Optimize Your WordPress Website for  SEO in 2024

WordPress powers over 41% of all accessible websites, and the leading e-commerce websites using this platform understand what sets it apart from the competition. The rules for successful WordPress SEO in 2024 are set to change; use this guide to keep up and rank like never before. 

What is WordPress SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

SEO is about getting websites to rank higher in search results pages with targeted content and fine-tuned pages. What you might not already know is that WordPress is one of the best platforms for SEO, whether you’re a beginner or someone intimately familiar with the WordPress backend. Here’s why:

• Native integration with some of the best SEO plugins on the market (more on this later!)
• In-built support for technical SEO features like automatic XML sitemap generation to help speed up search engine indexing.
• WordPress helps you create SEO-oriented permalinks that are relevant to your website’s content, helping both users and search engines navigate it.

Let’s break down the fundamentals of WordPress SEO in 2024. 

• Keywords: Great keyword research is the foundation of your SEO. At this stage, your goal should be understanding how your audience searches. What kind of terms do they use? Are they phrased as questions or descriptions? To that end, you should also analyze what keywords your competitors are ranking for.
  
  Effective WordPress SEO optimizes page rankings through keyword gap analysis, which is determining the valuable terms your competitors are outranking your site for. This analysis helps businesses understand which keywords they should focus on to rank better that they might not have otherwise considered.
  
• Structure: The overall architecture of your website can have a sizable impact on how you approach WordPress SEO in 2024.
  
  • If you have a blog with many different author and category pages, you’ll want to make sure those pages are marked as no-index to avoid being flagged for duplicate content.
    
  • Add alt-text and file names (preferably including keywords) to all product/category/blog images on your WordPress website to optimize them. This action helps your website perform better and makes navigation more accessible for the average user.
    
  • Use subcategories to divide related pages in your website architecture. This structure also helps avoid duplication further down the line as you add more content.
    
    

As a side note, you’ll want to regularly check your Theme and Plugin settings to ensure they’re up-to-date, as outdated themes can affect load speeds and outdated plugins can be a vulnerability risk. 

Crafting Content That Ranks

Content optimization and WordPress SEO go hand-in-hand; quality content is king for WordPress SEO in 2024. New features like Google Snippets and apps like Co-Pilot that can crawl the web in milliseconds to find high-quality answers open up an exciting opportunity for WordPress websites like yours. You can feature your website in these answers by crafting reliable, authoritative, and trustworthy content. 

Linking

Building on our point about structure, linking also plays a significant role in WordPress SEO in 2024. Maintaining strong internal links between related pages will help your visitors navigate your website and eventually convert while helping search engines understand your website’s structure. 

Similarly, external links are a valuable way of obtaining backlinks from other, more authoritative websites, driving more traffic to yours and increasing your content’s reputation. You should also attempt to link to other reputable websites in your posts. This linking can be done through statistics and citations. 

As you optimize links for WordPress SEO, don’t forget to clean up those broken links. Repairing broken links is an on-page SEO best practice that can help your WordPress website improve its domain authority. If you find a broken backlink, contact the original author to see if there’s an alternate URL that could be used instead. If they are unresponsive, setting a redirect for the broken URL to a preferred live page is a good backup plan.

Quality Control

Thorough research needs to be your anchor for WordPress SEO in 2024, whether in keywords or your blog topics. Your goal should be to eliminate the fluff from your content and focus on creating accurate, info-dense posts. This can include:

• Citing sources where possible.
• Using mixed media such as videos and pictures in your posts.
• Optimizing all pictures with alt-text.
• Forming a connection with your readers. 

Optimizing Local WordPress SEO: The Secret To Success

Local SEO aims to answer the ‘near me’ questions, cornering audiences in a given region. In practice, this means pushing your business listing higher up in Google’s Map Pack. Local SEO started picking up steam not too long ago, and it has become an absolute juggernaut that you just can’t leave behind in your WordPress SEO strategy for 2024. Currently, around 1/3rd of online shoppers go online to find nearby businesses.

