For several years, people have speculated that websites built on WordPress do better in Google’s search results. So, does this mean Google favors WordPress sites?

Let’s dive into:

• Why Google embraces WordPress
• Does Google give WordPress sites better rankings?
• FAQ: How does the partnership between Google and WordPress benefit search results?

Why Google Embraces WordPress

WordPress is behind more than one-third (43%) of the websites on the internet and its CMS market share is roughly 64%, according to W3Techs.

That makes it the most popular content management system and growing. In fact, from January 2020 to April 2022, WordPress usage grew from 35% to 43% – that’s nearly a 23% increase in just over two years.

And WordPress isn’t just for small businesses. WordPress powers some of the biggest brands and most popular websites including Zoom.us, Alibaba.com, Bloomerg.com, and Salesforce.com.

Google endorsed WordPress early on, stating back in 2009 that the CMS solved up to 90% of SEO mechanics, with features such as enabling an SEO-friendly site structure, mobile friendliness, and enabling page optimization via meta tags – and that is right out of the box.

Additionally, WordPress plugins enable you to further tailor functionality (including our own Bruce Clay WordPress SEO plugin), providing plenty of ways for optimizing a WordPress website for SEO.

Even with all of these new features, WordPress still isn’t perfect for organic search and needs work if you really want to increase your search results.

In 2017, Google presented findings at a WordCamp event that showed WordPress performed poorly compared to non-WordPress webpages on a lot of key performance indicators.

(In case you didn’t notice, those performance indicators are the same found in Google’s “page experience” algorithm update that hit in 2021).

So in 2018, Googler Alberto Medina announced a partnership between Google and WordPress to help improve the WordPress ecosystem. (The announcement on his personal blog seems to be currently unavailable.)

Why partner together?

As WordPress expands in market share and becomes the website platform of choice for more websites, Google wants to ensure that WordPress sites perform well in search results.

That equates to a better experience for Google users. And this is what Google really cares about.

Does Google Give WordPress Sites Better Rankings?

Maybe – but it’s not likely due to a ranking signal in its algorithm. And, in fact, Google has stated otherwise.

In 2016, Google’s John Mueller said this on Twitter:

no. WP is a great CMS & works well in search, but afaik our algos don’t explicitly check for any particular CMS.

— John (personal) (@JohnMu) November 1, 2016

And again in 2021, Mueller said this:

I don’t know Webflow, but CMS’s for the web all make HTML pages in one form or another. There’s nothing inherently making one generator better for SEO than any other. Google Search doesn’t know / track if a page comes from WordPress, FrontPage, or an artisan code-foundry.

— John (personal) (@JohnMu) November 16, 2021

The reason why WordPress sites may tend to rank better is due to WordPress’s SEO-friendly features. Not every CMS allows you to do advanced SEO. This is what you want in a CMS.

As WordPress and its community — including Google — continue working together to enhance it, WordPress sites will be more competitive in search results compared to other website builders.

If you are choosing between WordPress and Wix for creating a website, my advice would be to ensure you can compete effectively with your competition online.

And, if all your competitors use WordPress, it would be advantageous for all parties involved to be competing on an even playing field. You don’t get there by using a website builder that does not enable you to do advanced SEO.

Contact us today to learn more about how you can develop or update your WordPress site to rank in Google.

FAQ: How does the partnership between Google and WordPress benefit search results?

Google recently formed an alliance between itself and WordPress, offering multiple benefits for website owners and marketers. This partnership positively impacts search rankings for WordPress users in many ways, including:

Enhanced Crawling and Indexing

The partnership between Google and WordPress has resulted in improved crawling and indexing of WordPress websites. Google Searchbot is tightly integrated into WordPress websites and will quickly identify and index new or updated pages on them, giving Google the power to show them in relevant search results quickly. Google can even quickly index blog posts written for WordPress sites as quickly as they’re published or updated, making sure your posts appear quickly for searchers to discover them.

Optimized Site Structure and Mobile-Friendliness

WordPress is widely admired for its user-friendly interface and robust architecture, offering a host of SEO-friendly themes and plugins that can optimize website structure, increase speed and enhance mobile friendliness. This integration aligns perfectly with Google’s emphasis on mobile-first indexing and page experience signals. By leveraging WordPress’s features and Google’s guidelines, website owners can create highly responsive and user-friendly websites that are favored by search engines.

Streamlined Content Publishing and SEO

Content is king in the digital realm, and WordPress empowers website owners to create and publish high-quality content seamlessly. The partnership with Google further enhances this process by providing valuable insights and recommendations for optimizing content for search results. WordPress plugins, such as Yoast SEO, integrate with Google Search Console to offer real-time suggestions for improving keyword targeting, meta descriptions and overall content quality. This collaborative approach ensures that your WordPress site aligns with Google’s search algorithm, maximizing visibility and engagement.

Improved Schema Markup and Rich Snippets

Schema markup, also known as structured data, provides search engines with additional information about your website’s content, enabling them to display rich snippets in search results. WordPress offers numerous plugins that simplify the implementation of schema markup, ensuring that your content stands out in search listings. The Google-WordPress partnership has facilitated the adoption of standardized schema types and improved compatibility between WordPress and Google’s search engine. As a result, website owners can effectively communicate the relevance and context of their content to Google, leading to enhanced visibility and click-through rates.

The integration of Google’s search capabilities with the WordPress platform empowers website owners to create user-friendly, SEO-optimized websites that rank well in search results, ultimately driving more organic traffic and increasing online visibility.

The post Do WordPress Sites Do Better in Google Search? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

It is often said that two are better than one. But in SEO, two webpages that appear too similar can cause double the trouble. This is what we call duplicate content.

• A quick primer on meta info and duplicate content issues
• How to Get Rid of Duplicate Meta Data with a WordPress Plugin
• FAQ: How can I effectively manage duplicate content issues on my website?

What exactly is duplicate content? Google defines it in the following way:

Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar.

There are things that can cause duplicate content on your website. For example, you could have:

1. Meta information duplicates
2. Similar content across pages
3. Boilerplate content on all pages
4. Two different site versions
5. A separate mobile site
6. Trailing slashes on URLs
7. CMS problems
8. Parameterized pages
9. Product description issues

These are all common issues for websites, and you can fix them. For a deeper dive (especially on what types of duplicate content cause problems for SEO), I recommend you read our guide on duplicate content.

Today, I’m going to dive into how to deal with the issue on a WordPress site specifically. But to start, this video overviews how to get rid of duplicate content on a website:

Now let’s focus on how to avoid duplicate content issues that fall into the category of duplicate meta information. And you’ll be able to do this easily with a WordPress SEO plugin.

A Quick Primer on Meta Info and Duplicate Content Issues

If you’re already well-versed on meta info and duplicate content issues, you can skip to the next section to learn about how you can fix it with a WordPress SEO plugin.

If you’re still here, let’s talk about the duplicate content issue.

Meta tags are on the code side of a webpage. They are meta information (or meta data) about a page, including the title and description. Meta data is one of the first pieces of code that a search engine encounters when it crawls a page.

Page source view on a BruceClay.com article

The meta tags tell the search engine what the page is about. That’s why it’s so important that the titles and meta descriptions be accurate and unique within your website.

As smart as Google’s ranking algorithm is at figuring out the topic of a webpage, it still needs help with context. Because it can’t read like you or I can.

So the meta information, especially the meta title, is critical for communicating the topic of the page. This, in turn, helps Google understand that the webpage is a good match for a search query.

It’s a common SEO issue: meta tags on a site have duplicate or similar text. This can be especially true on large websites with hundreds or thousands of webpages.

And it can happen for a variety of reasons. Meta tags may not be a priority; automation software may be used due to too many webpages, and so on.

Regardless of the reason, the same or similar meta tags can cause duplicate content issues within a site. Again, this type of duplicate content is especially important to fix because meta tags are the first chance at communicating to the search engine what the page is about.

Will you suffer a Google penalty because of it? No. Google does not have a duplicate content penalty unless the duplicate content is deceptive.

From Google:

Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.

This usually occurs when sites copy content from other sites and claim it as their own.

For duplicate content within a website, though, you can suffer some consequences. And that consequence is your webpages being filtered from the search results.

When faced with two pages whose contents appear too similar, Google picks the page that it believes to be the best for the query. And it leaves the other page out of the results.

But this may or may not be the page you want to show up in the search results &mdash, so you want to avoid filtering.

How to Get Rid of Duplicate Meta Data with a WordPress Plugin

Until now, it has not been easy for WordPress users to identify duplicate content issues right in WordPress. But with our WordPress SEO plugin, it’s simple to get this data.

1. Install the Bruce Clay SEO WP Plugin

If you’re not already a user of our WordPress SEO plugin, here’s how you can get started:

Get a free trial here. We offer an affordable monthly plan at $24.95 thereafter with access to all WordPress SEO functionality plus our SEOToolSet® if you want more analytics and reports.

Installation is quick and easy, and you have two options. One way is to download the Bruce Clay SEO plugin from the WordPress repository here.

Another way is to  install the plugin from within your WordPress site by going to WP admin > Plugins > Add New and searching for “Bruce Clay.”

2. Set Up and Sync the Plugin

This step will sync all published content on your website with the toolset. You’ll synchronize your content when you first set up the plugin, from the Settings tab.

3. Review the Activity Tab for Duplicate Titles and Descriptions

See which pages on your site pose duplicate content issues at the metadata level. Our WordPress SEO plugin runs a check when pages are published or synched.

(A sync happens when the page is published, the “analyze content” button is pressed, or when a sync is manually run from the Settings screen.)

It then reports on any potential duplicate content issues from the same meta information.

4. Click on the Page or Post

Select a page or post and automatically bring it up in the WordPress editor so you can adjust the title or description.

5. Make Changes to the Meta Info

If you are using Yoast SEO, you would adjust the title and description there. If you are using our title and description feature, you can adjust it there. (Note: If Yoast is active on your site, the Bruce Clay SEO plugin automatically hides these fields to prevent any confusion.)

Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin’s title and description editor

Yoast SEO plugin’s title and description editor

6. Mark as Done

Mark the alert as “done” in the Activity tab. The alert will go away immediately.

You can read more on how the Bruce Clay SEO plugin helps you with:

• Keyword optimization
• Real-time and customized data
• Custom SEO advice per keyword
• Tracking your content performance

Get rid of the duplicate content in your WordPress site starting today. Get your free trial of our WordPress SEO plugin now.

FAQ: How can I effectively manage duplicate content issues on my website?

Duplicate content issues can significantly impact your website’s search engine ranking and user experience. Effectively managing these issues requires a combination of technical expertise and strategic planning. This article offers valuable insights to help you tackle duplicate content and optimize your website for better performance.

Identifying Duplicate Content

Identifying duplicate content is the first step in managing the issue. Utilize tools such as website crawlers to analyze your site’s content and identify instances of duplication. Look for similar content across different pages, repetitive meta information, and boilerplate text that may negatively affect your SEO efforts.

Addressing Duplicate Content

Once identified, it’s crucial to address duplicate content promptly. Begin by creating unique and compelling meta titles and descriptions for each page. Update or rewrite repetitive content to provide valuable insights and engage your audience. Ensuring that each page offers distinct and valuable information enhances your site’s relevance and credibility.

Preventing Duplicate Content

Prevention is key to maintaining a website free of duplicate content. Implement best practices such as canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of a page to search engines. Regularly audit your site for redundant content and use redirects to consolidate similar pages. You enhance your site’s overall SEO performance by proactively preventing duplicate content.

User-Friendly Navigation

A well-structured website with intuitive navigation can also help prevent duplicate content issues. Ensure that your site’s URLs are clear and descriptive, making it easier for both users and search engines to understand the hierarchy of your content. Utilize breadcrumb navigation and internal linking to guide users through your site while maintaining a coherent content structure.

Regular Monitoring and Optimization

Managing duplicate content is an ongoing process. Regularly monitor your website for any new instances of duplication that may arise. Stay updated with the latest SEO guidelines and best practices to optimize your content strategy continuously. By staying vigilant and proactive, you can maintain a high-quality website that delivers value to both users and search engines.

Step-by-Step Procedure: How to Effectively Manage Duplicate Content Issues on Your Website

1. Identify duplicate content using website crawling tools.
2. Analyze similarities across pages and examine meta-information.
3. Determine the scope and extent of the duplicate content issue.
4. Prioritize pages with the highest impact on SEO and user experience.
5. Create unique and informative meta titles and descriptions.
6. Rewrite or update redundant content to offer distinct value.
7. Utilize canonical tags to guide search engines to the preferred page.
8. Implement 301 redirects to consolidate similar content.
9. Audit your website’s navigation and URL structure.
10. Optimize breadcrumb navigation for easy user navigation.
11. Use internal linking to guide users through your content.
12. Regularly monitor your website for new instances of duplication.
13. Stay updated with evolving SEO guidelines and best practices.
14. Continuously optimize your content strategy to prevent future issues.

The post How to Get Rid of Duplicate Content in WordPress appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Optimizing content with keywords is one of the most common SEO practices out there. Even without technical SEO skills, content creators often perform this basic SEO function.

Why is keyword optimization such a popular SEO technique? Simply put: it’s an easy way to help your content compete in the search results.

Of course, Google applies countless ranking signals when choosing a page to show up in the search results prominently. And Google is getting smarter all the time at matching a webpage to a search query. So, keyword optimization is not the only thing that matters. But it does.

I’ll show you next how you can properly optimize your content right within WordPress in a way that’s so easy anyone can do it. No SEO skills are required.

• What is keyword optimization? 
• How to optimize content with keywords in WordPress
• Bonus: View Content History by Keyword, Sitewide
• FAQ: How can I optimize my content with keywords effectively within WordPress?

What Is Keyword Optimization?

If you already “get” why keyword optimization matters or you want to get straight to the SEO plugin information, skip this section.

If you’re still here, let’s talk about optimization.

Having the right words in your content, making sure they show up often, and planning where they show up on the page can help Google understand that the webpage is a match for a search query.

If you haven’t yet picked your keywords, I suggest you read our beginner’s guide on that topic here: What Are Keywords? Why Are Keywords Important to SEO? And How Do You DO Keyword Research?

As mentioned earlier, Google gets more sophisticated all the time. Keyword optimization had more clout in Google’s ranking algorithm many years ago. But that doesn’t mean Google still doesn’t rely on keywords to understand your content.

This is an older article from Google AI, but it reveals how words can help machines understand what a webpage is about. Google likely uses some form of TFIDF, as mentioned below, to measure term frequency in its ranking algorithm:

One way to approach the problem is to look for words that appear more often than their ordinary rates. For example, if you see the word “coach” 5 times in a 581 word article, and compare that to the usual frequency of “coach” — more like 5 in 330,000 words — you have reason to suspect the article has something to do with coaching. The term “basketball” is even more extreme, appearing 150,000 times more often than usual. This is the idea of the famous TFIDF, long used to index web pages.

It’s important to note that when you write content, you are already optimizing it for a keyword. Talking about any one topic at length naturally contains the words that are relevant to that topic.

However, keyword research and keyword optimization can boost the webpage’s performance in the search results. That’s because you strategically use words and phrases with a high search volume. They are still relevant to your topic, and data backs them up.

How to Optimize Content with Keywords in WordPress

OK, let’s dive into how to optimize your content with keywords using our WordPress SEO plugin. (Get a free seven-day trial at that link if you’re not already a user.)

1. Plug in Your Keywords

Enter your target keywords within the Keywords tab in our WordPress SEO plugin. Many popular SEO plugins will only offer optimization functionality for one keyword. With ours, you can target many keywords per page.

Keywords tab in Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin

2. Write Your Content

Write the content within WordPress or upload your already-written content to the page.

3. View Keyword Count

Find out the specific goals for keyword density (how many times a keyword should be on the page). The top-ranked pages in the search results for each keyword are the basis for the advice. Any changes to the page will automatically update the goals.

Keyword goals in Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin

4. View Keyword Distribution

See how your content distributes the keywords. Highlighting them helps you ensure that the text has a thorough distribution of keywords from top to bottom. This may impact the relevance of your webpage for a search query.

Keyword distribution visual in Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin

5. Adjust and Recalculate

Make tweaks to your keyword optimization in WordPress based on suggested goals. The keyword counts are updated as you type when making changes in the content. Make sure you are meeting your keyword count goals and distributing your keywords evenly throughout.

That’s it! Our WordPress SEO plugin makes doing basic but important SEO a breeze.

Bonus: View Content History by Keyword, Sitewide

As a website ages, it has more and more content added to it. It’s not always easy to remember if you’ve written about a topic in the past.

Our WordPress SEO plugin allows you to quickly see how many pages of content you already have assigned a keyword/topic and how they are performing.

View things like:

• How many posts or pages you’ve written for each keyword
• How well those pages or posts are doing, for example, page views, impressions, and click-through rates

This allows you to better plan future content, to consider whether you’ll combine existing pages on the same topic (something we talk about here and Google talks about here), and much more.

Ready to start optimizing your content in WordPress? Get your free trial of our WordPress SEO plugin now.

Read more on how the Bruce Clay SEO plugin helps you with:

• Real-time and customized data
• Avoiding duplicate content
• Custom SEO advice per keyword
• Tracking your content performance

FAQ: How can I optimize my content with keywords effectively within WordPress?

WordPress, one of the most popular content management systems, provides numerous tools and techniques to help you achieve content optimization.

Keyword Research:
Begin with in-depth keyword research to identify relevant keywords and phrases that resonate with your content. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush can provide valuable insights.

Focus on Long-Tail Keywords:
Long-tail keywords are specific phrases that cater to niche audiences. Incorporating them into your content can yield better results, as they often have lower competition.

Keyword Placement:
Strategically place your chosen keywords in key areas of your WordPress content, including the title, headings, subheadings, and throughout the body text. Ensure they appear naturally and don’t disrupt the flow of your content.

Use SEO Plugins:
Leverage SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math to streamline the optimization process. These tools offer guidance and recommendations on improving your content’s SEO.

Optimize Images:
Don’t forget about image optimization. Use descriptive alt text for images to help search engines understand their content.

Maintain Quality Content:
Keyword optimization should never compromise the quality of your content. Focus on creating valuable, informative, and engaging material for your audience.

Monitor Keyword Performance:
Regularly monitor how your keywords are performing using tools like Google Analytics. Adjust your strategy based on the results.

Internal Linking:
Integrate internal links within your content to improve navigation and boost the SEO value of your website.

Mobile Optimization:
Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, as Google prioritizes mobile-responsive sites in its ranking algorithm.

Page Speed:
Optimize your site’s speed for a better user experience and improved search engine rankings.

User Experience:
Enhance the overall user experience by organizing your content logically, using clean design, and making your site easy to navigate.

Secure Your Site:
Implement SSL certificates to ensure your site is secure. Google favors secure websites in its rankings.

Regular Updates:
Keep your content fresh by updating it regularly. Search engines appreciate current and relevant information.

Social Sharing:
Encourage social sharing of your content to increase its reach and potentially improve your SEO.

Backlinks:
Focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable websites to boost your content’s authority.

Follow these 15 steps to optimize your WordPress content using keywords. Search engine optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process, and keeping up-to-date with industry trends and algorithm changes is integral to its success.

The post How a WordPress SEO Plugin Can Help You Optimize Your Content with Keywords appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

If a cardiologist wanted to see how your heart was doing, they’d hook you up to an EKG to measure your heart rate at rest or during activity.

What a cardiologist wouldn’t do is tell you your heart health based on a study of people like you, without doing an EKG. They need a baseline. And that baseline is the information your unique heart is putting out.

There are a lot of great WordPress SEO plugins out there. And they all function differently. A common theme among many of them is that they base their recommendations (and functionality) on SEO best practices.

