What Is SEO and Why Is It Important?

Search engine optimization is the strategic practice of optimizing a website to enhance its visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). The primary goal of SEO is to improve the website’s organic (non-paid) traffic by making it more relevant and attractive to search engines like Google. This involves various techniques such as optimizing content, utilizing relevant keywords, improving website structure, and enhancing user experience.

The importance of SEO to your website cannot be overstated. In a vast digital landscape where millions of websites compete for attention, SEO is the beacon that guides search engines to recognize and prioritize your content. When your website appears higher in search results, it is more likely to attract organic traffic, increasing visibility, credibility, and potential conversions.

Essentially, SEO is the cornerstone of online success, offering a roadmap for your website to navigate the complex algorithms of search engines and connect with your target audience effectively. It is a fundamental tool that ensures your digital presence is not just a website but a discoverable and influential entity in the vast online ecosystem.

Safeguard Your SEO Efforts or Be Doomed

Safeguarding SEO efforts during the migration to WordPress is paramount due to the potential impact on a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results. There is a risk of disruption when transitioning to a new platform like WordPress. Here are some common concerns website owners have and issues to watch out for:

• Loss of traffic: Improper redirects, broken links, and URL changes can confuse search engines and users. This can lead to a drop in traffic and visibility.
• Damage to search rankings: Poorly executed migration can negatively impact your search engine ranking, requiring time and effort to recover.
• Duplicate content: Migration processes can sometimes create duplicate content, which is penalized by search engines.
• Website structure: Changes in your website structure and content can affect your keyword rankings and your position in the search engines.
• Broken features and functionality: Not everything might migrate smoothly, leading to broken features, forms, or payment gateways.
• Mobile responsiveness issues: Ensure the new site is optimized for all devices, as mobile usage is increasingly dominant.
• Inconsistent design and user experience: Maintaining a consistent look and feel across the new site is crucial for user trust and navigation.
• Downtime and inaccessibility: Migration can temporarily take your site offline, impacting user experience and potential sales.
• Data loss and security vulnerabilities: Data loss during migration can be disastrous. Ensure proper backups and security measures are in place.
• Performance issues: The new platform or hosting might not handle traffic like the old one, leading to slow loading times.
• Communication and stakeholder management: Keeping everyone informed and involved throughout the process is crucial to avoid surprises and disruptions.
• Unexpected challenges: Unexpected issues can inevitably arise, so flexibility and adaptability are key.

But There’s Hope

By understanding these common concerns and taking proactive steps, website owners can significantly increase their chances of a smooth and successful website migration. Failing to address these intricacies can result in a loss of link authority, diminished keyword relevance, and a decline in organic traffic.

WordPress, as a robust content management system, offers numerous advantages for website management. However, a seamless migration is crucial to preserve and enhance SEO rankings. The transition may introduce broken links and missing pages without careful consideration and strategic implementation. Additionally, inconsistencies could negatively affect the website’s performance in search engine algorithms.

By prioritizing safeguarding SEO efforts during migration, businesses ensure a smooth transition, maintaining their hard-earned search engine visibility and safeguarding the integrity of their online presence. This proactive approach not only protects against potential setbacks but also sets the stage for continued SEO success in the evolving digital landscape.

Keep reading to understand how our WordPress agency successfully protects your SEO during a WordPress migration.

Seamless Redirection Strategy

Setting up permanent 301 redirects in migration is crucial, especially for SEO. Imagine your website as a bustling city with intricate streets and alleys. When it undergoes a revamp, ensuring a smooth transition for both users and search engines becomes paramount. WebDevStudios employs a Seamless Redirection Strategy, using 301 redirects to guide visitors from older URLs to new ones. This maintains your website’s link authority and safeguards its rankings in the digital landscape.

Conserved Content Integrity

As the digital migration journey unfolds, WebDevStudios meticulously upholds the content integrity of your website. Content, URL structures, and internal linking are carefully conserved, ensuring that vital keywords and metadata retain their prominence. This meticulous preservation is not just a process; it’s a commitment to maintaining the SEO integrity that defines your online identity.

Enhanced Sitemap Submission

Search engines act as explorers in the vast terrain of the internet, seeking out new content to index. Crawlers understand your sitemap’s relationships. It helps bots index your pages better. As such, it is essential for SEO purposes that Google has an updated version of your new domain. WebDevStudios understands the importance of aiding this discovery process. Through the creation and submission of an updated XML sitemap, the experts ensure that search engines efficiently find and index the new pages on your revamped website.

Vigilant Error Monitoring

Even the most well-executed plans can encounter unexpected hiccups. WebDevStudios remains vigilant post-migration, monitoring for broken links, missing pages, and any anomalies that could adversely impact your SEO. This proactive approach ensures swift resolution, preventing potential pitfalls in the journey to maintaining and enhancing your website’s SEO standing.

