Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for businesses to increase their online visibility and attract potential customers to their website. In this article, we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to improve your website’s SEO using two popular tools:
- Yoast SEO
- Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool.
Understanding SEO
SEO is the practice of optimizing a website and its content to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to the website’s topic or business. The goal is to increase visibility, drive more organic traffic, and ultimately generate more revenue.
Techniques for SEO
There are various techniques for SEO, including keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and content creation. They all work together to increase the quality and quantity of organic traffic to a website.
Improving SEO with Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugins that can help you optimize your website content and improve your SEO overall search engine rankings. Here are the steps to use it.
How to Install and Setup Yoast SEO Plugin
- Install and Activate Yoast SEO Plugin
Firstly, install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin on your WordPress site. - Yoast SEO Dashboard
Once you activate it, you will see a new section called “Yoast SEO” in your WordPress dashboard. Set up Yoast SEO following the instructions carefully and provide all the information required.
How to Optimize Content with Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO provides real-time feedback on your content optimization. Follow these steps to optimize your content according to the Yoast algorithm:
- Start with a Focus Keyword
This is the keyword that you want your page or post to rank for on search engines. - Use the Proper Title Tag
Make sure your title includes your focus keyword and is less than 60 characters. - Meta Description
This should be a brief summary of what your page is about, and it should be less than 155 characters. - Use Subheadings
Subheadings make your content easy to read, and they divide your content into small parts that are easily digestible by readers and search engine bots. - Add Internal and External Links
Links are important for search engines, as they help identify the topics your page is about, and how your pages are related to each other.
How to Make Sure Your Content is Readable with Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO provides a readability analysis that scores your content. To have an optimized content score, make sure that your content is straightforward and easy to read by everyone.
- Use shorter paragraphs: Paragraphs longer than 3-4 sentences can be difficult to read. Use shorter paragraphs to make your content easier to skim.
- Use shorter sentences and sub-headings.
- Choose simpler words avoiding complicated language.
- Use bulleted and numbered lists that make it easy for readers to navigate and absorb your content.
How to Optimize for Mobile Users with Yoast SEO
- Check for Mobile Responsiveness
Yoast also checks for mobile responsiveness and its user-friendliness. - Optimize for Mobile Users
Make sure to optimize Yoast SEO for mobile users to get the most out of it. This is important because mobile is the new baseline and the new default, and optimizing for mobile users can help improve your website’s search engine rankings.
How to Create and Submit a Sitemap with Yoast SEO
- Create and Submit a Sitemap
A sitemap is a blueprint of your site. Yoast allows you to create a sitemap and submit it to search engines. To create a Sitemap, head over to Yoast SEO > Settings > Site features > XML Sitemaps. You can find it under APIs, at the bottom of the screen. - Enable Search Console Integration
Yoast SEO allows you to integrate with multiple search engines. Go to Yoast SEO > Site connections to connect your site to one or more search engines. Once done, it will show you how search engines crawl and index your website.
Ahrefs’ Site Audit Tool to Improve Your SEO
Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool provides a comprehensive analysis of your website’s SEO health, including performance, HTML tags, social tags, content quality, and localization. The tool automatically groups issues by type and provides printable reports, all fully visualized with colored charts. By using Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool, you can identify critical SEO issues that may be hurting your website’s performance in Google and take actionable steps to improve your website’s SEO health.
Here are the steps to use Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool.
Launch a New Project in Ahrefs’ Site Audit
- If you’re an Ahrefs user, first login
- Launching a new project in Site Audit.
- Follow the instructions provided by Ahrefs to set up your project and connect your website to your Ahrefs account.
Run a Site Audit
- Once your project is set up, run a site audit using Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool.
- The tool will crawl all the pages on your website and provide an overall SEO health score, flagging any possible SEO issues.
Review the Site Audit Report
- Go to Site Audit.
- Choose your project.
- Go to the All crawls part and click on the newest date.
- Analyze the site audit report generated by Ahrefs. It will highlight technical and on-page SEO issues that need attention.
- At the top of the page, you will find an overview of how your website is performing.
- Pay attention to issues such as broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, slow page speed, and other technical issues that may impact your website’s performance.
Fix Technical Issues
- Prioritize fixing the technical issues identified in the site audit report.
- Address broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, and other technical issues to improve your website’s SEO.
Optimize On-Page Elements to Improve SEO
- Review the on-page SEO elements identified in the site audit report.
- You will be presented with a list of top issues that need to be addressed after conducting a website audit using Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool. These issues are color-coded, with green indicating good and red indicating bad. Green issues are those that have been fixed, while red issues are those that need to be addressed. It is crucial to address these top issues to improve your website’s SEO health and increase your website’s visibility in search engine results.
I added 11 missing alt tags for images, so this is shown in green as an improvement. - Optimize title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and keyword usage to improve the on-page SEO of your website.
Monitor and Schedule Regular Site Crawls
After fixing the identified issues, schedule regular site crawls using Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool. Regularly monitor your website’s health and receive email notifications when the crawl is done to stay on top of any new issues that may arise.
Leverage Ahrefs’ Additional SEO Tools
Explore other SEO tools provided by Ahrefs, such as Content Gap, Keywords Explorer, and Link Building tools. Utilize these tools to identify content gaps, target low-competition keywords, and build high-quality backlinks to further improve your website’s SEO.
Conclusion
In order to improve your website’s search engine rankings and overall SEO, it’s important to conduct a comprehensive website audit and address any SEO issues that may be hindering your website’s performance. Utilizing tools such as Yoast SEO and Ahrefs’ Site Audit tool can assist you in this process. By following these steps and regularly monitoring and optimizing your website based on the insights from the audit, you’ll take significant steps towards optimizing your website’s search engine performance.