SEO
Plugins, Tips & Proven Tactics
WordPress powers 39.5% of the world’s websites. As a leader in digital experiences, WordPress currently runs some of the most prominent websites like Sony, Microsoft, TechCrunch, and more.
Enterprise businesses require a scalable, credible, and reliable website to earn top domain authority and stay competitive.
While many organizations have turned to expensive solutions that often run up the budget and offer limited support, better options exist, like WordPress.
What started as a blogging platform ten years ago, WordPress is now the most popular content management system globally. With over 30 million enterprise WordPress websites live, the platform has grown to 65.2% CMS market share and continues to evolve year over year.
So, what makes WordPress suitable for enterprise businesses? There are many benefits – but at the top is how it can contribute to your SEO strategy to build trustworthiness and credibility in search results.
Let’s dig into all the top reasons WordPress is right for your enterprise and the tips you need to know to get started.
Is WordPress Good For Enterprises?
Since WordPress is open source software, your business has access to endless designers, developers, and specialized agencies, on top of a massive community that is all willing to collaborate and troubleshoot.
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With millions of WordPress websites live, the user community allows you to leverage best practices and implement them within your own system – instead of relying on inconsistent customer service or a limited FAQ page from closed-off systems.
Here are a few reasons why WordPress is great for enterprises:
- Ongoing support as opposed to proprietary systems that provide more flexibility and customization.
- Robust content editing experience with WordPress Gutenberg and accessibility standards.
- High-level security that keeps you protected against cyberattacks.
- Scalable infrastructure with consistent themes and plugins to help reach your goals.
- Huge costs savings by not having to pay hefty licensing costs compared to competitors like Adobe, Magento, and HubSpot.
WordPress is designed to stay and support enterprises.
Developers have downloaded over 81 million versions of WordPress. They have also created over 59,000 plugins and 9,000 themes. This is a testament to the core WordPress development team’s ability to improve the platform and meet modern business needs.
WordPress Benefits For Your Enterprise SEO Strategy
SEO is an essential part of your business’s digital strategy. To drive qualified website traffic, you need to ensure your content management system can handle the visibility and searchability you need to scale.
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Luckily for you, WordPress SEO is well-optimized to help you increase user engagement and boost rankings in SERPs.
Not only does it include several built-in features that help you better optimize your site, but there are several plugins to establish authority much easier.
Check out these nine WordPress SEO highlights:
- Permalinks: Customize your permalinks with targeted keywords to increase your CTR rate.
- Metadata: Automatically add title and meta description to every post or page on your website to improve your position.
- Images: Optimize your images by using keywords in the ALT text and improve your page speed by editing the size – not to mention 20% of all U.S. web searches happen on Google Images!
- User experience: Develop a well-designed site that enhances the user experience to increase pageviews, conversions, and session times.
- Site speed: Select the right themes and plugins that help you maintain a fast-loading time.
- Mobile-friendly: Use a mobile responsive theme to ensure it’s the same quality as the desktop version for a better user experience.
- Social media: Increase your brand visibility by including social media share and follow buttons on your website.
- Integration: Seamlessly integrate your WordPress site with other software like G Suite, Google Analytics, ConvertKit, and more.
When it comes to SEO, WordPress has all the tools you need to optimize your enterprise website with reliability and scalability.
Top 7 WordPress Plugins And Tools To Help You Become An SEO Rockstar
With 75% of people never going beyond the first Google search page, having an optimized site is an absolute must.
What’s the most significant way WordPress boosts your SEO rankings? Plugins.
WordPress plugins and tools optimize your site to boost SEO efforts and improve site security, performance, and speed.
But, with so many different plugins and tools in the market today – how do you choose the right ones that will improve your site’s visibility?
To help you avoid a SEO disaster, let’s take a look at the top WordPress tools and plugins for search optimization.
1. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
Made popular by over two million users, AIOSEO offers a comprehensive toolkit and setup wizard for you to establish SEO settings for your website quickly. The checklist includes features like meta tag generators, titles, descriptions, rich snippet schema markup, and XML sitemaps.
For tech-savvy users, AIOSEO gives you complete control of Robosts.txt, local SEO, RSS videos, video and photo optimizations. It also allows enterprises to assign user roles to employees or contractors.
2. BrightEdge
BrightEdge provides AI-powered data-driven solutions to help you manage your SEO and content performance to convert more users into customers.
