SEO Expert Guide: Local SEO for WordPress

SEO Expert Guide: Local SEO For WordPress

WordPress is the most commonly used platform to host websites, with over 50% of the internet being powered by WordPress.  That is a lot of WordPress websites! I always recommend WordPress to small businesses for professional consulting, as not only is the interface easy to use but is a good platform for SEO. I’m Paul Gordon, an SEO Expert form 720 Digital,  and I will now explain in this blog post why I recommend WordPress to all my SEO consulting clients, why it is good for SEO and how to optimize for local search.

Why WordPress?

One of the biggest reasons why I recommend WordPress to my SEO clients is because of how easy it is to use. This is great for small local businesses. Because they can so easily use the interface, their website will never be ignored; which tends to happen with Joomla and Drupal websites. Obviously, as an SEO consulting advisor, SEO is important to me which is why I also recommend WordPress because its platform is the most SEO-friendly right from the start.

Is WordPress Good For SEO?

There is a reason why I recommend WordPress to all my clients and that is because it offers the best SEO. However, you cannot rely on the platform to help get you to the top of organic search results. To do this, you will need to pay attention to your website hierarchy and content, as well as build authority to increase your organic rankings. This takes up a lot of time, which is why many small businesses reach out to an SEO agency, as they generally have the resources and manpower to be able to complete this efficiently.

Optimizing Your WordPress Site For Local Search

In order to make sure your WordPress website is fully optimized for SEO, you are going to need to correctly plan your website hierarchy as well as install some plugins. As an SEO consulting expert, let me tell you that the hierarchy is important for not only users to navigate but also for Google to crawl your website. Your hierarchy should be category > sub category > sub sub category.

WordPress SEO Plugin

There are plenty of SEO plugins available on the WordPress marketplace but there is only one that most SEO consulting experts use, which is the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. This single plugin will provide you with everything you need to optimize your WordPress site including having a Local SEO Module. The plugin is completely free to use however there is a premium option available that will give you the ability to add redirects and keyword targeting options.

Local SEO Best Practices

As well as having a website that is fully optimized for SEO, I advise my SEO clients that they must also build online reviews, their reputation, and their authority in their local area. Once you have your WordPress website fully optimized, it is a great foundation for you to start working on the off-site SEO factors. What platform are you using for your local business website? Do you find it difficult to rank on this platform?