SEO is unique in the amount of information you can glean about your competitors, from rankings to strategies.

You can use this information to boost your rankings conversions and help you capture market share from those competitors.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to do a content gap analysis from start to finish.

What is a Content Gap Analysis?

A content gap analysis reveals keywords that your competitors are ranking for but that you haven’t covered yet.

This analysis also displays keywords you’re both ranking for and compares your rankings.

So, how can you benefit from seeing which keywords your competitors are targeting with their website content?

Benefits of a Content Gap Analysis

Using this information, you can create high-quality content focusing on those keywords.

You can siphon off some of your competitors’ traffic by ranking high with those keywords. This makes a content gap analysis necessary for an effective content marketing strategy.

Even ranking just below your top competitors can capture visitors who would otherwise click on another competing site in the search results. Either way, it can help you gain market share.

This analysis also helps you avoid guessing at content ideas that can move your brand forward.

A content gap analysis can also be part of a more extensive content audit.

Before explaining how to do a content gap analysis, here are 2 crucial things to keep in mind:

Keyword Difficulty and Keyword Intent

Understanding keyword difficulty and intent will make your content gap analysis easier.

Keyword research tools like Semrush and Ahrefs include keyword difficulty scores and keyword intent labels in their reports.

Keyword Difficulty

Keyword difficulty refers to how hard it is for new content to rank well for a particular keyword.

When prominent websites have already produced high-ranking content on a given keyword, it can be difficult, or even impossible, to outrank them.

Conversely, low-competition keywords are easier to rank for.

So, how do you find keywords that are easy to rank for?

Keyword Difficulty Scores

You’ll see a Keyword Difficulty score when you enter a keyword into Semrush or Ahrefs. This is a number out of 100.

Since these scores are calculated on a logarithmic scale, a keyword with a score of 50 can be challenging to rank for. So, these software tools also display labels, ranging from “Very easy” to “Very hard,” along with the scores.

For newbies, the labels are easier to understand than the scores.

Ahrefs and Semrush also label keywords according to intent.

Keyword Intent

Keyword intent is really “searcher intent.” It refers to the goal searchers typically have when using that particular keyword in search queries.

This intent is indicated in the following way.

How to Do a Content Gap Analysis

We’ll use Semrush, a keyword research web app, for our tutorial.

Semrush includes a content gap analysis tool named as “keyword gap” that’s easy for beginners to use.

Step 1: Create a Semrush Account

The first step is to create a Semrush account. You can sign up for a 7-day free trial.

If you opt for a paid plan, realize you can cancel anytime.

Step 2: Navigate to Keyword Gap

Log into your Semrush account and click Keyword Gap in the left-hand column.

Step 3: Add a Competitor

Enter your website into the topmost field.

Below that, add 1-4 competitor website URLs.

MoneyUnder30.com vs. MillennialMoney.com

For our tutorial, we’ll use MoneyUnder30.com as our domain. This site targets millennials and Gen Zers with personal finance tips.

For our competitor, we’ll choose MillennialMoney.com.

Both sites provide “best of” reviews on credit cards, loans, banks, investment accounts and tools, and insurance.

The business model is affiliate marketing: click on a recommended product, and the site will earn a commission.

SEO is crucial for this highly lucrative niche.

Goal: We want to find keywords for which MillennialMoney.com is ranking high, but we aren’t.

Click the Compare button to get started.

You’ll see a Keyword Overlap diagram and various drop-down filters above it.

The Keyword Overlap shows that MoneyUnder30.com ranks for nearly twice as many keywords as MillennialMoney.com.

Mouse over the overlap area, and you’ll see the 2 brands share over 26,000 keywords.

Let’s use those filters at the top to find valuable keywords.

Step 4: Filter by Intent

First, we’ll filter by keyword intent.

This is because we want keywords with commercial or transactional intent.

To filter by intent, above the Keyword Overlap chart,

• Click on the Intent filter.
• Tick the boxes next to Commercial and Transactional.
• Then click Apply.

Now, let’s scroll down below the diagram to get acquainted with the keyword list.

Step 5: Understanding the Keyword List

By default, the list displays “Shared” keywords: these are keywords that you and your competitor rank for.

Keywords: On the left, in blue, you see a list of keywords for which both MoneyUnder30.com and MillennialMoney.com are ranking.

These include:

• best cd rates
• make money from home
• side hustle ideas

Intent: The 2nd column displays the intent associated with each keyword. (Note: Some keywords are labeled with 2 intents, which is why you see not only Cs and Ts in this report but also some Ns and Is.)

Ranking Positions: The next 2 columns display how MoneyUnder30.com and its competitor rank for the related keywords.

Click the top of the MoneyUnder30.com column to sort the keywords by those the domain ranks highest for.

We see that MoneyUnder30.com ranks #1 for many commercial keywords, including

• albert the money app
• ally vs wealthfront
• app that invests your change

Volume: The 5th column displays each keyword’s estimated monthly search volume, i.e., how many people do online searches for the keyword per month.

KD%: The next column displays the Keyword Difficulty score. Keywords that are hard to rank for receive a red or orange dot next to the KD score. Green dots mark easy keywords.

Step 6: Filter by Keyword Difficulty

Now, MoneyUnder30.com is ranking #1 for some keywords that are difficult to rank for, such as:

• Best stock tracker
• Budget template for young adults
• Is Stock Advisor worth it?

But in keeping with our goal to choose keywords that are easy to rank for, let’s filter this list so we only see easy keywords.

• Click on the KD filter dropdown.
• Select “Easy” or “Very easy.”
• Click Apply.

Step 7: See What Your Competitor is Ranking #1 For

Now, let’s click the top of the MillennialMoney.com column to discover what keywords it’s ranking highest for.

Among their #1 rankings are the keywords:

• acorns alternatives
• alternatives to personal capital
• android apps that pay instantly to paypal

Click on a keyword to find the top-ranking sites for that keyword.

Step 8: Choose Keywords to Target

With our filters applied, we have over 700 keywords to explore.

We decided to target keywords for which Millennial Money.com ranks #1-#3.

Of those, we chose the following.

That concludes our tutorial on content gap analysis.

Once you’ve updated your existing content targeting your chosen keywords (or created new content for them), optimize it for search engines.

How do you optimize content for search engines?

How to Optimize Your Competitive Content

WordPress site owners can use an SEO plugin to optimize their content.

We recommend All in One SEO (AIOSEO). This is a beginner-friendly yet powerful plugin that shows you exactly what to do to improve your SEO.

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is an established plugin with thousands of 5-star ratings on WordPress.org. Currently, over 3 million people are using the plugin.

AIOSEO will analyze all your web pages and guide you, step-by-step, to optimizing those pages.

In addition, All in One SEO handles many technical actions behind the scenes, so you don’t need to deal with code.

Some of the most popular features are:

• TruSEO Analysis: Each page gets an SEO score. You’ll see specific action steps for improving your pages. Your SEO score increases as you act on the plugin’s recommendations.
• Link Assistant: Improve the ranking of your most important pages by pointing internal links to them. The AI-powered Link Assistant speeds up this process. Learn more in our guide on link building.
• Schema Generator: Easily add schema markup so Google can understand your content better and rank it for relevant keywords.
• Auto-Generated Sitemaps: As soon as you install All in One SEO, it’ll generate 2 sitemaps for you, keeping with Google’s best practices. Whenever you update content or publish new pages, AIOSEO will update your sitemaps for you.
• Site Audits: Use the SEO Analysis feature to get recommendations for improving your homepage. Compare your homepage SEO score to your competitors.

Author SEO

Given the increasing importance of EEAT in recent Google algorithm updates, be sure to communicate your staff’s experience and expertise.

With the Author SEO tool you can quickly create hyperlinked author bylines add a author bio box which appears at the bottom of articles.

That bio box allows you to highlight specific areas of expertise (shaded in gray) and link to social media profiles.

In addition, the author box links to an author page, listing all articles written by that writer. And the author page can display a longer bio along with education and other credentials.

You’ll also have the option to add a second byline for a reviewer or fact-checker.

To be clear, author boxes don’t automatically confer SEO advantage. But they can be effective in communicating EEAT to Google and readers.

Also consider improving your About page.

Bonus Tips

Once you’ve optimized your content, consider going further.

• Acquire backlinks: Quality backlinks can drive organic traffic and boost rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Measure success: Set up a free Google Analytics account to track progress. WordPress users can opt for the MonsterInsights plugin, which provides a streamlined view of Google Analytics metrics in the WordPress editor.
• Boost engagement by putting calls-to-action (CTAs) above the fold. This will also boost conversion rates and decrease bounce rates.

Q&A on Content Gap Analyses

After Content Gap Analysis . . .

A content gap analysis can help drive intelligent content creation and highlight underperforming or missing SEO content.

We’ve seen how this type of competitor analysis surfaces valuable keyword opportunities. You can eclipse your competitors’ content rankings by creating high-quality content that matches search intent.

Now that you know how to do a content gap analysis, you may want to explore some related content strategies that can significantly impact your SEO.

Explore the power of topic clusters and check out these SEO secrets the pros use to boost revenue.

Be sure you understand the different roles that SEO and social media play in digital marketing.

And don’t forget to deploy lead magnets to capture conversions.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to find simple WordPress SEO tutorials. And come join us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

One essential component of URLs is the URL parameter, which plays a vital role in customizing web pages, tracking user behavior, and optimizing search engine visibility. 

In this article, we’ll explain URL parameters, how they impact SEO, and how you can handle them effectively on your site.

What is a URL Parameter?

A URL parameter (also called a query arg) is a string of characters appended to the end of a URL, typically following a question mark (?). These parameters pass additional information to the web server, enabling dynamic content generation and personalization. URL parameters are often represented as key-value pairs, with the key and value separated by an equal sign (=).

Here’s an example of a URL parameter that can be found on an eCommerce store: 

https://example.com/products?category=electronics&price=high

The parameters are category=electronics and price=high. The server can then use these parameters to filter and display products based on the specified category and price range.

What are URL Parameters Used For?

URL parameters have a wide range of applications in web development, online marketing, and eCommerce:

• Filtering and sorting content: URL parameters can be used to filter or sort content or products on a web page based on user preferences or search criteria.
• Tracking and analytics: By appending unique parameters to URLs, website owners can track user behavior, campaign performance, and traffic sources.
• Personalization: URL parameters can be employed to personalize web pages based on user preferences, location, or other factors.
• Passing data between pages: URL parameters provide a convenient way to pass data between different web pages or to maintain state across multiple page requests.
• Pagination: URL parameters can be used to implement pagination on websites, allowing users to navigate through large data sets across multiple pages.

The SEO Impact of URL Parameters

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical aspect of online marketing, and URL parameters can significantly impact how search engines crawl and index web pages. Here are some key considerations:

• Duplicate content: If not handled properly, URL parameters can lead to duplicate content issues, where search engines perceive multiple URLs as serving the same content. This can result in search engine penalties or lower rankings.
• Crawl budget: Search engines have limited resources and a finite crawl budget. If a website generates excessive URLs with different parameter combinations, it can strain the crawl budget and potentially lead to pages being missed or crawled less frequently.
• Indexation and ranking: Search engines may choose to ignore certain URL parameters or treat them as session identifiers, which can affect how pages are indexed and ranked.

As you can see, URL parameters can hurt your SEO. That’s why you should know how to manage them. 

How to Handle URL Parameters in WordPress

Here are a few tips for managing URL parameters on your site include: 

Use the Right WordPress SEO Tool

One of the first steps to handling URL parameters is to use the right SEO tool. For WordPress users, there’s no better tool than All In One SEO (AIOSEO).

AIOSEO is a powerful yet easy-to-use WordPress SEO plugin with over 3 million active users. Because it’s regularly updated, you can be assured the plugin stays abreast of changes in SEO best practices and keeps up with WordPress versions.

Millions of smart bloggers use AIOSEO to help them boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified traffic to their blogs because the plugin has many powerful features. These are designed to help you properly configure your SEO settings.

Regarding URL parameter handling, AIOSEO has a feature called the Query Arg Monitor. 

This handy tool makes monitoring and managing URL parameters pretty easy.

Other SEO features you’ll find in AIOSEO include:

• Cornerstone Content: Easily build topic clusters and enhance your topical authority and semantic SEO strategy.
• Author SEO: Easily demonstrate Google’s E-E-A-T in WordPress.
• Search Statistics: This powerful Google Search Console integration lets you track your keyword rankings and see important SEO metrics with 1-click, and more.
• SEO Revisions: Track any changes you make to your site and see their impact on your SEO. Plus, you get to see on a timeline how Google updates affect your site.
• Advanced Robots.txt Generator: Easily generate and customize your robots.txt file for better crawling and indexing. 
• TruSEO Highlighter: Makes it easy to spot on-page SEO issues and gives recommendations for fixing them.
• Next-gen Schema generator: This no-code schema generator enables users to generate and output any schema markup on your site.
• Link Assistant: Powerful internal linking tool that automates building links between pages on your site. It also gives you an audit of outbound links.
• SEO Preview: This gives you an overview of your search and social snippets and general SEO so you can improve your optimization.
• IndexNow: For fast indexing on search engines that support the IndexNow protocol (like Bing and Yandex).
• Sitemap generator: Automatically generate different types of sitemaps to notify all search engines of any updates on your site.
• And more.

AIOSEO also has many other features to help you boost your local SEO, on-page SEO, and technical SEO. It also has a dedicated WooCommerce SEO module for those with eCommerce stores. 

Plus, if you’re a WooCommerce user, AIOSEO has a tailor-made WooCommerce SEO module to help you rank your online store higher in search rankings.

For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check our detailed installation guide.

Check for and Block Unnecessary URL Parameters

With the right WordPress SEO plugin installed, managing your URL parameters is super easy. If you’re an AIOSEO user, this is where the Query Arg Monitor comes in handy. It has powerful functionalities that enable you to log and manage your URL parameters effectively.

Once your URL parameters have been logged, they appear in a table where you can manage them.

You can block an individual URL parameter by clicking on the Block Key or Block Key & Value action buttons. You can also block bulk URL parameters using the Bulk Actions feature.

For detailed instructions, check out our tutorial on managing query args in WordPress.

Use Your Robots.txt File

You can handle URL parameters in the robots.txt file by instructing search engine crawlers on how to treat URLs containing specific parameters. This is another aspect in which AIOSEO shines above other SEO plugins.

To edit your robots.txt file, go to your AIOSEO settings » Tools » Robots.txt.

Next, Enable Custom Robots.txt and disallow the crawling of URLs containing certain parameters.

For more tips, check out our tutorial on editing robots.txt files.

Canonicalize the Primary Versions of Your URLs

Another way of handling URL parameters is by canonicalizing primary versions of your URL. You can do this by opening a post or page in editor mode, AIOSEO Settings » Advanced » Canonical URL field.

This helps consolidate link equity and prevent duplicate content issues. Granted, it isn’t the best way of handling URL parameters, especially in bulk, but it is a viable option. 

What is a URL Parameter? Your FAQs Answered

We hope this article has helped you understand URL parameters and how to manage them. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like our tutorial on implementing bulk redirects using a CSV file or our guide to managing query args in WordPress.

If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay

WordPress, by default, offers many essential content blocks to help you create any type of page you want. Examples include blocks for paragraphs, images, buttons, lists, and more. However, you can extend the functionality of the WordPress editor using plugins that add more blocks to the editor.

In this article, we’ll share some of the best Gutenberg block plugins you should consider for your site.

What is the Gutenberg Block Editor?

Gutenberg is the block-based WordPress editor that was first introduced in WordPress 5.0, replacing the classic editor. It allows you to build pages by stacking different types of content blocks. This modular approach makes building pages more intuitive and visual.

For a typical blog post, you will have many paragraph blocks, some heading blocks for subheadings, and some image blocks.

What are Gutenberg Block Plugins?