Best practices definitely have their place. But you can’t rely solely on them. After a while, your site becomes average and like everyone else’s. Your website and your keywords are as unique as a heartbeat. To have a better chance of ranking on Page 1 of the search results, you need custom SEO advice. And I’ll show you how to get it.

• Best practices are great, except when they’re not
• What’s missing in your WordPress SEO guidance
• How to get custom SEO advice from your WordPress SEO plugin 
• FAQ: What data and analytics does a WordPress SEO plugin provide to enhance my SEO efforts?

Best Practices Are Great, Except When They’re Not

I’m all for large-scale SEO research studies that produce interesting data on all things SEO. Some studies you may have seen in the past show ranking factors, optimal metadata length, content length correlated to top rankings, and so on.

These studies tend to look at a massive amount of search results across all niches and all types of keywords with varying intent. Marketers use these studies as a guiding light.

This data then becomes an SEO truth which many go by. The new best practice then trickles into every corner of the SEO industry, including in-house practices, agencies, and WordPress plugins.

Folks, there is a difference between data and wisdom, and assuming that every keyword on the web requires a 1,700-word page to rank is simply crazy.

Study data provides a useful road map. But we can do better.

What’s Missing in Your WordPress SEO Guidance

When it comes to WordPress SEO plugins, there’s no shortage of great ones. You will not likely find everything you need in just one SEO plugin. So the best way to go about using them is to create a custom plugin stack that works for your SEO needs.

As we researched the SEO plugin market before we created our own, we found a gap. Many of the leading plugins base their guidance and features on established best practices and industry data averages.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. We saw an opportunity to help more websites succeed in the search results with an SEO plugin that gave custom SEO advice.

Instead of static recommendations based on generic research, we wanted to give real-time SEO advice based on the top-ranked pages for a keyword.

This is a game-changer. Consider this: Every keyword has a different intent, and that intent biases the algorithm. Since every keyword query has its own intent and thus its own algorithm, there are as many algorithms as there are keywords.

Then you add the bias of RankBrain and an individual’s web history on a query, and the possibilities are endless when ranking webpages. It is almost impossible to hit a home run if you’re just relying on generic best practices.

That is why analytics tools exist — to give you custom data. That is why we decided to power our Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin with analytics, not just static best practices.

How to Get Custom SEO Advice from Your WordPress SEO Plugin

Real-time analytics powers every aspect of our WordPress SEO plugin. That’s because our plugin is run like software as a service (SaaS) rather than a static WordPress plugin.

It enriches your WordPress workspace with SEO recommendations based on real-time search results and analytics.

Our WordPress SEO plugin uses live connections with:

• Google Analytics
• Google Search Console
• SEOToolSet®

So you never need to leave WordPress again to analyze your keywords, competition and performance in real time.

As a result, the optimization advice is customized. This helps you optimize your page to the same level as the top-ranked pages in Google’s search results.

Our WordPress SEO plugin gives you custom SEO advice and performance data such as:

• Target content length
• Readability scores and goals
• Custom meta information advice
• Keyword density and distribution goals
• Mobile usability and speed scores
• Average time on page
• Page views
• Conversions
• Clicks
• Impressions
• Click-through rate
• Content performance by author

Traffic tab in Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin

And by the way, when you subscribe to our SEO plugin, you get full access to all the tools in our SEOToolSet. Since our WordPress SEO plugin is powered in part by the SEOToolSet, you don’t have to leave WordPress to get the benefits of it.

But if you log in to your SEOToolSet, you can take advantage of more SEO tools and reports at no extra charge.

How much do we believe in this technology? Our issued U.S. patent number is 10698961.

Ready to get real-time SEO advice in WordPress? Get your free trial of our WordPress SEO plugin now.

Read more on how the Bruce Clay SEO plugin helps you with:

• Keyword optimization
• Avoiding duplicate content
• Custom SEO advice per keyword
• Tracking your content performance

FAQ: What Data and Analytics Does a WordPress SEO Plugin Provide to Enhance My SEO Efforts?

Search engine optimization (SEO), also known as search engine marketing, is critical to ensure that your website appears prominently in search results. WordPress provides an ideal platform for SEO efforts; however, with the right plugin this process can take off even further.

Understanding Keyword Performance Metrics

A key component of SEO is knowing how well your chosen keywords are performing. WordPress SEO plugins offer comprehensive keyword analysis, revealing vital information like search volume, competitiveness, and trends. Armed with this data, you can fine-tune your content strategy and focus on keywords that resonate most with your target audience.

On-Page Analysis for Content Optimization

To succeed in the digital sphere, your website’s content must be optimized for both search engines and users. WordPress SEO plugins provide in-depth on-page analysis, highlighting areas where you can improve. These insights encompass readability, keyword density, meta tags, and even suggestions for internal linking. By implementing these recommendations, you can enhance your content’s relevance and user-friendliness.

Backlink Tracking and Competitor Analysis

Staying ahead of the competition is a core tenet of SEO. WordPress SEO plugins can assist you in this endeavor by offering tools to monitor backlinks and analyze your competitors’ strategies. By keeping tabs on your inbound and outbound links, you can identify opportunities for link building and detect potentially harmful backlinks. Additionally, gaining insights into your competitors’ keyword rankings and content strategies can guide your own SEO efforts.

Performance Metrics and Site Speed Optimization

Website speed and performance are crucial ranking factors. Many WordPress SEO plugins provide performance metrics and recommendations for enhancing site speed. These insights can help you identify and rectify issues that may be slowing down your site, improving user experience and search engine rankings.

Empowering Your SEO Journey

A WordPress SEO plugin can be a game-changer for your SEO endeavors. These plugins offer an array of data and analytics, from keyword performance metrics to on-page analysis and competitor insights, all of which empower you to make informed decisions to enhance your website’s SEO performance.

Step-by-Step Procedure: How to Leverage WordPress SEO Plugin Data and Analytics for Enhanced SEO:

1. Install and activate a reputable WordPress SEO plugin.
2. Configure the plugin settings according to your website’s needs.
3. Perform keyword research using the plugin’s tools to identify high-potential keywords.
4. Create and optimize content around the selected keywords, following the plugin’s on-page recommendations.
5. Monitor keyword performance metrics regularly and make adjustments to your content strategy as needed.
6. Utilize the plugin’s backlink tracking features to manage your site’s backlink profile.
7. Analyze competitor strategies using the plugin’s competitor analysis tools.
8. Incorporate insights gained from competitor analysis into your own SEO strategy.
9. Review the plugin’s performance metrics and take action to improve site speed and performance.
10. Regularly update your content and SEO strategy based on the data and analytics provided by the plugin.
11. Continuously monitor your website’s SEO performance and adapt your approach to stay competitive.
12. Stay informed about updates and new features offered by the plugin.
13. Collaborate with other SEO professionals and share insights gained from the plugin’s data.
14. Maintain a consistent focus on quality content creation and user experience.
15. Track your website’s progress in search engine rankings and organic traffic over time.
16. Adjust your SEO strategy as necessary to achieve your desired goals.
17. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and algorithm changes that may impact SEO.
18. Conduct regular audits of your website’s SEO health using the plugin’s auditing tools.
19. Implement recommended changes to address any SEO issues identified in the audits.
20. Continuously learn and adapt your SEO practices to stay ahead in the ever-changing world of digital marketing.

This article was updated on December 22, 2023.  

The post WordPress SEO Plugins: Why Real-Time and Customized Data Matters appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

SEO best practices are great. But there’s more to landing on Page 1 of the search results than just best practices.

You need to understand the top-ranked pages in the search results for your keywords. What do they have in common? That’s how you compete.

Wouldn’t it be great to bypass those general on-page SEO recommendations and get customized data? Well, there’s a plugin for that! The Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin, in fact.

Let’s take a quick tour of how you can get customized SEO advice for each web page so you can take on-page SEO to the next level.

• Get custom metadata for your webpage
• Get a custom word count for your webpage
• Get your custom readability score
• FAQ: What are the benefits of customizing title tags and meta descriptions for SEO?

Get Custom Meta Data for Your Webpage

Title tags are still important for signaling to the search engine what the page is about. In fact, data from 2020 shows that title tags still matter in ranking. That’s because they are a key signal to Google that your webpage is relevant for a query.

For that reason and more, we’re careful to craft title tags. We go so far as to deliberate on exactly how many words and characters should be in them.

We want to be sure that the title tag content doesn’t get cut off in the search results.

Moz’s title tag preview tool shows how Google search results can cut off a long title tag.

Of course, there are best practices backed by data on how long your title tag should be. This type of research is usually based on an analysis of a large number of search results.

Our general SEO recommendation is that title tags should be about 9 words (within the range of 6 to 12). But why guess?

It’s more useful to know how long the title tags are for the top-ranked pages for your keywords. Yes, your keywords, are not an analysis of millions of random search results. That’s because there will usually be a normal range among the top-ranked pages in the search results.

Our WordPress SEO plugin analyzes the top-ranked pages in real-time for your keywords. It then recommends the exact range you should target. You’ll be able to see how many words your title tag is, and how many words it should be.

Summary tab in the Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin showing meta information targets.

The same goes for meta descriptions. We know that 24 words or 160 characters with spaces is about what Google will display in a meta description.

But is that the optimal word count?

You can see in our example above that the meta description for this sample webpage started out as 29 words. However, after an analysis of the top-ranked webpages, the goal was no more than nine words. If you didn’t have the data, you might think that would be too short.

You may already use a WordPress SEO plugin that helps you tweak your meta info based on best practices. Yoast SEO is one of them (and we love Yoast), but our plugin kicks it up a notch with custom advice.

(BTW, if you’re a die-hard Yoast SEO fan, you can use our plugin right alongside it and get even more data. Learn more about plugging in the Yoast SEO gaps.)

Get a Custom Word Count for Your Webpage

You may have seen the studies and advice that say long-form content performs better in search results. And that may be true in many cases. But if you always follow that guidance, you could be wasting your time.

Every search query has a different set of algorithmic signals. And those algorithmic signals carry different weights depending on the query, as well. So there are endless combinations of what Google deems important for a query.

