30 WordPress SEO tips to improve your rankings: Part 2 of 6
6. Integrate Google Analytics
Another Google tool that you will want to have in your arsenal is Google Analytics. This tool will show you how well your SEO strategy is working giving you in-depth information about the traffic of your site.
To set up your account, go to the Google Analytics homepage and create an account. Next, you’ll want to locate your tracking code. It should be in Tracking Info > Tracking Code . Then, copy the code that looks similar to the following example:
Depending on your theme, you may have the option to directly add the Google Analytics tracking code. If this is not possible, you can use the same Insert Headers and Footers plugin that we used previously.
Open the plugin, go to the header section and paste your tracking code. That is all! Now you can see the statistics of your site. For more detailed instructions, you can also check our step-by-step guide on how to add Google Analytics to WordPress .
7. Send a site map to Google
Sitemaps are used by search engines to better track your website. Your site will still be tracked even without a site map, but creating one allows you to report the data you want the search engines to track.
You can make sure that certain pages that do not contribute to your positioning are not tracked, as well as prioritize your most valuable pages. If you are using the Yoast SEO plugin, you can easily create and send a site map.
Go to SEO> Desktop> Features . Then scroll down and activate ‘ XML Sitemaps ‘.
Click on the link that says ‘ See XML sitemap ‘ and this will open your site map to make sure it was actually created.
Now we will send that site map to Google. Go to your Google Search Console control panel and click on ‘ Sitemaps ‘.
In the right corner, you will see an Add / Test Sitemap option . Click on that option, insert the URL of your site map and click on ‘ Submit ‘. Now, Google will crawl your sitemap on a regular basis, which can help you index quickly.
8. Optimize your site for mobile devices
Google has just announced that they are beginning to test their index with mobile priority . This means that they will begin to use the performance and functionality of your mobile pages to determine your positioning. So, if you are not using a responsive theme, this is the best time to fix it.
But, beyond choosing a responsive theme, you can verify how your site currently works across the entire mobile spectrum. To do this, open the Google mobile device compatibility test and enter the URL of your site.
This will show you a breakdown of how the mobile version of your site works and give you some tips on how to improve it.
9. Accelerate your website
The speed of the website has always been important. Having a slow loading website will have a negative impact on your positioning and user experience. The speed of the page is on the way to becoming a positioning factor .
Luckily, fixing a slow loading site is not difficult. The following steps will help you begin:
Get a departure number
First of all, you’ll have to get an idea of how your site is currently working. Open a tool called GTMetrix and verify your site there. This will give you a breakdown of your current performance numbers, so you can see what you need to improve.
Update your server
Sometimes, incorrect configuration of the server can cause slowness. That is why it is important to choose a correct web hosting environment. To improve the performance of a WordPress site, we recommend choosing a specific WordPress hosting package tailored to the configuration of your site.
Use a CDN
A CDN will help speed up your site by storing versions of it on servers around the world. In this way, when a visitor comes to your site, you will get the version closest to your physical location. A reliable free solution is to integrate your site with a CDN such as Cloudflare.
Use a cache plugin
A caching plugin will generate static HTML files, instead of the PHP files that are normally required to run WordPress. This will minimize the number of requests between the server and your user’s browser, which will decrease the upload speed.
Some of the most common WordPress cache plugins include W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache .
Optimize your multimedia resources
If you are loading images on your site, they should be optimized properly.
To optimize your images do the following:
Reduce the file size by running your images in a tool such as TinyPNG .
Change the size of your images before uploading them.
Install an image optimization plugin like WP Smush.
10. Fix broken links
Having many broken links is not good for your readers or for your positioning. Also, they make it difficult for Google robots to crawl your site.
The easiest way to identify broken links on your site is to open Google Search Console and click on “Crawl Errors”.
Then, open each error and it will show you where the broken link is, so you can fix it.