Gutenberg blocks plugins provide additional blocks that enhance the functionality and features of the Gutenberg editor. They allow you to extend the default set of blocks provided by WordPress, giving you more flexibility and options for creating diverse and visually appealing content. 

Some Gutenberg block plugins focus on specific types of content or functionality, such as social media integration, advanced layout options, or e-commerce elements. Others offer a suite of elements you can add to your posts or pages.

Installing and activating Gutenberg block plugins allows you to customize the editing experience and create more dynamic and interactive content. All this without needing to write custom code. Gutenberg block plugins give you a way to leverage the modular nature of the Gutenberg editor and expand its capabilities to suit specific website needs.

The 2 Types of Gutenberg Blocks Plugins

There are 2 types of Gutenberg plugins you’ll find when looking for plugins to install on your site.

• Single-purpose block plugins: These add only one feature, but offer the most comprehensive set of options and integrations. They’re often the best solution for specific tasks.
• Block library plugins include a collection of blocks for different purposes. However, these blocks are not as fine-tuned as the single feature blocks. While they offer a lot of blocks, they may not be as robust.

Why Use Gutenberg Blocks Plugins?

The Gutenberg block editor has revolutionized WordPress content creation, but its core functionality can sometimes be limiting. 

That’s where Gutenberg block plugins come in.

Gutenberg block plugins offer a treasure trove of additional blocks to elevate your website’s design and functionality.

So, buckle up as we dive into some of the best Gutenberg plugins you should consider for your site.

17 Best Gutenberg Blocks Plugins: Expert Picks

1. All In One SEO (AIOSEO)

AIOSEO is a powerful yet easy-to-use SEO plugin that boasts over 3 million times.

Millions of smart business owners use AIOSEO to help them boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified traffic to their WordPress sites. And every successful site depends on organic traffic for growth. After all, you can only achieve your goals if you make it easy for people to find your site and content. 

The plugin also has some powerful blocks to help you boost your SEO. These include:

Table of Contents Block

This block enables you to add a table of contents to your posts.

A table of contents helps improve user experience (UX) as it enables users to quickly go to the sections they want on your page. It even works on search engine results pages (SERPs) by helping you get jump links. These are great ways to improve your organic clickthrough rates (CTR) on SERPs.

Check out our tutorial on adding a table of contents in WordPress for more information. 

FAQ Block

Another Gutenberg block you’ll find in AIOSEO is the FAQ block. This helps you add an FAQ section to your posts or pages.

The best part about AIOSEO’s FAQ block is that it outputs JSON schema, making it easy for search engines to understand your questions. This is one way to get featured in the people also ask section. It also helps you rank for more question-based, low-competition keywords.

Author Bio Block

Need to boost your Google E-E-A-T signals? 

AIOSEO’s Author SEO module was developed to make it easier for DIY SEOs and veteran marketers to meet Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. One way it does that is by helping you add an author bio block in your posts and pages.

Not only does it help inject beautiful bios into your content, but it also outputs JSON schema from the author info section.

You can even showcase your areas of expertise:

All this is essential to proving that you’re an expert with experience who has authority in your niche and whose content can be trusted.

Reviewer Block

Another block in AIOSEO’s Author SEO module is the Reviewer block. This helps show that your content has been fact-checked and is accurate, boosting your credibility and authority.

This is particularly important for YMYL articles, where you need to demonstrate that your content is accurate, up-to-date, and reliable. A reviewer also shows that your content is backed up by an expert and can be trusted.

Adding a reviewer goes a long way in helping you build trust and authority, boosting your Google E-E-A-T score.

 If you’re looking for the best Gutenberg block plugin to help boost your SEO, AIOSEO is it.

For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check our detailed installation guide.

Other Features

AIOSEO has many other powerful SEO features and modules to help you implement SEO best practices. Some examples include:

• Cornerstone Content: Easily build topic clusters and enhance your topical authority and semantic SEO strategy.
• Author SEO: Easily demonstrate Google’s E-E-A-T in WordPress.
• Search Statistics: This powerful Google Search Console integration lets you track your keyword rankings and see important SEO metrics with 1-click, and more.
• SEO Revisions: Track any changes you make to your site and see their impact on your SEO. Plus, you get to see on a timeline how Google updates affect your site.
• Advanced Robots.txt Generator: Easily generate and customize your robots.txt file for better crawling and indexing. 
• TruSEO Highlighter: Makes it easy to spot on-page SEO issues and gives recommendations for fixing them.
• Next-gen Schema generator: This no-code schema generator enables users to generate and output any schema markup on your site.
• Link Assistant: Powerful internal linking tool that automates building links between pages on your site. It also gives you an audit of outbound links.
• SEO Preview: This gives you an overview of your search and social snippets and general SEO so you can improve your optimization.
• IndexNow: For fast indexing on search engines that support the IndexNow protocol (like Bing and Yandex).
• Sitemap generator: Automatically generate different types of sitemaps to notify all search engines of any updates on your site.
• And more.

So, if you’re looking for the best Gutenberg block plugin that also helps boost your WordPress SEO, AIOSEO is it.

Pricing: Starts at $49.60. A free plan is also available.

2. WPForms

Lead generation is a critical component of successfully growing a website and business. And this is where a WordPress plugin like WPForms comes into play.

WPForms is a powerful contact form plugin that helps capture visitor information without adding friction to the user experience. Plus, it’s easy to install and deploy on your site thanks to the user-friendly drag-and-drop builder functionality and over 700 pre-built form templates.

This powerful WordPress plugin also offers a Gutenberg block to add contact forms, surveys, order forms, payment forms, etc., to your posts and pages.

WPForms also integrates with popular marketing and payment platforms like Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net so that you can build powerful forms in less than 5 minutes.

Besides the Gutenberg block addon, WPForms comes with advanced features you won’t find in other form builders. Examples include conversational forms, lead forms, form landing pages, user journey tracking, form abandonment, geolocation tracking, GDPR-friendly, custom WordPress user registration and login forms, and more.

If lead generation is your priority, then WPForms is definitely the best Gutenberg block plugin for you.

Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $49.50/year.

3. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is another WordPress plugin that tops many of the best Gutenberg plugins lists. That’s because it’s a very capable conversion rate optimization (CRO) plugin that works well with WordPress sites. It’s an excellent lead-generation tool to help you grow your subscriber and customer base. 

OptinMonster is loved by over 1 million websites because it makes it easy to create stunning opt-in campaigns using popups, floating bars, fullscreen welcome mats, and more.

You can also use OptinMonster’s robust customization options to reduce cart abandonment, increase sales, grow your email list, and more. That’s because OptinMonster is perfect for creating highly targeted offers. For example, you can show your popups based on the items in your customer’s cart, a blog post they’re on, and much more.

OptinMonster also has an inline campaigns feature, which allows you to add campaigns to your posts and pages in just a few clicks using the OptinMonster Gutenberg block.

You can use inline campaigns to quickly and easily embed eye-catching email signup forms on your page. This helps you convert engaged users. It also comes with a content-locking feature to gate some of your content. This gives readers a bigger incentive to subscribe and boost the impact of your content strategy.

Plus, with OptinMonster’s drag-and-drop builder, creating eye-catching popups that can help grow your business is easy.

Pricing: Starts at $9/month (billed annually).

4. WPCode

WPCode is a powerful WordPress plugin that boasts over 2 million users. The plugin enables you to add code snippets to your site without writing a single line of code. It makes it super easy to add snippets to your site exactly where you want. 

With the WPCode Gutenberg Block Plugin, you can insert snippets directly in the block editor. The best part is that you can also use all the snippet attributes directly in the block interface without having to meddle with shortcode attributes. This means that all the attributes that you define in the Shortcode settings as Shortcode attributes will automatically be available for you to fill in easily wherever you use the block.

Pricing: $49/year.

5. Smash Balloon

Smash Balloon is the best WordPress social feeds plugin. It makes it easy to add social media posts to your site. You can use it to integrate your site with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), YouTube, and TikTok.

Smash Balloon also has a Gutenberg block for adding each social media feed. For example, you can simply drag and drop the Facebook block into a post or page to add your Facebook feed. There is no need for any coding knowledge! 

The best part about Smash Balloon is you can get separate plugins for each of your social media accounts or get the entire suite with all social platforms supported. Each plugin is 100% mobile responsive and looks great out of the box. It automatically matches your WordPress theme’s fonts and styles.

Pricing: $49/year for the individual plugin. The suite of 6 plugins costs $299/year. 

6. Envira Gallery

Envira Gallery is another plugin that ranks high among the best Gutenberg block plugins for WordPress. It’s a gallery plugin that allows you to create image and video galleries on your website easily.

While WordPress has a default gallery block, it’s quite basic and lacks a lot of functionality. For example, you can’t share the same image galleries outside the editor. Envira Gallery lets you keep your Galleries separate and add them to any post or page. The plugin is fully compatible with the Gutenberg editor and has a native block to instantly embed galleries.

Examples of advanced features of Envira Gallery include watermark protection and image proofing. It also integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, making it easy for you to sell your images.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $39.50/year.

7. Blockons

Blockons is a powerful and intuitive Gutenberg block plugin designed to help you create stunning web pages in minutes. The plugin has 17+ blocks to build your pages with, 3 of which are dedicated WooCommerce blocks. And the team behind the plugin is constantly adding more blocks, so expect that number to change.

Besides Gutenberg blocks, the plugin also offers 3 site addons to enhance your website even more. These include a Back To Top button, a Website Page Loader, and a Page Scroll Indicator. Examples of the Gutenberg blocks you can expect from the plugin include:

• Search Bar/Icon block: Add an editable search bar or an icon with a search bar drop-down or popup for your site viewers to search for content on your website.
• Icon List block: A fully customizable list with your own icons to enhance the look of your lists.
• Content Toggler block: Show or hide longer sections of content by using the content toggler block. Users can click to show and re-hide the content (Inner blocks) that have been added within the toggle block.
• WooCommerce Account Icon: Add a simple icon to your header or footer to let users quickly access their account or log in to your website.
• WooCommerce Mini Cart: Add a fully customizable WooCommerce cart to your site header, footer, or anywhere you like.
• WooCommerce Featured Product: Display featured products with ease. The blog has multiple display and design settings to help you bring attention to your best-selling products.

Pricing: Free.

8. Kadence Blocks

Kadence Blocks is a popular Gutenberg plugin that boasts over 300K users. It has many features and customization options that give you greater control over the design and aesthetics of your WordPress site.

The plugin also allows you to deactivate any blocks you’re not using, keeping your editor clean and lightweight. Some of the blocks in the plugin’s library include the following:

• Row Layout Block: Insert content blocks in one or multiple columns in a row.
• Tabs Block: Lets you create horizontal or vertical tabs and customize them.
• Accordion Block: Create beautiful accordions within your content.
• Icon List Block: Lets you create attractive lists with custom icons instead of default bullets.
• Advanced Gallery: Create stunning photo galleries, carousels, and sliders.
• Testimonials: Build confidence in your brand or product by featuring beautiful and unique testimonials. Display them as a carousel or a grid.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $89/year.

9. Genesis Blocks

Genesis Blocks is a free Gutenberg plugin suite featuring a collection of custom WordPress blocks. Included in the suite are 14 essential Gutenberg blocks, four pre-built page layouts, and eight pre-built page sections.

Some of the blocks in the library include:

• Advanced Columns Block: Create beautiful multi-column layouts.
• Author Profile Block: Easily add an author profile box to posts or pages.
• Pricing Block: Build beautiful pricing tables in WordPress.
• Share Icons Block: Add social share buttons to your posts and pages.
• Testimonial Block: Include customer testimonials to help drive sales.

Genesis Blocks also has a pro version called Genesis Pro. It has additional blocks, 26 pre-built full-page layouts, 56 pre-built sections, and much more. These make it one of the most versatile Gutenberg block plugins for building beautiful and effective websites quickly. Plus, if you get Genesis Pro, you’ll also get access to all premium StudioPress themes.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $30/month.

10. WP Call Button

WP Call Button is a single-purpose Gutenberg block plugin that lets you easily add a click-to-call button on your WordPress site. The phone button block has many customization options, making it easy to customize the call button to match your website design.

Besides adding clickable phone numbers on your posts or pages, WP Call Button also allows you to include a smart floating call button. With this, you can add a highly visible click-to-call button on all the pages on your site. 

WP Call Button is the best Gutenberg block plugin for booking more calls for your business, making it an invaluable tool for marketers and salespeople. It also works with any professional business phone service you use. 

The best part is that the call buttons have built-in tracking with Google Analytics. This means you can easily see which pages on your site are performing the best.

Pricing: Free.

11. PublishPress Blocks

PublishPress Blocks gives you a great way to extend the functionality of your WordPress editor by adding 20+ new blocks. These help you create professional web pages easily and quickly.

Some of the blocks in PublishPress Blocks include:

• Accordion block: This helps you display a lot of content in a small area. Clicking on the accordion bars reveals more content.
• Columns Manager block: This block is based on the default Columns block in Gutenberg and allows you to create columns within your content. It comes with extra features, including extra layout options, padding, margins and much more.
• Contact Form block: The Contact Form Block allows you to create a form anywhere on your page or post, enabling you to capture visitors’ contact details or take customer messages.
• Content Display block: Easily display your latest posts using different view styles, including Grid, List, Slider, Frontpage, Newspaper and Masonry. 
• Count Up block: This block is perfect for showcasing a number on your site. You can use it to show how many sales you’ve made, people signing up for your product, how much money you have raised, or anything else relevant to your business.
• And more.

Pricing: Free. Paid plans start at $69

12. Spectra

With over 600,000 active installations, Spectra is probably one of the most popular Gutenberg block plugins for WordPress. That could be because it was created by the team behind the popular Astra theme.

Spectra is a suite of Gutenberg blocks that include:

• Core Blocks: This is a set of essential blocks every website and landing page needs. These are blocks like Container, Heading, Image, Icon, Buttons, Info Box, Call To Action, and Countdown, which are crucial for crafting your pages.
• Creative Blocks: These include blocks aesthetic blocks to capture site visitors’ attention. Examples include Star Ratings, Countdown, Marketing Button, Icon List, and Image Gallery blocks. It also has support for Lottie Animations. 
• Content Blocks: These help you showcase your content beautifully. Examples include sliders, image blocks, content timelines, Google Maps, inline notices, and more.

Pricing: Free.

13. Stackable – Page Builder Gutenberg Blocks

Stackable is a free WordPress block library plugin featuring many beautiful custom blocks. It includes 40+ easy-to-use blocks for Gutenberg. In essence, it transforms the Gutenberg editor into a powerful responsive page builder. 

Examples of the blocks you’ll find in Stackable’s library include:

• Container Block: Allows you to combine different blocks in a single row.
• Feature Grid Block: This powerful block lets you showcase your product features or portfolio in stylish grid layouts.
• Team Members Block: This lets you showcase your team members with their respective positions, duties, and specialties.
• Video Popup Block: This block lets you add full-screen video popups for your Vimeo and YouTube videos.

Pricing: Free.

14. Otter Blocks Gutenberg Blocks

Otter Blocks Gutenberg Blocks by ThemeIsle is another useful WordPress blocks plugin that adds extra Gutenberg blocks to your site. The plugin has 26+ blocks and also comes with templates and layouts to help you create stunning pages without touching a line of code.

Some of the useful blocks included in the plugin are:

• Section Block: Allows you to build layouts using columns like in page builder plugins.
• Google Maps Block: This lets you embed Google Maps on your website.
• About Author Block: Allows you to show an author bio box on your website.
• Sharing Icons Block: This lets you add social sharing icons to your WordPress articles easily.
• Add to Cart Block: This makes it easier to convert visitors into customers.
• Business Hours Block: Easily display your business hours by adding a block on a page. 

Pricing: Paid plans start at $49/year.