You can leverage BrightEdge throughout every stage of content optimization: discovering your target audience’s search demand, creating impactful content, and measuring results to scale.
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With powerful data insights like share of voice, opportunity forecasting, and ContentIQ your content is more likely to capture your audience’s attention and boost SEO efforts.
3. Semrush
As one of the best SEO tools in the market, Semrush allows you to find all the organic keywords and search terms that your website can rank. It also provides a competitive analysis of how your competitors rank, so you know how to gain an edge over their SEO strategy.
With Semrush’s Writing Assistant Tool, you can also improve your existing WordPress content with targeted focus keywords to help you make the top 10 results.
4. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO lets you easily update descriptions, titles, and social media images throughout your website. With a user-friendly platform, Yoast SEO automatically creates an XML sitemap to make it easier for search engines to crawl your website and import data from other plugins.
You also have complete control of your site breadcrumbs and premium loading times.
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5. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool that helps optimize your website, analyze industry content, and study your customer’s top keywords to help you improve.
With Ahrefs, you can track your ranking progress and learn from your competitor’s content to deliver a high-ranking website that builds authority.
Additionally, Ahrefs provides enterprise-level support with unique features like multiple user seats, personalized customer support, daily updates, and more to help your business grow globally.
6. NitroPack
With over one million websites using NitroPack, it’s safe to say that performance plugins can positively impact your SEO presence. NitroPack helps increase your Speed Score by 69% and improves your Core Web Vitals you can provide a better experience to users.
It provides advanced features like caching, built-in CDN, and HTML optimization in a user-friendly platform.
7. MonsterInsights
Instead of relying on SEO assumptions, MonsterInsights provides you with all the insights you need to improve search rankings by connecting Google Analytics to your WordPress site.
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MonsterInsights shows you top content, how users interact on your site, and connects ecommerce SEO.
Also, MonsterInsights provides over 100 data points to help you make better marketing decisions through real-time analytics.
More Tried And True WordPress SEO Best Practices For Enterprises
With 40 to 60 billion estimated Google searches in the U.S each month, your enterprise needs to focus on an on-page and off-page SEO strategy.
On-page SEO includes creating valuable content, adding targeted keywords, and having metadata on every website page or post.
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On the other hand, off-page SEO involves building links on third-party websites to improve your site’s trustworthiness, relevance, and authority.
To help you get started, here are a few additional on and off-page SEO best practices for your WordPress site:
- Use a dedicated focus keyword for each page and include it in key places like your titles, first paragraph, and the URL.
- Write valuable and authentic content that not only delights your users but signals to search engines that you’re a credible enterprise.
- Choose a theme that supports SEO best practices, like headings or title tags, and offers your users a simple customer experience.
- Select a plugin that develops an automatic Google XML sitemap to help search bots easily crawl your website.
- Start building backlinks with other high-ranking websites through content partnerships, guest blogging, and directory profiles.
- Protect your site against third-party attacks by using SSL and HTTPS for enhanced WordPress enterprise security.
- Take advantage of local SEO features by creating a Google My Business and using localized keywords in your content.
Now, search engines keep getting more intelligent, and for enterprises to improve rankings, you need to keep up.
Using the right plugins is a great start, but staying on top of the algorithms, monitoring your traffic daily, and implementing SEO best practices will help ensure you drive users back to your website.
Scale Your WordPress Enterprise Website With SEO
Is WordPress enterprise-ready?
Combined with powerful plugins and themes, WordPress’s content management system is more than ready to handle the needs of a complex enterprise website. With WordPress, you can scale your website with flexible infrastructure and reliable SEO features.
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WordPress is one of the best platforms for SEO. Not only does the system provide SEO features, but the plugins available make it easy for your website to start building authority and boost your overall rankings.
With a higher ranking, you’re more likely to drive the right traffic back to your site that converts into future customers.
More resources:
Featured Image: RoBird/Shutterstock
SEO
Google Clarifies Vacation Rental Structured Data
Google’s structured data documentation for vacation rentals was recently updated to require more specific data in a change that is more of a clarification than it is a change in requirements. This change was made without any formal announcement or notation in the developer pages changelog.
Vacation Rentals Structured Data
These specific structured data types makes vacation rental information eligible for rich results that are specific to these kinds of rentals. However it’s not available to all websites. Vacation rental owners are required to be connected to a Google Technical Account Manager and have access to the Google Hotel Center platform.
VacationRental Structured Data Type Definitions
The primary changes were made to the structured data property type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.
The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.