Informational content designed for learning about a subject will likely need longer webpages. Many queries will need shorter answers.

But it doesn’t make sense to use a general best practice here; that’s just shooting in the dark. If all the top-ranked pages are coming in at 1,500 words, why write 3,000?

In the example below from our WordPress SEO plugin, you can see that the webpage analyzed was too short compared to the top-ranked pages. This is another pitfall website publishers succumb to when creating content.

Summary tab in the Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin shows word count targets.

Our WordPress SEO plugin uses patented technology to analyze the top-ranked pages for your keywords in real-time. It then averages the top competitors and produces target word count ranges right in WordPress. That’s customized SEO advice!

Do this before you write so you can be as efficient as possible with your content creation.

Get Your Custom Readability Score

Another area where SEO advice would vary widely is the readability score. A readability score at what grade level the content is written.

This matters for a couple of reasons:

1. You want to write to your audience’s reading level.
2. You want to know what Google thinks is an appropriate reading level for the topic.

This ties into Google’s concept of expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google performs webpage-level assessments to grade the “expertness” of the content.

One of the ways that Google might determine if your content is “expert” is how similar or different that content is to other webpages on the same topic. Its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines say the following about the main content (MC) of a page:

Very high quality MC is original, accurate, comprehensive, clearly communicated, professionally presented, and should reflect expert consensus as appropriate. Expectations for different types of information may vary. For example, scientific papers have a different set of standards than information about a hobby such as stamp collecting. However, all types of very high quality informational content share common attributes of accuracy, comprehensiveness, and clear communication, in addition to meeting standards appropriate to the topic or field.

So, for example, a scientific topic might be written at a higher grade level than a hobby topic.

Our WordPress SEO plugin calculates the target word count range based on the top-ranked pages for a search query. This tells you what readability or grade level Google thinks is right for the topic.

Summary tab in the Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin analyzes target readability scores.

To help edit your content to the right grade level, I like to use the Hemingway app. More often than not, authors need to simplify their writing (get the grade level down) rather than make it more complex.

But it could be the other way around. If the content is too simple compared to top-ranked webpages, you might assess who is writing the content. Do they have the expertise? Regardless, checking the content reading level is useful for polishing any written article.

Try the WordPress SEO plugin to get custom on-page SEO advice now.

Read more on how the Bruce Clay SEO plugin helps you with:

• Keyword optimization
• Real-time and customized data
• Avoiding duplicate content
• Tracking your content performance

FAQ: What are the benefits of customizing title tags and meta descriptions for SEO?

Customizing title tags and meta descriptions is a fundamental yet often overlooked aspect of SEO strategy. Let’s explore why paying attention to these small but mighty on-page elements can make a significant difference in your online presence.

1. Improved Click-Through Rates (CTR)

Customized title tags and meta descriptions give you the opportunity to craft compelling, relevant, and concise snippets that entice users to click on your search results. A well-crafted meta description can provide a sneak peek into the content, making users more likely to visit your site.

2. Enhanced Search Engine Visibility

Search engines use title tags and meta descriptions to understand the content of a page and rank it accordingly. By customizing these elements with targeted keywords and engaging language, you can signal the relevance of your content to search engines, improving your chances of ranking higher in search results.

3. Increased Organic Traffic

When your website appears prominently in search results and entices users with informative title tags and meta descriptions, you’re more likely to receive organic traffic. These visitors are valuable because they’re actively searching for information related to your content.

4. Better User Experience

Customized title tags and meta descriptions also contribute to a better user experience. When users find content that aligns with their expectations, they are more likely to stay on your site, explore other pages, and convert into customers or subscribers.

5. Competitive Edge

In a competitive online landscape, every advantage matters. By optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions, you can stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of potential customers who are bombarded with options.

Customizing title tags and meta descriptions is not just a best practice; it’s a strategic move that can significantly impact your website’s performance. By crafting compelling and informative snippets, you improve your click-through rates, boost search engine visibility, attract organic traffic, enhance the user experience, and gain a competitive edge. It’s a small effort with big rewards in the world of SEO.

Step-by-Step Procedure: Maximizing the Benefits of Customized Title Tags and Meta Descriptions for SEO

1. Start by conducting thorough keyword research to identify relevant and high-performing keywords for your content.
2. Craft a unique and compelling title tag for each page of your website. Ensure that it includes the primary keyword and accurately represents the page’s content.
3. Write a concise meta description for each page, incorporating the targeted keyword and providing a brief summary of what users can expect to find on that page.
4. Avoid duplicating title tags and meta descriptions across your website. Each page should have unique and relevant tags and descriptions.
5. Focus on maintaining the recommended character limits for title tags (typically around 60 characters) and meta descriptions (usually around 150-160 characters).

6. Prioritize readability and user-friendliness in your title tags and meta descriptions. They should be informative and engaging, encouraging users to click through to your site.
7. Use action-oriented language and compelling calls to action (CTAs) when appropriate in your meta descriptions to entice users to visit your website.
8. Regularly monitor your website’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs) using SEO tools and analytics.

9. Analyze click-through rates (CTR) and make adjustments to your title tags and meta descriptions based on performance data.
10. Continuously update and optimize your title tags and meta descriptions to reflect changes in your content and keyword strategy.
11. Ensure that your title tags accurately represent the content of the corresponding pages to maintain trust with both users and search engines.

12. Consider A/B testing different title tags and meta descriptions to determine which ones generate the best results.
13. Leverage schema markup to provide additional context to search engines, enhancing the visibility of your content.
14. Monitor and adapt to changes in search engine algorithms and best practices for title tags and meta descriptions.
15. Incorporate local SEO strategies if applicable to your business, including location-based keywords in your meta descriptions.
16. Collaborate with content creators and web developers to ensure seamless integration of customized title tags and meta descriptions throughout your website.
17. Perform regular site audits to assess its SEO elements on-page, such as title tags and Meta descriptions, in order to detect any inconsistencies or potential problems with these elements.
18. Stay current on SEO trends and practices to remain competitive in an ever-evolving digital environment.
19. SEO is an ongoing process; by tailoring title tags and meta descriptions to each webpage, its benefits will continue to expand over time.
20. Evaluate the success of your SEO efforts by reviewing organic traffic, engagement of users, and conversion rate metrics. In order to obtain optimal results, refine, and amend your strategy as necessary for optimal outcomes.

The post Want Customized SEO Advice per Keyword? There’s a Plugin for That! appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

As a WordPress user, you have the flexibility to create the website you want. But SEO is not easy right out of the gate in WordPress. You need plugins to get the most out of SEO.

If you want to know how to track your content performance in the search results and on your site with a WordPress plugin, look no further.

I’m going to show you how to do that easily right within our WordPress SEO plugin.

• WordPress content performance
• Mobile performance
• Author performance
• FAQ: How can I track my content performance with the WordPress SEO plugin?

WordPress Content Performance

Most WordPress users are not professional SEOs. So tracking content performance can seem overwhelming. To get important SEO data, you’d normally have to piece together info from more than one analytics tool.

This is a hassle, and when it becomes too complicated, a lot of WordPress users will abandon the process. This leads to uninformed content creation and potentially bad user experiences.

Knowing which webpages are performing well allows you to create a stronger traffic strategy for a website. It helps you better understand your audience and what they want. Create more of what your audience wants and do better in the search results — win-win!

In our WordPress SEO plugin, you get all the SEO data you need to understand content performance right within WordPress. The time savings alone are significant, but the integrated data within WordPress is the real power of the plugin.

Our SEO plugin is powered by three dynamic data sources you can trust:

1. Google Analytics
2. Google Search Console
3. SEOToolSet^® (our software-as-a-service advanced SEO tools)

Of course, you still need to have the Google account set up at a company level. But the advantage here is that content creators typically don’t have access to analytics data. Seeing that data puts power back into the hands of the writers.

The SEO team and the author can view the following data in our WordPress SEO plugin for each published page:

• Average time on page
• Page views
• Conversions
• Clicks
• Impressions
• Click-through rate

With this information, you can figure out:

• Which pages you should spend more time optimizing
• Which topics you should spend more time creating

This helps you uplevel your skills as a content creator and add more value to your role and the website.

Mobile Performance

Google’s mobile-first index is here. What it means to WordPress users is that Google bases its index and rankings on the mobile version of your content. (You can read more about what that means here and here.)

In a nutshell, mobile-friendly content refers to the way your webpages are set up for mobile users to consume your content. When you do not have mobile-friendly content, you create a bad user experience.

As we know, user experience matters to Google. By 2021, user experience signals will be officially part of the ranking algorithm. That includes mobile performance. Ultimately, a non-mobile-friendly webpage can cause your search rankings to suffer.

You could go outside of WordPress and use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test or PageSpeed Insights to see if your webpage is mobile-friendly, but that just adds another step. We pull the key mobile performance data about your webpage right into our WordPress SEO plugin.

That means never having to leave the WordPress dashboard to know if your webpage is mobile friendly.

Find out things like:

• Page speed score
• Mobile usability score

This helps you ensure that webpages offer a great user experience, so you can keep visitors on your site.

Author Performance

This feature is great for websites with many contributing authors. WordPress displays a list of all the site’s pages or blog posts. But what you can’t tell is which of those posts are the top performers.

With our SEO plugin, you can see at-a-glance metrics for pages and authors. This is measured by:

• Total views per page
• Average views per page
• Average time on page

You can also view sitewide metrics that show the top posts on the site and who authored them. Since these metrics can change daily or weekly, you can define time periods in which to analyze the data.

With this information, you can know which authors create the most impactful content. This can help you to assign topics, or even create a rewards system that encourages authors to hit certain goals for page views, engagements or posts published.

That means you can gamify your content creation program to get authors excited!

Our WordPress SEO plugin is a game-changer for content creators and SEO teams using WordPress to understand content performance. No other plugin gives this much detail on the meaningful metrics related to content and SEO.

Try the WordPress SEO plugin to start tracking your content performance data now.