15. Ultimate Blocks

Ultimate Blocks is another Gutenberg block collection plugin with several extra blocks for the block editor. These are designed to help make it easy for you to create custom pages to suit your needs.

Here are some of the additional blocks offered by the plugin:

• Button Block: Enables you to add custom buttons on your pages.
• Review Block: Let you add a review with the product name, features, summary, and star rating.
• Table of Contents Block: Helps you create a table of contents from the headings in your article.
• Call to Action Block: This lets you create a call-to-action box with a heading, description, and button.
• Click to Tweet Block: Easily add tweetable content to your posts and pages.
• Notification Box Block:  This allows you to add a simple notification box to your articles.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $49/year.

16. CoBlocks

CoBlocks is a free WordPress plugin with a robust collection of page-building Gutenberg blocks. The plugin is made by the team at GoDaddy, and boasts over 400K installs. Like most of the block collection plugins on this list, it offers extra blocks to add functionality to the block editor in WordPress.

The plugin enables you to customize your blocks with great ease. You can also change fonts, set the margin and padding, pick colors, and more.

Here are some useful Gutenberg blocks offered by this plugin:

• Rows and Columns Block: This lets you design dynamic layouts based on a grid system.
• FAQ Block: Lets you add FAQs anywhere on your posts or pages.
• Carousel Gallery Block: Enables you to create carousel galleries and showcase your images.
• Logos and badges Block: Easily display your logo or badges to showcase your achievements or credentials.
• Alert Block: Create attractive alerts and insert them into your WordPress posts and pages.
• Author Profile Block: Lets you add an author profile box to your WordPress post or page.

Pricing: Free.

17. Advanced Editor Tools

Advanced Editor Tools (previously TinyMCE Advanced) is the perfect Gutenberg block plugin for those who love the Classic Editor. It helps you inject a “Classic Paragraph” block in WordPress’s block editor (Gutenberg). And since it’s made by Automattic, the team behind WordPress, you can rest assured it’s a reliable plugin.

This is the go-to plugin if you are not ready to switch to the Gutenberg editor or if you have plugins that cannot be used there. The plugin enables you to continue to use the familiar TinyMCE (Classic) editor while giving you full access to the power of the block editor.

Pricing: Free.

Gutenberg Blocks Plugins: Your FAQs Answered

Best Gutenberg Blocks Plugins: Our Top Picks

Our recommendation for the best Gutenberg block plugin is All In One SEO (AIOSEO). This is because SEO is a priority for any website. Plus, AIOSEO comes with essential blocks like FAQ, table of contents, and Author SEO blocks.

We also recommend Gutenberg block plugins like WPForms, OptinMonster, and Genesis Blocks to add greater functionality to your site.

We hope this post helped you know which of the Gutenberg block plugins are the best for your site. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like our ultimate WordPress SEO guide or our list of the best WooCommerce plugins.

If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

Nonprofit SEO is essential for organizations that want to influence the thinking and actions of their target audience.

In this article, you’ll learn why nonprofit SEO is critical to your success and how to start today.

Why Nonprofit SEO Matters

Most nonprofits exist to change something. That something may be beliefs, conditions, education, or policies.

These organizations seek to persuade by presenting their ideas.

And there’s no larger idea marketplace than Google. With a 93% market share among all search engines, Google receives an average of 85 billion monthly search requests.

Not surprisingly, Google.com ranks #1 globally in market share of all website traffic.

Google’s size reminds us of its revolutionary impact on the ordering and accessing of information.

When people have a question about an idea, they no longer go to the academy.

They go to Google.

An Introduction to Search: How it Works

Before we look at practical steps your nonprofit can take to excel in this idea marketplace, let’s review how search works.

The ranking of a web page occurs in relation to a search term (or “query”). Search terms are also called “keywords,” although they are often phrases.

For example, the Kiva.org home page ranks in the #1 slot on Google for these keywords (among others):

• charitable loans
• microlending organization
• are kiva loans tax-deductible

Before matching a web page to a searcher’s query, Google works to understand the page’s content and quality relative to other available content.

Here quality may include original insight, clarity, and comprehensiveness.

Google also seeks to weigh the author’s relevant personal experience and expertise. In doing so, Google may reference off-page factors.

Before diving into practical steps, let’s consider SEO tools that simplify nonprofit SEO.

SEO Tools

Popular content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla have simplified SEO.

For enhanced SEO, WordPress offers plugins, Drupal offers modules, and Joomla provides extensions.

WordPress Plugins

WordPress has an extensive plugin marketplace, so it’s not surprising that there are excellent options for SEO.

We recommend the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin for WordPress users.

This is an established plugin with thousands of 5-star reviews on WordPress.org. Currently, over 3 million people are using the plugin.

All in One SEO makes technical SEO tasks as easy as clicking buttons and filling out forms.

As soon as you install AIOSEO, it will generate sitemaps for you. These are created in accordance with Google’s best practices. The sitemaps are 100% maintenance-free and help crawlers find and index your content in search engine results pages (SERPs.)

Drupal

Drupal is known for its well-optimized code base and modules that support SEO, like

• Pathauto
• Redirect
• RealTime SEO for Drupal
• Schema.org Meta Tags

While WordPress SEO plugins combine many tools, in Drupal, you’ll select SEO tools a la carte.

To get advice on specific modules, we recommend you contact Acquia, experts in Drupal support and hosting.

Joomla

Joomla users have fewer options but can find SEO tools in the extensions directory.

Nonprofit SEO: 14 Practical Action Steps

Most nonprofit marketing and “SEO tips” articles outline an ideal pathway, starting with website design considerations.

Here, we assume you already have a website and are publishing content.

So let’s start with where you’re at.

1. Learn and Apply On-Page SEO Basics

It’s easy to learn how to optimize web pages. This is called on-page SEO.

WordPress site owners can analyze a page using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin.

The plugin appears as a sidebar inside the WordPress editor.

You’ll see an SEO score at the top right. Clicking on General will reveal a checklist of recommended actions to improve your page’s SEO.

Anyone who is editing and posting content can follow this learning path:

• Learn what a page title is (also called a title tag) and how to optimize it.
• Learn what a meta description is and how to write it.
• Learn what a URL slug is and how to optimize it.
• Learn about rich snippets and how to create them. (With All in One SEO, you’ll click a few buttons and fill out some form fields.) Research says Rich results get 58% of clicks comparatively.
• Learn what alt tags are, how to write good ones, and how to add them to images on your page.

2. Communicate EEAT with Author and Staff Bios

EEAT is an acronym coined by Google. It stands for Experience, Expertise, Trustworthiness, and Authority.

This acronym began as E-A-T. Recently an extra “E” was added to acknowledge the importance of personal experience, whether formal or informal.

Google uses algorithms and human raters to assess a page’s EEAT.

Technically, EEAT is termed a signal rather than an algorithm because it’s a qualitative rather than quantitative measure.

How to apply this: It’s important to identify the personal experience or expertise of writers for your site, and to communicate that. Your About page can play a significant role.

Since Google factors author experience and expertise into its rankings, makes it easy for algorithms to discover this information.

• Create bio pages for founders, staff, and authors.
• List any relevant experience or expertise, including credentials and, if applicable, Curriculum Vitae.
• Include links so Google can acquire a sense of context for their experience or expertise.

Examples of relevant outbound links:

• Books authored by staff.
• Other organizations that staff or authors are involved in.
• For university professors or lecturers, include a link to their university bio page.
• Other websites they’ve written for.

Add Author SEO

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) can help with its Author SEO feature.

This allows you to easily add hyperlinked author bylines and bios to articles. These link to a page listing all articles written by the author, along with a more detailed bio if preferred.

In addition, you can add areas of expertise and educational background if desired.

AIOSEO will automatically add author schema, a type of code, that helps Google understand and process your author information.

3. Understand the Impact of Links

Links within your nonprofit website have a significant impact on SEO. And while external outbound links aren’t ranking factors, they can impact the perceived credibility of your site.

• When adding external links, aim to link to the highest quality information source.
• Aim for an 80%-20% or 70%-30% balance between internal and external links. (External links can drain traffic away.)
• Find and fix orphan pages. (These are isolated pages with no links from other pages on your site).
• Set aside a small amount of time monthly to build internal links. Your most important pages, such as those for fundraising, should have many inbound links.
• Consider how to get high-authority sites to link to your content. (Inbound links are called backlinks.)
• And learn about the role of anchor text in SEO.

Learn more in our Link Building Guide.

4. Create High-Quality Content

To create content strategically, you’ll base each article on your target keyword.

Quality of content is the most significant ranking factor. So ensure everyone creating and posting content at your nonprofit reads these Google guidelines.

Match Search Intent

It’s also critical to learn about and focus on search intent. To the degree that you satisfy search intent, your article will rank.

Here’s the fastest way to understand the concept of search intent. Using Chrome Incognito, do a search related to your nonprofit’s subject matter. You can choose a “Who is” or ” What is” question.

• Look carefully at the first page of search results. It’s full of clues about what people want to know.
• Explore the People Also Ask section (if there is one for your search query). You’ll find questions people have on the topic.

5. Improve Your Page Speed

Because page speed is a ranking factor, consider whether you need to improve yours.

For starters, run your site URL through Google’s PageSpeed Insights to see how to improve performance.

PageSpeed only takes a few seconds to return results. At the top, you’ll see Core Web Vitals: a collection of detailed metrics for web professionals.

Underneath that, you’ll see the familiar circle scores. These are calculated out of 100. The “Performance” score measures your site’s loading speed.

Further down are “Opportunities.” These are details on how to improve the speed performance of a page.

To handle any code issues, you’ll need to hire a developer.

Two issues that are common and represent low-hanging fruit are:

• Reducing your image file sizes.
• Hosting your fonts locally.

A developer can handle both of these issues. But staff must keep image file sizes down when posting new articles.

Also: if you’re using WordPress, try an image optimization plugin like WP Rocket and do a before-and-after test. Learn more about optimizing images here.

6. Understand the Roles of Social Media and SEO

Social media engagement (such as “likes,” comments, and shares) is not a ranking factor for your website.

However, social media websites, like Facebook, have SEO baked in, so it’s worth experimenting with creating posts centered on your target keywords.

Typically, social media plays a more limited role than SEO.

• Newsfeed-based social platforms like Twitter and Facebook are primarily helpful for creating brand awareness. (We call this “top-of-the-funnel” activity, or TOFU for short.)
• For nonprofits, light engagement (liking or commenting on a post) with top donors on Facebook can keep you top of mind.
• YouTube, not a newsfeed-based platform, is effective for drawing your target audience to think more deeply about your offerings.

Caution: It’s easy to over-invest in TOFU platforms that produce vanity metrics (like views, reach, and impressions) yet yield little, if any, meaningful impact.

While nonprofit participation in panel discussions or creating OpEds used to be derided as “preaching to the choir,” excessive social media investment may be equivalent to “entertaining the choir.”

In other words, does your nonprofit exist to serve and entertain those who agree with you already or does it exist to win minds?

The key is to ensure all content activity is tightly aligned with your organization’s topline objectives.

Learn more in:

• What is Content Strategy? An Ultimate Guide
• SEO vs. Social Media: How Do Their Roles Differ in Digital Marketing?

7. Do Competitor Analysis and Keyword Research

We’ve seen that if you want a web page to rank well in Google search results, you’ll need to decide which search term(s) you want it to rank for.

To increase your visibility in the marketplace of ideas, take a strategic approach to creating and editing content.

This approach begins with analyzing your competitors’ SEO and your own and learning how to do keyword research.

Analyze Competitor SEO

SEO delivers highly accurate competitor data.

Using a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush, you can quickly discover what keywords your competitors are ranking highest for.

Imagine you have a conservation nonprofit in the UK and one of your competitors is WildlifeTrusts.org.

You can run a report on that competitor to see which keywords they’re ranking for.

Here’s a close-up of an Ahrefs report for WildlifeTrusts.org.

• We’ve sorted the report by Position so we can see which keywords they rank #1 for.
• The KD column displays Keyword Difficulty: an approximate measure, out of 100, of how difficult it is to rank for the keyword.

You could use this data to get an idea of topics to create content on. The goal would be to rank near or higher to the competitor.

When it comes to competitor analysis, you’ll likely want to go further and do a content gap analysis. This will give you more detail.

Do a Content Gap Analysis

We recommend using the Ahrefs Content Gap tool or the Semrush Keyword Gap tool. The results will show you which keywords your competitors are ranking ahead of you for

It can also show you keywords they’re ranking #1 for, that you aren’t ranking at all for.

You can use this information to choose target keywords (topics) for new content. Additionally, you can use it to identify existing pages that need improvement.

Of course, you’ll only choose keywords relevant to your mission.

Pro tip: Focus on keywords that have a low keyword difficulty (KD) score. The lower the score, the easier it will be to rank.

Also: if your nonprofit’s ideas are contested, use a gap analysis to research websites that oppose your ideas. Evaluate which crucial keywords they rank high for.

Ranking high for important keywords is the equivalent of gaining mindshare. Remember: When people have a question about an idea or cause, they don’t go to the academy. They go to Google.

Often, those lobbying against certain ideas put a smart strategy at the center of their SEO efforts. So, you can’t afford to be slack when it comes to SEO.

And remember: SEO needs to be tended, like a garden. Search results are similar to financial markets: they’re highly volatile. Ranking well for a year is no guarantee your position will continue. Routine checking of your rankings and continual improvement is necessary.

SEO Lab: Walk Through a Competitor Analysis

In this example, we’ll use idea-based organizations. If your nonprofit is in the idea space, there are 2 approaches to competitor analysis: both of which are beneficial.

• Direct competitors: Here, you’d compare your own SEO performance to others in the same niche competing for funding.
• Opponent competitors: These are organizations that occupy an opposing stance. As they gain favor in search results, their ideas gain mindshare, and your ideas lose.

Be creative when identifying competitors. Your chief competitor may not be another organization; it might be an online magazine or even a personal blog.

For example, we’ll compare an anti-communist organization, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, to a pro-communist organization, the Communist Party USA.

For this analysis, we’ll use Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool.

Step 1: Sign Up for Semrush

To follow along, sign up for a free 7-day-trial. (You can cancel at any time.)

Step 2: Navigate to Keyword Gap

Now, while you’re logged into Semrush, go to the left-hand navigation column and click on Keyword Gap.

Step 3: Add Competitor

For our example, we’ll enter the Victims of Communism URL in the top field.

And we’ll add the Communist Party USA URL in the bottom field.

Now click the Compare button to get started.

You’ll see a Keyword Overlap diagram.

Mouse over the overlap portion, and you’ll see a popup that indicates these 2 organizations share 301 keywords. Put another way, they’re both ranking for those keywords, and 1 organization is the winner of each competing keyword.

Step 4: Apply “Easy” Filter

Now, above the diagram, you’ll see a drop-down filter marked “KD.” That stands for keyword difficulty.

Click the drop-down and select “Easy” or “Very easy.”

Yes, it’s possible to identify keywords that are easy to rank for. And this is always a good approach to getting traction against a competitor.

Now scroll down past the diagram and you’ll see the list of shared keywords that are easy to rank for.

Step 5: Get Oriented: What Are We Seeing?

Now you’ll see a list of keywords, all of which are easy to rank for and for which our 2 organizations are currently ranking for.

• There’s a column for VictimsOfCommunism.org and one for CPUSA.org
• Each row is a keyword (topic)
• The site that’s ranking highest for the keyword will have its search position highlighted in green

So we see for example, that CPUSA is ranking #1 for:

• Abolishment of private property

Now, click on the top of the CPUSA.org column to sort the list by shared keywords it’s ranking highest for.

Step 6: Choose Some Keywords to Target

Reviewing the list above, we might choose to target the following topics.

• Abolishment of private property
• Abolition of private property
• Communist documentaries
• Art in communism

What do we mean by “target”? Remember, the VictimsOfCommunism.org site has pages that are ranking for these terms, but ranking much lower than CPUSA.org.

