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WordPress Security Plugins – The 3 Best

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The 3 best WordPress Security Plugins – No matter the size of your website, never underestimate the importance of using at least one of the best WordPress security plugins to keep that site safe and well-protected.

Naturally, it’s tempting to view website security as a problem that’s exclusive to large-scale websites. After all, they’re the ones that could potentially provide the biggest payoff for hackers and other cybercriminals. Yet they’re also the ones with the biggest budgets and the best cybersecurity experts working for them, making them a much less enticing option than your average small to medium business.

Hackers know this all too well. They also know that since many owners of growing businesses don’t consider security a real concern, they don’t do much about it, meaning they’re ultimately an easy target.

In other words, without adequate security in place, you’re leaving your website and your business vulnerable.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that you don’t need the kind of bottomless budget enjoyed by the large-scale brands to employ solid security on your site.

There’s a wealth of affordable tools out there designed to beef up your security and keep your site safe round the clock, and today, we’re going to look at what we consider to be the 3 very best WordPress security plugins around.

Why just these three?

Because, unlike other plugins which focus on a single aspect such as two-factor authentication, the ones in this guide offer a fully comprehensive approach to WordPress security, and do so better than most others on the market.

Without further ado then, let’s dive into it:

Top 3 Best WordPress Security Plugins

1. Malcare

Screenshot of MalCare The Best Complete WordPress Security Plugin
Screenshot of MalCare The Best Complete WordPress Security Plugin

Malcare boasts that it’s the only WordPress security plugin with a dedicated Auto-Clean feature that immediately removes malware the moment it’s detected.

If you know anything about malware, you’ll know what a big deal this is.

Malware (MALicious softWARE) is any kind of software that cybercriminals place on your webserver to wreak havoc on your website and your business as a whole.

We commonly think of malware as being the kind of software that steals credit card information and personal data which can be used for financial gain, but that’s really only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Malware can also be used to flood your website with spam, and this can be devastating. At best, it causes any potential customers to immediately reach for their back button after finding your website, often never to return. At worst, it destroys your online presence, getting your site blacklisted from major search engines like Google.

So if your site does become infected with Malware, you need it gone right away, not days or weeks later when your security tool goes through its weekly scan.

What we like about Malcare is that the plugin goes much deeper than others, removing the kind of complex and seriously advanced forms of malware that lesser plugins just can’t touch.

Best of all, the tool provides proactive protection, blocking all of the backdoors and vulnerable access points to prevent future attacks. Should a sophisticated hacker still find their way into your site, Malcare’s smart systems learn, prove, and evolve to prevent similar attacks in the future while removing that threat at the same time.

Malcare WordPress Websites Main Features

Of course, this is a review of comprehensive WordPress security plugins, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find that Malcare has much more going for it than Auto-Clean and malware protection, it’s a full-service security tool designed for websites of all sizes.

The other key feature that makes this a worthwhile purchase is the smart firewall. Working 24/7/365, the firewall carries out a rigorous analysis of every IP request to your site in milliseconds, identifies those with malicious intent, and immediately blocks them from ever accessing your website.

Elsewhere, the automatic, captcha-based login protection does a solid job at safeguarding your site against brute force attacks, ensuring that nobody gets into your site who isn’t supposed to.

Finally, we’re also big fans of the site’s WordPress hardening dashboard, which in simple terms means you get tools that analyze the current state of your website security, make recommendations on how to optimize that security, and allow you to carry out that optimization from within your site.

Malcare Performance Impact Analysis

One of the many advantages of using Malcare is that all of the scanning and processing is done on their servers, rather than yours.

In theory, this means that the plugin should have practically zero impact on your website’s performance. How does that hold up in a real-world environment?

Pretty well, actually.

We tested our site on Pingdom before and after activating Malcare and found the difference it made was .20 of a second.

With that in mind, it’s safe to say that you can use this plugin to optimize your security without worrying about it slowing your site down.

Malcare WordPress Security Plugin Plans and Pricing

We’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that there is a free version of the Malcare Security Plugin which provides some helpful features like full-site malware scanning, login protection, and an intelligent firewall, though if you’re really going to get the most out of this tool then definitely pays to opt for the premium version.

Malcare offers a flexible range of one-year licenses, starting at $99 for a single site all the way up to $599 for 20 websites.

