You don’t have to be a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert to begin optimization on your WordPress website. Here are five simple SEO tips you can integrate to your website today:

1. Use Keywords in Header Tags

Search engines tend to give more importance to header text over the rest of your page content. Make sure the keywords you are optimizing the page for are found in this header. Did not plan on using a header? Do it anyway!

It helps crawlers stamp your page with a topic to better provide search results to web surfers. It also helps visitors get familiar with what the page is all about. The more comfortable and familiar of an experience you give visitors, the better (and the more likely they will continue to browse your site).

2. Insert Image ALT Tags – But Do It Wisely!

Search crawlers cannot read images, but they can definitely read any ALT tags you provide with images. These tags MUST describe your image, and not reflect a bunch of random (irrelevant to the image) keywords for an attempt to rank higher in search results. In fact, if you do this, search crawlers will have a reason to penalize you and push you down the ranking scale. ALT tags are a simple do-it-yourself way of optimizing your site for search engines.

3. Ensure Your URLs Are Searchable

Ever visit a web page and notice the URL reads something like this: www.domain.com/page?=134. Yes, this is not good! Search engines can’t use this URL for matching search queries. On the other hand, your website can benefit greatly from a URL like this: www.domain.com/why-choose-wordpress-web-design.

Google can definitely match this when someone searches for “Why should I choose WordPress web design?” Setting a good permalinks structure can make a huge difference. Not only is it good for search, but people who will potentially click on your link can see exactly what the page is going to be about. This information is not given with page?=134.

4. Use Descriptive Incoming and Outgoing Links

If you link to another page of your website, don’t make it read “click here.” Instead, write out exactly what the link will take you to. If the page is going to be a recipe for split-pea soup, write something like “see the recipe for cooking split-pea soup.” Crawlers love seeing this and weigh it in your page rank. When linking to other external websites, do the same because it helps improve their page rank as well. Wouldn’t you want them to do the same for you?

5. Have Other Websites Link to Yours

Another consideration by which search engines rank your site is the amount of websites linking to you. Please note that only one-way links are helpful. So don’t start offering your friends a link to their site if they link to yours. This can actually work against you. In the past, blogs would have a million links on their sidebar in exchange for those same links back. Search engines did not like this because it did not add to the quality of content in search results. So today search engines will give you a bad rating, or even completely drop you from ranking, if you have too many two-way links.

Instead, try to do something great that will give others a reason to link it. Write a quality article on your blog, provide out-of-this world statistics, or outline directions to completing some sort of task. These are resources that other companies and bloggers will find useful and may want to share (when someone shares your content, you know you did a good job).

Keep in mind, these are only a few super basics for getting started with search engine optimization. If you need more detailed information then you will want to seek more expert SEO advice. Implement the simple five tips above and see exceptional results in just a few weeks!