So targeting them means improving them so they can rank higher. If you have several articles on the same topic, you may also be able to combine them into 1 comprehensive piece.

To improve them, read the top-ranking articles for the keyword. It pays to know the competition.

Simply click on the keyword and Semrush will show you which web pages are ranking high for that keyword.

For example, these are some of the top-ranking pages for “abolishment of private property.”

Improving your article may include actions like:

• Rewriting it to create a comprehensive article
• Adding citations and linking to credible sources
• Reformatting it for scannability
• Adding diagrams, images, or charts, if helpful to readers
• Simplifying the language so it’s more easily understood
• Re-organizing the article so it’s easier to follow.

Step 7. Explore the Untapped Filter

Returning to the keyword list, click Untapped at the top. This will display all keywords that your competition is ranking for, but for which you have no rankings.

Here you can get ideas of topics to create new content on.

Combining this information with the previous list, we’ll choose a final list of keywords to target.

This gives us 4 articles to improve and 2 new ones to write.

Lastly, we did a Chrome Incognito search for “best communist sites” and found the #1 ranking article lists 2 anti-communist sites, including the VictimsOfCommunist.org site.

So another content idea is to create an article listing “top communist sites” and include your own.

Wrapping It Up

To close out this SEO Lab, we need to be clear that CPUSA.org is producing much more content than VictimsOfCommunism.org. The latter doesn’t seem to regularly publish articles on communism topics. It does support academic research and it publishes news on its activities.

At a glance, it would appear that CPUSA.org has an active content marketing program designed to win search rankings. And it appears VictimsOfCommunism doesn’t, although they do use an SEO plugin to optimize page content.

VictimsOfCommunism.org may not see this type of strategic SEO as being relevant to their mission.

At the same time, doing competitor research as described in this SEO Lab, provides an opportunity to reconsider mission and impact.

Using Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool again, we compared VictimsOfCommunism.org and CPUSA.org to other sites that rank highly for communism topics:

• wsws.org
• marxists.org

The results are stunning. This provides a sense of competitive terrain for mindshare.

Remember: most people who have a question about an idea or cause, don’t go to the academy. Or to Facebook or TikTok.

They go to Google.

Now let’s move on to other factors that can impact your rankings.

User Experience: Is it a Ranking Factor?

Many SEO articles claim that user experience is a ranking factor. Is that true? Here we have to be careful about definitions. Google does consider what it calls page experience in ranking.

“Page experience” comprises elements that can be objectively measured, including how your site performs on mobile devices, how fast it is, and whether or not it’s plastered with annoying pop-ups (interstitial ads) blocking content.

There’s a relative aspect to how Google weighs page experience. They explain: “While page experience is important, Google still seeks to rank pages with the best information overall, even if the page experience is subpar.”

Google also expects your site to be secure, i.e., using HTTPS and having secure checkout.

Special Nonprofit SEO Issues

These following issues are technical and can have a significant negative impact on your SEO if not handled well.

Strategy Changes

If your nonprofit has changed its mission, you may have a lot of content that’s no longer related to what you do.

In addition, a large amount of poor quality or “thin” content can harm your rankings.

Here you can consult with an SEO professional regarding what to do with irrelevant content. Some pages may be usefully merged, while others may be good candidates for deletion and redirects.

See Google’s information on the Helpful Content Update for more.

Changing Your Nonprofit Name

When a nonprofit changes its name, it usually changes the website domain too.

Be careful: understand the SEO value of your current domain before changing it or letting it expire.

If you decide to proceed, keep the old domain and redirect appropriately.

Lastly, consider who should be involved in your nonprofit’s SEO.

Who Should Manage Your Nonprofit SEO?

If your nonprofit deals with commonly understood subjects, like clean drinking water or supporting arts education, it will be easy to outsource your SEO strategy to professionals.

However, if your nonprofit deals with technical subjects, like philosophy, theology, or a niched scientific field, it may be difficult to get optimal results from outsourcing your SEO.

Why is this? SEO is intimately tied to content. A solid understanding of your current content and previous projects is vital for SEO success.

Recommendations

1. Consider developing in-house SEO capability if your nonprofit occupies an obscure topic niche.
2. Pair in-house SEO staff with a successful for-profit SEO professional. This can accelerate learning and put staff on a fast-track to insider best practices. An established professional can be invaluable in shaping strategy.
3. All nonprofits can benefit from learning SEO basics, including optimizing a web page and doing keyword research. If you outsource your SEO strategy, you’ll be better positioned to evaluate a vendor’s recommendations. And internal editors and posters need to know on-page SEO anyway.
4. Ensure your marketing strategy and SEO goals are integrated, not developed piecemeal. Your top marketing person must be deeply involved in setting and reviewing SEO strategies.

Also, be wary of quickly outsourcing SEO to a vendor your friends are using. If you don’t understand and don’t have hands-on experience with the things listed in this article, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to accurately assess the value of the vendor’s pitch, no matter how convincing it sounds.

Unfortunately, standards in the nonprofit space are often far lower than those in the for-profit space.

Bonus Tips for Nonprofit SEO

• Free Google ads: Nonprofits are eligible for free Google Ad grants. Ads can be used to attract donations, search traffic, and volunteers. Google Ads appear above organic search results.
• Rankings decay: Be prepared to be consistent. If you stop your SEO discipline, you’ll eventually lose rankings and waste the resources that went into achieving them. Exceptions may be for keywords for which there is little interest or competition.
• Plan Conversions: Decide what specific calls-to-action (CTAs) you’ll have on pages you optimize. WordPress users may consider a conversion plugin like OptinMonster.
• Measure Progress: Find the most user-friendly tools to measure SEO progress. WordPress users may like MonsterInsights, a plugin that displays the most important Google Analytics data inside the WordPress editor. Explore Google Search Console to discover how your content ranks in Google results.
• Educate Donors: Search engine optimization isn’t flashy. And it doesn’t deliver overnight results. Yet it’s crucial for nonprofits that want to build influence in the marketplace of ideas. Prepare to educate donors on the importance of SEO.
• Local SEO: If your nonprofit focuses on local programs, create a Google Business Profile. This profile will help improve your local ranking and drive traffic for relevant keywords. You’ll also show up on Google Maps. Also: be sure to manage Google Reviews to benefit your SEO.

Prioritize Your Nonprofit SEO

Don’t abdicate your place in the marketplace of ideas; make SEO a priority for your nonprofit organization.

Doing so will ensure a legacy for your founder(s) and position your nonprofit for increasing impact, the kind of impact that matters.

What’s Next?

Now that you know why nonprofit SEO is critical to achieving real impact, what’s next?

Check out our article Should You Hire a Marketing Agency? Pros and Cons. And learn how to avoid SEO scams.

And explore these articles to get the basics down:

• What is Organic Traffic?
• How to Check Search Engine Rankings

Next, subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

By applying SEO to your pages that feature videos, you’ll attract more traffic.

This step-by-step guide will show you how to optimize your video content so search engines can find it and rank it for relevant searches.

Before we learn WordPress video SEO, let’s begin with a definition.

What is Video SEO?

Video SEO is a set of creative and technical actions that can improve the quality and rankings of your videos in search results.

While many articles on the topic are aimed at a technical audience, applying video SEO can be learned by anyone, including beginners.

Thanks to modern website platforms like WordPress and SEO plugins like All in One SEO (AIOSEO), technical issues can be handled automatically.

That leaves a handful of creative and low-level tasks for you.

Before we walk you through those, consider what you get from WordPress video SEO.

Benefits of Video SEO

When video content is optimized for search engines, it can appear in several areas of Google besides the main search results page.

For instance, your video content can be found in

• Video search tab
• Google Images search
• Google Discover

Optimized video pages can also appear as rich snippets with unique features, like Key Moments.

Showing up where your prospects are means more website traffic and conversions.

When video embedded on a WordPress page is genuinely helpful, that can help your post rank higher.

Video SEO Best Practices

Before we get into the tutorial, it’s worth noting that Google spells out best practices for video SEO. And we’ll be following these in our instructions for you.

Dedicated Page

For instance, Google recommends that for “maximum exposure . . . create a dedicated page for each video . . . .”

This is necessary for your video to display with Key Moments or the Live Badge.

So, even if a video is embedded in a WordPress article, that video should exist on another page dedicated solely to the video.

If you’re using YouTube or Vimeo to host videos, all your videos already have dedicated pages.

Title, Description, Thumbnail

Each video should have a title, meta description, and a designated thumbnail image.

You add these naturally when you upload a video to YouTube. But these items should also be added to your WordPress page. We’ll show you how to do that.

Video Sitemap

You should create a video sitemap to help Google and other search engines discover and index your videos.

That will be our first task in the tutorial below.

Let’s get started.

WordPress Video SEO: Step-by-Step

For WordPress website users, using a plugin is the easiest way to do video SEO.

We recommend All in One SEO (AIOSEO). This plugin will analyze your web pages and show you how to boost your video SEO.

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is an established plugin with thousands of 5-star reviews on WordPress.org. Currently, over 3 million site owners are using it.

Step 1: Download and Install All in One SEO (AIOSEO)

The first step is to download and install All in One SEO (AIOSEO).

A setup wizard will walk you through a few steps.

You’ll need the Pro version of AIOSEO to get a video sitemap.

Step 2: Get Sitemaps

As soon as you’ve installed All in One SEO (AIOSEO), the plugin will automatically generate 2 sitemaps.

This is according to Google’s best practices. The search giant recommends having an XML sitemap and an RSS/Atom sitemap.

• XML sitemaps contain all the URLs of a website
• RSS sitemaps only include URLs of recently modified or published pages.

Google will visit your RSS sitemap more frequently than your XML map.

What’s a sitemap? A sitemap is a list, in code, of URLs on your website. Search engines use sitemaps, and other methods, to discover your content and index (list it) in search results. So, sitemaps are essential in getting your content to appear in search results.

While you don’t need to take action to get these 2 sitemaps, you’ll need to enable your video sitemap.

Step 3: Enable Video Sitemap

To enable your video sitemap, ensure you’re still logged into WordPress.

In the admin bar at the top, go to AIOSEO » Sitemaps.

Now you’ll see several sitemap options.

Then click on the Video Sitemap tab.

A popup will ask you to “Enable video sitemaps on your site.”

Click the green Activate Video Sitemap button. And that’s it.

No complicated configuration.

When you embed a video on your WordPress site, AIOSEO will detect that and add the video information to the sitemap.

Part of getting found in search results is optimizing your page. This is called on-page SEO, and AIOSEO makes it easy.

Step 3: Optimize Your Video Page

To optimize the web page your video is embedded in, simply navigate to that page. (Make sure you’re still logged into WordPress.)

Now, open the AIOSEO sidebar. To do that, click the AIOSEO button at upper right.

Next, click on the General tab.

This is where you’ll find instructions for improving your SEO.

These recommendations are organized by:

• Focus Keyphrase
• Basic SEO
• Title
• Readability

Click on each section and follow the instructions.

You’ll see what you’re doing well.

And what could use improvement.

As you act on the plugin’s recommendations, your SEO score will increase.

Learn more using AIOSEO for on-page SEO.

Step 4: Apply Video Schema Markup

Next, you’ll apply structured data (schema markup) to the page. This code helps Google understand your content and rank it for relevant queries.

So, it’s a critical part of your video content getting found.

To add video schema to your page, click the AIOSEO button at the top right. (This will open the sidebar.)

Then click the Schema tab.

Now, you’ll see a small area called Schema in Use.

Notice that the “Article” schema has already been applied. (By default, AIOSEO applies Article schema to every post.)

Next, click the big blue Generate Schema button.

That will cause AIOSEO’s Schema Catalog to open. The catalog lists all the schema types you can add to a web page.

Find the Video schema button and click the plus (+) icon on the right side of the button.

Clicking on the Video schema button will cause a new pop-up window to open with a form for you to fill out.

Fill Out the Video Schema Form

Now, fill out the Video Schema form. (This information about your video is called metadata.)

• Name – Enter the name (title) of your video.
• Description – Add a meta description of your video.
• Content URL – Add the URL of the video file, if you uploaded it to your website. (This will likely be a .mp4 or .mov file.) (If your video was uploaded to YouTube or another player, skip this step.)
• Embed URL – Add the video’s URL as found on YouTube, Vimeo, or another player.
• Upload Date – Add the date the video was uploaded to your site or to YouTube or Vimeo.
• Is Family Friendly – Select Yes or No.
• Thumbnail URL – Select a thumbnail by URL or upload the image.

After you upload your thumbnail image, click the blue Add Schema button.

Step 5: Add a Video Transcript (Optional)

Adding a transcript is also a good idea if you’re embedding a video on a dedicated WordPress page. By “dedicated” we mean the video is the main content of the page.

Transcripts can boost SEO plus they provide users with an alternate means of accessing the video content.

There are plenty of low-cost AI-based transcription services to choose from. For those more technically-minded, Deepgram and AssemblyAI.com offer APIs for transcribing.

Now that we’ve covered WordPress video SEO, there are some additional AIOSEO features you may want to use next.

Additional SEO Considerations

Explore these AIOSEO features to improve your SEO performance.

• Author SEO: Establish trust with your users and boost your EEAT by communicating your experience and expertise.
• Link Assistant: Adding internal links to your most important pages can improve their rankings in SEO. The AI-powered Link Assistant makes this process simple; add links without opening individual pages.
• Redirection Manager: Avoid unwanted 404s with this user-friendly feature.
• Search Statistics: See which keywords you’re ranking for, without leaving WordPress. This feature, available in the Elite version of All in One SEO (AIOSEO), runs on an integration with Google Search Console.

Optimize Your YouTube Description

While this article has been focused on WordPress video SEO, most people will wind up using YouTube to host their videos and then embed them in WordPress pages.

So you’ll have 2 sources of traffic: SEO for the WordPress pages and YouTube traffic for the hosted video.

It pays to optimize your YouTube videos for SEO too. We’ve already mentioned the benefits of choosing an attractive thumbnail and using Key Moments.

But don’t overlook the Description field. Add a detailed description. Think about who might be interested in this video and what they might be searching for.

The keywords you use in your description can help your video appear in relevant internal search results. (Remember, YouTube has a built-in search engine.)

Example: Gift of Fear Masterclass

Here’s an example. The video below is an interview with comedian Sarah Silverman. It’s part of Gavin de Becker’s Gift of Fear Masterclass, available for free on YouTube.

The video series is based on the best-selling book of the same name. It helps women understand and act on their intuition in order to avoid violence from strangers or partners.

This video was published 2 years ago. So why does it have only 5,432 views? A quick glance shows the description field (highlighted below) is completely empty.

Adding a precise description to this video should help it surface in searches related to the topic. In addition adding at least one keyword to the video title can help. For instance: Interview: Sarah Silverman on Violence Against Women.

Potential keywords to include in video descriptions in this series:

• Gavin de Becker (the host)
• The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence (the name of the best-selling book)
• Domestic violence
• Trauma bonding
• Verbal abuse
• Violence against women
• Preventing violence
• And so on.

Q&A on WordPress Video SEO

Resources on WordPress Video SEO

Read these resources to learn more about WordPress video SEO.

Whether you’re a beginner or advanced, we’re confident you’ll find these resources useful.

• How to Boost WordPress Video SEO: Expert SEO Tools & SEO Tips
• 8 Video SEO Best Practices to Help You Outrank Your Competitors
• 7 Quick Tips to Make Thumbnails Like a Video Marketing Pro
• Setting Up a Video Content Business
• SEO vs. Social Media: How Do Their Roles Differ in Digital Marketing?

Comparison Table: WordPress Video SEO With (and Without) a Plugin

Curious whether you should choose to manage video SEO manually or use a WordPress SEO plugin?

Here’s a comparison table of the 2 approaches.