Read more on how the Bruce Clay SEO plugin helps you with:

• Keyword optimization
• Real-time and customized data
• Avoiding duplicate content
• Custom SEO advice per keyword

FAQ: How can I track my content performance with the WordPress SEO plugin?

WordPress offers an abundance of SEO plugins that provide insight into the performance of your website.

1. Select an Appropriate SEO Plug-in: When setting up a WordPress website, install an SEO plug-in such as All in One SEO Package or Yoast SEO to maximize search engine optimization efforts.
2. To Activate the Plugin: After installing your plugin, visit its settings and activate it. Configure the basic settings like your website’s title and meta description.
3. Focus on On-Page SEO: Use the plugin’s on-page SEO features to optimize individual posts and pages. This includes optimizing your content for target keywords, ensuring proper headings, and adding meta descriptions.
4. XML Sitemap Creation: Most SEO plugins offer XML sitemap generation. Enable this feature to help search engines index your content more effectively.
5. Integrate Google Analytics: Connect your website to Google Analytics using the plugin’s integration options. This will allow you to access in-depth analytics data.
6. Monitor Keyword Rankings: Keep track of your target keyword rankings within the plugin. You can set up notifications for significant changes.
7. Utilize SEO Audits: Many plugins offer SEO audit features. Run regular audits to identify and fix any on-site SEO issues.
8. Utilize Social Media Integration: Some plugins provide social media integration options. Use these to share your content and track its performance on various platforms.
9. Track Click-Through Rates (CTR): Monitor the CTR of your posts and pages. This metric can provide insights into the effectiveness of your titles and meta descriptions.
10. Analyze Backlinks: Track the backlinks to your site using the plugin’s backlink analysis tools. This can help you identify opportunities for link-building.
11. Review Content Engagement: Pay attention to engagement metrics such as bounce rate, time on page, and scroll depth. Adjust your content strategy accordingly.
12. Leverage Schema Markup: Implement schema markup using the plugin to enhance your content’s visibility in search results.
13. Regularly Update Content: Keep your content fresh and up-to-date. SEO plugins can help you identify outdated content that needs revision.
14. Utilize AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages): Some plugins offer AMP support, which can improve mobile performance and SEO.
15. Access SEO Reports: Regularly review the plugin’s SEO reports to gauge your content’s overall performance and make data-driven decisions.
16. Stay Informed: Stay updated with SEO trends and algorithm changes to adapt your strategies accordingly.
17. Seek Professional Assistance: If you’re uncertain about certain aspects of SEO or plugin usage, consider consulting an SEO expert.

Follow these steps to unlock the full potential of your WordPress SEO plugin, which will allow you to monitor the performance of your content and increase its search engine rankings.

Step-by-Step Procedure to Use Your WordPress Plug-in:

1. Choose and install a reputable WordPress SEO plugin.
2. Activate the plugin and configure basic settings.
3. Focus on optimizing individual posts and pages for on-page SEO.
4. Generate an XML sitemap and enable search engine indexing.
5. Integrate Google Analytics for in-depth analytics data.
6. Monitor keyword rankings and set up notifications for changes.
7. Run regular SEO audits to identify and fix on-site issues.
8. Utilize social media integration for content sharing and tracking.
9. Track click-through rates (CTR) and analyze their impact.
10. Analyze backlinks to identify link-building opportunities.
11. Review content engagement metrics (bounce rate, time on page, scroll depth).
12. Implement schema markup to enhance search visibility.
13. Keep content updated and relevant.
14. Utilize AMP support for improved mobile performance.
15. Regularly access SEO reports to gauge overall performance.
16. Stay informed about SEO trends and algorithm changes.
17. Seek professional assistance if needed.

By following these 17 steps, you’ll be well-equipped to track your content performance using a WordPress SEO plugin effectively.

This article was updated on December 20, 2023.

The post How to Track Content Performance with a WordPress SEO Plugin appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

If you’re like millions of other WordPress publishers, you’re either using or have at least heard of the Yoast SEO plugin. This plugin has allowed publishers from all backgrounds to easily integrate basic SEO into their sites.

It is a favorite, clearly a market leader, and one that we recommend. If you are not using it, you are missing out on a great tool. And even though Yoast is a household name in the world of plugins, and our recommendation, many others have come onto the market. It’s not uncommon for website owners to select a handful of their favorite SEO plugins to accomplish everything they need to do on their site. So I am sure that it will be one of many plugins that you use.

We launched our own WordPress plugin last year to help plug the gaps left by other WordPress SEO plugins out there — including Yoast SEO.

But the good news for Yoast SEO fans: You don’t have to choose between our plugin and theirs. The Bruce Clay SEO plugin is fully compatible with Yoast SEO.

We add more power to WordPress by providing non-competing information. We simply give you more data.

Now I’ll show you exactly where our SEO plugin fills in the gaps, including:

• Real-time SEO guidance
• Custom meta information
• Custom word count data
• Custom readability scores
• Performance tracking
• Compatibility with Yoast SEO: How it works
• FAQ: What makes Yoast and Bruce Clay SEO plugins stand out among WordPress SEO tools?

Real-Time SEO Guidance

The biggest difference between Yoast SEO and the Bruce Clay SEO plugin is that our plugin is powered in real time. Our software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools give advanced analysis right in WordPress.

Our robust SEOToolSet^® is the force behind the plugin. And, this is complemented by Google Analytics and Search Console data.

What that means is that all recommendations are calculated, in real time, based on your specific competition in the search results and your website — not general recommendations.

Why is this necessary? It’s because each search query produces different search results and a new set of competition to analyze. We wanted to make sure that the SEO guidance was specific to the insights found when looking at the pages that are ranking right now.

This SaaS functionality impacts every feature of the plugin that I’ll highlight today.

Meta Information

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO’s snippet preview allows you to view what the page’s meta information (title plus description) might look like in the search results. It will serve a message if the meta info is too short or too long based on SEO best practices. It will then allow you to see what your meta description would look like in the search results within a preview tool.

Image source: How to Craft Great Page Titles for SEO, Yoast.com

Bruce Clay SEO WP

Our SEO plugin ensures your meta information is on par with the top-ranked pages for your keywords. After analyzing the search results in real-time, you get a recommended word count for your title and meta description.

You can then switch back to Yoast SEO to view your proposed meta title and description in the snippet preview tool.

Note: For websites that don’t use Yoast, the Bruce Clay SEO plugin lets you edit meta information. But we keep those features tucked neatly away if Yoast is active, to avoid any conflicts.

Content Word Count

Yoast SEO

While Yoast SEO offers a great many ways to optimize content, one feature it’s lacking is the ability to properly target word count for your webpage.

Bruce Clay SEO WP

Our SEO plugin gives you the target word count for your article before you start writing based on the top-ranked pages in the search results. We use patent-pending technology to review top-ranked pages for your keyword phrase. This competitive analysis determines what characteristics the search engine is rewarding.

This lets you know, for example, if the top-ranked pages fall into the 2000-word range or the 800-word range. There’s no use creating a monster webpage in hopes of ranking if the top-ranked sites all have shorter webpages.

Content Readability

Yoast

Yoast SEO can give you guidance on the readability of your content, and show you where you can improve it. This is based on Yoast SEO’s research and opinion of what makes text readable.

Image source: How to Use the Readability Analysis, Yoast.com

Bruce Clay SEO WP

Our WordPress SEO plugin adds to this the reading level of your content compared to your competition’s.

It computes the reading grade level to target based on the currently ranking pages in the search results for your keywords. This effectively tells you what readability level Google thinks is appropriate for the subject matter. This is useful because an author commonly writes to their own level, not that of their target personas. Now you can see if the grade level is too high as it is being written.

You can then use Yoast’s readability analysis to pinpoint where you might be able to improve the readability, then recheck your score in our plugin. Or you could use the Hemingway App to get your content to the grade level it needs to be. In my opinion, the Hemingway App with our tool is always a starting point.

Performance Tracking

Yoast

Yoast does not currently have content or mobile performance tracking within its plugin.

Bruce Clay SEO WP

Rich analytics powered by Google tools can be viewed right within our plugin.

A flagship feature of our plugin is the ability to track content performance — by post or by author. For the first time, writers can see the market response to their work, right in WordPress.

You can discover your top-performing content across the entire site by looking at things like:

• Average ranking position
• Impressions in the search results
• Click-throughs from the results

Also, if you have multiple authors adding content on your site, it can be useful to see which author has the top-performing content based on things like:

• Page views
• Time on page
• Bounce rate

This data is critical to content managers struggling to manage large writing teams. It can also offer some fun competition as writers compare their performance.

Another feature identifies any issues with the site’s mobile usability and performance.

Compatibility with Yoast SEO: How It Works

By now you’re probably thinking of all the ways you can use Yoast SEO and Bruce Clay SEO WP plugins together. But you may be wondering how to actually do so.

When you install our plugin, it detects whether you also have an active Yoast SEO plugin. Then the Bruce Clay SEO interface automatically hides any overlapping features. That avoids conflicts and stepping on each other’s toes. (Did I mention I like their tool?)

That way you can continue to use features you know and love in Yoast while getting the added benefit of our features. And both are right within your WordPress page editor.

Bruce Clay SEO WP + Yoast SEO = Better SEO

It is obvious to everybody that you will not get every feature you want in a single WordPress SEO plugin. But the good news is that you don’t have to worry about that.

Using Yoast SEO and our plugin together gives you better SEO insights and more functionality.

Here’s where you can get your free trial to the Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin.

FAQ: What Makes Yoast and Bruce Clay SEO Plugins Stand Out Among WordPress SEO Tools?

Yoast SEO and Bruce Clay SEO plugins are exceptional WordPress plugins. Let’s unveil what makes these plugins stand out and why they are essential for optimizing your WordPress website.

Yoast SEO: Mastering On-Page SEO with Precision

Yoast SEO, a household name among WordPress users, is renowned for its precision in on-page SEO. Its snippet preview allows you to visualize how your meta information will appear in search results, ensuring your website’s title and description meet SEO best practices. What truly distinguishes Yoast is its real-time guidance, offering suggestions tailored to your specific competition and website. This dynamic approach ensures your SEO strategy is always aligned with current search trends.

