What can a WordPress SEO plugin do for you today? If you’re running a small business, you know that SEO is important. But it can be daunting, especially if you’re not familiar with all the acronyms (SEO, SMO, PPC…) and what they mean for your website. Luckily, there’s a plugin called RankMath that can take care of most of the heavy lifting for you. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to use RankMath to improve your SEO and get more traffic to your website. Stay tuned!
What is Rank Math and what does it do for your website’s SEO
The Rank Math plugin is a search engine optimization tool (WordPress plugin) that helps you optimize your content for better search engine ranking. It provides built-in suggestions based on best practices, making it easy for anyone to improve their SEO. Additionally, you can customize important SEO settings, control which pages are indexable, and how your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) with Structured data.
What are the benefits of this WordPress SEO plugin?
Rank Math provides several benefits. The initial reason I started exploring, then using Rank Math was because, in my opinion, it does not impact website load speed like other popular SEO plugins I used did. In fact… It works much faster than others, and I still score very high in Google’s page seed reports!
Above is the “Mobile” score, below is the “Desktop” score (both using Rank Math SEO).
These speed tests were created while actively using Rank Math SEO, so I could see that this WordPress SEO plugin is not having a detrimental effect on my page load speed (or it’s layout).
Here are the most common benefits that provide value to your blog:
- Improve SEO for your WordPress website.
- Increase traffic to your website (because of the improvements) .
- Feel more confident in the success of your blog.
- Increase WordPress website traffic because of the content / tweak suggestions.
- Quicker, less intimidating (minimal) learning curve for WordPress SEO.
- Easily pull in WordPress suggestions to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
- Integrates with Google (Analytics + Search Console), so I get a better view in the WordPress dashboard.
- Instant indexing feature for Google and Bing.
- 404 (page missing) error monitoring (so I can easily redirect to a working page).
- …there are loads more benefits!
Plainly put… Rank Math does all the heavy listing for me!
How does Rank Math Work?
Rank Math works seamlessly alongside your WordPress install, making it easy for anyone to use WordPress SEO to boost WordPress website search engine result ranking.
It analyzes the content of WordPress pages / post and suggests WordPress SEO changes, then it implements the WordPress SEO suggestions with just one click to your WordPress installation.
What’s more, it seamlessly creates all that technical “schema” stuff we hear about (the goodness that search engines love).
Tech note: Schema is a code that you can add to your website to help search engines understand your content better. Adding schema markup to your website can help improve your SEO, as well as make your website easier to understand for people using screen readers. Rank Math handles all this automatically baked it!
At the same time, as I’m writing a blog post, it monitors what I’m typing and advises me, in real time, about things I should be doing. To help me improve the SEO of my content, it reminds me (in real time) of things I still need to do. Things like:
- Using my keywords in the post title and the URL.
- Including my keyword in the first 10% of my post.
- Adding an image using the keyword in the ALT tag.
- Monitoring my keyword density (so I know if I’m using the keyword too much).
- Reminding me I need to include links in my content.
- Advising me when paragraphs are too long (improved readability)
- …and so much more. It does all this in real-time, live, while I write!
How to install Rank Math on your WordPress site
How do you install Rank Math? It’s pretty simple…
To install Rank Math, you’ll need to log into your WordPress site and go to the Plugins tab. From there, click on the Add New button and then search for “Rank Math” in the plugin search bar. Once you’ve found it, click on the Install Now button and then the Activate button. That’s it! You’re now ready to start using Rank Math to improve your SEO.
One feature I especially like (and it makes things so much easier), is after the initial install, you’re presented with the option to automatically configure Rank Math (it asks you questions), or to manually set it up (if you’re and SEO whiz).
Note: Before I forget – Another awesome feature is that Rank Math has a built-in, Google compliant sitemap generator! This means Google (and Bing) sitemaps are set up and kept updated. I only need to submit them once to search engines, then Rank Math updates them automatically for me, when I publish each post.
How to use the plugin to improve your website’s ranking
Rank Math assists you in doing rapid and simple keyword research while producing your content. The term you want to rank for in search results should be the focus keyword.
The keyword(s) will serve as the base for Rank Math’s SEO Score, which also serve as the basis of the hints (you’re given) on how to better optimize that content to increase the chances of appearing within the first results of SERPs (search engine result pages).