Rigorous Testing Protocols

A meticulous eye for detail is the hallmark of WebDevStudios’ approach. Comprehensive testing procedures are in place to verify the correct implementation and functionality of essential SEO elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data. This commitment to quality ensures that every facet of your website aligns with SEO best practices.

Critical Crawl and Index Checks

WebDevStudios recognizes the importance of checkpoints in the SEO journey. Verifying search engine crawl and indexation of the new website pages is critical. Supported by tools like Google Search Console, this ongoing monitoring process keeps a finger on the pulse of your website’s progress in the digital realm.

Backlinks

Next, we recommend that you contact your content partners about updating old links to the new domain. This includes links from guest posts, partnerships, and directories. Doing this will ensure that the valuable backlinks you have acquired over time point to the correct pages on your website.

Transparent Timeline Management

How long should an SEO migration take? It depends on how big your website is, how much content you’re moving, and how many audits you need to do pre- and post-migration. In general, a 100-page website will take a lot less time than a 1,000-page website, which will take a lot less time than a 50,000-page website. It’s key to give yourself enough time to plan, develop a staging site, QA and audit, and then implement. At WebDevStudios, we encourage transparency and open communication about the timeline of your project so everyone is on the same page and has the same expectations.

Performance Boost and Speed Optimization

In the fast-paced world of the internet, speed is of the essence. WebDevStudios goes beyond the surface to enhance website performance on the new platform. By optimizing speed, the user experience is elevated, indirectly contributing to improved SEO rankings. Our experts leverage tools like Core Web Vitals to ensure this task is executed precisely.

More Than a Migration

A content migration isn’t just a content migration. It’s more than that, and our WordPress agency knows this. A content migration should be viewed as an opportunity for improvements and optimization, such as:

• Format and accessibility overhaul: Content can be migrated into more accessible formats and optimized for different devices. Also, the content can be restructured for improved clarity and user experience.
• Taxonomy and metadata upgrade: A migration can be an opportunity to create a more robust and efficient taxonomy and enrich content with meaningful metadata for better discoverability and organization.
• Workflow and collaboration improvements: A migration can be used to streamline content workflows. This is also a chance to integrate workflows with other systems. In the end, this could improve collaboration between content creators and editors.
• Compliance and security enhancement: New systems can offer tighter control over access, permissions, and content management. This improves security and compliance.
• Data-driven insights and optimization: New platforms can provide richer data analytics for understanding user behavior and optimizing content performance for continuous improvement.

Contact WebDevStudios to Safeguard Your SEO Efforts

In the intricate dance of website migration and SEO maintenance, WebDevStudios emerges as the guiding partner. Our team ensures that every step taken in your website content migration leads to an enhanced online presence. From seamless redirections and content integrity to vigilant monitoring and performance optimization, our commitment to safeguarding your SEO rankings is unwavering.

Trust WebDevStudios to navigate the complexities and elevate your website’s visibility in the digital landscape. Contact us to talk about your upcoming WordPress migration. We’ll use our expertise to protect your SEO during your WordPress migration.

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Start with a self-audit

The first step in any SEO process is auditing what you currently have. Review your website and read each and every page. Follow every link and track any blatant errors: broken pages or images, poor grammar, out-of-date information and/or links. Resolve those problems first.

Next, search yourself, your business, and your industry. Where are you ranking in those searches? If you sell vintage cars, and your business name is not appearing in the search engine results for the key phrases “vintage cars” or “classic cars,” then you know for sure you need to strengthen the SEO of your website.

Get secured

Is your website still HTTP? You need to change that ASAP. It’s a fact. Beginning in July, Google Chrome will clearly mark all HTTP websites as ‘not secure.’ And let’s face it when internet users see a warning like that, that makes them feel uneasy. ‘Not secure’ means ‘not safe’ to the average consumer. If you don’t want to scare website visitors away, get your Secure Sockets Layer certificate and encrypt your site immediately.

Blog, blog, blog. Then blog some more.

Regular, consistent blogging is an invitation for automated search engine bots to crawl your site and index your amazing content, which can boost your search engine results. Here’s an easy tip: brainstorm the most asked customer/website visitor questions, and then write blog posts that address those questions.

For example, let’s go back to that vintage cars website. Customers and potential customers probably ask questions such as, “How do I tell the difference between an authentic classic car and a counterfeit,” “How do I maintain the mint condition of my vintage car,” and, “How do I keep my family safe when we’re driving in my classic car?” By creating blog posts that address each of those questions, you’re practicing good SEO and increasing your odds of coming up at the top of search engine results.

Opt for optimization

Search engines love fast websites and will reward them with better search engine rankings. Compress your images and ensure that the design of your site is responsive on all devices. Additionally, keep your site accessible by all. Accessibility matters. It’s not only a smart move, it’s just the right thing to do. By optimizing your site for speed, responsiveness, and accessibility, you will see an improvement in your search engine rankings.

