Tips for Adding Content to WordPress

Posted: November 7, 2016

It’s not just as simple as quickly adding content to WordPress but you should be adding your content in such a way that ensures the search engines are able to properly read and easily index it. Taking the time to add the content correctly and thoroughly is just as important as writing the content and it will make a significant difference in how much search traffic will find your pages and posts.

The following discusses some of the best practices for adding content to your website.

All Pages and Posts

The following items apply to all Page or Posts in WordPress:

1. Title: Use a Title that contains relevant keywords for your Page or Post. Make it short and concise.
2. URL: Make sure the URL for the Page or Post contains keywords is not too long. Also make sure that it doesn’t contain a number “2” in the URL, which is irrelevant and sometimes added by WordPress when there is another page or post using the same URL.
3. Headings: Inside the main content of your Page or Post, ensure that you are using the proper heading tags. Know which heading on your page is or should be <h1> and then structure the rest of the text using other Heading tags (<h2>, <h3>, etc.) as sub headings.
4. Image Alt Tags: Make sure that all photos and images on your website have a short description in the Image’s “Alt Text”. The best way to do this in WordPress is to go to add “Alt Text” when you upload an image to the Media Gallery, this way the image will always have the Alt Tag specified when you add it to the content (ie. Add it once and it’s always there).

Posts Only

In WordPress, Posts have two other elements that Pages don’t have. They are Categories and Tags:

1. Categories: Organizing your Posts into Categories helps for usability and enables an organized content structure. While you can assign a post to more-than-one Category, you should keep the number of categories relatively small and concise.
2. Tags: Keywords that appear in the post can also be added as Tags. You have much more freedom adding Tags and adding anywhere from 5-15 Tags is generally a good number. Don’t add too many, otherwise it starts to appear like you are keyword-stuffing.

Meta Tags for All Pages and Posts

Meta tags have been used for years by the search engines to help index and display the preview details of a website in the search results. With the exception of the Keywords Meta Tag, they are still very much relevant today.

An SEO Plugin in WordPress makes it easiest to add and update Meta Tags and we typically recommend either All In One SEO or Yoast SEO. Both plugins include fields in the Pages and Posts editing sections underneath the main content textarea. You should edit:

1. The Page Title: Write a short Page Title that contains keywords that appear in the content of the page or post. Make sure to use a consistent Page Title structure for all pages and posts on your website. Using a character, like a vertical bar, to separate the title of the page with the site name is most effective. For example:

   Vancouver Apples and Oranges | Bob’s Fruit Stand

   The “Vancouver Apples and Oranges” is unique for a specific page.The ” | Bob’s Fruit Stand” contains the separator character and the name of the business and should be consistent throughout the rest of the website.

2. Meta Description: Write a one-sentence description about the page’s content. There should be keywords in the Meta Description that are also in the Page Title and the Content of the page. For example:

   Bob’s Fruit Stand sells fresh apples and oranges and is conveniently located in Vancouver on Main Street near Broadway.

   All Pages and Posts on your website should have a unique (ie. different) Meta Description. One full sentence should be the natural and correct amount of text for a Meta Description.

Using these techniques will ensure that your are getting the most out of your website content. While making sure that these elements are in place can take a lot of extra time, the results can mean a very significant increase in traffic from organic search results.

Tags: adding content to wordpress, content seo, content tips wordpress, organic search seo, wordpress content, wordpress seo
Posted in Digital Marketing Strategy, Google, SEO, Wordpress