It’s important to understand that Rank Math is not intended to be a substitute for a specialized keyword research tool like Google’s Keyword Planner. Rank Math simply makes your job easier with it’s beneficial features!
You start by opening a post or page in the editor. Click on the button with your SEO Score on the top right corner to open Rank Math’s Metabox.
In the free version, you may import up to five keywords per post in the Focus Keyword field.In Rank Math Pro you are able to use an unlimited number of focus keywords.
This way, you’ll be able to attract a lot more visitors than you would if you were optimizing for just one focus keyword.
Rank Math Free users must link their Rank Math account with the rankmath.com website in order to take advantage of this feature. You may do so by going to Rank Math’s dashboard. Go to the Help tab and click on the “Connect Now” button. To access the site, simply enter your login credentials.
If you already have a Rank Math account, you’ll be taken to it; otherwise, you’ll be prompted to create one. The plugin’s activation page will appear, displaying your user information, your account plan (free or pro), and the website (yours) it’s connect with.
Rank Math also assists you in finding more keywords by incorporating Google’s automated keyword suggestions. When you begin to type letters into the Focus Keyword field, Rank Math will provide keyword suggestions. Click on one to add it to the Focus Keyword field.
If you want to use more focused keywords and optimize your material, you may do so – Just repeat the process. The Autosuggest feature is available in both the free and Pro versions. Users with Premium accounts can also utilize our integration with the Google Trends tool.
In the Metabox, click on the graph icon to see keyword search trends. You won’t have to guess anymore potential keywords. You may visually compare the most popular keyword possibilities using the built-in graph comparison tool.
Rank Math delivers data from Google Trends directly to your post editor, allowing you to examine the keywords that are popular enough to have data available with Google.
Setting up SEO basics in Rank Math to get going quickly
In order to take advantage of Rank Math’s features, it’s important to first set up the plugin’s basic settings.
To do so, open the plugin and go to Settings >> Basic Settings.
Under “General,” fill in your website’s name and the title you want to appear in search results.
Under “Webmaster Tools Verification,” copy and paste the verification code from Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Central into the corresponding fields.
Check the “I have read and agree to Rank Math’s Terms of Service” box, then click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.
That’s it! You’ve now completed the basic setup for Rank Math.
Additional features of the Rank Math plugin that can help with your SEO efforts
The Rank Math plugin offers a number of features to help with your SEO efforts, including:
- Importing up to five keywords per piece in the Focus Keyword field.
- Use of an unlimited number of focus keywords (pro version).
- Automatic keyword suggestions.
- Integration with the Google Trends tool.
- Advantageously useful SEO Metabox.
- Automated creation and updating of the Sitemap (used by search engines).
- Automated Schema markup for your post content.
- 404 missing page monitor and redirection.
- Automatic image watermarking.
- Post link suggestions (interlinking your content).
- Instant search engine indexing (Google and Bing)
- …and too much more to list here (but these in my opinion are awesome!)
Troubleshooting tips if you’re having trouble getting Rank Math to work properly on your website
If you’re experiencing issues with Rank Math, where nothing seems to be working correctly, here are some simple troubleshooting tips:
- Make sure the plugin is activated and connected properly.
- Check your settings in Basic Settings.
- Check to make sure your website / webpage is published (if it’s still in draft mode).
- Re-type your verification code in the Google / Bing Webmaster Tools fields.
- Make sure your Focus Keyword is not too wordy (try to keep it short and sweet).
- Content titles must be 60 characters or less in the WordPress editor (this limitation was put in place when webmasters were having issues with WordPress content truncating titles too much).
- Check to make sure your WordPress editor is not altering your focus keyword / title. Try pasting it into a plain text only editor first, then re-copy and paste into the WordPress post editor. (Sometimes copy and paste can include strange things we don’t see visually).
If you want to improve your blog traffic, SEO and revenue, make sure you are using Rank Math. This powerful plugin will help you get the most out of your content and increase your audience reach. Not only that, but it will also help improve your search engine ranking so more people can find your blog and learn from what you have to say. Are you ready to see an improvement in all aspects of your blogging? Check out Rank Math today!
BlogLogistics can help you take your blog strategy to the next level. Ready to get started? Check out the Blog Content Writing Services!