Stay social

Set up social media profiles, remain active on them daily, and use them to share your blog posts, page content, services, and contact information. Not every social media share or post should be self-promotional. Share related content and news from others in your industry, but take advantage of the opportunity to pepper in some self-promotional content, too. Social media is a great and easy way to drive traffic from another channel back to your website.

Collaborate with partners

Invite leaders in your industry to guest write on your blog. Volunteer to be a guest on industry-related podcasts or webinars. There is a community built around your industry. Get involved with it. Identify key thought leaders and formulate partnerships and then collaborate on content.

Get on the list

Free online directories are opportunities for backlinks. Do some research and find the most reputable online business directories in your industry. Register and create a listing. Again, it’s just another avenue for sending traffic to your site.

Bonus tip: offline promotion

While digital marketing strategies are an important aspect of getting the word out about your business and website, there is still a lot to be said about the impact of offline marketing. Go to networking events. Teach a class or seminar at a local meetup or conference. Pitch reporters, editors, and broadcast producers. Introduce yourself and your business, and offer to comment on stories that showcase your expertise and knowledge. Position yourself as a reputable leader in your industry and benefit from the free exposure. Dedicated offline promotion could easily influence others to think of you and your business website first when they need a source of information.

The habitual and strategic use of SEO tactics can produce an increase in the quantity and quality of website traffic. While paid advertising is still a viable form of marketing, using the recommendations above can help to support all of your marketing efforts, including increasing organic traffic. Give these SEO tips a try today, and if you find yourself in need of a serious website audit or help with speeding up your site, contact us.

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A large majority of the sites we build are for clients migrating from another open source platform or a proprietary content management system (CMS) over to WordPress. One of the many reasons for this, aside from the opportunity to work with our amazing team at WDS, is that clients have heard WordPress is easy to manage and that it’s really great for SEO–both of which are completely true. However, there is very much a right and wrong way to go about getting started with SEO and WordPress (spoiler: it’s a bit more work than just hitting the Staples Easy Button in the Dashboard!).

Select a Plugin

My first recommendation is to install one of two plugins depending on your needs. Both of these are tremendous, and when used correctly will help get your site to the level you desire with time, dedication, and patience. There are others that might be worth exploring, but these two are the most popular, and the ones I recommend:

• All in One SEO Pack
• Yoast SEO

NOTE: Do not activate both plugins at the same time! There is no added benefit to running both, and I’d venture to guess that it would only cause for headaches and confusion.

Again, both of these are excellent options and have been around for quite some time. You’ll find a lot of people have a lot of opinions on these two plugins, but it comes down to what works best for you and fits with the needs of your site (which means it is worth a little time to explore both options). Both plugins have additional upgrades and options to extend their functionality further; we’re just going to cover the basics of getting started here, but I highly recommend you look into the potential options beyond the basics as well.

After you’ve installed and activated one of these two options on your site, it’s time to get to work! Remember there’s no magic easy button–despite what you may have heard from that friend who has a WordPress site. The reality is that content is still king, and that will likely never change, so the first thing you’ll have to do is commit to providing and writing excellent content that is useful and enjoyable to your audience. Without them, who’s stopping by your site after all, right?

Both All in One SEO and Yoast SEO have pretty comprehensive guides for getting started with their respective plugins, so here are two good resources depending on which you choose to go with for your site:

• All in One SEO: http://semperplugins.com/documentation/
• Yoast SEO: https://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/

First Steps

The first thing we should do before digging into these settings is to configure our Permalinks to Post Name (or something else–just don’t leave the default settings in place). If your site is new, then you’re all set. If you have an existing site and you’re changing them, consider reviewing this article on changing your permalink structure as it’s a little bit more of a process for established sites.

Rather than go into major details on how to use each of these, I’m going to cover some top level things to keep in mind for setting up your site. Both plugins have a general settings page that you’ll find in your Dashboard.

Both plugins will have a number of sections you’ll want to review and fill out accordingly. They also both have their own tours and links to click to further explain a particular field or setting in more detail.

General Setting and Homepage Setup

Some highlights shared by both plugins is of course to make sure to setup the homepage title (max 60 characters) and description (around 156 characters). You’ll also want to review the format for pages, posts, and any custom post types you have, in addition to archive pages. You can find some more details on setting titles and related formatting on the Yoast site. Lastly, in terms of General Setup, you’ll want to add any Google/Bing webmaster tools settings and other related verification settings (if your site isn’t already verified). We’ll touch on these a little more later in the post.