The primary changes were made to the structured data type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.
The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.
Address Schema.org property
This is a subtle change but it’s important because it now represents a recommendation that requires more precise data.
This is what was recommended before:
“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.”
This is what it now recommends:
“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Unit 6E”
Address Property Change Description
The most substantial change is to the description of what the “address” property is, becoming more descriptive and precise about what is recommended.
The description before the change:
PostalAddress
Information about the street address of the listing. Include all properties that apply to your country.
The description after the change:
PostalAddress
The full, physical location of the vacation rental.
Provide the street address, city, state or region, and postal code for the vacation rental. If applicable, provide the unit or apartment number.
Note that P.O. boxes or other mailing-only addresses are not considered full, physical addresses.
This is repeated in the section for address.streetAddress property
This is what it recommended before:
address.streetAddress Text
The full street address of your vacation listing.
And this is what it recommends now:
address.streetAddress Text
The full street address of your vacation listing, including the unit or apartment number if applicable.
Clarification And Not A Change
Although these updates don’t represent a change in Google’s guidance they are nonetheless important because they offer clearer guidance with less ambiguity as to what is recommended.
Read the updated structured data guidance:
Vacation rental (VacationRental) structured data
Featured Image by Shutterstock/New Africa
SEO
Google On Hyphens In Domain Names
Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about why people don’t use hyphens with domains and if there was something to be concerned about that they were missing.
Domain Names With Hyphens For SEO
I’ve been working online for 25 years and I remember when using hyphens in domains was something that affiliates did for SEO when Google was still influenced by keywords in the domain, URL, and basically keywords anywhere on the webpage. It wasn’t something that everyone did, it was mainly something that was popular with some affiliate marketers.
Another reason for choosing domain names with keywords in them was that site visitors tended to convert at a higher rate because the keywords essentially prequalified the site visitor. I know from experience how useful two-keyword domains (and one word domain names) are for conversions, as long as they didn’t have hyphens in them.
A consideration that caused hyphenated domain names to fall out of favor is that they have an untrustworthy appearance and that can work against conversion rates because trustworthiness is an important factor for conversions.
Lastly, hyphenated domain names look tacky. Why go with tacky when a brandable domain is easier for building trust and conversions?
Domain Name Question Asked On Reddit
This is the question asked on Reddit:
“Why don’t people use a lot of domains with hyphens? Is there something concerning about it? I understand when you tell it out loud people make miss hyphen in search.”
And this is Mueller’s response:
“It used to be that domain names with a lot of hyphens were considered (by users? or by SEOs assuming users would? it’s been a while) to be less serious – since they could imply that you weren’t able to get the domain name with fewer hyphens. Nowadays there are a lot of top-level-domains so it’s less of a thing.
My main recommendation is to pick something for the long run (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for), and not to be overly keyword focused (because life is too short to box yourself into a corner – make good things, course-correct over time, don’t let a domain-name limit what you do online). The web is full of awkward, keyword-focused short-lived low-effort takes made for SEO — make something truly awesome that people will ask for by name. If that takes a hyphen in the name – go for it.”
Pick A Domain Name That Can Grow
Mueller is right about picking a domain name that won’t lock your site into one topic. When a site grows in popularity the natural growth path is to expand the range of topics the site coves. But that’s hard to do when the domain is locked into one rigid keyword phrase. That’s one of the downsides of picking a “Best + keyword + reviews” domain, too. Those domains can’t grow bigger and look tacky, too.
That’s why I’ve always recommended brandable domains that are memorable and encourage trust in some way.
Read the post on Reddit:
Read Mueller’s response here.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Benny Marty
SEO
Reddit Post Ranks On Google In 5 Minutes
Google’s Danny Sullivan disputed the assertions made in a Reddit discussion that Google is showing a preference for Reddit in the search results. But a Redditor’s example proves that it’s possible for a Reddit post to rank in the top ten of the search results within minutes and to actually improve rankings to position #2 a week later.
Discussion About Google Showing Preference To Reddit
A Redditor (gronetwork) complained that Google is sending so many visitors to Reddit that the server is struggling with the load and shared an example that proved that it can only take minutes for a Reddit post to rank in the top ten.
That post was part of a 79 post Reddit thread where many in the r/SEO subreddit were complaining about Google allegedly giving too much preference to Reddit over legit sites.
The person who did the test (gronetwork) wrote:
“…The website is already cracking (server down, double posts, comments not showing) because there are too many visitors.