If you need more than that, then the company will also make a bespoke package just for you. This is a great option if you’re looking for a security solution you can repackage and sell on to your own web design agency clients as the custom package allows you to use Malcare as a white label solution complete with client reports.

Otherwise, the only reason to pay for anything more than the $99 single-site license is if you want to use the plugin on multiple websites, otherwise, all the features are the same, including:

  • Automatic Daily Malware Scan
  • Complete Website Management
  • Login Protection
  • Personalized Support
  • Smart Website Firewall
  • Unlimited Automatic Malware Removal
  • Website Hardening.

Malcare WordPress Security Plugin Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Incredibly easy to set up and configure in under a minute
  • Beginner-friendly interface. No technical know-how needed
  • Offsite website scanning means minimal impact on your website’s resources
  • One-click malware removal.

Cons:

  • Doesn’t include a website backup unless you pay extra
  • Doesn’t include leaked password protection.

1. Wordfence

Screenshot of WordPress Security Plugin Wordfence
Screenshot of WordPress Security Plugin Wordfence

It’s rare that you’ll ever come across a conversation about the best WordPress security plugins without hearing the name WordFence mentioned at least once.

One of the most popular security plugins around, it currently boasts over 3 million active installations and more than 3,000 5-star reviews on the WordPress Plugins Directory, numbers which speak volumes about its quality.

Part of the reason why WordFence is so beloved is its premium endpoint firewall.

Other plugins may use cloud-based firewalls, but these can always be bypassed by a skilled hacker and leave your site vulnerable to data theft as well as making it possible to install all kinds of malicious content on your web server.

An endpoint firewall, on the other hand, is much more difficult -if not completely impossible- to bypass, protecting your site, and keeping your data away from prying eyes.

What we love the most about this is that it’s by far one of the fastest-acting firewalls we’ve encountered.

Once configured, Wordfence is the first thing to fire up the moment a request to your website comes in. Before any code is loaded and even before your database is connected, the firewall instantly gets to work on carrying an incredibly in-depth analysis, running the request through its vast ruleset in milliseconds to determine whether or not to allow that request.

The firewall also has the upper hand on cloud-based options in that it can make use of information about the user’s identity in its decision making. That means it doesn’t just determine whether to block or allow a request based on the type of request, but other key factors about who they are.

WordFence Main Features

WordFence may have begun life purely as a firewall, but it’s since evolved into a one-stop-shop for all your WordPress security needs.

The other key feature here is the WordPress Security Scanner which scans through all of your themes, plugins, and WordPress core files for anything that might be harming your website.

This includes not just standard malware, but also backdoor vulnerabilities, dodgy URLs, harmful redirects, and SEO spam injection attacks.

Should WordFence find something that shouldn’t be there, it helps you quickly eliminate it for good at the click of a button and repair damaged files by replacing them with a clean version of the original code.

The plugin doesn’t stop there either.

We like the advanced manual blocking features which allow you to take control and block whole networks, individual users, or even entire countries. The latter feature is only included in the premium plan but can prove essential if you’re getting attacks from a specific region.

Finally, we’ve got to give WordFence credit for creating login protection features that are superior to those found in Malcare.

The site not only uses two-factor authentication to protect against brute force attacks but also includes a very useful leaked password protection feature.

With data breaches becoming all the more prevalent in recent years, this feature can prove invaluable in preventing administrator logins to your website using known compromised passwords.

WordFence Performance Impact Analysis

Sadly, one of the biggest drawbacks to using WordFence is its size and impact on the overall performance of your WordPress website.

Make no mistake about it, this is one hefty plugin and can make a noticeable difference to your page load speeds.

In our Pingdom tests, it slowed down the site by as much as a second, though that was with resource-draining features like the live traffic dashboard turned off. We’ve seen reports of other users turning that feature on and finding their website slowed down by over 3 whole seconds.

Given the general two-second rule about page loading speeds, you can understand what a problem this might cause

WordFence WordPress Security Plugin Pricing and Plans

If we’re going to give WordFence credit for anything, it’s got to be the quality of its free version.

If you’re looking for a solid security plugin but don’t have the budget to spend on a premium option, WordFence is a good choice.

