IMPROVE WEBSITE RANK USING SEO – (CHAPTER- 5) | ON-SITE OPTIMIZATION FACTORS
5.1 Introduction
In the world of SEO, there are two primary areas of focus: on-site optimization and off-site optimization. On-site optimization involves optimizing page content, Meta tags, navigation, and adding links to other relevant pages within your website. Off-site optimization is the process of securing backlinks from other websites to your own.
In this chapter, we will explore three WP Plugins that can help optimize 3qds.com’s on-site factors, including posts, pages, and images. These plugins are Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin, WordPress SEO Setting on Individual Posts and Pages Plugin, and SEO Friendly Images Plugin. Additionally, a 3qds.com XML sitemap has been created to increase website traffic.
5.2 On-Site Optimization (SEO):
On-site optimization refers to changes made to a website’s code to improve its search engine ranking. These changes include optimizing title tags, meta description tags, H1 tags, bold text, and keyword density.
5.3 First Plugin: Yoast WordPress SEO
In this particular segment, the researcher employed the use of Yoast WordPress SEO, a widely recognized and highly regarded free plugin, in order to optimize the majority of the SEO factors for 3qds.com. Utilizing CMS WP as its content management system, Yoast WordPress SEO is an incredibly potent tool capable of effortlessly managing all SEO configurations. This plugin is known for its reliability and its ability to adjust to the ever-changing world of SEO and Google ranking metrics while adhering to best practices.
This comprehensive guide delves into the various segments of the WordPress SEO Plugin. The topics covered include maximizing the effectiveness of your site’s Tags and Categories, the significance of rel=’canonical’, establishing XML Sitemaps, optimizing Permalinks, utilizing Internal links, setting up RSS, and the importance of the robots.txt file. Furthermore, a practical example of an SEO-optimized post is provided to assist in the practical application of these concepts.
5.3.1 General Settings
To initiate the process, access the WP administration panel at 3qds.com and proceed with the installation of the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin. Upon successful activation of the Plugin, a new panel named “SEO” will become visible on the left-hand side of the menu, resembling the one depicted in Figure 5.1.
Google Webmaster tools serve as a valuable resource for website owners who seek to gain a comprehensive understanding of their website’s performance. These tools provide critical insight into key metrics such as the number of links, 404 errors, and page speed. To confirm website ownership, website owners can utilize the Meta code provided by Google and Bing Webmaster tools. This feature is also useful for verifying a site with Alexa. The researcher recently entered the Meta code for Google, Bing, and Alexa Webmasters, and subsequently clicked the “Save Settings” button, as depicted in Figure 5.2. By leveraging these powerful tools, website owners can gain valuable insights into their website’s performance, enabling them to optimize their online presence and enhance the user experience for their visitors.
5.3.2 Titles and Metas
In order to optimize the indexing of your website by search engines, it is imperative to establish a distinct and succinct site title. The General settings WP panel was utilized to determine the site title and tagline for “3qds.com” prior to implementing the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin, as illustrated in Figures 5.3 and 5.4. The title that search engines will index is “Alquds Eyes.” It is essential to take into account your target audience and the keywords you intend to rank for when deciding on your site title.
The Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin has been employed to configure various aspects of the website, such as the site title, Meta, and cleaning up the head. The “Title and Metas” tab is divided into four distinct sections, namely, General, Home, Post Types, and Taxonomies, as depicted in Figure 5.5. Each section can be tailored to adjust specific website settings. The subsequent figures will showcase the specific settings that the researcher has configured for “3qds.com”.
The Meta (Title, Description, and Keyword) of the home page of your website have been determined to be under the “Home” tab, as illustrated in Figure 5.6. The “Title Template” option has been set to “%%sitename%%sitedesc%%”, which indicates that the homepage title will be displayed on search engines in the following order: site name followed by site description. This ensures that your website is easily discoverable on search engines, thus increasing its visibility and online presence.
The “Post Types” tab has been suitably configured to include the “On Page SEO” elements for Posts, as illustrated in Figure 5.7. The “Title template” option has been set to “%%title%%,” which ensures that each post’s title will only feature the post title.
The “Post Types” tab has been configured with “On Page SEO” elements that are specifically tailored for pages. The “Title template” option has been set to “%%title%%%%sitename%%”, which will cause each page title to display as a combination of the title and site name. Please refer to Figure 5.8 for further details.
In addition to the “Post Types” tab, the “Taxonomies” tab has also been configured with “On Page SEO” parameters. This encompasses categories, tags, formats, and other special pages which have been carefully determined, as illustrated in Figures 5.9. To prevent the indexing of categories and tags on the website, the “Meta Robots” option has been set to “noindex, follow”.
5.3.3 Permalinks
Figure 5.10 displays where the permalink of the WPWeb site in the search result is.
Prior to utilizing the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin, it is imperative to establish the appropriate permalink structure. This can be accomplished within the WordPress Setting Panel, as demonstrated in Figure 5.11. It is crucial to ensure that the selected structure aligns with the desired search engine optimization goals, in order to enhance the visibility and accessibility of the website.
The 3qds.com web site permalink has been set up as a static URL that includes the category and post ID, as illustrated in Figure 5.12. Specifically, the “Custom Structure” option has been designated as “http://www.3qds.com/%Category%/%post_id%.html”, which allows the permalink to be easily indexed by search engines with its static format and inclusion of the page ID and “.html” extension. This approach provides a favorable configuration for search engines to recognize and display the permalink with its category and post ID values.
