Building and Marketing Your Digital Business on Wordpress

As we describe in the previous post one very popular option for building your e-commerce site is the combination of Wordpress + Woocommerce.

Wordpress is an open source ‘CMS’ (Content Management System), indeed it’s the world’s most popular CMS.

With the ability to customize the theme style design and an innumerable number of software plugins for tailoring the functionality, in essence you can use it to build any possible permutation of online business.

Practically speaking as a CMS this is within an overall domain of a content-centric site, it wouldn’t be the best technology choice to build an online accounting app for example.

Given the primary function of a web site is content it does mean that it can cater for a vast array of different online strategies, where a core activity is to have one or more authors contribute and edit content for the site, from blogs through products and community forums.

It can have more of a corporate feel than a community, such as these Wordpress showcase case studies for Cap Gemini and even the Whitehouse.

As a publishing platform WordPress is naturally ideal for media sites, such as newspapers and magazines. High profile case study examples include Rolling Stone magazine, Canada.com, the New York Post, the NextWeb and the ESPN’s Undefeated, making it ideal for business ideas with that objective.

This publishing capability plus great styling makes it an ideal platform for businesses looking to greatly expand their online content marketing. This can be difficult to achieve with a static corporate site so Wordpress is ideal for spinning up a complimentary expert blog site; for example one like MIT Sloan.

SEO Marketing

Wordpress is ideal for enabling an effective digital marketing strategy, through using the CMS to publish great content and then to further leverage techniques such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

There are many SEO plugins available. We use the the ‘Yoast‘ plugin, a module that handles all the grunt work of indexing all your posts and pages.

Their Beginners Guide to SEO provides a helpful guide explaining how this is achieved, and from that a primer into understanding how to write content that makes use of those features. This includes running a configuration wizard, so you can automate the first set up of your site.

Then on an ongoing basis you can post, and optimize, your content to exploit the many other features and characteristics of SEO marketing that the plugin makes possible, such as:

• The focus keyphrase. What is the main term you want searchers to find your site through; in our case Digital Scotland.
• A convenient readability analysis. Ensure the search indexing text is well written. Read more in Content analysis: methodological choices explained.
• Cornerstone content – Give specialism prominence to the flagship articles on your site, those most likely to first draw new visitors. This one for example is marked as a Cornerstone article.

The site structure is also key. Not only do we index each and every article with search terms, but also the categories and tags too. For example also combining the Digital Scotland headline term with popular topics like Blockchain.

Every tag, category, page and post is indexed this way across our site, generating a powerful SEO site map, and so when adding your promotional article to the site we index it the same way so that it benefits from part of this larger footprint.

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that offers powerful features and flexibility for website owners. When it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization), WordPress provides various tools and plugins that can help improve your website’s ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). In this article, we will discuss how to use and optimize WordPress to increase your SEO ranking.

Table of Contents
Installing WordPress
Choosing an SEO-Friendly Theme
Optimizing Permalinks
Installing SEO Plugins
Creating High-Quality Content
Optimizing Images
Building Quality Backlinks
Monitoring Analytics
1. Installing WordPress
To start using WordPress, you need to install it on your web hosting server. Most hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation, making it easy to get started. Follow the instructions provided by your hosting provider to install WordPress.

2. Choosing an SEO-Friendly Theme
When selecting a theme for your WordPress website, choose one that is SEO-friendly. Look for themes that are lightweight, fast-loading, and optimized for search engines. Avoid themes with excessive code or poor performance, as they can negatively impact your SEO efforts.

3. Optimizing Permalinks
Permalinks are the URLs of your website’s pages and posts. WordPress allows you to customize your permalinks to make them more SEO-friendly. Go to the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Settings > Permalinks, and choose a structure that includes your post title or relevant keywords. This will help search engines understand the content of your pages.

4. Installing SEO Plugins
WordPress offers a wide range of SEO plugins that can enhance your website’s optimization. Two popular options are Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. These plugins provide features like XML sitemap generation, meta tag optimization, and content analysis. Install and configure an SEO plugin to improve your website’s visibility on search engines.

5. Creating High-Quality Content
Content is a crucial factor in SEO. Create high-quality, unique, and engaging content that provides value to your audience. Use relevant keywords naturally throughout your content, but avoid keyword stuffing. Aim for informative and well-structured articles that are easy to read and share.

6. Optimizing Images
Images play a significant role in website engagement, but they can also slow down your site if not optimized properly. Compress your images to reduce their file size without compromising quality. Use descriptive file names and alt tags that include relevant keywords. This helps search engines understand the content of your images and improves your website’s overall SEO.

7. Building Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your site. They are an important ranking factor in SEO. Focus on building high-quality backlinks from reputable websites in your industry. You can achieve this by creating valuable content, guest blogging, reaching out to influencers, and participating in relevant online communities.

8. Monitoring Analytics
Regularly monitor your website’s analytics to track your SEO progress. Use tools like Google Analytics to analyze your website’s traffic, user behavior, and keyword performance. This data will help you identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions to further optimize your WordPress site.

By following these steps and utilizing the available tools, you can effectively use and optimize WordPress to increase your SEO ranking. Remember that SEO is an ongoing process, so regularly update your content, monitor your performance, and adapt your strategies to stay ahead in the search engine rankings.