility with our comprehensive audits and campaigns

Let's talk

WordPress Website SEO

How to make your WordPress site SEO friendly

Once you have your WordPress site up and running (and if we built it, even before!) your focus should then switch to ensuring your site is easily found by your audience and exceeds their expectations. This is where you will need to dive into the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

How does SEO work?

SEO is the process of getting traffic for free from the search engines. Using keywords, quality content, links (internal and external) and a mixture of technical areas, to help improve your website's page ranking - the position your pages appear in the search engines. It is a continual process and for the best results something you should allocate regular time and resources to.

Is WordPress good for SEO?

Yes, WordPress is good for SEO. It is considered one of the best CMS platforms for search engine optimisation. Paired with a quality SEO plugin, a clear strategy and an ongoing SEO campaign, you will be able to reap the benefits with increased website traffic.

WordPress SEO checklist

There are lots of important choices that need to be made correctly at the start of your WordPress website build. Below is a checklist of items you will need to go through, it is not an exhaustive list, but it gives areas to focus on, from the start of your build through to having an optimised website.

Keyword and competitor research: best done BEFORE your website build as it will help you focus on target areas and guide the hierarchy of your content and navigation.
Website build: avoid bloated code with unnecessary plugins and choose fast WP theme or consider WordPress with Full Site Editing
Mobile design: build with a mobile friendly and responsive design
Security: set up your SSL certificate and other security features
Site speed: choose quality hosting designed for WordPress Consider a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
SEO plugin: Install and configure your SEO plugin
Tracking and analytics: set up tracking software with goals - Search Console, GA4 or alternative analytics
Reporting: set up website monitoring and reporting
Sitemap: set up and automate Sitemap
SEO strategy: create an SEO strategy to fit your business goals
On-page optimisation: keywords, quality content, images, meta optimisation, internal linking, URL structure, content silos
Off-page optimisation: linking, content marketing, social sharing, branding activity, PR, reputation management
Technical SEO: crawlability, redirects, UX (User eXperience), accessibility, canonicals, structured markup, site architecture

Our SEO Process

At Channel, our SEO process follows these steps:

Understanding your business goals
Conducting an SEO audit and technical assessment of your website to identify areas for improvement
Performing research, including Keyword research and Competitor research
Creating an SEO strategy
Setting realistic SEO/ranking goals
Running an SEO campaign / Training your team inhouse in SEO
Tracking results
Monitoring changes, both internal (your website) and external (algorithm updates, competitors) and adapting as needed

What will an SEO Audit include?

All our SEO audits are based around the areas listed below. There may be different emphases depending on any problems areas you have, how much SEO you have already done and your business goals. We will take the time prior to an audit to understand how best we can help.

Our audits are not automated from standard SEO software. There are often issues with websites that sit outside the box and it takes time and investigation to really understand what the issues are and the solutions.

SEO Audit: This is a review of your website to identify any issues, suggestions for improvements and a plan for implementation.
Search Audit: This includes a review of your presence online, keyword research and competition review.
Technical Audit: This includes internal linking, crawlability, URL parameters, server connectivity and response codes, website speed and mobile friendly review.

What does an SEO Campaign look like?

After we have completed an SEO audit, you will have a clear road map on the next steps. The audit will include a priority list of technical fixes and an ongoing plan for future SEO work. We would work with you to focus on the areas that will increase your website traffic and prioritise the work so it can fit in with your business objectives and budget. After the initial technical work, there will be lots of opportunities to target different areas online. This work is likely to include:

On-page content optimisation including meta updates and internal and external links
Local business optimisation if relevant
Content marketing - creating targeted content that fits with niche areas highlighted in the audit, updating historical content
Content sharing through social media and email marketing
Ranking reviews and reporting
Ongoing monitoring of site health and updates as needed
Training and sharing of processes and best practise so you can do the work inhouse if desired

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What is the best SEO plugin for WordPress?

The best WordPress SEO plugins are Yoast SEO and Rank Math:

Yoast SEO: One of the most powerful plugins available for WordPress. The free version is a good starting place, but for a minimum annual cost the paid for version is much more comprehensive. It will guide you on areas like AI optimised SEO titles and meta descriptions, helping speed up the optimisation process. It is suitable for both beginners and experienced SEO professionals. Areas we particularly like include the internal linking suggestions, social previews and the redirect manager.
Rank Math: A more recent player in the market, Rank Math has gained popularity with a really comprehensive tool set. It is very focused on technical SEO and has an easy import function from other SEO plugins like Yoast. Areas that we really like include analytics integration and keyword rank tracking.

Other plugins worth mentioning are All in One SEO pack, SEOPress, Squirrly SEO, SmartCrawl and Slim SEO.

With any AI and software advising solutions, you still need to engage your brain to work out if it is the right solution for you. We often see SEO software advising on areas which are not necessary or could negatively affect your website. For example, negatively highlighting a page of technical data as too complex with low readability, but technical data can be highly searchable as well as legally required to be formatted in a certain way. This is where experience counts and where we can work alongside your team to ensure they use the software/plugins with effectiveness and confidence.

2. Can you do SEO without a plugin on WordPress?

Yes you can do SEO without a WordPress plugin but it is much harder! The only advantage of not using a plugin is saving on any additional code being added to your website, but the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages. Both Rank Math and Yoast have a free version of their plugin which is worthwhile trying.

3. Do you provide WordPress SEO training?

At Channel we work with our clients to get the best bang for their buck! This can look different from business to business. You may wish to be hands off and just receive a regular report on SEO work and the results, or you may wish to upskill your own team to do some/all of the work inhouse. Either of these options are fine, Channel will work with you to ensure you reach your goals in the most efficient manner.

4. Is website speed important?

Absolutely! To gain the ‘green light’ in Google’s Core Web Vitals you need to hit the recommended metrics shown below. There are 3 areas we look at in detail and give recommendations on how to improve your website for these important metrics. Read more here about the importance for website speed here.

Loading time - the time it takes for a site to load, ideally should be less than 2.5 seconds
Interactivity - the time a page is blocked from responding to a users input eg. tapping a screen or clicking a mouse. Ideally should be less than 100 milliseconds
Visual stability - this measures how much your pages shifts around or jumps whilst it is loading. Ideally aim for 0.1 or less.

5. What about Technical SEO?

Technical SEO helps improve your website for both people and the search engines. It helps search engines easily find and understand your content. It helps your users to enjoy using your website due to factors like the website speed and the user experience (UX). Done well, it will help boost your visibility in the search results.

It includes but is not limited to the following areas: crawlability, redirects, UX, accessibility, canonicals, structured markup, site architecture, site speed, site security, site maps, indexing, duplicate content, mobile friendly & responsive, navigation, pagination, hreflang,

Ready to talk?
Book a friendly no-obligation chat with us to find out more...

Chat to us now

Get in touch