People who started blogging but are in trouble because they don’t appear in the search results! This is the only minimum optimization of the homepage that you want to do, search engine optimization (SEO) / optimization for site visitors.
No matter how good your article is, if you neglect to optimize SEO, it will not be reflected in the search results.
We recommend that you optimize at least this, and optimize it as soon as possible so that you can concentrate on posting articles.
Contents
11 selections inflow optimization (minimum)
Below are 11 selections inflow optimizations that we would like to support at least.
We also make it possible to understand whether the optimization content is optimization (SEO) for “Search engin” such as Google or optimization for site visitors.
List of 11 selections inflow optimization
| optimisation | For Search engin | For site visitors |
|---|---|---|
| use ssl | o | o |
| Mobile usability | o | o |
| Site speedup | o | o |
| Breadcrumb list | o | o |
| Set Heading tag | o | o |
| table of contents | o | o |
| Related posts | o | o |
| Meta description | o | o |
| sitemap | o | – |
| Heading design | – | o |
| SNS share button | – | o |
We will explain the contents of each of the optimizations shown above.
– Use ssl
Since 2018, a warning screen will be displayed when accessing an HTTP site using the Chrome browser.
By introducing ssl, the user can visit your homepage with peace of mind because it has the role of preventing the site visitor from leaving due to the warning display and also preventing the leakage of personal information. It also greatly contributes to SEO optimization for Google, which always recommends SSL, and can be expected to display high-ranking search results.
In order to use SSL, it is necessary to install an SSL server certificate on the server side, but major rental servers prepare a certificate, so you can install it by using it.
For reference, here are links to SSL certificate installation procedures on some rental servers.
How to install SSL certificate(By rental server in Japan)
sakura rental server：WordPressサイトのSSL化方法
Xserver：無料独自SSL設定
lolipop rental server：独自SSL(無料)のお申込み・設定方法
– Mobile usability
Until now, optimization for mobile pages has been an important indicator for Google’s SEO optimization, but since April 2021, Google has completely shifted to the mobile first index.
The pages that Google refers to when you rank your page are ranked based on the page that is displayed on your mobile device.
Therefore, even if the display for PC is perfect, the search ranking of pages that are not mobile-friendly may drop.
To make your site mobile friendly
If you are using wordpress, there are some themes that can be optimized just by choosing a mobile-friendly theme. Of course it’s also a free theme!
We tried several themes on this site as well, but as a result of considering that it supports “site acceleration” described later, “GeneratePress” is free, mobile friendly, and as a theme that supports acceleration. Now we have settled on the result of a stable theme.
If you like, why don’t you give it a try?
※Of course, WordPress’s standard theme such as Twenty Twenty-One is also a mobile-friendly theme, but from the viewpoint of speeding up, the site speed for mobile was at the red point level, so I have given up using it.
– Site speedup
If the site is not speeded up, even if you can expect the site to flow in from the search results, if the site is displayed slowly, it is possible that the user will stop loading the site.
In order not to miss the influx of such users, you should take measures to speed up the site. It is an index that is said to be effective as an optimization for SEO.
Google’s Search console has a tool to measure whether your site is fast enough for PC and mobile sites, and has a good user experience.
How is the user experience of your site? How about measuring it once?
Google search console ：Main index reports on the web
※You can measure from your Google search console by pressing “Open Report”.
How to speed up the site
As with mobile-friendly support, WordPress users can optimize with fast themes.
If you search for “wordpress high-speed theme” on Google, you will find sites that have been verified from various angles.
– Breadcrumb list
I’m sure there are people who have seen it on various sites, but I think there are many people who have seen the display such as “HOME> Category name> Page name” at the top of the site.
This is an important element to inform visitors of the site where the page is located in an easy-to-understand manner, and also to inform the crawler of the structure of the site.
When people who visit the site look for other pages in a similar category that they are interested in, they may also use the links in this breadcrumb trail to search for them, which is an optimization that can reduce the bounce rate of the site.
If you are using wordpress, you can embed it in the body or install it in the widget wherever you like by using the plugin.
For reference, this site uses a plugin called “Breadcrumb NavXT“.
The widget setting method is introduced in the widget setting method of the Breadcrumb NavXT plugin.
– Set heading tag
Wouldn’t it be very difficult to read a long article with the same font size, the same font, and the same design all the time?
If you read the contents of a long article carefully, you will be able to classify the contents, such as what is written here and what is said in the next paragraph.
However, rather than being able to read it from corner to corner and finally understand it, it is stated in advance that it is prominently separated by saying, “This paragraph says something like this.” , Readers can read the details after grasping the outline, saying, “This paragraph is written like this,” so I think it will be a very easy-to-read sentence.