Using an SEO plugin automates most video SEO best practices and requires no technical or coding knowledge. For that reason it’s a good choice for those who want a scalable approach.

After WordPress Video SEO . . .

Few small businesses can succeed without an SEO strategy. And video SEO is an important part of that strategy.

Remember: embedded videos can attract traffic and boost conversions.

Now that you know how to do video SEO for a WordPress website, what’s next?

• Learn how a small business used video as part of a winning strategy to grow traffic by over 1,000% in a year.
• Explore how making your content scannable, by breaking up text with images, video, and other elements, can help engage visitors.
• Discover the power of backlinks in driving rankings, revenue, and website valuations.
• Start using search intent and keyword research.
• Browse the best SEO Chrome extensions to improve your workflow.

To keep learning, subscribe to our YouTube Channel. We regularly post new search engine optimization tutorials.

And come join us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

This can result in more click-throughs from search results.

The guidelines are simple to learn and apply.

In addition to explaining image filename SEO, you’ll learn how to optimize your images in WordPress for improved SEO.

Let’s get started.

What Are Image Filenames?

Every file on the internet, including images, has a name. This name may offer clues about the image (like “baseball-team.jpg”), or it may be generic (like “DSC000014.png”).

As you’ve probably guessed, Google prefers descriptive filenames.

Before we learn more about that, let’s clarify the difference between an image filename and a file extension.

Image Filename vs. Extension: What’s the Difference?

Image filenames include an extension. The extension (such as .jpg or .png) is preceded by a period and describes the file format or file type.

Common image extensions include .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .svg, and .webp.

When you optimize your image filename, there’s no need to change the extension because that communicates technical information that web browsers need.

Do Image Filenames Affect SEO?

Google’s algorithms read image filenames to obtain information about image content.

Search engines have difficulty processing visual data. Image filenames are 1 of several factors that help search engines understand visual media.

Other factors include descriptive alt text and placing the image near relevant text on a page.

When search engines understand an image, they can rank it for relevant keywords. And that can lead to more traffic from search engine results pages (SERPs).

Remember that Google is the largest search engine in the world, and it includes Google Image Search.

Now, let’s discover the best practices for naming your image files.

Best Practices for Image Filename SEO

Good image filenames are short and descriptive.

Follow these tips for naming images.

Avoid Generic Image Filenames

When you download images from a mobile phone or camera, they have generic names that follow a sequential pattern.

For example:

• IMG001.png
• IMG002.png
• IMG003.png

Cameras aren’t smart enough (yet) to understand and name your photos for you. So before you add these images to web pages, change generic names to meaningful ones.

Make Image Filenames Short and Descriptive

Your images filenames should be short but long enough to accurately describe the image.

Google advises avoiding “extremely lengthy filenames.” It’s easy to see why. It only takes a few words to describe images well enough so that search engines can categorize them.

Keep in mind that Google is looking for “very light clues about the subject matter of the image.”

The more words, the less clear the description could become.

Here are examples of bad image filenames compared with descriptive ones.

Examples of Bad vs. Good Image Filenames

Below, we’ve added 3 images from Unsplash.com, along with examples of good vs. bad image filenames.

Photographers include details of their images when they post them on Unsplash. So we can use that information to create descriptive filenames.

Example 1: Wheat Field in Ukraine

The first image is from photographer Polina Rytova and shows a wheat field in eastern Ukraine. Specifically, the image is from the village of Zelenyi Hai, which is in Kherson Oblast.

Avoid generic names like crops.png or field.png.

Possible descriptive filenames include:

• wheat-field-eastern-ukraine.png
• wheat-field-zelenyi-hai-ukraine.png
• wheat-field-ukraine.png
• wheat-field-kherson-oblast-ukraine.png

Example #2: Hikers on Mt. Kilimanjaro Route

The next photo, from photographer Crispin Jones, shows hikers on Route Rongai, a trail on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Avoid generic image filenames like hiking.png, hikers.png, or hiking-group.png.

Instead, use descriptive names like:

• hikers-on-kilimanjaro.png
• hikers-on-route-rongai-kilimanjaro.png
• Hikers-climbing-kilimanjaro-tanzania.png

You can also remove prepositions from filenames, like so:

• hikers-route-rongai-kilimanjaro.png

Example #3: Photo of Painting

Our final example is a photo of Albrecht Dürer’s famous self-portrait, painted in 1498.

The painting is currently housed in the Museo del Prado in Spain.

Here, we can avoid generic image filenames like portrait.jpg or painting.png.

Some possible descriptive filenames are:

• albrecht-durer-self-portrait.png
• albrecht-durer-self-portrait-1498.png

Now, imagine your web page is primarily about the Museo del Prado’s Flemish collection, which includes this self-portrait. Then, you might want to include the museum in the image filename.

• albrect-durer-self-portrait-museo-del-prado.png

Use Hyphens to Separate Words

Notice that we separated words in the filenames by adding hyphens. Skip using underscores or blank spaces because not all search engines interpret these the same.

For instance, a space may be converted to “%20” which is how you wind up with odd filenames like sunny%20beach.jpg.

For Multilingual Sites: Translate Image Filenames

If you have a multilingual WordPress site, then make sure that images on pages that target different countries include image filenames in the related language. That way, they’ll show up in local searches.

Using All in One SEO (AIOSEO)

Now that you understand image filename SEO, what else can you do to optimize your images?

An SEO plugin is an easy way to ensure your images and web pages are optimized for Google.

We recommend All in One SEO (AIOSEO). This is an established plugin with thousands of 5-star reviews on WordPress.org. Over 3 million site owners are currently using it to improve their rankings.

In the next section, we’ll be using AIOSEO. So get ready to follow along.

The first step in optimizing your images in WordPress is to download and install All in One SEO (AIOSEO).

After you upload the plugin to your WordPress site, a setup wizard will open and walk you through a few simple steps.

Now, let’s walk through the image optimization steps.

Create an Image Sitemap

Google recommends creating a separate image sitemap or adding image information to your existing sitemap. This helps search engines discover your images.

When you install AIOSEO, it automatically generates a sitemap that includes all your images. Any time you modify an image or add a new one to a page, your sitemap will automatically be updated.

Optimize Titles and Meta Descriptions

Search engines use a web page’s title and description to understand and categorize images on the page.

All in One SEO provides fields to edit your title and description. The plugin will give you feedback on improving these.

For instance, it’s a good idea to include your focus keyword in your title and description.

If your keyword is missing from these areas, AIOSEO will prompt you to add it.

Learn more about how to optimize your search snippet in AIOSEO.

Title vs SEO Title: What’s the Difference?

Now, you may wonder, “What’s the difference between titles, SEO titles, and title tags?”

It’s worth sorting this out because these terms are often used interchangeably, which can be confusing.

Title: This is at the top of a WordPress page or post. When you add a new page or post, you’ll see a large bank field labeled “Add Title.”

After you add your title text, WordPress automatically wraps it in a title tag and an h1 tag. These tags are invisible to readers. They’re HTML code that provides information to web browsers and search engines.

• A title tag tells search engines: “Display this title in search results.”
• The h tag denotes hierarchy on the page: the h1 heading is the most important.

SEO title: SEO plugins allow you to use one title on the web page and create a different title to appear in search results.

This 2nd title is sometimes called an SEO title. If you create a 2nd title for search engines, the site visitors will still see the original title when they visit your page.

In this case,

• The title on the page gets wrapped in an h1 tag, not a title tag
• The SEO title gets wrapped in a title tag.

Why would anyone want 2 titles? Perhaps to include an additional keyword or two to help search engines rank the article.

Also, your SEO title is what will appear in Google Image searches.

For instance, if we search Google Images for “apple strudel,” we see many photos from apple strudel recipe pages. The text below each image is drawn from the SEO title of the recipe page.

The words “Delicious and EASY . . .” stood out to us.

We checked the CookiesAndCups.com web page (and its code) and discovered it has one title on its web page (“Apple Strudel”) . . .

. . . And a different SEO title (“Delicious and EASY Apple Strudel Recipe | Cookies and Cups”) in Google Image search.

When we click on the Google Image from her page, we see a preview of her web page on the right. And you can see that the 2 titles are different.

Even though the last part of the “Delicious and EASY” title was truncated, the most important part: “Delicious and EASY,” made her image stand out from a sea of alternatives.

Other results in Google Image searches included “easy,” but none was described as both “Delicious and EASY.”

Add Alt Text

Alt text (short for “alternative text”) is the most crucial element that helps Google your images.

In the WordPress block editor, there’s a blank space for adding your image alt text.

Simply click your image. That will cause the alt text field to appear on the right.

Then, enter your image description.

Google recommends keeping your alt text descriptive and short, like your image filename.

Apply Schema Markup

To increase the chances that your images display in search results, apply schema markup to your pages.

Schema markup is code that helps Google better understand web pages. With All in One SEO’s Schema Generator, you’ll simply click some buttons and fill out some form fields to apply this schema. No technical knowledge is needed.

There are different types of schema to match different types of content.

For instance, there’s schema for:

• Recipes
• Products
• Events
• Books

So, adding schema means picking the relevant type from a list and then using AIOSEO to add the code.

Remember the apple strudel page we discussed? They applied recipe schema markup to their page. As a result, their page displays as a rich snippet in Google Search results.

You can think of a rich snippet as a prominent visual display in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Not only does CookesAndCups.com have that eye-catching display near the top of Google Search, but they also have another on page #1 of search results for “apple strudel.”

Notice that this search snippet, like the first one, has details listed, like the star rating average and how long the recipe takes (45 minutes). That’s all thanks to schema markup.

Now, compare the 2 apple strudel rich snippets with this standard search snippet.

It’s easy to see why rich snippets attract more click-throughs from search results.

No Hyphens?

Ironically, CookiesAndCups.com didn’t use hyphens to separate words in their image names. For example, one image is named applestrudeimage-5.jpg.

But they used titles effectively, applied great alt text (“Slice of apple strudel with golden raisins”), and included schema markup.

Google was able to use all those clues to understand the images on the page.

Image Titles, Captions, and Placement

Lastly, pay attention to the placement of images and the use of image titles and captions.

Images should be placed near relevant text on a web page. Consider Google’s guidance in their developer documentation.

Google extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles. Wherever possible, make sure images are placed near relevant text and on pages that are relevant to the image subject matter.

The WordPress editor provides a blank field for an image title (called “Title Attribute”). To find it,

1. Click on an image in one of your articles
2. The blank Alternative Text field should appear at right.
3. Scroll down the right-hand Block column, and click on Advanced to find the Title Attribute field.

Enter your preferred image title.

Repurposing Your Image Filename

Often, a good image filename, alt text, and image title can be the same.

Pro tip: If you start with a good image filename, you can often us it also for the alt text and image title.

In the example above, we used one phrase as our image filename, alt text, and image title:

• austin distel recording podcast

Then for the caption, we elaborated:

• Austin Distel recording podcast interview with CEO of Scale or Die.

Q&A Related to Image Filename SEO

Now that you understand what image filename SEO is, and how to relates to image SEO overall, you may have questions.

We’ve answered a few below. If you have additional questions please leave them in the comments below this article. We’re delighted to be of assistance.

Resources on Image Filename SEO

Interested in reading more on this topic? Check out these WordPress articles.

• How to Rename Images and Media Files in WordPress
• How to Name Your Image Files for SEO in WordPress
• How to Enforce Clean Image Filenames in WordPress (Easy Method)

After Image Filename SEO . . .

Now that you’ve learned what image filename SEO is and how to optimize your image names, you’re on your way to improved search engine rankings and your SEO strategy is taking shape.

Discover the different roles that SEO and social media play. Or pick an easy DIY SEO project to improve your site.

Learn how to use AIOSEO to do simple SEO checks. And find tips for making your site seo-friendly.

Join us on our YouTube Channel to find simple search engine optimization tutorials. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop and keep your SEO efforts on track.

Negative SEO is the use of SEO to reduce another site’s rankings and credibility, resulting in poor performance and conversions. It can be subtle to spot and can counter your legitimate SEO efforts.

In this article, we’ll show you what negative SEO is, how to spot it, and how to combat it.

What is Negative SEO?

Negative SEO refers to the malicious practice of using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to harm a competitor’s website ranking in search results. This is usually done to take over said competitor’s keywords, rankings and traffic.

Negative SEO can involve activities such as building low-quality backlinks, creating duplicate content, spreading misinformation, and even hacking the targeted website.

How to Spot Negative SEO

While negative SEO attacks can be subtle, here are some red flags to watch out for:

• A sudden influx of low-quality backlinks: Check your backlink profile for links from irrelevant, spammy websites. Semrush and Ahrefs have capable backlink checkers that can help identify suspicious links.
• Duplicate content appearing online: If you start seeing your website’s content appearing on other domains without your permission, it could be a case of content scraping or theft. This can dilute your search engine visibility.
• Negative online reviews and comments: Monitor your online reputation and promptly address malicious attacks.
• Unusual drops in website traffic: Analyze your website traffic trends to detect sudden dips that might be linked to an attack.
• Website security issues: If your website has been hacked or compromised, and you start seeing unusual or spammy content appearing on your pages, it could be a sign of malware injection or other security breaches.

These signs (and others) should raise red flags, prompting you to examine what’s negatively affecting your rankings and traffic.

Is Negative SEO Illegal?

While not explicitly illegal, engaging in negative SEO activities can violate search engine terms of service. Besides, negative SEO is an unethical business practice. If successful, it can damage the target site’s reputation, which can have legal consequences depending on the tactics used.

Is Negative SEO Relevant Today?

Negative SEO still remains relevant today, despite being against Google’s policies and a highly unethical digital marketing practice. Although its effectiveness has changed over time, thanks to search engines like Google constantly updating their algorithms and security measures, it can still negatively impact websites if not taken seriously.

Despite search engines being better able to identify negative SEO attacks, some reasons you still need to keep an eye out for it include:

• Evolving tactics: While older methods like low-quality backlinks are less effective, attackers keep devising new ways, like manipulating reviews, creating fake social media profiles, and exploiting vulnerabilities.
• Impact on reputation: Even unsuccessful attacks can damage your online reputation, requiring effort to clean up.
• Potential for success: Negative SEO attacks can still have significant consequences for websites with weak backlink profiles or security measures.

In a nutshell, negative SEO still exists. However, it’s less effective since search engines, especially Google, have become more sophisticated at detecting and mitigating negative SEO attacks. 

6 Types of Negative SEO To Watch Out For

Some common negative SEO tactics include:

Now that you know what negative SEO is and why you should care, let’s quickly dive into some types of negative SEO to watch out for.

1. Link Spamming

Link spamming involves building many low-quality backlinks to your website with the intention of triggering a penalty from search engines and hurting your rankings. This is often done through automated means to build the links at scale.

2. Content Scraping

Content scraping refers to copying and republishing content from your website to other domains. This can cause duplicate content issues and confuse search engines. It can also dilute your site’s ranking, as search engines can choose the copied content above yours.

3. Hacking and Malware Injection

This malicious negative SEO technique compromises a website’s security and injects malicious code or spam content. In some cases, attackers can redirect visitors from your site to another site of their choice. All this can trigger search engine penalties, harm your site health, and damage your reputation. 

4. Smear Campaigns

Another common negative SEO tactic entails creating fake negative reviews, social media posts, or other content intended to harm your website’s online reputation and credibility. These smear campaigns are mainly designed to deter potential customers and divert them to other providers. They can also negatively impact your search engine rankings.

5. Fake Link Removal Requests

In this instance, malicious actors can submit false copyright infringement complaints to search engines, attempting to get your legitimate backlinks removed. This damages your link profile and ranking potential.

6. Hotlinking and Heavy Crawling

Hotlinking refers to the practice of hosting media files on your site’s servers without permission. Despite being hosted on your servers, the images load on another site. This overwhelms your server resources, leading to poor speed and performance. Speed and performance are important SEO factors that impact rankings, conversion rates, and other metrics vital to site health.

