If you’re using WordPress to build your site, here are some important considerations regarding why WordPress SEO services require so much effort.
WordPress Doesn’t Have Great SEO Out of the Box
WordPress is not a content management system that was designed for SEO. It’s not a CMS at all. It’s a blogging platform, and it’s very good at that. But if you’re trying to use it to power a website with full-blown eCommerce functionality, complex membership options, or a robust external linking strategy, it’s not necessarily the best fit. You might have to do much extra work to make your site Google-friendly. One of the most significant issues is that WordPress doesn’t have great built-in support for linking between pages. It has no concept of “pages” in the traditional sense. Instead, it has a single URL structure for all content. Even if you’re just linking from one post to another on the same page, you’ll need to use different syntax for the link. This can be challenging for SEO because there is less clarity about where specific content is located.
Your Website is Probably Made up of Multiple WordPress Installations
WordPress is so popular that many people use it for their entire site. That’s great for content management, but it can make things more challenging for SEO. If you have multiple WordPress installations on your site, you’ll need to ensure they’re all adequately linked. They should also be linked to your main URL to appear in search results. That’s much easier said than done, though. If you have a few different sites on one server, you may be able to use virtual hosting. This lets you map other websites to different directories on the same IP address. This allows them to share a single IP address and get around issues caused by having multiple WordPress installations on the same server. But if you have multiple sites on different servers, there’s no way to link them together. You’ll have to manually link each installation back to your leading site and ensure it’s set up for SEO.
SSL Isn’t Automatically Enabled on WordPress Sites
If you want to take full advantage of a WordPress website’s features, you will want to enable SSL. However, this is not as simple as it is with other platforms. You can’t just flip a switch and be done with it. Instead, you must purchase an SSL certificate and configure your server settings to use it. That takes some technical expertise, and it can be a real headache if you don’t have experience with it. If you’re outsourcing your SEO services, you must ensure they understand the additional steps needed to set up SSL on a WordPress site. Otherwise, they may give you bad advice and end up hurting your site’s ranking rather than helping it.
WordPress Has Limitations for SEO Tracking
WordPress has a built-in tracking tool that is used by many sites. It’s easy to use and can get the job done. However, it’s not robust enough to handle your tracking needs. For example, if you want to track your external links, that’s not something the built-in tool can do. You’re better off using a third-party solution that can handle more robust tracking. It can also be helpful if you use various tools for different purposes. That way, you can consolidate your data into one place for easy viewing. Otherwise, you’ll end up with many separate logins and spreadsheets that are difficult to keep track of. It’s essential to make sure that your tools are compatible with WordPress. Otherwise, they may not work correctly on your site.
There Are Many Customizations Needed for WordPress SEO
WordPress was not built for SEO, so it doesn’t have all the functionality that SEO experts need. SEO experts need to do a lot of customization to make it work. You need to manually edit your theme files to ensure that your URL structure is correct. You also need to add code to your header to ensure that your links are picked up by Google. You may need to set up 301 redirects for old URLs manually. The list goes on and on. SEO experts have to take complete control of the code on your site. That means you must be comfortable letting other people change your website. If you ever want to make drastic changes or have serious technical issues, it will be tough to do so.
WordPress Websites Require Content Management and Marketing Integration
WordPress is a fantastic content management system. It’s easy to use, and it’s relatively secure. Your team can log in to a central dashboard and manage the entire website. They can add and remove pages, update content, and do everything else that they need to do without touching the code. However, that’s also a problem. Your team is not an unbiased source. They know the ins and outs of the website and how to optimize it for search. They’re also going to be biased toward publishing content on the website, which is not always a great idea. You also don’t want to over-optimize your website for search. It’s important to leave some room for natural growth as well.
Conclusion
WordPress is a fantastic content management system with many features, but it’s not built specifically for the needs of digital marketing agencies and SEO services. As a result, you need to implement custom solutions to optimize its functionality for your business. WordPress SEO services aren’t as simple as uploading some plugins and calling it a day. You need to jump over several hurdles to get everything working correctly. If you’re considering hiring SEO services, ask them about their experience with WordPress. It’s not an easy platform to work with, creating additional challenges that other systems do not have.