In this way, heading tags are necessary to convey to the user in an easy-to-understand manner, and by using tags such as h1, h2, h3, etc., it is effective to make it easier for the user to understand the structure and contents of the page from the appearance.
This effect helps not only site visitors but also crawlers understand the content of the page, and by effectively setting headline tags, it is expected that the search ranking will be improved.
In addition, by setting a link to the headline tag, you can expect that a link to that headline will be set directly from the search results, or that it will be automatically displayed in the “table of contents” described later.
If you are using wordpress, you can set it by selecting “Select block”-> “Heading” in the block editor and specifying which of “h1 to h6” of the target block.
– table of contents
It is the “Contents” display that is also displayed at the top of this page.
With this, you can see at a glance what this article says, and it can provide a very good experience for those who want to know where the answer is for what they are looking for quickly in no time.
You can also link to this table of contents to instantly jump to the location you want to read, further enhancing the user experience of your readers.
How to add a table of contents
Regarding how to add a table of contents, if you are using wordpress, you can easily install it with a plugin.
This site uses a plug-in called “Table of Contents Plus“, which collects heading tags (h1 to h6) installed on the page, generates links, and automatically displays them. There are plugins and so on.
The table of contents setting method using Table of Contents Plus explains how to install the table of contents setting plug-in, so let’s check that as well.
– Related posts
Related posts are introduced as “Related posts” at the end of this post, but displaying related articles has the effect of reducing the bounce rate of visitors to this site.
Internal links also make it easier for crawlers to navigate your site.
If it becomes easier to crawle, it is possible to improve the user experience of site visitors by recognizing new pages at an early stage and connecting related pages on the site, which may lead to an increase in the evaluation of the site as a result.
Related posts Installation method
wordpress has a plugin that automatically extracts and displays related posts.
This site uses a plugin called “Yet Another Related Posts Plugin” to automatically display related articles.
– Meta description
A meta description is information that provides a summary of what the post says.
If there is no description, the crawler side of Search engin will automatically extract and display the beginning part of the article, but it may be unintended display, so it is better to set it individually.
By drawing the contents here firmly, there is also an advantage that the contents of this article can be concisely conveyed to the crawler.
How to set the meta description
The meta description can be set by plugin if you are using wordpress.
As a famous plug-in, it can be set for each article by using “All in One SEO” which can perform a set of SEO related optimizations at once.
After installing the All in One SEO plugin, you will see an area called “ALOSEO Settings” at the bottom of each post screen.
You can go to “General”-> “Meta Description” and set the settings automatically with excerpts, or edit each post yourself.
Personally, I think that the automatic excerpt is not much different from the automatic excerpt with Search engin, so it is recommended to set it manually for each post.
– sitemap
This has the same effect as the “breadcrumb list”, and is necessary to convey the structure of the site to site visitors and crawlers in an easy-to-understand display and form.
For crawlers, it is more common to notify in an xml file rather than in an html link.
By referring to the sitemap of the xml file, new pages and updated pages can be visualized at a glance, so if you want to notify Serch engin of site updates as soon as possible, it is better to set up a sitemap.
sitemap installation method
Here, we will introduce how to set up a sitemap (xml) for crawlers.
By using “All in One SEO” introduced in the meta description setting method, there is a function that automatically outputs all pages of your site as xml files.
About the page to be output to xml You can set the output to sitemap for each of “Post”, “Fixed page”, or “Category”. Therefore, we can support even if there are pages or post types that you do not want to tell Search engin.
The setting method is introduced in the sitemap generation method using All in One SEO, so let’s check it if you like.
– Heading design
Headline design isn’t an SEO optimization, but it’s better to emphasize the headline and make it easier to see by designing it rather than just expressing the headline in font size to make the article easier for site visitors to read.
How to design a headline
If you are using wordpress, there are some themes that support heading design, but if you do not have it, you can write the following in wordpress “Appearance”-> “Customize”-> “Additional CSS”. You can design it.
h1 {background: #87ceeb; padding: 0.3em; border-radius:10px;}
h2 {background: #f0ffff; padding: 0.3em; border-left: solid 15px #87ceeb;}
h3 {border-bottom: solid 3px black;}
The SNS share button is not optimized for SEO, but if you install it so that site visitors can easily share it on SNS, you can expect site inflow from there.
If you are using wordpress, the SNS share button will be automatically installed on all pages when you use the plugin.
The famous “AddToAny Share Buttons” used on this site is recommended because it supports more than 100 SNS share buttons.