Popularity isn’t the only reason you should care about local SEO for your WordPress website. While the two might sound distinct, global SEO can positively impact local SEO and vice-versa, driving online and offline traffic. Here’s how you can capitalize on that:

• Create a Listing: Content optimization and WordPress SEO will only take you so far with Local SEO if you don’t have a Google Business Profile (GBP). GBP will allow you to manage your local presence on Google, including customer engagement (Q&As), live chat messaging, images, posts, and reviews.
  
  You should always ensure your GBP details are up-to-date and accurate. This includes your WordPress URL, physical address, phone numbers, and a description of the services/products you offer. If your store has changed its business hours or if you plan to close down on a given day, your profile should reflect it.
  
• Localized Keywords: If your WordPress SEO in 2024 strategy is about increasing local rankings then your keywords should follow suit. Target local keywords that include the name of a city/region to help your store and website rank well for local searchers. For example, go for “pet shop in Pittsburgh, PA” instead of “pet shop.”
  
• Get Featured!: Try to get your business cited in local directories and social media. These listings build your local authority with Google and can be a great way to improve your ranking. Getting featured in local listicles like “Top 5 Pet Food Shops in Pittsburgh” is another easy way of getting your business increased local exposure. Use Google to find websites that publish lists in your area and build a relationship with the editors to get your business featured.
  

Improve Your Ranking With Technical SEO in 2024

Performance optimization with WordPress SEO is all about getting technical. 

• Mobile-friendly: Almost 60% of all web traffic now comes from mobile users. To make the mobile version of your WordPress website more SEO-oriented in 2024, make sure your pages load as fast as possible on mobile. Additionally, consider taking the time to create a mobile-friendly menu system if you don’t already have one, your future customers will thank you.
  
• Picking a Theme: Picking an SEO-friendly WordPress theme can do much of the heavy lifting for you in terms of website performance. Themes like Astra, Divi, and Genesis come with features like optimized headers and breadcrumbs to give you fine-tuned technical SEO right out of the box. 

Find The Best Plugins for WordPress SEO in 2024

Tracking down the best optimization plugins for WordPress SEO can help you automate a ton of work and cut down on mistakes. 

Squirrly SEO

Squirrly is excellent if you’re looking for a complete SEO WordPress solution, including support for every cycle stage from keyword research to monitoring. If you were using another plugin before this, Squirrly will also allow you to seamlessly move your settings over and give you an AI-powered settings list for your website. The downside to all this power is that Squirrly can cost more than most other full-cycle SEO plugins. 

Internal Link Juicer

Internal Link Juicer can intelligently suggest relevant pages for you to link to. On top of providing readers with helpful context, this plugin also makes your life easier with automation features. Configure a list of keywords through the plugin, and it will automatically start building those links the next time you create a post. 

WPCode

As far as the best WordPress SEO plugins for 2024 go, WPCode is one of the most popular choices. This plugin allows you to quickly insert headers and footers by adding code snippets without ever having to go into your theme’s function code. This one is a must-have if you aren’t quite comfortable messing around with your theme’s code files yet. 

WordPress SEO, Simplified

Creating an optimized plan for WordPress SEO is all about mastering the basics. Once you’ve got a site structure and keyword research down, find the SEO plugin that best suits your budget and requirements.

If you’d like some help with your WordPress SEO in 2024, reach out to us for a free strategy review! Coalition Technologies has helped hundreds of WordPress-powered websites earn millions in sales with innovative strategies that generate positive results. 

FAQ

Does WordPress allow SEO?

WordPress includes SEO-friendly features like sitemap generation and optimized headers to help you fine-tune your website faster.

Do I need to pay for WordPress SEO optimization plugins?

Many great SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math include useful free features to help you get started. Premium offerings like Squirrly offer a pricier but more complete SEO solution.

How can I improve my WordPress SEO in 2024?

Once you’ve implemented your SEO plan, constantly monitor your website with tools like Google Analytics to find out what works and what doesn’t. Making the right changes at the right time can lead to impressive growth.