The standard endpoint firewall and security scanner are both included, as is the two-factor authentication, blocks on access attempts using compromised passwords, and the ability to prevent access based on IP range, hostnames, and more.

If you choose to upgrade, you’ll get all of this plus premium-only features including:

  • Country Blocking
  • Real-time IP Blacklist
  • Real-time firewall rule and malware signature updates
  • Reputation checks.

Prices start at $99 for a single site up to $1,130 for 15 licenses. As with Malcare, all the premium features are included regardless of which license you buy. The only difference is in how many sites you use WordFence premium on.

WordFence Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Best free WordPress security plugin
  • Advanced endpoint firewall
  • A well-designed user interface makes ongoing management easy
  • Regularly updated to provide up-to-date protection against the latest threats.

Cons:

  • Notorious for negatively impacting site performance
  • Initial setup and configuration can be more tricky than with other plugins.

3. iThemes Security for WordPress

Screenshot of WordPress Security Plugin iThemes Security Pro
Screenshot of WordPress Security Plugin iThemes Security Pro

While other WordPress security plugins focus on key features as their primary selling point, iThemes Security is all about usability.

The whole M.O with this one is based around making top-level professional WordPress security completely accessible to those just starting with the platform and, to that end, we have to say that the plugin does its job exceptionally well.

Though iThemes have packed a lot into their popular security plugin (and we’ll unpack exactly what’s included further on), all of the features are centralized into one security dashboard which, though incredibly comprehensive, is by no means overwhelming and makes it easy to monitor and manage all aspects of your site security in one location.

The best part is that the whole thing takes no more than a minute to setup and configure, with the out-of-the-box default settings already proving effective enough to protect most small-medium websites.

If you want to tweak and fine-tune things, you can do that simply by moving through each option and checking the appropriate button.

All this is designed in such a way that if you’d never used WordPress before, you’d still be able to figure things out in no time.

And if you don’t?

No problem, there’s a vast selection of simple-to-follow tutorials to talk you through the whole process.

iThemes WordPress Security Features

When it comes to features, the first thing you notice about iThemes Security is that it lacks a firewall. So, if that’s one of your key criteria in choosing the best WordPress security plugin for your website, you may want to choose one of the other two options from this list.

Still, what iThemes lacks in that department it more than makes up for in many others, with a wealth of advanced-level features that make it one of the most versatile security plugins around.

The most prominent and useful feature is the site scanner which will go through all of your themes, plugins, and core files the moment you activate it in search of any existing issues including malware, backdoor vulnerabilities, and SEO spam, as well as any out-of-date software that could expose you to attacks.

The all-in-one scan will even check for any instance of blacklisting, making it one of the most comprehensive scanners around.

Manual scans are available in both the free and premium version while IThemes Security Pro users can also schedule automatic daily scans to truly keep on top of things.

Elsewhere, there’s also a lot of features to prevent brute force attacks. The plugin allows you to set a strict number of unauthorized logins per user and lock out anyone who is clearly trying to guess your password.

Even if they get it right, the excellent two-factor authentication will kick in. This makes use of your smartphone so that you know the only person gaining access to your site is you.

And if you have other admins, editors, etc? You can ensure they use the same two-factor process while at the same time enforcing strong passwords to keep your site secure.

Other key features include:

  • Put your WordPress dashboard into ‘Away Mode’ to make it inaccessible during certain hours
  • Change the default WordPress login URL so that hackers don’t know where to find it.
  • File change notifications
  • 404 Detection
  • Database Backups
  • Trusted devices control
  • WordPress user security check

iThemes Performance Impact Analysis

When we first started looking into iThemes Security, we were pleased to see that it comes from a brand that takes site performance very seriously.

iThemes have made several improvements to their plugin to minimize its impact on your site’s resources and improve speed.

In our Pingdom tests, we found a 0.22-second difference, roughly the same as the Malcare plugin we looked at earlier.

While we’re pretty happy with that, we did note that other iThemes Security users have found that running this plugin tends to slow down the loading speed of their WordPress dashboard, though not the site itself.

iThemes Pricing and Plans

There’s a lot to like about the free version of iThemes Security (previously known as Better WP Security) which gives you no less than 30 different security tools in one package.

These include the aforementioned site scanner, password strength enforcement, brute force attack prevention and more. That said, many of the free features come with restrictions, so it may be worth paying to get the full effect.