Bruce Clay SEO: Bridging SEO Gaps with Cutting-Edge Tools

In the world of WordPress SEO, the Bruce Clay SEO plugin emerges as a formidable contender. What sets it apart is its ability to bridge the gaps left by other SEO plugins. With real-time analysis powered by Google Analytics and Search Console data, it delivers advanced insights right within WordPress. It calculates recommendations based on the latest search results, making your SEO efforts relevant and effective.

The Power of Synergy: Yoast and Bruce Clay Together

The beauty of these plugins is that they can coexist harmoniously in your WordPress arsenal. When using both Yoast and Bruce Clay SEO plugins, you get a holistic approach to SEO. Yoast’s expertise in on-page optimization complements Bruce Clay’s real-time data analysis. Together, they empower you to fine-tune your content, meta information, and overall SEO strategy with unparalleled precision.

Elevating Your WordPress SEO Game

The choice between Yoast and Bruce Clay SEO plugins isn’t about one being better than the other; it’s about synergy. These plugins complement each other, filling in the gaps to create a robust SEO strategy.

Step-by-Step Procedure to Uncover the Superiority of Yoast and Bruce Clay SEO Plugins in WordPress:

1. Begin by understanding the importance of SEO plugins for WordPress.
2. Research and identify the key players in the field, including Yoast and Bruce Clay.
3. Explore the unique strengths and functionalities of Yoast SEO, focusing on its precision in on-page SEO and real-time guidance.
4. Delve into the features of the Bruce Clay SEO plugin, emphasizing its real-time data analysis and its ability to bridge gaps in SEO.
5. Understand the power of using both plugins together and how they complement each other.
6. Recognize the synergy achieved by combining Yoast and Bruce Clay SEO plugins.
7. Make an informed decision about incorporating these plugins into your WordPress website.
8. Implement Yoast SEO for on-page optimization, utilizing its snippet preview and real-time guidance.
9. Set up the Bruce Clay SEO plugin and explore its real-time data analysis capabilities.
10. Assess the specific SEO needs of your website and how Yoast and Bruce Clay plugins can address them.
11. Integrate both plugins seamlessly into your WordPress toolkit.
12. Fine-tune your website’s content, meta information, and SEO strategy using the insights provided by these plugins.
13. Monitor and track the impact of the plugins on your website’s SEO performance.
14. Continuously adapt and optimize your SEO strategy based on real-time recommendations.
15. Measure the improvements in your website’s SEO rankings and visibility.
16. Share your success story with others in the WordPress community.
17. Educate fellow website owners on the benefits of using Yoast and Bruce Clay SEO plugins together.
18. Encourage others to embrace a holistic approach to SEO.
19. Stay updated on the latest developments in SEO and plugin enhancements.
20. Enjoy the rewards of a well-optimized WordPress website with improved search engine rankings and user engagement.

The post Yoast SEO: Plug In the Gaps with Bruce Clay SEO WP appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

As a content creator, you contribute to rankings, traffic, and conversions. So why shouldn’t you have access to the same data and optimization guidance that SEOs use?

Getting access to key SEO guidance before, during, and after the content creation process can help you create high-performing content.

High-performing content can drive key performance indicators such as website traffic, time on page, and bounce rate. Having these skills can be highly attractive to companies that want to hire you.

Upskilling now is more important than ever. The U.S. Department of Labor saw 22 million unemployment claims in the four weeks ending April 11 as a result of the pandemic, setting a new record. The self-employed are also feeling the effects.

Many professionals are thinking of new ways to market themselves. Some will be forced to take on new duties as their companies downsize. Self-employed writers will need to think about added services to help clients.

When budget cuts are inevitable, those that provide the most value will survive. We should all care that we are the best at our trade or get mixed into the crowd.

Research shows that workers with high cognitive skills experienced less unemployment, especially during recessions. And even though we’re waiting to see the long-term economic impact of the pandemic, many professionals feel the blow now. Luckily, both content creation and SEO require cognitive skills.

In times like these, using basic SEO skills during content creation can help:

• Employees pivot and come up with ways to add more value
• Service providers pivot and add new service offerings
• Brands keep their websites relevant and show up in the search results
• Everyone makes data-driven decisions that can improve results

I’m going to show you a simple way that content creators can get the same on-page guidance as SEO pros.

This guidance will allow you to boost your already great content to be SEO-ready and have a better chance of ranking in the search results and driving traffic.

• Tools
• Get analytics-driven writing guidelines
• Track content performance
• FAQ: How can I, as a content creator, leverage SEO to enhance my content’s performance?

The Tools

So how do you get the data and acquire the skills you need to create high-performing content?

An easy-to-use and powerful WordPress SEO plugin. It’s one that we designed with content creators in mind. No previous SEO or analytics experience is needed.

Get Real-Time SEO Guidance

There is a lot of guidance out there on how to optimize your content for search. And much of it is useful.

But the issue is that best practices change based on your industry, the keyword, and the type of topic (for example, a shopping page versus a medical page). Keep in mind that each search query produces different search results.

It’s important to understand that the content that is ranking in the top spots on Page 1 of the search results for a query is your competition. So it makes sense that you would want to analyze the top-ranked content and figure out how to match or beat it.

Our WordPress SEO plugin uses our patent-pending technology to get real-time information on your competition during the writing process.

This includes data on who is already ranking for the terms you want to be found for, and what patterns exist among those top-ranked pages.

Read more:

• What Is an SEO Article? Why Should You Write One? And How?
• The Complete Guide to the Fundamentals of E-A-T

Find Out How to Optimize Your Content

You may be confident in your ability to write great content, but less so in how to optimize it for search.

The good news: Creating quality content is already half of the battle when trying to rank in the search results. But Google needs a little help in understanding it better.

That’s because search engine bots (the search engine software that finds your content) can’t read content in the same way humans read and understand it. So optimizing the content helps bots better understand what the content is about.

This, in turn, gives your content a better chance of being picked to rank on Page 1 among the potential millions of other webpages on the topic.

The WordPress SEO plugin was created to give you real-time recommendations (based on your competition) on how to optimize your content.

The plug-in helps you:

Create meta information: This is one of the first things a search bot encounters on a webpage. It helps them understand what the content is about quickly. The plugin helps you to know how many words you should have in your meta title and meta description.

See optimization targets in the SEO plugin.

Optimize content with keywords: Your keywords, aka the search queries you want to show up for, should be in your content. Our plugin allows you to optimize your content with more than one keyword (a feature that’s lacking in free plugins).

This is important when a) you have a set of search queries you want to be found for (versus just one), and b) the content you are writing answers all of them.

Keywords also need to be distributed from top to bottom of the page. The SEO plugin gives you a visual of where your keywords are.

View keyword distribution in the SEO plugin.

Read more:

• What Are Keywords?
• SEO Copywriter Checklist (PDF)
• Always Up-to-Date SEO Checklist

Get Analytics-Driven Writing Guidelines

The top-ranked pages give clues on how to write content that is fit to rank. So we want to understand what “the norm” is for a particular query.

If all the top-ranking webpages are less than 1,000 words, that would be useful information to know before you plan your content.

Likewise, if you could find out what grade level the top-ranking pages are written at, you could follow suit.

The bottom line is that there’s no point in writing 2,000 words if 1,000 well-written words will do. And if all the competition is writing at a fifth-grade level, and your content is at the 11th grade-, Google may take note.

The WordPresss SEO plugin lets you:

Define a target word count: Get the target word count for your article based on the top-ranked pages in the search results. The goal, of course, is to write as much as you need to make your point. However, knowing the target word count can help you plan better and could change your approach.

See target word count in the SEO plugin.

Know your “readability score”: Different topics require different reading levels. For example, a medical article might be written at a higher grade level than one meant for entertainment. Knowing the readability score that’s natural for your topic gives you a target to hit. It is calculated automatically based on the tap-ranked pages for a search query.

View the readability score in the SEO plugin.

Track Content Performance

Most content creators aren’t privy to how their content performs once they hand it off. Having the right data puts you in a position of power. It allows you to strategically create content that will drive results, and to show it.

Our SEO plugin integrates with Google Analytics, Search Console, and our own SEOToolSet data, so you can see things like:

• Average ranking position
• Impressions in the search results
• Number of pageviews and average time on page, per page
• Top-ranked posts or pages you’ve created (so you know which content to model)
• What queries are bringing search traffic to a page
• Which pages are the top performers
• Who are the top authors in the platform (useful for when you have multiple authors on a site)

Google Analytics and Search Console data is visible in the SEO plugin.

Find out the top-performing content across all content creators.

In summary, content creators should be able to have access to the same data and optimization guidance that SEO professionals do.

While you’re not expected to bear the weight of an entire SEO strategy, basic SEO principles during writing can take the content a long way.

Be more strategic, gain a competitive advantage, and drive better results as a content creator, starting now.

Try the WordPress SEO plugin that can supercharge your content now.

FAQ: How can I, as a content creator, leverage SEO to enhance my content’s performance?

Your success as a content creator rests heavily on its visibility and engagement. Search Engine Optimization is an indispensable tool in today’s digital environment; using it effectively can improve the performance of your content and its reach.

Understanding Keywords and Research

The foundation of SEO lies in keyword research. Start by identifying relevant keywords and phrases related to your content. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to discover popular and low-competition keywords that align with your content’s theme. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your content to improve its search engine ranking.

Optimizing On-Page SEO

As soon as it comes time to optimize your content, ensure your main keyword appears in the title, headings, and meta description – as well as being utilized throughout it — using engaging meta titles and descriptions will entice readers to click your page, while header tags make the material easy for both humans and search engine crawlers to comprehend.

Quality Content Creation

Add value to your audience beyond keywords by creating engaging, high-quality content that meets their interests and needs. Assuming your search ranking increases over time, more users will remain on your page longer.