Interior Pages

Now that we’ve got the overall setup covered including the homepage, it’s time to work on the interior pages of our site. There is definitely an art to titles and descriptions. You might be tempted to load up keywords into the title and description, but try to avoid that in all seriousness. Natural, readable and not spammy looking is really the goal here. Google and other search engines are pretty sophisticated and believe in trying to provide the best possible results to the users that are searching, so they’ll see right through the “keyword stuffing”. Also, make sure your focus keyword is relevant and unique for the particular page. A page all about turkey with a focus keyword of chicken doesn’t make much sense, right?

Depending on your industry, focusing on specific keywords may be more beneficial than more general terms. For example, if you own a residential cleaning company, you’ll likely have a lot of competition for the keyword “residential cleaning company.” Trying to rank for more niche cleaning services may end up providing you with more success. Perhaps you specialize in deep cleaning, so consider using that as a specific keyword. A combination of broad and specific focus keywords is going to be super helpful when you’re just starting out.

Both are similar in nature, but organized slightly differently. They have the settings on individual posts and pages right below your content editor in the dashboard.

There is one major difference worth noting: Yoast has a page analysis tool, while All in One SEO does not. This is something to consider if you feel you’d need that feature. Lastly, you may have heard of meta keywords and feel compelled to use them, but before you decide to forge ahead with keywords, you might want to read over this article before making that commitment.

This is really only scratching the surface of SEO, but it does cover the basics to get you started! Here are a couple guides to reference that continue to cover some of the basics from Google and Bing:

• Google’s Getting Started Guide
• Bing

Additional Optimization Tips

Before we wrap up this post, I want to discuss some additional things to keep in mind that may not seem directly related to SEO, but can certainly have an impact.

Site Speed

Overall site speed for both mobile and desktop can have a huge impact. People won’t wait all day for a site to load. Page speed can make a big difference both in terms of SEO and overall site performance. In a WordPress site, page load times can be affected by lots of things–from the theme you’re using to your favorite plugins or site images.

The code in your theme and plugins should follow best practices and standards when possible. When using third party plugins, you’ll want to do some research on the plugin author–read relevant reviews, etc., to make sure it doesn’t affect your site negatively. As far as images go, you’ll want to make sure they’re optimized for the web. If you’re using images that could fill a billboard for a tiny thumbnail in post, you may need to optimize your images in Photoshop or consider some other tools to help compress images depending on your comfort level. There are even some plugins that will help with this, but before running them, I’d recommend backing up your site.

Responsive Design

Having a responsive website also helps for a variety of reasons for both SEO and user experience. The search engines love responsive websites because all content is on one URL (in most cases). Responsive design also helps cut down the bounce rate for people searching from mobile and tablet, which means the users wont click back out of your site quite as quickly(in most cases) if it’s optimized and responsive to their particular devices.

Adding SSL

Although it’s relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, you might also want to consider switching over from stand http:// to https:// for your site. Some search engines will give a slight bump to SSL protected sites over one without it. SSL certificates have dropped significantly in prices over the years, so pretty affordable to the large majority of website owners these days.

Social Media

Social media is sometimes overlooked, but is intertwined with SEO. Engaging your community on social networks will help you share and grow your audience. It’s a great way to interact with your followers, clients, etc. It’s also the best way to share all your amazing content and blog posts as well. Although, again, it’s important not to overdo it here; you don’t want to turn people off to your brand either by oversharing great stuff. The balance here will vary depending on your industry.

Adding Analytics and Webmaster Tools

After all this hard work, you’re going to want a way to track and measure progress over time. It will take some time for all of this to start working, but over time, if you keep at it, you will see a positive response. There are lots of great tools and analytics software out there for measuring progress. Google Analytics is likely one of, if not the most popular overall, but I recommend investigating some others as well, like Kissmetrics or Mixpanel. They all have similar features, but depending on your needs, one may stand out to you above the others. The important part is that you have something to track the work you’re putting into your SEO.

Analytics will provide solid insight in what’s working and what you may need to change. Analytics provide a wide range of data that includes the regions of your visitors, which pages are the most popular, and even what type of traffic you’re getting (desktop vs. mobile), and so much more . It’s pretty amazing how far these services have come and the amount of data that can be provided to you should you need it.

Google, Bing and other search engines also have a webmaster tools which you should also link your site up to and get verified as I mentioned earlier in the post. This is good for a number of reasons, one they know you’re site is real and that they should start returning it in search results, but also it helps keep track of the overall health of your websites, and when things aren’t right they’ll be sure to let you know, which is always a great thing.

Google Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools

Hopefully you’ve gained some insight throughout this post, and if you’ve learned a few things, it’s that search engine optimization is not a one click, easy button process. Slow and steady definitely wins this race and patience is crucial. Doing things the right way can help build your sites reputation overtime and help increase your presence in the results. Taking the time to do some of the extra optimization and connecting on social media will also help as well. Just remember SEO is a process and like anything takes time to learn and get comfortable with, but over time hopefully you’ll find these tips helpful and that they are a starting point for success.

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