If you decide to do so, you’ll pay just $80 for a 1-year license for 2 websites (A single-site license plus an additional “bonus” license) making this by far the most affordable of all the three plugins featured today.

If a single site isn’t enough for you, you can pay $127 per year for 10 websites or $199 per year for unlimited websites.

All plans come with the same features, plus premium support and 12 months of updates.

iThemes Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Beginner-friendly approach to WordPress security
  • 2 site licenses for $80 means good value for money
  • WordPress security grade feature is an easy way to identify opportunities to further optimize your site security
  • One of the few security plugins with built-in database backup options.

Cons:

  • Lack of firewall
  • Some users report that iThemes security makes changes to their database which causes problems with the rest of their site
  • The file change detection feature has been known to cause the WordPress dashboard to load more slowly.

Article Courtesy of WPLift.com

UX Design – 5 Reasons Why it’s Important

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UX Design is leading the way as your customers want things to be easy or they leave.

In today’s world, people demand an easy, efficient, and fast user experience. Therefore, there is a need for an outstanding website user interface and design to maintain customer satisfaction.

What is UX Design? 

User experience (UX)  refers to the overall experience that a visitor has while visiting a website or an app. So, it is concerned with all the aspects of the interaction between the company and the current or potential customers. 

In today’s competitive environment, the importance of user experience design has been understood by most companies. There is a general agreement that an effective UX design helps you ensure the association between your business objectives and customers’ needs.

To ensure customer satisfaction, there are a great number of UX design tools that can help you create a product or service matching your potential customers’ needs and streamline the development of your business.

Why is it So Important?

If you wonder why user experience design is important to boost your website, here we mention the benefits of UX design that come with the use of the right UX design tools offered by several agencies. 

1. UX Design Increases the Conversions on Your Website 

There are lots of websites offering the same product or service, and customers often choose the one with easy and attractive user experience. According to the related studies, a well-designed user experience can increase conversion rates up to 400%. 

It has been proved that optimized usability and accessibility of a website have an incredible effect on customer satisfaction. A well-planned user experience can increase the visitors’ willingness and reduce their reluctance to buy your products or services. Therefore, getting into partnership with a professional UX design agency is very important to grow your business with higher conversion rates. 

2. UX Design improves your SEO rankings

Every business desire to be on the top of Google search results. 

Well-designed user experience can help you increase the online presence of your business and get to the top of the results on search engines. With an optimized partnership of UX  and SEO, you can increase the traffic on your website and gain more visitors who are more likely to be interested in your products or services. An effective UX design supports your SEO and increases your rankings on search engines.

You can improve your SEO plans with a good user experience provided by a professional UX design agency because the common goal of SEO and UX activities is to attract more people to the target website and deliver a satisfying user experience with related content, a user-friendly interface, and well-designed structure.

Besides, the importance of visual design in user experience should be also taken into consideration because you need to keep the visitors on your website to learn more about you and your products.

3. Create Trust and Credibility with UX Design

Most people search for a product or a service for a while before trusting a company and making a purchase. Enhancing customer engagement or creating credibility is not so easy for businesses, especially for the ones who are new in the market. 

essential-ux-design-elements

How can your potential customers trust you? Give them some robust reasons for choosing you among other competitors when they visit your website through any platform or search engine.

Gaining credibility has a great influence on generating more leads and sales. So, hiring an experienced UX design agency will enable you to reach your ultimate goals with customer loyalty and retention. Gaining the customers’ trust is not so simple and it takes some time.

Don’t forget that your strategy should be consistent in the long run for better results in brand loyalty.

4. Save Cost and Time

 It is critical to adopt and apply an effective UX design for your website because it will reduce costs and save your time significantly. In particular, the initial stage of product development must be planned with the right UX design because restructuring the product and website after the launch will cost more. 

If you launch your product with an effective experience for users, you can save a significant amount of time and money.

As an essential part of the process, user testing is also another way of cost-efficient product development. It consists of evaluating a product through research on a sample group of users.

The testing process in user experience requires a professional point of view, so a partnership with an experienced UX design agency would be better for further enhancement. Testing importance in UX design is undeniable for optimizing customer satisfaction and retention.