Heavy crawling is another server-intensive negative SEO attack you may encounter. Malicious agents use software that crawls your site with the sole purpose of overloading your server resources. This may result in your site crashing. If this happens several times, your site can lose credibility with search engines.

How to Combat Negative SEO Attacks

What do you do when you’re the victim of a negative SEO attack?

It all depends on the type of attack. However, here are some proven ways to combat negative SEO attacks.

Focus on Positive SEO

The best long-term strategy for combatting negative SEO is to build your site’s authority and reputation through legitimate SEO practices. This is why SEO plugins like All In One SEO (AIOSEO) come in.

AIOSEO is a powerful, easy-to-use SEO plugin with over 3 million active installs. Millions of smart bloggers use AIOSEO to help them boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified traffic to their blogs. That’s because the plugin has many powerful features and modules designed to help you properly configure your SEO settings. Examples include:

• Cornerstone Content: Easily build topic clusters and enhance your topical authority and semantic SEO strategy.
• Author SEO: Easily demonstrate Google’s E-E-A-T in WordPress.
• Search Statistics: This powerful Google Search Console integration lets you track your keyword rankings and see important SEO metrics with 1-click, and more.
• SEO Revisions: Track any changes you make to your site and see their impact on your SEO. Plus, you get to see on a timeline how Google updates affect your site.
• Advanced Robots.txt Generator: Easily generate and customize your robots.txt file for better crawling and indexing. 
• TruSEO Highlighter: Makes it easy to spot on-page SEO issues and gives recommendations for fixing them.
• Next-gen Schema generator: This no-code schema generator enables users to generate and output any schema markup on your site.
• Link Assistant: Powerful internal linking tool that automates building links between pages on your site. It also gives you an audit of outbound links.
• SEO Preview: This gives you an overview of your search and social snippets and general SEO so you can improve your optimization.
• IndexNow: For fast indexing on search engines that support the IndexNow protocol (like Bing and Yandex).
• Sitemap generator: Automatically generate different types of sitemaps to notify all search engines of any updates on your site.
• And more.

AIOSEO also has many other features to help you boost your local SEO, on-page SEO, and technical SEO. It also has a dedicated WooCommerce SEO module for those with eCommerce stores. 

All these SEO modules give you an edge to outperform your competitors’ negative SEO activities against you. 

For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check our detailed installation guide.

Check out our other proven SEO best practices for more tips on focusing on positive SEO.

Build a Positive Online Reputation

Another great way to combat negative SEO is by building a positive online reputation. 

Online reputation management (ORM) is the practice of managing how people perceive your brand on search engines and other digital platforms. This involves monitoring online mentions of your brand, products, and services to ensure your business is perceived positively. 

ORM is also a fantastic way to combat negative SEO.

While ORM may not take down the negative content about you, it helps you counter it. Some ways ORM can help you combat negative SEO include:

• Identifying negative content: ORM tools can monitor online mentions of your brand and identify negative reviews, articles, or social media posts that might be part of a negative SEO campaign.
• Responding to negative content: ORM strategies can help you craft professional and appropriate responses to negative content, potentially mitigating its impact and demonstrating transparency.
• Promoting positive content: ORM can involve creating and promoting positive content about your brand, such as blog posts, press releases, or customer testimonials. This can help push down negative content in search results.
• Building brand trust: By actively engaging with your audience and addressing concerns, ORM can help build trust and credibility, making negative SEO tactics less likely to damage your reputation.

These practices will help build a positive reputation. Some of them will also boost your SEO. Both go a long way in combatting negative SEO.

Use Google’s Suite of Tools

In their quest to help legitimate users get the most out of their online presence, Google has provided some tools to help combat negative SEO. Two of the most useful in Google Search Console (GSC) are:

• Email alerts: Opt in to receive email alerts from GSC when any unusual activity is detected.
• Disavow Tool: This tool helps you dissociate your site from toxic backlinks.

Using these tools helps you identify and combat negative SEO attacks more easily.

Beef Up Your Site Security

Vulnerabilities on your site give malicious agents an open door to manipulate your site. That’s why site security plays a huge role in combatting negative SEO. 

This is why we strongly encourage you to implement SSL/HTTPS on your site. Once you install an SSL certificate, a padlock sign will appear in the address bar. This shows your site visitors that they’re on a secure page. 

In addition, your website address will begin with HTTPS instead of just HTTP. These small visual queues are a great way to gain user trust, an important factor in encouraging repeat visitors. 

For more information on how security impacts SEO, check out our article on HTTPS and SEO.

Other security measures for WordPress sites include:

• Keep your software updated: This includes your CMS (Content Management System), plugins, themes, and any other software used on your website. Updates often contain security patches that address vulnerabilities hackers might exploit.
• Use strong passwords and enforce password policies: Encourage users to create strong passwords with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Consider implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) for added security.
• Regularly back up your website: Having a recent backup allows you to restore your website quickly in case of a security breach or other unforeseen event. A great plugin you can use for this is Duplicator.
• Use a reputable WordPress security plugin: Reputable security plugins help block intruders. They Install a web application firewall (WAF): A WAF acts as a shield, filtering out malicious traffic and protecting your website from common attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). Examples of WordPress security plugins that offer this functionality include Sucuri, Wordfence, and others.
• Limit user access: Only grant access to your website and its functionalities to users who need it. This minimizes the potential damage if someone gains unauthorized access.

Keeping your site secure is one of the most beneficial ways to protect it from negative SEO attacks. Investing time and resources into it should be high on your list of best practices for optimizing your site.

Keep an Eye on Your Backlink Profile

Spammy links and redirects are some of the most common negative SEO tactics malicious actors use. The best way to combat that is by keeping an eye on your backlink profile. A great tool for doing this is Semrush.

Instead of manually checking your backlink profile, you can use Semrush’s Backlink Audit tool to speed things up and improve efficiency. 

Once you find the toxic backlinks, analyze each backlink to determine whether it’s harmful. Depending on your analysis, send each backlink (in Semrush) to one of three lists:

• Whitelist: This is where you move backlinks that you’ve deemed safe
• Removal list: From here, you can contact the referring site and ask them to remove the link
• Disavow list: From here, you can create a disavow file that asks Google to ignore the link

While Google maintains that toxic backlinks should be ignored, they can lead to penalties and should be disavowed. 

In the same vein, work on building a strong natural backlink profile. Focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites through content marketing and outreach. This strengthens your site’s resilience to negative attacks.

Check out our link building guide for more information.

Monitor for Duplicate Content

Checking for duplicate content is easy with tools like Grammarly, Copyscape, and other similar content marketing tools. Simply copy and paste sections of your content into them and run a plagiarism check.

However, if you want an easier way of checking for duplicate content, use tools like Semrush’s Site Audit tool, Ahref’s Site Audit tool, and other similar SEO tools. It crawls your site and checks for issues negatively impacting it, including duplicate content. 

Work with Your Hosting Company

In the event of attacks like heavy crawling, it’s best to contact your hosting company so they can help you check where the unusual traffic is coming from. They can also help you devise solutions like rerouting traffic through a DDoS protection service or implementing stronger firewall rules.

Monitor Your Online Reputation

Set up Google Alerts for your brand name and track mentions across social media and review sites. If you find any negative content, address it promptly and professionally. 

You can also proactively manage your Google reviews to ensure there are more positive reviews than negative ones. This helps you maintain a good online reputation and boost your SEO, credibility, and sales. 

If you discover some reviews that are unfounded or part of a negative SEO attack, you can get them pulled down by Google. Here’s how to report them and request a takedown.

Negative SEO: Your FAQs Answered

We hope this article helped you learn more about negative SEO. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like our guide to common SEO mistakes to avoid or our article on the benefits of SEO for small businesses.

If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

Query args are an important part of website functionality. However, if not managed properly, they can negatively impact your SEO. This means poor rankings, low traffic, and poor business growth.

In this article, we’ll show you how to manage query args so your SEO is on point. 

What is a Query Arg?

Query args are elements added to the end of a web address. They are any part of a URL after and including a question mark (?), ampersand (&), percentage sign (%), equals sign (=) or other attributes (markups) added to a URL.

Here’s an example of a URL with an arg:

https://www.example.com/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=spring-sale

Query args are also known by many other names. Examples include query arguments, query strings, URL parameters, URL params and more.

What are Query Args Used For?

Query args have many different uses depending on their purpose. One of their primary use cases is to pass information about a URL’s clicks to webmasters. This helps them get valuable metrics about its performance. Other common uses include:

• Filtering: For example, filtering different product pages.
• Organizing: You can use URL parameters to organize content on a website, such as by categorizing it.
• Tracking: Tracking parameters are useful for monitoring the performance of marketing campaign sources (especially for referral traffic). They also help attribute conversions.
• Search parameters: Often denoted by the letters “q” and “s,” search parameters help organize and return results for search queries.

Are Query Args Bad for SEO?

Query args are generally considered potentially problematic for SEO. However, their impact can vary depending on how they are used.

Here are some key points showing how query args can impact SEO:

• Duplicate content issues: Search engines may treat URLs with different query arg values as separate pages, even if the main content is the same. This can lead to duplicate content issues, which can negatively impact SEO.
• Crawl budget wastage: Having too many URLs with different query arg combinations can waste a website’s crawl budget (the number of pages a search engine bot will crawl), as the search engine may waste resources crawling duplicate or low-value pages.
• Poor link equity flow: Internal links with query args may dilute the flow of link equity (ranking power) from one page to another, as search engines may treat them as separate pages.

These, and other complications of query args can negatively impact your SEO. Because of this, you should have a way of handling them.

How to Manage Query Args in WordPress

So, how do you manage query args in WordPress?

Step 1: Install All In One SEO (AIOSEO)

The first step to proper handling of query args is to install All In One SEO (AIOSEO).

AIOSEO is a powerful yet easy-to-use SEO plugin with over 3 million active users. And because it’s regularly being updated, you can be assured the plugin stays abreast of changes in SEO best practices and keeps up with WordPress versions.

When it comes to query arg handling, AIOSEO has a powerful feature called a Query Arg Monitor.

This is a game-changing feature that enables you to have granular control over how query args are handled on your site.

Another reason millions of smart bloggers use AIOSEO to help them boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified traffic to their blogs is that the plugin has many powerful features. These are designed to help you properly configure your SEO settings. Examples include:

• Cornerstone Content: Easily build topic clusters and enhance your topical authority and semantic SEO strategy.
• Author SEO: Easily demonstrate Google’s E-E-A-T in WordPress.
• Search Statistics: This powerful Google Search Console integration lets you track your keyword rankings and see important SEO metrics with 1-click, and more.
• SEO Revisions: Track any changes you make to your site and see their impact on your SEO. Plus, you get to see on a timeline how Google updates affect your site.
• Advanced Robots.txt Generator: Easily generate and customize your robots.txt file for better crawling and indexing. 
• TruSEO Highlighter: Makes it easy to spot on-page SEO issues and gives recommendations for fixing them.
• Next-gen Schema generator: This no-code schema generator enables users to generate and output any schema markup on your site.
• Link Assistant: Powerful internal linking tool that automates building links between pages on your site. It also gives you an audit of outbound links.
• SEO Preview: This gives you an overview of your search and social snippets and general SEO so you can improve your optimization.
• IndexNow: For fast indexing on search engines that support the IndexNow protocol (like Bing and Yandex).
• Sitemap generator: Automatically generate different types of sitemaps to notify all search engines of any updates on your site.
• And more.

For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check our detailed installation guide.

Step 2: Check Your Query Arg Log

Once you’ve installed AIOSEO, the next step to managing query args on your website is to check your query arg log for the args you want to block search engines from crawling.

AIOSEO’s query arg log can be configured to retain information about your log for a specified period of time. All the logged query args will be displayed in a table.

Step 3: Select the Query Args to Block

Armed with a list of logged query args, managing them on your site is now easier. To do that, select the action you want to take, in this instance, blocking the ones you don’t want. For a single query arg, you can do so using the action buttons next to the query arg:

Click on the Block Key button to block query args by key only or select the Block Key & Value to include the value in detecting the query args to be blocked.

If you want to block multiple query args, you can select them from the log and then select Block Key or Block Key & Value in the Bulk Actions menu.

No matter the method you use, you’ll be asked to confirm the action you’re taking.

Click Block Query Args, and your selected query args will be blocked.

Step 4: Manually Input Query Args to Block (Optional)

You can also manually input the query args you want to block by using the Block Query Arg field.

Simply enter the key and values of the query args you want to block and click the Block Query Arg button.

For advanced users, you can also use the Regex function to block unwanted query args.

This makes it easier and faster.

Managing Query Args in WordPress: Your FAQs Answered

We hope this article has helped you learn how to manage query args in WordPress. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like our tutorial on implementing bulk redirects using a CSV file or our guide to SEO content.

If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

SEO content is an essential ingredient to a successful website as it helps boost your online visibility, drive traffic, and grow your business. However, creating content that does all of these is a science that many don’t take the time to master.

In this article, we’ll show you everything you should know about SEO content.

What is SEO Content?

SEO content is online content designed to rank high in organic search results. But to understand it properly, we need to break down the term:

• SEO: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving your site and its content to increase visibility on search engines when people search for keywords and topics related to your business.
• Content: Refers to any information created to live and be consumed on the internet.

This means SEO content is any information designed and created to live and be consumed on the internet and must be easily discoverable by searchers. 

Types of SEO Content

Now that you know what SEO content is, let’s quickly look at some common types of SEO content. 

Blog Posts and Articles

These comprehensive content pieces are the backbone of many successful SEO strategies. They are designed to be educational, informative, and authoritative. They can also have conversion-based elements to encourage readers to take a particular action. 

Product Pages 

Product pages are pages on your website that showcase your products. They help your customers decide what they want to buy on your site. They have valuable information such as specifications, prices, features, reviews, product comparisons, etc.

Guides and Tutorials 

These are designed to help a reader solve a problem, ideally with your product or service. They are a great way to get your target audience to trust you and your product. Plus, creating this kind of content is a great way to become the go-to resource in your industry, resulting in more organic traffic and inbound leads.

Infographics and Multimedia Content

Visual elements are great tools to enhance engagement. But they can also help your SEO efforts as they give you an opportunity to rank for video and image searches. Check out our guide on image SEO for details on enhancing the visibility of your visual elements in search.

Why is SEO Content Important?

SEO content goes beyond just climbing the ranks on Google. After all, your blog or business doesn’t grow from rankings alone. 

So, why is SEO content important?

Let’s quickly look at why you should invest in SEO content.

High Rankings, More Traffic

SEO content is optimized for specific keywords and phrases relevant to your business or niche. When people search for these terms, your content has a higher chance of appearing on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Ranking high on SERPs results in higher visibility, which, in turn, translates to increased organic traffic to your website.

Build Credibility and Authority

Remember, SEO content is designed to rank high on SERPs. If you have a lot of high-ranking content, searchers will see your brand appearing often for terms they input into search engines. As a result, you’ll be seen as an authority in your niche.

Boost your Bottom Line

Well-crafted SEO content helps you demonstrate expertise in your field and establishes your website as a credible source of information. This results in readers trusting your brand, resulting in higher conversion rates. It also plays a big role in increasing customer loyalty and retention. All these are elements that can help boost your bottom line.

How to Develop an SEO Content Strategy

For your SEO content to be effective, you need to develop a strategy for creating and promoting it. You can’t create impactful content randomly. You have to deliberately design an effective SEO content strategy. It’s essential for improving your online visibility and attracting organic traffic. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you craft a successful SEO content strategy:

Use the Right WordPress SEO Tool

One of the first steps to developing an effective SEO content strategy is investing in the right SEO tool. And for WordPress users, there’s no better tool than All In One SEO (AIOSEO).

