Creating a WordPress blog and optimizing that blog are two different ball games altogether.
WordPress is the popularly used CMS amongst the users. If you are not using a WordPress blog and you are a business owner, SEO consultant or a PPC expert, then opting a WordPress blog is quite a smart move.
Why is WordPress Blog Easy to Create?
Well, because no other CMS provides such an easier platform. However, if you are not optimizing your WordPress blog consistently, it means you are not going to get results to improve.
Maintaining a WordPress blog is a continuous process. You need to create and edit not only the pages but its content as well, redesign its layout and many other things.
There has been always a room for improvement when it comes to optimizing a WordPress blog.
7 Ways to Optimize Your WordPress Blog and Improve Rankings
This article includes 7 valuable ways to improve your blog ranking and its appearance in search engines.
These small changes will have a huge bang on your blog. You must have known that Google has started giving rankings on blogs and websites based on the speed, originality of content and the number of times visited by users.
Let us have look at those essential ways that will give your blog an amazing user experience.
1- Use of Minimal Plug-ins:
You must be aware of the power of WordPress plugins. In order to utilize them to the fullest, some of us use 30-40 plugins on our blog.
Make sure you use minimal plugins and that to which are very important like cache plug-in. One rule of thumb is get rid of the outdated plug-ins.
2- Optimize Blog Images:
Putting relevant images on your blogs works as an illustrative tool, but you must have known that excess of anything is bad. Similar is the case with the usage of too many images on your blogs.
Try to use KeyCDN and lazy loading if are using too many images in your blog post.
3- Go For Modern WordPress Themes:
It is time to upgrade your old fashioned WordPress themes. Now, most of the themes are designed for optimized blogs, so why not to utilize them?
Moreover, make sure you are using a responsive theme for faster loading of the blog on mobile and tablets.
You can opt for p Genesis themes, specially made for fast loading blogs.
4- Use Quality Web Hosting:
Why to look for a local web hosting when quality web hosting service is already there?
Make sure you look for a hosting company that has great reviews on hosting optimized WordPress blogs. If you are looking for a budgeted one then, Siteground is certainly the top in the shared hosting which will also fit your budget.
5- Try not to use Flash in Blogs:
Blogs with flash content typically increase the loading time. Avoid Flash related plugins to maximize the efficiency of your blog.
The use of Flash can decrease your SEO ranking, so if you are having a WordPress blog then try to get rid of the flash completely.
6- Use of CDN Network to Improve Loading Time:
Most of the blogs are hosted particularly on geolocation. For example, if you are living and operating a blog in Asia, then people living in the United States will find it slow to load that blog
The reason behind this is the distance between your server and the user.
So what is the solution?
You can use a CDN network instead.
A CDN network helps your blog to be loaded quickly, no matter which part of the world you are living in.
7- Ensure Least Advertisements on Your Blogs:
Avoid the use of too many advertisements on your blog. This is because many of the PPC campaigns’ ads are loaded with HTML content that can consequently increase the loading time of your blog to a greater extent.
If the use of advertisements is must for you, it is recommended to use Google Adsense; suitable for the best optimization and enhanced loading time.
Pro Tip:
Sometimes optimizing WordPress blogs does not require any kind of programming/coding or SEO strategy to some extent. But, yes when you are using a technique like shrinking the image on the blog, you are actually optimizing your WordPress blog, giving more user retention and greater brand awareness.