5.3.4 Yoast WordPress SEO Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs will be incorporated into both single posts and pages, typically appearing above the title post as a series of links. Breadcrumbs serve two primary purposes: they facilitate easy navigation of the website for users, and they assist search engines in determining the structure of the site. To achieve this, the single.php and page.php website themes have been adapted as illustrated in Figure5.13, and the breadcrumb setting has been configured from the SEO → Internal Links settings page, as depicted in Figure5.14, within the WordPress SEO Plugin.
The “Separator between breadcrumbs” tab has been set to be: “<<“, that looks like“Home >> News >> AlQuds Today”.
5.3.5 Edit Files
The Edit Files section provides the researcher with the ability to modify two key files: Robots.txt and .htaccess, as illustrated in Figure 5.15. The Robots.txt file serves to inform search engines whether they are permitted to access and crawl specific parts of the website. It is worth noting that there are several other ways to prevent content from appearing in search results, such as using the NOINDEX attribute within the robots Meta tag, utilizing .htaccess to secure directories with a password, and leveraging Google Webmaster Tools to remove content that has already been crawled.
5.4 Second Plugin: Yoast WordPress SEO for Individual Posts and Pages
The second plugin utilized for enhancing the blog posts on our website is the Yoast WordPress SEO for Individual Posts and Pages Plugin. This tool is utilized for writing proper metadata such as meta title, meta description, meta keywords, and new focus keywords. It also analyzes the appropriate keywords and requires a short description of the post. Figure 5.16 showcases the correct usage of keywords and a brief description of one of the blog posts on our website, 3qds.com.
5.4.1 Page Analysis
The Page Analysis feature in the Yoast WordPress SEO for Individual Posts and Pages Plugin is highly advantageous and deemed the best among its counterparts. Upon clicking on the “Page Analysis” link, the user will be presented with a detailed SEO analysis of the page. Yoast will provide a comprehensive report of any issues found, although it may be impossible to resolve all problems. However, the user can at least be assured of receiving a green light once the page is saved, indicating that all issues have been resolved to the best of their ability. Refer to Figure 5.17 for a visual representation.
5.5 Third Plugin: SEO-Friendly Images
The optimization of website images and the creation of good titles and alt tags can be a time-consuming task. However, the SEO Friendly Images Plugin is a reliable tool that can quickly and efficiently optimize all images for SEO purposes. With this plugin, all images can be automatically updated with the appropriate ALT and TITLE attributes. Additionally, if any images are lacking these attributes, the plugin will add them according to the researcher’s options. For a visual demonstration, please refer to Figure 5.18.
The ALT attribute is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) that serves to describe images to search engines. When a user conducts an image search, the ALT attribute plays a key role in determining whether there is a match or not. While the TITLE attribute has a lesser impact on SEO, it is still significant as it automatically appears in the tooltip when a visitor hovers their mouse over the image. The SEO Friendly Images feature recognizes two specific tags: %title (referring to the post title) and %name (representing the filename of the picture). By incorporating these tags along with additional descriptive terms such as “photo” or “picture,” researchers can generate relevant and appropriate ALT and TITLE tags for all images. Please refer to Figure 5.19 and Figure 5.20 for further clarification.
5.6 3qds.com Sitemaps Setup
How does the researcher tell the search engines about 3qds.com new content? Here is an answer step-by-step on how to suggest Website pages and articles to the highest search engines.
- Create an XML sitemap.
- Submit the Website to Sitemap.
- Use Yoast WordPress SEO or other: XML Site Maps
5.6.1 Create Google 3qds.com XML Sitemap
Sitemaps are utilized to inform search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo about web pages on a website that may not be easily discoverable. However, it is important to note that Google does not guarantee the crawling or indexing of all URLs listed within the sitemap. Given that the 3qds.com website is a dynamic website operating on a WP CMS, the researcher has the option to dynamically generate an XML sitemap. Although the process may vary slightly depending on the CMS utilized, an XML sitemap generator is typically either already built into the system or can be easily obtained by installing a basic plugin.
5.6.2 Submit 3qds.com XML Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools
The following steps have been created to submit the 3qds.com XML Sitemap to Google for inclusion in the search index page.
- Sign in to the Google Webmaster Tools account
- Scroll down till he sees the 3qds.com Website to add its Sitemap.
- Click on the domain name as displayed in Figure 5.21.
- Expand the “Crawl” menu and click on “Sitemaps” as displayed in Figure 5.22.
To access the window depicted below, it is necessary to select the “ADD/TEST SITEMAP” button. It is important to input the Sitemap file name exactly as it appears on the Web server. The most frequently utilized file name for an XML Sitemap is “sitemap.xml”. Upon accurately inputting the file name, click on the “Submit Sitemap” button, as demonstrated in Figure 5.23.
At this point in time, it is expected that the status of the Web Sitemap will display as “Pending”. It is advised to revisit the status at a later time to ensure that no errors have been reported.
5.6.3 Yoast WordPress SEO XML Sitemap
XML Sitemaps are a pre-generated sitemap that plays a crucial role in facilitating the indexing of all the pages and posts of your website by Google and Bing. The quality and quantity of content indexed by these search engines can have a significant impact on the success of your business. To automate the generation of sitemaps and inform Google and Bing about updates or new content, the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin in Figure 5.24 can be utilized. This feature ensures that your website remains up-to-date and optimized for maximum visibility, which is critical in today’s highly competitive digital landscape.
5.7 Summary
This section has extensively covered the optimization of on-site factors, which includes titles, Metas, internal/external links, robots.txt, images, and sitemaps. To further enhance the on-site SEO factors, three WP plugins have been incorporated for optimizing posts, pages, and images. An XML sitemap has also been utilized to improve website traffic. The upcoming chapter will delve into the off-site optimization factors.