AIOSEO is a powerful yet easy-to-use SEO plugin that boasts over 3 million active installs. Millions of smart marketers and bloggers use AIOSEO to help them boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified traffic to their blogs. That’s because the plugin has many powerful features and modules designed to help you properly configure your SEO settings. Examples include:

• Cornerstone Content: Easily build topic clusters and enhance your topical authority and semantic SEO strategy.
• Author SEO: Easily demonstrate Google’s E-E-A-T in WordPress.
• Search Statistics: This powerful Google Search Console integration lets you track your keyword rankings and see important SEO metrics with 1-click, and more.
• SEO Revisions: Track any changes you make to your site and see their impact on your SEO. Plus, you get to see on a timeline how Google updates affect your site.
• Advanced Robots.txt Generator: Easily generate and customize your robots.txt file for better crawling and indexing. 
• TruSEO Highlighter: Makes it easy to spot on-page SEO issues and gives recommendations for fixing them.
• Next-gen Schema generator: This no-code schema generator enables users to generate and output any schema markup on your site.
• Link Assistant: Powerful internal linking tool that automates building links between pages on your site. It also gives you an audit of outbound links.
• SEO Preview: This gives you an overview of your search and social snippets and general SEO so you can improve your optimization.
• IndexNow: For fast indexing on search engines that support the IndexNow protocol (like Bing and Yandex).
• Sitemap generator: Automatically generate different types of sitemaps to notify all search engines of any updates on your site.
• And more.

AIOSEO also has many other features to help you boost your local SEO, on-page SEO, and technical SEO. It also has a dedicated WooCommerce SEO module for those with eCommerce stores. 

For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check our detailed installation guide.

Research Intent-focused Keywords

Keyword research is a foundational aspect of creating SEO content. That’s because every online search starts with a keyword.

Keyword research involves understanding the words, phrases, and questions your target audience uses when searching for information relevant to your business or product. It also involves strategic tasks like checking keyword difficulty and whether targeting those keywords is feasible. 

To make your keyword research easy, use a keyword research tool. Examples include Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and more. Also, focus on long-tail keywords to capture more specific search queries. Plus, they have low competition, giving you better chances of ranking. 

Besides keyword discovery, you also need to understand search intent. This is the reason behind the search query. While it may sound complicated, figuring out search intent is quite easy. Two of the best ways to do it are: 

• Using tools: keyword research tools like Semrush have a search intent feature that helps highlight the most common user intent behind a keyword.
• Studying SERPs: Study the SERPs and see the type of content that ranks well.

Understanding search intent is important as it helps you create SEO content that satisfies your target audience’s search queries. As a result, it will convert better.

Understand Your Target Audience

Many marketers and SEOs make the mistake of optimizing content for search engines. That’s not what SEO content is about. Genuine SEO content also considers the target audience. 

That’s why you must include audience research when developing your SEO content strategy. This includes thinking about:

• Who is your intended audience?
• What problems are they likely to have?
• What solutions are they looking for?
• Do they have a particular way of speaking (lingo)?

Answering these questions will give you the foundation you need to conduct impactful keyword research. It also helps you create personalized content, making your audience trust you more. It also helps boost your conversion rates and increases the chances of it being shared.

By tailoring your content to address the needs and interests of your audience, you ensure that it ranks well and satisfies your audience.

Create a Content Calendar

A content calendar, or an editorial calendar, is a planning tool used to organize and schedule content creation over a specific period. It makes managing your content marketing tasks easier, from ideation to promotion.

Creating a content calendar is essential as it will help you publish SEO content consistently. As a result, you’ll always have fresh content. This is important to SEO because:

• Search engines favor fresh content over old content
• You can create content to target different keywords
• More content results in greater search visibility

You should also consider including content refreshes in your content calendar as they help you combat content decay. 

Prioritize High-Quality Content

An essential aspect of an impactful SEO content strategy is creating high-quality content. This means creating valuable, informative, and engaging content that addresses the needs of your audience.

Aim for longer-form content when appropriate, as it tends to perform better in search rankings. This is because it comprehensively covers a topic. You should also leverage content optimization tools to ensure your content is primed for rankings.

Be Strategic About Distribution

Content distribution refers to the strategic promotion and sharing of content across various online channels to maximize its reach, visibility, and impact. Content distribution aims to ensure that your content reaches the right audience in the right places at the right time. This helps foster engagement, brand awareness, and, ultimately, achieving your marketing objectives.

For your content distribution to be effective, focus on the channels and platforms your target audience spends the most time on.

How to Write and Optimize SEO Content: 7 Tips

Now that you know what SEO content is and why it’s important, let’s dive into some best practices for creating it.

1. Nail Your Research

The first step to writing SEO content is researching your content thoroughly. We’ve already looked at keyword and audience research, so we’ll take the research aspect a bit further here and look at competitor research.

Competitor research, also known as competitor analysis, refers to the process of evaluating your primary competitors to see what’s working for them. This includes:

• Identifying your primary competitors
• Keywords they’re ranking for
• The type of content performing well for them
• Keyword and content gaps
• Their internal and backlinking strategy

You can use AIOSEO’s SEO Analysis to analyze your competitor’s SEO and some of their gaps.

You can use this data to improve your site and content.

2. Focus on Quality and E-E-A-T

For your SEO content to stand a chance of ranking, it must be of high quality. This means it must be:

• Well-written
• Informative
• Structured well
• Relevant
• Accurate and credible 

You should also ensure that your SEO content meets Google’s E-E-A-T content standards. It should be expertly written, feature personal experiences, be authoritative, and be trustworthy. One way of achieving this is by enlisting the help of subject matter experts when creating content around complex topics. 

Check out our tutorial on implementing E-E-A-T right inside WordPress.

3. Keyword-optimize Your Content

While you could get away with keyword stuffing in the past, that isn’t the case anymore. Instead, you should use your keywords strategically in your content. This means using your target keyword in your:

• Headline
• Introduction and conclusion
• Headers
• Meta description and SEO title
• In your content

Besides using your target keyword, consider including synonyms and LSI keywords. This helps search engines understand your topic and that you’re covering it thoroughly.

4. Craft Compelling Headlines

Your headlines play a huge role in how search engines rank your content. They’re an essential part of on-page SEO. They also help users determine whether your content will satisfy their search query or not.

That’s why you should invest time in crafting compelling SEO-friendly headlines.

To do this:

• Include your keyword, preferably as close to the beginning as possible
• Craft a headline that meets search intent
• Use action words to spur readers into action
• Keep it simple and avoid being clever, using jargon, etc.

Your headline helps set expectations for the rest of your content. Getting it right encourages users to read the rest of your content.

Here are a few more tips for optimizing your headlines.

5. Optimize Your Search Snippets

A search snippet is the short blurb of your content on search engines and includes the:

• URL
• Meta description
• SEO title

Sometimes, it can include special features like jump links.

Here’s an example of a search snippet:

Optimizing your search preview is easier using AIOSEO’s SEO Preview tool. This shows you what your search snippet will look like on SERPs.

It also shows you how your snippets will look when shared on Facebook and X. Using a SERP preview tool as part of your SERP analysis helps you boost your conversion rates.

6. Optimize Your Headers

Header tags, also known as HTML header tags or HTML heading tags, are HTML elements used to markup and separate headings and subheadings in your content. 

Besides breaking up content into subsections, header tags also:

• Tell web browsers how to display content
• Help search engines understand your page and content better

Header tags rank in order of importance, starting from H1 (which is usually the title tag or most important heading) to H6 tags. 

When crafting SEO content, some tips for optimizing your header tags are:

• Include your target keyword
• Reinforce search intent
• Be descriptive

For a detailed look, check out our guide on header tags and how to use them to boost your SEO.

7. Add Internal Links

Internal linking means adding links to and from the pages on your site. We call these links “internal” because they’re within your website. 

Internal linking is a powerful SEO practice as it helps:

• Keep readers on your site for longer
• Distribute “link juice” across your site
• Search engines better understand what your site is about
• Improve crawling and indexing
• Improve site navigation

But as your website grows, remembering all the articles you can link to becomes next to impossible. Manually adding internal links becomes impossible. That’s why you should consider a tool like AIOSEO’s Link Assistant.

Link Assistant helps you build strategic internal links on autopilot, making the task much easier. It also shows the orphaned pages on your site, which are pages without any internal links, a problem that can hurt your SEO and user experience (UX).

To make internal linking easy and fast, Link Assistant will suggest which articles to link to in your content and the anchor text to use. You can include all link suggestions at once or add them individually as you vet them.

Click here to learn more about how to improve internal link building on your site. This is one of the many WordPress SEO tips that should be non-negotiable.

Monitoring the Performance of Your SEO Content

Monitoring the performance of your SEO content is a crucial aspect of running an impactful SEO campaign. If you’re a WordPress user, this can be easily done using AIOSEO’s Search Statistics module.  

Search Statistics is a powerful Google Search Console integration that lets you track your keyword rankings and see important SEO metrics with 1-click. It comes with many reports for monitoring SEO performance.

There are 3 ways you can use Search Statistics to monitor SEO performance:

1. Monitoring Your Overall SEO Metrics

Checking the performance of your SEO content in WordPress is super easy. To do so, head over to Search Statistics in the AIOSEO menu. Clicking on this leads you to the Search Statistics Dashboard.

The Dashboard section will give you an overview of important SEO metrics like Search Impressions, Total Clicks, Average CTR, and Average Position. It also shows you an overview of the number of keywords ranking at different positions. You can see this in the Keyword Positions section.

The Keyword Positions graph gives you an overview of how your content is performing.

Besides the overview on the dashboard, there are two other reports that can help you check your search visibility. These are the Keyword Ranking report and the Content Performance report.

2. Using the Content Performance Report

AIOSEO’s Search Statistics module comes with a Content Performance report that shows how your posts and pages are performing on SERPs. To access it, go to AIOSEO » Search Statistics » SEO Statistics. Next, scroll down to the Content Performance report.

The Content Performance report shows you 3 main content metrics, namely:

• Top Pages: This shows you your best-performing pages.
• Top Losing: This shows the pages losing rankings the most.
• Top Winning: This shows the content that’s gaining higher rankings.

The Content Performance report gives you key metrics like Clicks, Impressions, Position, and Diff (change in position) for each page in this report. These give you deep insights into what’s happening to your content on SERPs. 

Regarding the performance of your SEO content, the 2 most important metrics are Position and Diff. The positions tab shows you each page’s position on SERPs, while the Diff shows whether your content is improving in performance or decaying.

3. Checking SEO Content Performance Using the Keyword Rankings Report

The Keyword Rankings report gives you great insights into how your content is performing for your target keywords. You can check this report by going to AIOSEO » Search Statistics » Keyword Rankings.

This is where you get a detailed report of all your keywords and their performance on SERPs. The report shows vital information like the Total Keywords you’re ranking for, Search Impressions, and Average Position. These metrics give you a general overview of your rankings and online reach.

To get a more granular view of how you’re performing for specific keywords, scroll down to the Keyword Performance section.

Essential metrics for each keyword include Clicks, Average CTR, Impressions, Position, and Diff.

The tab to keep an eye out for as you monitor the performance of your SEO content is the positions tab. It gives you the SERP position of your keywords, enabling you to see how well you’re ranking for it.

2 SEO Content Case Studies to Learn From: Plus Takeaways

Before we wrap things up, let’s look at some case studies to validate the principles and practices we shared above.

1. Golf Blog Boosts Traffic By Optimizing Content

Golfer Geeks was founded in 2015 by Jamie Boudreaux, an avid golfer and entrepreneur.

He started the website to share his enthusiasm for the sport and connect readers with the right equipment and tips for improving their game.

Nine months into 2023, the site more than doubled its organic traffic compared to the total traffic generated in 2022.

How did they do it?

The team behind the site focused on improving their content and optimizing it for search. Of particular note, some SEO best practices they implemented include:

• Using content structure to improve the user experience
• Fighting content decay with regular updates
• Optimizing images for search engines
• Implementing FAQ schema for People Also Ask results

Check out the full Golfer Geeks case study for more insights on how this blogger skyrocketed his rankings and organic traffic by optimizing their content.

2. AI High School Program Grows Traffic by 427% in 3 Months

Inspirit AI is an online AI training program for high school students. It was developed by alumni and graduate students from Stanford and MIT.

Their mission is to inspire the next generation to use AI as a tool for shaping a brighter future.

Inspirit AI was founded in 2019, although traffic was minimal during its first year. In 2022, the total traffic was 34,165. However, from January 2023 to September 2023, the site had a whopping 293,444 organic visitors.

Some of the key factors that led to the site’s traffic skyrocketing include:

• Increasing content production
• Targeting long-tail keywords
• Optimizing for People Also Ask

In a nutshell, SEO content resulted in some pretty big wins for the brand.

Check out the full story and some practical takeaways from our InspiritAI case study.

SEO Content: Your FAQs Answered

SEO Content: The Key to Organic Traffic

SEO content is an essential ingredient of any content marketing strategy. It helps boost your search visibility, conversion rates, and revenue.

We hope this post has helped you understand SEO content and its importance. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like our beginners’ guide to SEO or our guide to SEO copywriting.

If you found this article helpful, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find many more helpful tutorials there. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

By focusing on key on-page elements you can improve your site’s visibility and search performance.

This guide helps beginners master the essentials of on-page optimization and build a strong SEO foundation for their website.

We’ll walk you through how to implement proven on-page techniques to boost your rankings, traffic, and conversions.

In fact, the tactics we share are the same ones we use to grow our business consistently.

But first, let’s define on-page SEO.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing individual web pages to rank higher in search engines for relevant keywords.

Key elements include:

• Content quality and relevance: Creating high-quality, original, and engaging content that covers the topic well and satisfies searchers.
• Keyword optimization: Naturally incorporating target keywords into the page title, headings, meta description, and content.
• Title tags: Crafting compelling and descriptive titles that include the main keyword.
• Meta descriptions: Writing precise summaries that accurately describe the page content and encourage clicks.
• Header tags (H1, H2, etc.): Using header tags to structure content and signal importance to search engines.
• URL structure: Creating clean, descriptive, and keyword-rich URLs.
• Internal linking: Linking to other relevant pages within the website to establish site architecture and distribute link equity.
• Image optimization: Using descriptive file names and alt text. Compressing images to improve page load speed.
• Page load speed: Optimizing page load time. This usually involves compressing files, minifying code, and leveraging caching techniques. But we’re going to show you an easy way to avoid the technical aspect.
• Mobile-friendliness: Ensuring the page works well on mobile devices.

We’re going to show you, step-by-step, how to optimize your own pages. Don’t worry: You don’t need any previous knowledge or ability to code.

Now, for the curious, let’s look at the difference between on-page and off-page SEO. Then we’ll explain the benefits of on-page SEO.

On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO

The actions of on-page SEO all occur on a single website. Off-page SEO refers to actions that may boost SEO, but which take place on other websites.

Imagine your website is a store. On-page SEO is like arranging your products neatly and having clear labels (keywords) so people can find what they need inside. Off-page SEO is like getting good reviews from customers and having other stores recommend yours – it builds trust and attracts more visitors.

Examples of off-page SEO are:

• Google Business Profile: Creating and optimizing your profile.
• Google Reviews: Increasing the number and average rating.
• Digital PR: includes mentions in media or being a guest on a podcast.
• Backlink building: Getting relevant and trusted sites to link to yours.
• Local citations: Getting your business listed in online directories.

What are the Benefits of On-Page SEO?

The goal of on-page SEO is to help pages rank higher for relevant keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs). That results in more traffic from your target audience.

If you have a small business, acquiring that qualified traffic is key to growing brand awareness, conversions, and sales.

On-page SEO can improve the overall quality of a page, and quality is the #1 ranking factor.

Simple actions like adding schema markup can help search engines understand your page better. That can lead to higher rankings for relevant keywords as well.

