WordPress is a Content Management System written in PHP. It is currently the most popular content management system and blogging platform in the world today.
In fact, 24% of all websites use WordPress. It’s the best.
Importance of good web hosting for your WordPress website
Below are reasons why you need to invest in an excellent web hosting service.
Fast loading time
The last thing that you would wish is investing in web hosting that has a slow loading time. One of the greatest benefits of investing in a good web hosting for your WordPress website is fast loading speeds which in turn offer better user experience to visitors.
Fast website load time not only reduces bounce rates, but it also makes visitors stay longer and take action that you ask them to.
Better security
You don’t want to wake up in the morning only to find out that your WordPress website has been hacked. With increased cases of cyber-attacks, website security has become a crucial factor to consider when choosing a Web hosting service.
An excellent web hosting service offers secure sites where critical data is protected.
Reliable backup system
An excellent web hosting service has a reliable backup system. This means that in case of an attack, you can retrieve your data.
Minimal downtime
Choosing a good web hosting service means that your website is less likely to have downtime. As such, you are less likely to inconvenience your clients.
Better ranking
If your site has a slow loading speed or has frequent downtime, then its ranking on the search engine will also be affected.
It is wise to invest in an excellent web hosting service that will help boost your ranking on the search engine.
What is Local SEO?
Also referred to local search engine marketing, local SEO is an internet marketing technique that helps to market local businesses online to ultimately rank better in Search Engines (Google).
For instance, searching for a local SEO business, like MIwebdesigns, tells the Search Engines that your are looking for a Local Web Design developer to build you a website for your local business. You do not need to shop globally for this.
It helps to increase the website visibility on search engines, thus enabling local businesses to reach local customers at the exact time when they are looking for products or services that they are offering.
Importance of onsite SEO
Onsite SEO is the process of optimizing the website to make it search engine friendly. Onsite SEO is crucial because it helps the search engine interpret content on your website. Such attributes of a website that should be optimized for Search Engines include Title, Heading, and ALT tags.
If the search engine cannot crawl through your site, then it cannot rank your web pages. Good onsite SEO makes it easier for search engines to understand information on your website and rank it accordingly based on its relevance to users for the specific keywords they are searching for.
Site speed
Site speed is just one of 200 factors affecting how Google ranks your website against your competitors. Very few visitors will be patient to wait for your web page to load for one minute.
Research shows that 83% of users expect a website to load in three seconds or less. 53% of users will leave a page if it does not load faster and move to another website that has fast load speed.
Hence, increasing your site speed is crucial when it comes to ranking higher in Google.
Internal linking
When you write a new page, it is important to link it with other pages with your site. This is known as internal linking.
Although external linking is also important, it is obviously more important to keep your visitors on your own site. Effective Internal Linking can do this.
Internal links are essential because they provide insightful information to the user and helps them teach more about products or services that you provide.
Unique content
Unique content is a critical factor for the success of SEO. In SEO, content is the king. It drives traffic and gets visitors to engage with your website.
Onsite SEO focuses on delivering quality, informative in-depth content.
What is offsite SEO?
Also known as off-page SEO, this refers to action taken outside the website to improve its ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
It involves improving the website ranking on the search engine as well as improving user perception about the site’s authority, relevance, popularity, and trustworthiness.
Off-page SEO carries more weight when determining your website ranking on search engines.
Obtaining backlinks from other relevant websites in your industry is the biggest influence when it comes to offsite SEO.
Importance of back links
Back links are links from other websites that direct back to your site. Back links contribute to the authority and strength of the website.
More back links means more votes for your website. More votes the higher you rank in Google.
When a page links to another page, it should show that the target is reputable, authoritative, and relevant.
Most popular search engines like Google rely heavily on back links when indexing sites. Back links also enable visitors to find your website easily.
Over-optimization of anchor text
Anchor text is simply a clickable text in a hyperlink. To boost your ranking on the search engine, you need to ensure that the anchor text is relevant to the page that you are linking.
Over-optimization of anchor text occurs when links pointing back to your website use the same keyword more often than what the Search Engines find “natural”.
Over-optimization of anchor text can lead to a Penalty, particularly Google Penguin, which can ultimately decrease your ranking.
Google penalties
A Google penalty hurts your website search ranking. The last thing that you would want is getting a Google penalty.
Most Google rankings are released through updates on the Google search algorithm. Google penalties can be algorithmic or in rare case a Manual Action can be applied.
Essential factors that Google considers when penalizing a site include:
Thin content
Thin content is an indication that the information provided is insufficient and lacks relevance. Ongoing Google updates consistently punish websites that provide thin content because it indicates that the site does not provide value to users and lacks enough unique content of its own.
Duplicate content
Google does not like duplicate content. Instead, it favors sites that provide original content to users. Sites that contain duplicate content can be Penalized and on occasions even de-indexed (removed completely from Google Database)
Toxic back links
Toxic back links can be found on known “Link Farms” and websites set up for the sole purpose of selling links which is against Google Policy.
If you are found to have toxic back links pointing to your website then it is best to remove them or use Google Disavow Tool.