…It only takes few minutes (you can test it) for a post on Reddit to appear in the top ten results of Google with keywords related to the post’s title… (while I have to wait months for an article on my site to be referenced). Do the math, the whole world is going to spam here. The loop is completed.”
Reddit Post Ranked Within Minutes
Another Redditor asked if they had tested if it takes “a few minutes” to rank in the top ten and gronetwork answered that they had tested it with a post titled, Google SGE Review.
gronetwork posted:
“Yes, I have created for example a post named “Google SGE Review” previously. After less than 5 minutes it was ranked 8th for Google SGE Review (no quotes). Just after Washingtonpost.com, 6 authoritative SEO websites and Google.com’s overview page for SGE (Search Generative Experience). It is ranked third for SGE Review.”
It’s true, not only does that specific post (Google SGE Review) rank in the top 10, the post started out in position 8 and it actually improved ranking, currently listed beneath the number one result for the search query “SGE Review”.
Screenshot Of Reddit Post That Ranked Within Minutes
Anecdotes Versus Anecdotes
Okay, the above is just one anecdote. But it’s a heck of an anecdote because it proves that it’s possible for a Reddit post to rank within minutes and get stuck in the top of the search results over other possibly more authoritative websites.
hankschrader79 shared that Reddit posts outrank Toyota Tacoma forums for a phrase related to mods for that truck.
Google’s Danny Sullivan responded to that post and the entire discussion to dispute that Reddit is not always prioritized over other forums.
Danny wrote:
“Reddit is not always prioritized over other forums. [super vhs to mac adapter] I did this week, it goes Apple Support Community, MacRumors Forum and further down, there’s Reddit. I also did [kumo cloud not working setup 5ghz] recently (it’s a nightmare) and it was the Netgear community, the SmartThings Community, GreenBuildingAdvisor before Reddit. Related to that was [disable 5g airport] which has Apple Support Community above Reddit. [how to open an 8 track tape] — really, it was the YouTube videos that helped me most, but it’s the Tapeheads community that comes before Reddit.
In your example for [toyota tacoma], I don’t even get Reddit in the top results. I get Toyota, Car & Driver, Wikipedia, Toyota again, three YouTube videos from different creators (not Toyota), Edmunds, a Top Stories unit. No Reddit, which doesn’t really support the notion of always wanting to drive traffic just to Reddit.
If I guess at the more specific query you might have done, maybe [overland mods for toyota tacoma], I get a YouTube video first, then Reddit, then Tacoma World at third — not near the bottom. So yes, Reddit is higher for that query — but it’s not first. It’s also not always first. And sometimes, it’s not even showing at all.”
hankschrader79 conceded that they were generalizing when they wrote that Google always prioritized Reddit. But they also insisted that that didn’t diminish what they said is a fact that Google’s “prioritization” forum content has benefitted Reddit more than actual forums.
Why Is The Reddit Post Ranked So High?
It’s possible that Google “tested” that Reddit post in position 8 within minutes and that user interaction signals indicated to Google’s algorithms that users prefer to see that Reddit post. If that’s the case then it’s not a matter of Google showing preference to Reddit post but rather it’s users that are showing the preference and the algorithm is responding to those preferences.
Nevertheless, an argument can be made that user preferences for Reddit can be a manifestation of Familiarity Bias. Familiarity Bias is when people show a preference for things that are familiar to them. If a person is familiar with a brand because of all the advertising they were exposed to then they may show a bias for the brand products over unfamiliar brands.
Users who are familiar with Reddit may choose Reddit because they don’t know the other sites in the search results or because they have a bias that Google ranks spammy and optimized websites and feel safer reading Reddit.
Google may be picking up on those user interaction signals that indicate a preference and satisfaction with the Reddit results but those results may simply be biases and not an indication that Reddit is trustworthy and authoritative.
Is Reddit Benefiting From A Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop?
It may very well be that Google’s decision to prioritize user generated content may have started a self-reinforcing pattern that draws users in to Reddit through the search results and because the answers seem plausible those users start to prefer Reddit results. When they’re exposed to more Reddit posts their familiarity bias kicks in and they start to show a preference for Reddit. So what could be happening is that the users and Google’s algorithm are creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
Is it possible that Google’s decision to show more user generated content has kicked off a cycle where more users are exposed to Reddit which then feeds back into Google’s algorithm which in turn increases Reddit visibility, regardless of lack of expertise and authoritativeness?
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Kues
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