And optimizing your images can boost their appearance in Google Image Search, leading to additional traffic.

What Comes Before On-Page Optimization?

Before you start optimizing pages, there are 3 things to get in place.

1. Generate Sitemaps

A sitemap is a file containing a list of all pages on your site. This file is for search engines to read.

Sitemaps make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.

Best Practices: Google recommends having 2 types of sitemaps: an XML sitemap and an RSS/Atom sitemap. (XML and RSS/Atom refers to the formatting of the sitemaps.)

• The XML sitemap contains a complete list of site content.
• The RSS/Atom sitemap lists only recently modified or published content.

Google will visit your RSS sitemap more frequently than your XML sitemap.

So, how do you get a sitemap? WordPress site owners can use the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. As soon as you install AIOSEO, it will automatically generate these 2 types of sitemaps and keep them updated for you.

2. Do Basic Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the words and phrases that people use when searching for information on search engines. It helps you understand what your target audience is looking for and how they phrase their queries.

When creating content like articles or blog posts, it’s crucial to identify a target keyword for each. The target keyword is the main topic of your article and the term you want to rank high for.

Picking the right keywords can make a big difference when it comes to achieving your online goals.

• Choose keywords that are easy to rank for.
• If you sell online, select those that signal buying intent.

Learn how to do this in Keyword Difficulty: What It Is and How to Use It

3. Create High-Quality Content

High-quality content is original and engaging content that covers the topic well and satisfies searchers.

Quality is the #1 ranking factor. Every big Google algorithm update is designed to better identify quality.

Want to land that #1 slot in Google Search for your target keyword?

You can’t unseat incumbents without offering something better.

The good news is better doesn’t need to be hard.

Depending on the topic and what’s currently ranking at the top, better may mean:

• A more concise article that’s easier to understand.
• A comprehensive, in-depth article that covers points or nuances missed by others.
• A shorter introduction that doesn’t ramble.
• A visual that helps readers understand the content better.
• A well-organized article that’s easier to follow.

Best Practices:

• Figure out search intent: Before writing, discover the search intent behind the keyword.
• Plan to be better: Review some top-ranking articles for your chosen keyword. How can you create something better?
• Create an outline: It’ll help you stay on-topic.
• Use “plain English.” Skip the $10 words.

Always put the reader’s needs first. The better your page satisfies them, the higher it’ll rank.

How to Do On-Page SEO

Once you’ve chosen your target keyword and created your content, you’re ready to optimize your page.

The easiest way to do this is to use an on-page SEO tool.

We recommend All in One SEO (AIOSEO). This WordPress SEO plugin will analyze your pages and provide steps for improving your SEO.

As you’ll see shortly, the plugin also handles code tasks behind the scenes. So there’s no need to learn coding or anything technical.

All in One SEO is an established plugin with thousands of 5-star reviews on WordPress.org. Currently, over 3 million people are using the plugin.

1. Download and Install All in One SEO (AIOSEO)

The 1st step is to download and install the plugin. (You’ll need to log into your WordPress site in order to install AIOSEO.)

After you’ve installed it, a setup wizard will walk you through a few steps.

Now, navigate to a page you want to optimize.

1. Click the AIOSEO button at the upper right. (That will open the AIOSEO sidebar.)
2. Next, click on General.

Now you’ll see several on-page SEO options, including

• Focus keyphrase
• Basic SEO
• Title
• Readability

We’ll start by clicking on Focus Keyphrase. (This is the same thing as focus keyword or target keyword.)

2. Check Focus Keyword Use

When you click on Focus Keyword, you’ll see an analysis of how you’ve used your target keyword.

A focus keyword or focus keyphrase is the same thing as target keyword. This is the main topic of your page. Ensuring your main topic is clear to Google is a must. It also helps readers.

AIOSEO will check your page to see that your keyword is included in:

• Title
• Meta description
• First paragraph
• Some subheadings
• Some image alt text

These are common practices for keyword use. They’re not required by Google, but help ensure your content’s focused on the main topic.

If your target keyword is missing from any of these areas, you’ll be prompted to add it.

Good to know: Your keyword should only be included in alt text if the accompanying image is related to the target keyword.

Similarly, when it comes to adding your keyword to more subheadings, use your own judgment. If adding it will make for an awkward read, then skip the recommendation.

Always do what’s best for the reader. Besides, Google understands keyword variants.

Learn more about focus keywords in SEO.

3. Optimize Your Title

Your title is an opportunity to attract clicks in search results. Be precise and highlight what’s unique about your page.

For instance, if you’ve included a free spreadsheet or downloadable item, you can mention that in your title, as in the example below.

Character limit: Titles get cut off after 60 characters or so, so stick to that limit or be sure the visible portion of your title makes sense to searchers. (Some marketers like to go over the character limit to include another keyword.)

AIOSEO will tell you whether you’ve gone over the character limit. You also have the option to create a different title, that will display in search results, than the one on your page. This is what we refer to as an SEO Title.

Clarifying Terms

Title, title tag, and SEO title are often used interchangeably in articles, but they mean different things.

• Title refers to the title of your web page. This is what you entered at the top of the page.
• Title tag refers to the HTML code automatically added to titles. This code helps search engines identify the title so it can be displayed in search results.
• SEO title: If you opt to create a 2nd title, one that’s different from your page title and that displays in search results, we call this the SEO title.

4. Optimize Your Meta Description

A meta description is a short description that appears in your search snippet. Google can pull information from a page to create that description. You have the option of creating the description yourself.

Along with your title, your description is a good opportunity for attracting clicks.

Like your title, your description should be precise and descriptive. Highlight what’s unique about your article and include your main keyword.

Character limit: These descriptions tend to get cut off in search results after 160 characters or so.

AIOSEO provides a field for you to add your meta description. You’ll also see a character counter below the field. This will help you keep your descriptions short.

Why Isn’t Google Pulling My Meta Description?

As Google has become more sophisticated, it increasingly makes its own decisions about what description to display.

If it thinks yours is best, it’ll use it. Otherwise, Google’s algorithms will pull other text from your page to appear as the description.

Keep in mind that many pages rank for more than one keyword. So your description might be best for your target keyword. But if a searcher enters a different keyword and Google wants to display your page, it’ll pull text from your page that closely matches what the searcher’s looking for.

Here’s an example. We wrote an article targeting the keyword “wordpress multilingual seo.”

Our meta description displayed for searches of the keyword:

When people searched for “what is wordpress multilingual seo,” Google wanted to display our page but customized the description to match the search term.

If Google chooses to use your meta description, don’t be surprised if it changes its mind later. This is common.

Now let’s move on to images.

5. Image Optimization

Google needs assistance in understanding the content of your images. When your images have clear titles and descriptions, they can rank for relevant keywords in Google Image Search. That can boost organic traffic to your site.

There are 3 key ways to optimize.

• Adding alt text (or alternative text).
• Changing image filenames to descriptive text.
• Using an image compression plugin, like WP Smush, so pages load faster.

In the WordPress editor, when you click on an image a field will appear at right, labeled “ALTERNATIVE TEXT.” Simply add a short description of the image.

Before or after you upload the image to WordPress, you can change the filename to something descriptive. For example, if you’ve uploaded an image of a Norwegian Forest kitten, that’s currently named kitten.jpg, you could change that to norwegian-forest-kitten.jpg.

All in One SEO allows you to create global settings for image optimization. This can save you time.

6. Add Internal Links

Internal links are links between pages of a single website. These links help search engines understand your site structure and which pages and topics are most important.

Adding internal links is one of the easiest and most overlooked on-page SEO tactics.

Simply increasing internal links pointing to your 1-3 most important pages can boost their ranking. And this can happen quickly.

Additionally, links help users find related content on your site. Naturally, when a new post is published, it’s an orphan page to start with. That means it has no links from your other pages.

The Pro version of All in One SEO includes a handy Link Assistant. This will display a list of orphan pages and for all content, make recommendations for internal links.

This is another time saver because you can add internal links without opening any individual pages.

Routinely check for orphan pages. When new posts are published add internal links to them. And make sure your most important pages have a good number of links pointed to them.

Consider setting aside at least 15 minutes a month to do internal link building.

7. Check External Links

Linking to other sites is not a ranking factor, but when you link, choosing high-quality sources can help establish your content as credible.

For instance, if you’re citing statistics, make sure the site you’re linking to is trustworthy. This adds to the perceived quality of your page.

When you link, make sure the reader knows what to expect when they click the link. You can do this by using explicit anchor text. But realize that readers (and Google) understand the immediate context of the link: so even if you don’t use explicit anchors, they’ll know what the linked page is about before they follow it.

If sales are a chief goal of your site, minimize linking to other websites. External links can drain traffic away. Your call-to-action should be near the top, and shouldn’t compete with external links.

8. Check Your Slug

A slug is the portion of the URL that comes after a preceding slash. WordPress usually sets your slug to automatically match your title.

For instance: if your title is “3 Top Ways to Get a Resume Noticed” then the slug would be: /3-top-ways-to-get-a-resume-noticed

Your slug plays a minor role in helping Google understand the main topic of your page.

You can include your target keyword in your slug. But if it’s included in your title, then WordPress will automatically add it.

Keep in mind that Google’s John Muu says keywords in URLs are “overrated.”

9. Improve Readability and Formatting

Readability refers to how easy it is for users to understand your content. Good formatting is closely related.

Research done by the Nielsen Norman Group in the 1990s revealed that website visitors seldom read a page. Instead, they scan, looking for items that stand out, like:

• Subheadings
• Bulleted lists
• Images

Subsequent research shows this scanning behavior hasn’t changed.

So, catering to how people read on digital screens is essential for online success.

Improving readability and scannability can increase engagement, conversions, task completion, and memory retention. See the Nielsen Norman Group website for their research on this.

How to do it:

When creating your content use an outline. This will keep your content structured logically and organized by subheadings

Use plain English; remove unnecessary text.

Once you’ve finished your article and added it in the WordPress editor, click on Readability in the AIOSEO sidebar.

You’ll see what you’re doing well.

And what could use improvement.

Notice the eye icon next to the first 2 items? That’s what we call the TruSEO Highlighter. Click on the eye and you’ll be taken to the exact area of the page that’s being referenced.

Also, there’s a built-in Flesch Reading Ease score. You can see the recommendation is to use “shorter sentences” and simpler words.

Learn more about improving readability in:

• How to Improve Your Readability Score
• How to Use the Flesch Reading ease Score to Grow Traffic

Now you’re ready to apply some schema markup.

10. Add Schema Markup

Schema markup is code that helps Google better understand content and surface it in relevant search queries.

All in One SEO makes it easy to apply schema markup to a page. You’ll click some buttons and fill out some form fields.

AIOSEO automatically applies the “article” schema type to all posts. But there are specific schema types you can add too, such as:

• Event
• Book
• Course
• Recipe

Some types of schema markup can also add visual flair to your search snippets, and that can increase click-through-rates (CTRs), as Milestone Research has shown. Recipe markup is an example.

Other schema types, like event schema, make your page eligible to appear in special Google displays. For instance, your event can appear in Google’s “Event Experience,” an interactive calendar display.

AIOSEO Schema Types

Here are the schema types currently available in All in One SEO.

• Article (added to posts by default)
• Book
• Course
• Dataset
• Event
• FAQ
• Fact-Check
• How-To
• Job Posting
• Movie
• Music
• Person
• Product
• Recipe
• Service
• Software
• Video
• Web Page

11. Add Author Information

With Google’s Helpful Content Update, E-E-A-T has become even more important.

The original EAT acronym, coined by Google, stood for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. It was recently expanded to include another “E” for experience: EEAT.

This conveys that content based on personal experience is no less important than those created by individuals with formal expertise.

Consider what EEAT your staff or content creators have. Then be sure to communicate that.

AIOSEO’s Author SEO Option

One on-page SEO optimization factor is doing author SEO. It is done by adding bylines and bio pages for your writers.

All in One SEO provides an easy way to add author bylines to articles. You can also add a second byline for a reviewer or a fact-checker.

You can use the plugin to create a short bio and have an “author box” appear at the bottom of articles. You’ll select your areas of experience or expertise, and these will display on your author box.

When anyone clicks on your hyperlinked byline, they’ll be taken to a page listing all your articles. You have the option to add a longer bio that will appear there.

Performance and Speed

In addition to on-page SEO, site-wide factors like page loading speed and how well your site functions on mobile devices can affect SEO.

Research by Google, SOASTA, mPlus Mobile and others, have shown that a site loading delay of even a few seconds can decrease conversions by double-digit percentages. And a delay of 1 second can ding conversions by roughly 7%.

But what about SEO? Do seconds make the difference in rankings? They can. In fact, Google’s “Page Experience” is a ranking factor. This concept refers to how fast your site loads and how well it performs including on mobile devices. These things affect user experience, and that’s why they can influence rankings.

But there’s some nuance here. Imagine you have a web page ranking in the #8 position for its keyword. Is speed holding it back? If all the sites ranking in the top 10 are of comparable site loading speed, then speed is unlikely to make an SEO difference. This is because Google weights quality more heavily than speed.

However, if all the ranking pages load in, say, 3 seconds or under, and yours displays a spinning icon and takes 8 seconds to fully load, you should fix that.

It pays to obsess over speed but not to the detriment of quality.

Google PageSpeed Insights

You can get an idea of how your site’s doing by entering your domain into Google PageSpeed Insights.

Be aware though: PageSpeed Insights will create a detailed report, listing not only page load data, but details down to page elements. For a non-coder, understanding the Core Web Vitals metrics will be impossible.

Improving site speed is a highly specialized field. Someone with a beginner’s knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, could make some basic improvements. For example, minifying and bundling CSS and JavaScript files, loading fonts locally, and optimizing images for starters.

But there’s a simple way forward for non-coders. If your WordPress website is loading slow, switch to a theme that’s coded for high performance. (You can upload and activate themes the same way that you do plugins.)

Not sure where to look? Here are some possibilities.

• SeedProd: This is a beginner-friendly tool for creating landing pages and websites.
• Blocksy: Lots of customization options here, and like SeedProd, it’s built to load fast.
• GeneratePress: Like most builders, you’ll pick a pre-built website and add your content.

Measure Success

Once you’ve optimized your pages for improved rankings, you’ll want to measure your success.

Here are some ways to do that.

• Keyword research tools like Semrush and Ahrefs provide your ranking information by keyword, and you can compare your performance to competitors.
• Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to set goals and see traffic and revenue results.
• Google Search Console is also free. You can use it to see which keywords you’re ranking for.
• All in One SEO: The Elite version of the plugin includes an integration with Google Search Console called Search Statistics. This feature allows you to see how your content’s performing without leaving the WordPress editor.

Practices that Can Damage On-Page SEO

Lastly, let’s look at tactics that can sink your SEO.

Paid links: Yes, you can pay people to get dofollow backlinks. Since backlinks are are a ranking factor, that may seem like a shortcut to success. However, Google’s very good at detecting these link schemes, so these types of paid links will likely put you in the penalty box.

Keyword stuffing: Cramming a page with repeated keywords is an old idea, but some people still try it. This can also get your site penalized.

Copying content: All content on your site should be unique if you hope to gain SEO benefit from it. So be cautious about low-fee content providers: they may be re-selling articles to many websites. In addition, copying others’ content won’t boost SEO. Google knows who published it first. Plus, the original owner can file a DMCA takedown notice.

Changing the calendar year on posts without adding any updates to the content. If you update the year be sure to edit the content first. SEO plugins often have a feature to update the year automatically. So if you’re going to use this, be sure to schedule those content updates to occur before the end of the year.

Q&A for On-Page SEO

After On-Page SEO . . .

Now that you understand the basics of on-page SEO, what’s next?

Learn how the roles of SEO and social media differ, so you can get better results from each. And don’t forget to plan for conversions.

Come join us on our YouTube Channel to find simple WordPress SEO tutorials. You can also follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.