Building Backlinks and Promoting

SEO success relies heavily on promotion. Share your content, work with influencers, and engage your target audience to increase SEO rankings. Prioritize acquiring high-quality links from websites reputable within your niche for maximum exposure. These backlinks signal to search engines that your content is authoritative and trustworthy, boosting its ranking.

Monitoring and Adapting

SEO is a constantly evolving field. To stay ahead of the competition and track its effectiveness, use tools such as Google Analytics and Search Console to monitor content’s performance – such as keyword rankings, click-through rates, bounce rates, etc. The data gleaned can then be used to fine-tune and adapt your SEO strategy as necessary to remain competitive.

Content creators can utilize SEO to enhance the performance of their work. Search engine optimization allows them to reach wider audiences faster by conducting keyword research, optimizing on-page SEO, creating and promoting quality content, and monitoring results closely.

Step-by-Step Procedure

1. Start with comprehensive keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush.
2. Identify relevant keywords and phrases related to your content.
3. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your content.
4. Optimize on-page SEO by placing keywords in the title, headings, meta description, and body.
5. Craft compelling meta titles and descriptions to increase click-through rates.
6. Use header tags (H1, H2, H3) to structure your content.
7. Create high-quality, informative, and engaging content tailored to your target audience.
8. Encourage user engagement to improve search engine ranking.
9. Promote your content through social media, influencers, and audience engagement.
10. Build backlinks from reputable websites in your niche.
11. Continuously monitor your content’s performance using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console.
12. Track keyword rankings, click-through rates, and bounce rates.
13. Analyze the data to refine your SEO strategy.
14. Adjust your content and promotion tactics as needed to stay competitive and adapt to changing trends.

The post How Content Creators Can Upskill to Add More Value Right Now appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Best practices have their place. When you’re just jumping into a deep subject like SEO, for instance, clinging to accepted best practices can keep you from drowning.

The problem with best practices, though, is that they’re one size fits all. They’re often far from being the best for everyone.

Best practices are guidelines … essentially data … about how to keep out of SEO trouble. But there is always a difference between data and wisdom.

Some SEO best practices cram webpages into unrealistic boxes. And content creators are often told to live up (or down) to arbitrary standards that don’t help their content succeed.

If you want to improve your SEO, you need to look beyond best practices. Here I’ll dive into examples and help you get realistic about what works for your website and your business.

Best Practices That Don’t Always Work

A tailor wouldn’t put the same suit on everyone. Especially not if these people were being dressed for a competition and trying to stand out from the others.

So why should all sites strive for the same benchmarks? Here are a few “best practice” sacred cows to dismantle immediately.

1. The Ideal Page Length

Most SEOs remember when Neil Patel made waves by saying that everyone should be writing 2,000+ word posts. While longer may be better for some industries, that’s a dangerous standard to hold all pages to.

Let me be clear: There is no Ideal Page Length.

In reality, page length depends on the purpose, topic, and site behind a page. The “ideal” page could be longer or shorter, depending on these things. For example, a page detailing HVAC services on a local technician’s website is likely to be much shorter than an “ultimate guide” page.

Adhering to a set “best practice” here may mean you’re limiting or stretching a page beyond what it should be. While thin content is a problem, you can’t fix it just by setting an arbitrary word count minimum.

This type of SEO best practice also puts an unnecessary burden on the writer and the readers. Why stretch what should be a 300-word page into a 1,500-word page just because that’s what you’ve heard ranks better?

People are smart. They don’t like to be manipulated. If you’re padding your answers with hundreds of filler words, they’re going to pick up on that.

Readers also notice if you’re cheating them out of the information they need.

Save yourself: The right length for your page is the one that covers the topic and positions you as an authority. Anything more or less won’t do.

2. The Ideal Keyword Density

When it comes to how many times you need to mention a particular keyword on a page … there is no Ideal Keyword Density.

That’s not to say you don’t need to use keywords. You absolutely do need your content to talk about and include your keywords.

However, today search engine algorithms look for “topics rather than terms.” This has been true for quite a while. Back in 2014, Google’s John Mueller said, “keyword density, in general, is something I wouldn’t focus on. Search engines have kind of moved on from there.”

Today, SEOs advise lessening the focus on keyword density as a metric. Focus more on making your page the most relevant by fully satisfying the intent of that keyword query. If you incorporate keywords in a natural, organic way, you shouldn’t need to worry about density.

That said, knowing the density of various keywords on your pages can be a valuable resource. It a great place to start evaluating the actual topic of your page as seen by searchers and search engines. Using that information also helps you craft an appropriate title and meta content.

Save yourself: Make sure that your content contains the keyword you’re shooting for. Also include its variations, synonyms, and related words.

Each keyword has its own density target based upon what is natural usage for related pages in the search engine’s index. Tools that analyze the top-ranked pages’ keyword usage can be a great help.

3. The Ideal Reading Level

Let’s talk about readability.

People care that an article reads well and isn’t too difficult or too simplistic for its purpose.

For that reason, search algorithms analyze a page’s readability as one of (several hundred) ranking factors.
But there is no Ideal Readability Score.
A 6th-grade reading level may work well for a straightforward page about a non-technical subject.

But it would be inappropriate for a page about a medical procedure or something equally technical or industry-specific.

Here’s the problem …

Most SEO tools and plugins cannot recommend a reading level range that fits the page’s topic or purpose. These specifics are needed. Otherwise, you cannot target the natural persona’s reading expectations when coming to your page.

Instead, most tools can only advise a fixed readability range for all pages.

Adhering to a one-size-fits-all readability level limits you and your writing. Worse, it decreases your ability to provide real relevance and value.

This is a lot like the thin content issue I talked about.

The only group that should determine the reading level of your pages is your audience. If you’re writing to an advanced audience about an advanced topic, you’re going to use a more advanced reading level. If your pages are general and meant to appeal to a broad population, then a lower reading level is best.

Save yourself: Don’t hem yourself in and make things overly complicated or simple based on some outside appraisal.

Modern SEO Best Practices Worth Following

It’s time to break free of rigid, one-size-fits-all best practices. It is time to save yourself!

Begin by understanding what works for your business and why. Here are a few tips.

Tip 1: Context is key.

Evaluate your page’s purpose and your audience’s expectations. Let these dictate what will work best when you create new content.

Here’s how: Run a Google search for your target keyword. Then analyze the results. Those top-ranking pages set the right “best practices” for your individual page.

Competitive analysis should guide many SEO decisions.

This is one feature I’m especially proud of in our SEO plugin for WordPress. Instead of using fixed best practices, as every other SEO plugin does, Bruce Clay SEO for WordPress shows content writers recommendations based on what’s currently working in Google for their keywords.

Tip 2: Maintain flexibility.

Consider developing customized best practices for different pages and purposes.

For example, a blog post on an industry topic may need 1,500 or more words to rank. But your About page probably doesn’t need that much in order to rank for your own brand name. A category page may need just 200 words of unique text above the content list. A product page may need just two or three pictures with captions and one paragraph of unique text. And so forth.

Tip 3: Collect customized data.

Your site is unique, and your data should be, too. Collect data so you know what works and what doesn’t for your website and can adjust accordingly.

If the report data isn’t specific to your business’s content and goals, don’t use it as a basis for strategic decisions!

One-Size-Fits-All “Best Practices” Are Obsolete

Certain SEO gold standards can serve as helpful and timeless guidelines. But adhering too strictly to all manner of best practices hurts your competitiveness.

“Ideal” page length, reading level, and keyword usage measurements don’t exist. They only persist because so many tools, plugins and guides still prescribe them.

These SEO best practices don’t cover the multitude of purposes, topics, and industries that webpages fall into. Instead, they promote a one-size-fits-all approach that’s neither realistic nor helpful.

By bucking these best practices and identifying the standards that work for you, your industry, and your audiences, you can start developing authentic, valuable content immediately.

If you liked this post, please share!

Need a professional team to assist with your SEO efforts? Contact us today.

The post Following SEO Best Practices? But Are They Really the Best? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

Writing is an art, and quality content writers are valued highly by brands today.

But there’s another aspect of writing that’s more of a science. And this aspect has become a desirable skill for web copywriters: search engine optimization.

We’re not saying writers need to be SEO professionals. But writers who understand the basic principles of SEO in order to properly optimize content offer more value for their product and more efficiency to their processes.

But the majority of professional writers aren’t trained in SEO. After all, it’s a completely different profession.

A few facts:

• Most writers have not learned SEO on their own. It may be because they’re not sure where to start, don’t know how involved it’s going to be, or don’t have the budget or time.
• On the flip side, marketing teams rarely train their content creators on how to optimize content the best way. This is because the marketers either don’t know how to do it themselves or don’t take the time to train anyone else.
• Worse, writers are typically told to follow arbitrary SEO guidelines. These instructions don’t help them understand SEO any better. Nor do they learn exactly what search engines are rewarding when it comes to content. Guidelines like “use this one keyword” or “make all pages 1,000 words” are not SEO.

As a result, writers seldom naturally follow Google’s best practices for optimization.

Yet without this skill set, content writers can’t compete with other writers who do understand basic SEO.

This post is aimed at content creators who want to empower themselves with enough SEO knowledge to create more informed content — without the effort that comes with taking on a new discipline entirely.

• Why should writers care about optimization?
• WordPress plugins help bridge the SEO knowledge gap
• Seven ways to create optimized content with the Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin
• FAQ: How can writers enhance their content with effective SEO strategies? 

Why Should Writers Care About Optimization?

First things first: Google values quality content. So, professional writers who demonstrate expertise and authority in their writing already offer a leg up on the competition in the search results.

But quality content alone isn’t enough. Google’s algorithm uses countless ranking signals to determine if a webpage is relevant for a search query. And various search filters (like Panda) aim specifically at preventing poor-quality content from showing up.

It’s true that writing about a topic in a sense naturally optimizes that content. When an article focuses on a specific topic, you use words and phrases related to that topic throughout. But, key SEO insights can take that content further.

