SEO and WordPress

[JHarris82]

I'm a marketing director of a company and we are wanting to improve our website SEO and possibly move our website to Wordpress. I've been told by our current developer (who I don't think has a good understanding of Wordpress and SEO in general) that if we switch to Wordpress our SEO will tank and there is no way around it. I highly doubt this considering we are a small analytics consulting firm and there are companies like CNN and Time Magazine using WP. We also have hubspot so the integration of WP with Hubspot is a huge plus for me. Do any of you have experience converting a site to Wordpress and optimizing your SEO in WP with no issues?

[andrewwill1]

Absolutely, transitioning your website to WordPress can actually improve your SEO if done correctly. WordPress is a powerful platform that is highly customizable and provides numerous SEO-friendly features and plugins. Here's a step-by-step approach to ensure a smooth transition while maintaining or enhancing your SEO:

1. Choose a Reliable Hosting Provider: Select a reputable hosting provider that offers good server performance, uptime, and speed, as these factors impact SEO.

2. Install WordPress and Choose a SEO-Friendly Theme: Opt for a well-coded, fast, and SEO-friendly theme. Themes that are optimized for speed and mobile responsiveness are crucial for SEO.

3. Maintain URL Structure: Try to maintain your current URL structure during the transition. If changes are necessary, set up proper 301 redirects to ensure SEO continuity.

4. Properly Migrate Content: Migrate your content (text, images, videos) accurately to WordPress, ensuring that it's formatted well and properly categorized.

5. Utilize SEO Plugins: WordPress offers various SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. These plugins assist in optimizing meta tags, sitemaps, breadcrumbs, and more.

6. Optimize Images and Multimedia: Compress images, add alt tags, and ensure multimedia elements are optimized for quick loading times, which is a vital SEO factor.

7. Permalink Structure: Set up a clean and descriptive permalink structure for your URLs in WordPress. Ideally, use the post name structure.

8. Focus on Quality Content: WordPress makes it easy to create and update content. Ensure your content is informative, engaging, and focused on relevant keywords.

9. Integrate HubSpot and Other Tools: Utilize the integration of HubSpot with WordPress to improve lead generation, SEO, and analytics tracking.

10. Optimize for Speed: Implement caching, minimize code, and optimize images to enhance site speed, a crucial factor for SEO rankings.

11. Configure XML Sitemaps and Robots.txt: Set up XML sitemaps and optimize the robots.txt file to help search engines crawl and index your site efficiently.

12. Monitor and Analyze Performance: Regularly monitor your site's performance using tools like Google Analytics. Track traffic, rankings, and user behavior to identify areas for improvement.

13. Ensure Mobile Optimization: Optimize your website for mobile devices to meet the requirements of mobile-first indexing by search engines.

14. Secure Your Site (HTTPS): Use HTTPS to ensure a secure connection, as this is a ranking factor and improves user trust.

By following these steps and leveraging the features and plugins available in WordPress, you can not only maintain but potentially enhance your website's SEO during the transition. Additionally, working with an experienced WordPress developer with a solid understanding of SEO best practices can significantly contribute to the success of your SEO efforts on the WordPress platform. I also apply all these steps on my post: streamfab all-in-one crack

[BAlli]

Hello all, where can i get a detailed training on SEO and Wordpress

Optimizing SEO using word press.

[Awaix300]

hi
yes i have done multiple projects based on WordPress plattform and it is quite easy to change things as per your needs, based on my experience, i can say that WordPress is SEO friendly in itself, but sometimes you have to face site speed and a few other things but those can be handled very easily

one thing you must remember is when you change things on your GMB profile and website, at the start it feels like it is drowning a little bit but not until Google reads and crawls these new changes, it becomes more visible and efficient on Mappack and SERPs too

[TomDanny]

For improved organic traffic and search engine rankings, your WordPress website must be SEO-optimized. Starting with an SEO-friendly theme, image optimization, and informative URLs. Install an SEO plugin to assist with on-page SEO, meta descriptions, and XML sitemaps, such as Yoast or All in One SEO. Create relevant, high-quality content using effective keyword research and optimization techniques. Additionally, increase website performance, protect it with HTTPS, and guarantee mobile responsiveness. For better WordPress SEO performance, update and maintain your website frequently, keep an eye on analytics, and create high-quality backlinks.

[KWomack]

We've found the WordPress is a great move for integrations and credibility in the eyes of Google's algorithm, yes there will be an initial dip in your rankings, but that's ok. There's also dips when Google pushes out updates. NBD.  We have a lot of experience doing this for companies- it happens all the time, check us out/schedule a call with us via my calendar to talk more. Website and Calendar Link 

[aposigian]

We just moved a site off WordPress because it is becoming outdated. I would
recommend wiz instead.

Anytime you move a site SEO resets so to speak. It's like a game of hide
and seek for the bots crawling your site. It will take time, but if done
well your SEO will rebuild.

[phuggins]

Your tech person is correct- technically. And wrong realistically. Yes.
Your new website will tank. It is a brand new site and will have crawl
issues initially that can cause bot issues. It happens everyday.

But, if you properly transfer the GA4 and any other tags you should not see
a complete loss of data (a tank). I have done transitions twice in my
career and there is always a slip in data. Write a couple of blogs with
major citation footnotes and add one a week to the new site for a couple of
weeks after the migration and force the recall. Make sure the blogs are
designed for UX and you'll see the SEO dip disappear.

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[thatgirlnikki]

Any website redesign or migration has an inherent risk of losing SEO value if you don't have the knowledge to migrate properly. There are steps you need to take to ensure you maintain your existing rankings, such as exporting from SEMRush or SERanking all URLs that having ranking keywords and creating a strategy to recreate or properly redirect those on the new site.

It's not WordPress itself that will tank the SEO (in my personal experience), it's the lack of understanding and preparation to maintain existing rankings.

This is actually something I've come to specialize in after being burned by it so badly back in 2017 lol. I've now successfully migrated multiple sites to either completely new versions of the site, or just changing platforms, without loss of SEO rankings and value.

[RichieB]

Hi there JHarris82

Having worked on WordPress sites I'd say they are one of the easiest to do SEO on with a range of plugins that will guide you through setting up the SEO although depending on the theme you use you might not even need one.

I'm not sure what your current site is built with but if you are moving the content and pages from like to like, there shouldn't be an issue. For example:

Old Page = /aboutus.html

Redirect using what is called a 301 Redirect to...

New Page = /aboutus/

Again, there are plugins that will guide you, you just need a list of the current pages and the new ones to connect them together.

Sadly it does sound like your current developer isn't used to using WordPress or about how SEO works.

You haven't mentioned it but make sure you or someone looks at the security side - don't use "admin" as your administrator login and use a security plugin such as Wordfence and make sure the plugins you do use are kept up to date.

Hope that helps.

Regards

Richard