Having spent many years in the SEO world, we’ve collected bite-sized SEO tips to boost your search engine ranking, user engagement, and retention.
Starting a new site
Starting fresh? Keep these fundamentals in mind.
Site navigation is crucial
Navigation can make or break your website. Create menus that put your most important content where visitors expect to find it.
Don’t rely on your sitemap for navigation — if a visitor can’t find a page, a search engine shouldn’t have to, either. Internal links with descriptive anchor text are the way to go. Naming a link “read more here” tells nobody — visitor or crawler — where it leads. Use something like “Read about our product name” instead, and keep it natural to read.
Sitemaps help with new content
Sitemaps are a tool for search engines, not for users.
A sitemap tells search engines what content exists and when it last changed, so new pages reach their index faster. Most SEO plugins for WordPress, like TSF, handle sitemap generation and search engine pinging automatically.
No sitemap? Not a problem. Search engines follow internal links to discover pages on their own. They compare before/after states on each crawl and spot changes without help from a sitemap. For a deeper look at when sitemaps matter, see all you must know about sitemaps.
Ranking takes time
Fresh domain? Give it time. Google can take three to six months before it trusts a new domain enough to rank it well. New domains are often low-quality or spammy, so Google is cautious. While you wait, focus on building quality content — it’ll pay off once your domain earns authority.
The Bing network (Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, etc.) cares more about your domain name than its age, so you’ll often rank sooner on those search engines.
Search engine behavior
Understanding how search engines work helps you make better decisions about your content.
Canonical URLs lead the way
A canonical URL is the definitive address of a page. It tells search engines which version of a page is the “real” one, preventing duplicate content confusion.
Search engines follow the canonical URL. If it points somewhere other than the current page, the search engine ignores the current page in favor of the canonical target.
Duplicated content won’t penalize you
Your site won’t be penalized for duplicate content. Google filters duplicates automatically and picks the version most suitable for the searcher.
The worst case? A visitor lands on a less desirable version of your page. When you use an SEO plugin for WordPress (like ours), you probably won’t encounter this at all — unless you deliberately copy pages.
Meta descriptions can be ignored
Search engines don’t always show the description you wrote. When the searcher’s query doesn’t match your description, the search engine pulls a relevant snippet from your page content instead.
A keyword tool like the Focus extension helps you align your descriptions with the queries people actually search for. For details on how TSF generates descriptions, see explaining the description generator.
Bounce rate reduction
When a visitor bounces back to the search engine, it signals that your content wasn’t what they wanted. Search engines take notice. These tips help reduce that friction.
Speed up the web
A faster website ranks better. When your pages take too long to load, visitors bounce before they ever read your content.
PageSpeed Insights measures your site’s Core Web Vitals — the loading metrics Google uses as ranking signals. Aim for a “Good” score across all metrics. If you’re falling short, reduce the number of styles and scripts your pages load.
For WordPress users: consider a well-optimized theme from the WordPress.org repository. Repository themes follow strict guidelines. Multipurpose “can-do-it-all” themes tend to load features you’ll never use, adding weight and incompatibility to every page.
Stop the click-bait
Writing about a controversial topic can drive clicks, but your title and description must match your actual content. Misleading titles cause bounces — and bounces hurt rankings.
Write a strong introduction
Your first paragraph should confirm that visitors landed on the right page. Explain what you’re covering and make it overlap with your title and meta description. Visitors who feel oriented stick around.
Use relatable images
Images keep visitors engaged. They make your pages feel alive and help readers connect with the subject. A well-chosen image breaks up walls of text and reinforces your message.
Gaining visitors
More content, better reach. These tips help you grow your audience.
Build more quality content
There’s always something to write about. More quality pages mean more opportunities to rank in search engines, and each page is another entry point for new visitors.
Engage on trends
Before everyone else covers a topic, check Google Trends for rising searches. Write about a trend early, and your page might surface when interest peaks.
Never stop improving
Visitors stick when your site is useful. Publishing new content is only half the job — improving how it reaches people matters just as much. Build a mailing list, refine your layout, engage on social platforms. The sites that grow are the ones that keep iterating.