Keywords Still Matter

When it comes to content, keywords matter. While Google’s algorithm is getting smarter every day at identifying the most relevant content for a search query, it still relies on content clues.

How can you, as a writer, help search engines see the value in your content?

For writers, help comes in the form of keyword optimization and competitive analysis.

For example, it’d be great if you could easily:

• Analyze the top-ranking pages for your keywords to discover target ranges for page length and keyword usage.
• Visualize all keywords throughout the content you are writing so that you can better distribute keywords throughout.
• Be alerted if what you’re writing poses a duplicate content issue compared to other pages on the site, so you can avoid having that page be filtered from the search results.
• Check your content against the top-ranked pages for a keyword to understand if readability is on par with the best.
• View how pages are performing in search so that you can inform your writing with what’s working (and what may not be).

That’s why you want quality content plus SEO. It’s your best chance for any given webpage to show up in the search results.

What a Writer Needs to Know

Writers are not expected to know Google’s hundreds of ranking signals. (Even SEO experts don’t know all of Google’s secrets.)

But you can know the basic ranking principles when it comes to the content — the product — that you produce.

Side note: Check out our SEO Copywriting Checklist PDF for handy tips!

Why?

Rather than just providing writing services, you can deliver tangible results.

After all, why else are you paid for your writing?

Some of the most important content assets are webpages and blog posts.

These writing products need to be optimized for organic search. Otherwise, the business misses out on massive opportunities to drive traffic to its site.

So optimizing content is really a writer’s responsibility — whether the writer is in-house or outsourced.

By the way, according to the Content Marketing Institute, nearly half of all businesses use contract writers. Specifically, they found that 49% of B2C businesses and 47% of B2B businesses outsource content.

So companies rely heavily on contract writers to fill an expertise and resource gap. They need outside writers to make their businesses more efficient.

The other half of content writers work in-house. They are certainly charged with writing content that generates traffic.

At this point, some writers may be thinking …

I’m only comfortable focusing on what I know best. Let the company be responsible for what happens to the content after it’s delivered.

And that’s OK — until you start working alongside marketing and SEO teams for content. Without knowing basic optimization, you’re back to blindly following (often wrong) SEO guidelines without understanding why.

And, without understanding SEO, you’re not making the process efficient. The SEO team will likely have to go in and make adjustments to your content before publishing it.

This can feel intrusive and disagreeable. But it can get worse …

Over time, many of these companies will prefer working with writers who have a basic understanding of SEO to make things easier. They will rely on writers who can speak with insight on the optimization process.

By creating content that’s more targeted for organic search, you can alleviate some of the burden on their end. And you can increase demand for your services!

Luckily, there are tools that writers can use to inform their content creation with SEO best practices — without having to go through lengthy SEO training.

I’ll talk about that next.

WordPress Plugins Help Bridge the SEO Knowledge Gap

WordPress is a leading content management system across the globe. It’s likely that most — if not all — of the websites you write for use WordPress (and you probably have one, too).

That’s what makes WordPress plugins a great option for SEO guidance when creating online content.

Writers often work directly in the website to create and upload content. And when they don’t, they often use their own WordPress sites as a testing ground for the content they’ve created before they deliver it to a client or boss.

Today, WordPress plugins exist to help lots of different professionals facilitate SEO.

However, until recently, they weren’t necessarily made with content creators in mind.

For example, traditional SEO plugins such as the All in One SEO Pack and Yoast SEO offer robust features.

But the flaw for writers is that these plugins expect the user to know and make decisions about SEO.

They don’t customize the technical guidance based on competitive analysis. They don’t show analytics data to give the writer feedback. Instead, they can only offer standard best practices as the writer is creating content.

(For a more in-depth analysis of where today’s SEO plugins are lacking, see a three-part post I wrote here, here and here.)

It’s time for writers to take optimization into their own hands … to create better, more targeted content that performs for their clients.

That’s where this new WordPress plugin comes in handy.

7 Ways to Create Optimized Content with the Bruce Clay SEO WP Plugin

The Bruce Clay SEO WP plugin fills the gaps where other SEO plugins fall short for writers (and SEOs, too).

Its features are designed with content creators in mind who want to write SEO-friendly content.

Let‘s look at seven features within the plugin that help writers deliver better content …

1. You can get customized optimization guidance based on top-ranked competitors.

Our plugin makes knowing some key metrics easy for writers. It offers insights on how to optimize the content based on analyzing the top-ranked competitors.

For example, how many words should be on a page? There’s no magic number because the answer depends (on things like query intent and competition behavior).

Some pages on your site might need to be 500 words and some 2,500 words to fare well in search results. It’s different for every keyword topic.

So the plugin evaluates the top-ranking webpages for your keywords. It examines total word count, title tag length, meta description length, the number of times a keyword is used, and other factors. And you get the resulting recommendations in real time as you write — versus having to find it out after you’ve published.

2. You can optimize content for more than one keyword.

Other SEO plugins only give you the ability to track one keyword in your content as you are writing (unless you purchase a premium version).

Content creators often work with multiple keywords, including a primary and secondary keyword per page. So they need to be able to see how their keyword set is performing in terms of how they are optimizing the page.

3. You can see a visual map of keywords within a post.

Even better than being able to track the numbers in terms of how many times you’ve used a keyword in a post is the ability to see it visually. This helps with keyword distribution, which ensures the keywords you’re using are properly distributed throughout the content on the page.

4. You get a reading level score compared to top-ranked competitors.

Every keyword will have different search results, and different pages within the top spots. When you’re able to understand the readability of your content compared to the top-ranking pages, you can easily make tweaks to better compete.

As an example, a medical website may have very different standards of what constitutes an “easy read’ versus a comedy website.

The plugin lets writers know instantly if the content is on par with the other pages in the top of the search results for a keyword.

5. You get automatic duplicate content warnings.

When multiple people are working on a website, duplicate content can happen.

The plugin automatically checks meta titles and descriptions to make sure they’re unique on the site. Alerts let you know when two titles or descriptions are identical. This helps prevent inadvertent duplicate content that could be filtered from the search results altogether.

6. You can view content performance data.

Writers often hand over their content and never find out how it goes. Wouldn’t it be great to see important metrics on your web content performance?

We wanted to give this kind of feedback to writers directly in WordPress!

With Bruce Clay SEO for WP, you can see important analytics data about your body of content on a website and individual pages. Then you can use that data to inform and improve future content.

Our plugin integrates with Google data to show you things like:

• Number of page views and average time on page, per page.
• Top-ranked posts or pages you’ve created (so you know which content to model).
• What queries are bringing search traffic to a page.
• Which pages are the top performers.
• Who are the top authors, and more.

7. You get access to rich, integrated research and analysis tools.

The robust SEOToolSet^® powers the Bruce Clay SEO plugin. This is what sets it apart from server-based plugins.

Plugin subscribers can use additional, professional SEO tools and reports outside WordPress if desired. The integrated SEOToolSet is designed for specific SEO tasks like page analysis, keyword research, rank tracking, crawl error detection, and much more.

Access to the SEOToolSet is included with a plugin subscription — just for when you want a deeper dive into SEO.

Get the Bruce Clay SEO Plugin

This plugin is live! You can install Bruce Clay SEO on your WordPress site and try it out for a week for free — with a 7-day free trial.

Also, we made it fully compatible with Yoast. So you can take advantage of both plugins and give yourself a real competitive edge.

Start your free trial of Bruce Clay SEO for WP and see what your SEO plugin has been missing!

FAQ: How can writers enhance their content with effective SEO strategies?

Writers can significantly enhance their content by incorporating effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies. SEO helps improve the visibility of their content in search engine results, driving more organic traffic to their websites or platforms. Here’s how writers can optimize their content for SEO:

1. Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords and phrases that your target audience is likely to search for. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can assist in finding high-volume and low-competition keywords.
2. Keyword Placement: Incorporate your chosen keywords naturally throughout your content. Place them in the title, headings, subheadings, and within the body of the text. However, avoid keyword stuffing, as it can lead to penalties from search engines.
3. High-Quality Content: Produce well-written, informative, and engaging content that provides value to readers. Search engines prioritize high-quality content that answers users’ questions and satisfies their search intent.
4. Meta Tags: Craft compelling meta titles and meta descriptions that accurately reflect the content’s topic and entice users to click through. Include relevant keywords to improve click-through rates.
5. Optimized Headings: Use descriptive and hierarchy-based headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content. Incorporate keywords into these headings to help search engines understand the content’s organization.
6. Internal and External Links: Include relevant internal links to other pages on your website to improve navigation and showcase related content. Additionally, incorporate authoritative external links to reputable sources that support and validate your content.
7. Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensure that your content is responsive and displays well on mobile devices. Mobile-friendliness is a crucial factor in SEO ranking, as search engines prioritize user experience.
8. Page Loading Speed: Optimize your website’s loading speed by compressing images, minimizing code, and leveraging browser caching. Fast-loading pages provide a better user experience and positively impact SEO.
9. Optimize Images: Use descriptive file names and alt text for images, incorporating relevant keywords where appropriate. This not only helps visually impaired users but also improves image search optimization.
10. User Experience: Create a user-friendly layout and design that encourages readers to spend more time on your page. Lower bounce rates and longer dwell times signal to search engines that your content is valuable.
11. Social Sharing: Encourage social sharing of your content to increase its reach and potential backlinks. Engaging content is more likely to be shared across various platforms.
12. Regular Updates: Keep your content up to date by periodically revisiting and revising older articles. Search engines favor fresh and relevant content.
13. Secure Website (HTTPS): Switch to HTTPS to ensure a secure connection for users. Search engines prioritize secure sites, which can positively impact rankings.
14. Schema Markup: Implement schema markup to provide search engines with additional information about your content, such as reviews, ratings, events, and more.
15. Analytics and Monitoring: Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your content’s performance, identify areas for improvement, and refine your SEO strategies over time.

Remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adaptation. By following these strategies, writers can optimize their content for search engines while providing valuable and engaging information to their readers.

The post How Writers Can Supercharge Their Content and Services with Basic SEO appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..