This manual will show you how to use WordPress and Rank Math SEO for effective Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so that potential customers can find your website through search engines like Google more easily.
Search Engines such as Google aim to help people find whatever website they’re looking for.
People will type certain keywords and a search engine will attempt to find those keywords across the web, then rank web pages according to a variety of different factors using an algorithm. How that algorithm works precisely, is secret, but we have a good idea what we can do to make it more likely that your website will be higher in the ranking.
That’s your goal: your website should be the first result when people Google something that’s relevant to your website.
Search Engine Optimisation is a set of methods to build and maintain your website in such a way that you can get closer to that goal. It may seem like a lot of work at first, and you might not see the results immediately, but the more people click on your search result, the more Search Engines will think your website should be shown.
Keywords
Do the words people use to search show up often in your website?
Clicks
Do people click on the result to your website often?
External Links
Is your website linked from other websites and social media often?
Internal Links
Are the pages in your website linked to each other often?
Fresh Content
Do you update your website regularly by adding pages and posts, or editing text and pictures on existing pages?
Meaningful Content
If possible, the longer visitors stay on your website, the more importance search engines will give it.
Good Text
Is the text on your website long enough? 4 paragraphs is often good to aim for, if possible. Try not to include bullet points
Most of the SEO work should already be addressed during the conceptual and building phases of your website, but your website is a continuous, changing project where you will need to keep SEO in mind as you add to and update it.
Deciding what your keywords should be is the first step to working on your SEO.
Keywords are what people may type into a search engine to find what they’re looking for.
For example, if I want to hire a local wedding photographer, I might search “wedding photographer Ireland” or “Clare wedding photos”. Your goal is to make sure your keywords show up as often as possible on your website’s text, without making that text too annoying to read for visitors. Rank Math SEO will help you in this process. It will suggest ways to include more keywords in your text, but keep in mind that these are all suggestions, and that your text should cater to the visitors first, and search engines second.
How can you find out what your keywords are? If possible, survey your target audience and ask them to type out what they would search in order to find whatever service or content you’re offering on your website. Another good exercise would be to try to find a similar website or competitor to yours, without using their business or organisation name. If you can find them on the first few results in a search engine, that’s probably a good set of keywords.
Your next step would be to map your keywords. This simply entails deciding which keywords are relevant for which page. For example, if a wedding photographer wrote a blog post offering a sale on their services, your keywords might be “wedding photographer Ireland deal sale”.
A beginners’ guide to Keyword Research
A more indepth article on Keyword Mapping
One good way to not only help your ranking on search engines, but your marketing in general, is to use external links. Without these, your website only exists in a vacuum. It may help to think of your website as a flyer or business card. You’ve had a flyer designed and printed, but now you have to spread it around so that other people can find it easily. Search engines also prefer pages that are linked in a lot of other places on the web, especially if those links are clicked.
Social Media
It’s a good idea to link your homepage or another relevant link every time you post something on your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Other Websites
Are there any other websites where a link to your website might be well placed? For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, think of wedding planners, local and national directories, portfolios, photography blogs, or enterprise boards.
Search Engine Profiles
Is your business or organisation displayed on Google? You can set up your location on Google Maps, and show your contact details, opening times and more when people search for you.
For this manual we will be using one of our clients’ website, Market House Ennistymon as an example.
In your website’s WordPress environment, click Posts or Pages, then click which page/post you’d like to edit.
You will find the Rank Math SEO workspace near the bottom of the page.
To fill in your keywords, type a phrase into the Focus Keyword field and hit Return.
Key Math will automatically suggest phrases it finds in search engines’ autocomplete.
To fill in your keywords, type a phrase into the Focus Keyword field and hit Return.
Key Math will automatically suggest phrases it finds in search engines’ autocomplete.
To edit what people will see when they search you, click Edit Snippet.
You should edit your Title and Description so that they accurately and shortly describe your website, while including your keywords. Rank Math displays a useful meter on the right to gauge how effective these are.
See here for in depth help on writing Descriptions and Titles.
Next, click Close Editor.
Remember to always Update your page, or your changes will not be saved.
You will see a checkbox to mark whether the page you’re working on is Pillar Content.
What’s Pillar Content? Pillar Content are the pages that will be featured underneath your search result. Your Pillar Content should usually include pages that visitors would want to see most often. For example, your Contact page and your Shop page if applicable.
You now know how to edit how people see your SEO friendly search results, but another important step is to make sure the text on your website is SEO friendly as well.
Rank Math has a useful rating system which it uses to suggest ways you can improve your SEO. See below for an example. You can hover your mouse over each question mark to see a simple explanation of each suggestion. Please keep in mind that your website should be catered for the visitors first and foremost, and catered for search engines second.
It won’t always be possible or positive for your visitors’ experience to gain Rank Math’s 100% ranking, and that’s fine.
One important aspect of good SEO that you can work on yourself, is writing good text.
If it makes sense and if it’s possible, write some text for each of your pages, especially your homepage.
Good pointers to follow:
Keywords
Your text should include your keywords in the first sentence, and several times afterwards.
Length
Your text should be at least 600 words long.
Links
Try to include links to relevant pages within your website.
Readability
Above all, your text should still be readable and not too jarring for visitors.
Let’s take Market House Ennistymon’s text on their homepage as an example.
Welcome to the Market House Ennistymon
We are an Online Butcher Store in Ireland. Award winning craft butchers, gourmet delicatessen and café in the heart of Ennistymon, run by father and daughter Sean and Fiona Haugh. Sean Haugh is a 3rd generation farmer and has been sourcing beef and lamb from local farmers in North and West Clare for over 30 years. The stock is finished on clover and salt covered grass on our farm in Kilkee. Our beef is dry aged for 21 days, a traditional method which ensures remarkable depth of flavour. From our abattoir to the shop in Ennistymon there is full traceability on our product. Our land has been fertiliser and pesticide free for four generations, a legacy we are very proud to continue sharing with our customers.
This commitment to quality and freshness continues into our deli. You will find a large range of hot gourmet sandwiches, fresh pastries, gourmet salads and home cooked meats. We offer a wide selection of organic and biodynamic wines with local and Irish artisan groceries. Contact us to shop our bespoke hamper range online, a perfect gift to let someone special know you are thinking of them.
As you can see, their keywords “Online Butcher Store in Ireland” is included in the first sentence of their text. There’s a direct link to their Contact page, and their text as a whole is very readable and markets their business well.
What would be some improvements in this example?
Their keywords could be included in their Header, and once or twice more in the text.
More links to, for example, their Shop page, could be included.
Their text could be 600 or more words long, however this may impact visitors’ experience of the website, as they may not want to read that much text, and the impact of this great marketing text is lost.
