On yoast.com, we talk a lot about writing and readability. We consider it a very important part of SEO. Your text needs to be easy to follow and it needs to satisfy your users’ needs. This, in turn, will help your rankings. However, we rarely talk about how Google and other search engines read and…
A long term SEO strategy? Knowing what Google wants is the key
Ranking signals, algorithm updates. One day you have the right number of keywords, the next day it’s too many. It might leave you wondering what Google wants to achieve. Or worrying what all these search changes mean for SEO in the long term. Will that change, too? Maybe you’re thinking about auditing your SEO again,…
WordPress SEO: the definitive guide
A tutorial to higher rankings for WordPress sites This is the original WordPress SEO article since 2008, fully updated for 2021! WordPress is one of the best content management systems when it comes to SEO. But even though it gets a lot right “out of the box,” there’s much more that you can do to…
Small business SEO and local search: the ultimate guide
SEO isn’t just for big businesses. As a small company or a local business, there’s a lot you can do yourself to get good results from search. This ultimate guide to small business SEO will help you make the most of local search by walking you through the essential steps. Local SEO vs SEO —…
10 reasons your page won’t rank – even though it’s optimized
If your perfectly optimized post isn’t ranking, what could be the matter? Is the problem that your site is not on Google at all, or is something else going wrong? What is keeping your content from reaching that coveted #1 position? In this post, we’ll discuss ten possible reasons why your page is not ranking,…
What is E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)?
Have you ever looked at a piece of content online and thinking: Hmm, I’m not sure I can trust this? Who wrote this? Why should I believe a word of what they are saying? This happens more often than you think, especially if you are looking for content that you use to make decisions that…
How to find your niche in 4 easy steps
Wondering what a niche is, and how can you find yours? Google defines a niche as: “products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population”. That’s a bit abstract, but the chances are that you already have a good idea of what your niche is, and you just need to…
4 creative writing exercises to improve your writing
Creating content is essential for SEO. However, if you’re a blogger or content creator of some kind, chances are that you feel stuck from time to time. You’ve made the time to write, but nothing comes to mind. A writer’s block. This is where creative writing exercises can help: they give your brain the space…