5.Increase Revenue

Investing in UX increases the number of visitors to your website and helps you grow the conversion rate. Therefore, it is a good idea to partner with a professional UX design firm. 

According to recent studies, there is a great increase in the revenues of the businesses which get into partnership with an experienced UX design company because it facilitates visitors to pay for the website and suggest the products to other people. So, it’s a terrific strategy for word-of-mouth advertising that will increase your revenue in the long run. 

A well-prepared UX also encourages your potential customers to buy your product by reducing their reluctance to leave the rival companies. 

Considering the advantages of the UX mentioned above, we infer that using an effective UX/UI design tool optimizes the usability and accessibility of your website.

Subscribe today to get more out of your UX efforts or contact us to find out more!

Keyword Intent for WordPress Businesses

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If you’ve launched a business on WordPress or even a blog, chances are that you’ve wanted to maximize its outreach as much as possible with keyword intent.

It’s likely that you’ve come across the holy grail of content on the internet – keywords. As search engines continue to dominate the way we create, consume, sell, and buy on the internet, understanding how people use them is paramount to a successful digital venture.

In this deep yet accessible guide, we’ll take you through the key concepts of search intent,   the different ways in which people use Google and other search engines, how to make your content reach users, and which tools to rely on.

If you arent sure about it, contact us to find out more, otherwise read on!

What Is Search Keyword Intent?

Search intent (or keyword intent, user intent) is typically used to describe the reason or purpose behind an online search. Some people conduct searches to research a certain topic, while others search for local establishments or businesses that can cater to their needs.

Google, which continues to dominate the search engine market at 92.47%, has continually worked on updating its algorithm to provide a better user experience. These algorithm updates are often geared towards making Google’s search results more intuitive and accurate.

With each core update, Google changes the way it ranks websites. Ensuring that website content fits user search intents, helps site owners to recover from Google core updates quickly. When building user-friendly and informative posts, having a good understanding of what users look for is key.

For example, a person searching for ‘pumpkin soup’ will be given search results that contain recipes, demo videos, and other similar content:

Search intent for ‘pumpkin soup’

Google may also suggest other related search queries, such as ‘How does Jamie Oliver make pumpkin soup?’ and ‘How does Gordon Ramsay make pumpkin soup?’

Google related search queries

Simply put, Google tries its best to match a searcher’s intent with the best types of content available. Notice that the search results do not return results that contain articles on the history of pumpkin soup or its cultural significance. There’s an understanding that when a person types the keywords ‘pumpkin’ and ‘soup,’ they’re usually looking for recipes and other practical types of content.

Another good example is Google’s search results for the search query ‘how to tie a necktie.’ Notice that it returns with a result of a tutorial video that users can follow along:

Google result of a tutorial video

It also returns results containing helpful images that illustrate a step-by-step guide for tying a tie:

Google related image results

Again, it does not go off-tangent by providing the searcher with photos of models wearing ties or articles about the best necktie colors for certain outfit colors. Although these are examples of related content, Google understands that the searcher is probably attempting to tie a necktie and needs practical advice in the form of how-to videos and images.

Common Types of Search Keyword Intent

There are four common types of search intent. Each has a clear purpose that Google and other search engines use to tailor results.

Informational

This type of search intent corresponds to searches conducted by people who are simply looking for information. Many people rely on search engines to provide basic information about a wide range of day-to-day topics such as the weather, how-to tips, information about a disease, travel tips, and so on.

Typically, searchers who have an informational intent have a specific topic or question in mind that they want to know more about. For example:

  • ‘Symptoms of migraine’
  • ‘Weather in Chicago today’
  • ‘How to make burritos’
  • ‘How to sell branded merchandise’

In return, Google matches the searcher’s intent with the best content that it thinks the user will be able to find useful or helpful.

Navigational

Navigational intent corresponds to searches that have a specific website in mind. For example, people who search for a certain brand name such as ‘Target,’ ‘Sephora,’ or ‘Tesla’ are typically on their way to the brand’s eCommerce site or website.

Ranking high for navigational terms, such as the ones indicated above, is very beneficial, especially if you know that your site is strongly connected to that term. For example, people searching for ‘target’ within the US are most likely looking for the Target website.

Navigational intent example

As such, ranking high for this term would be very good for Target’s organic traffic.

Transactional

Transactional intent corresponds to searches that are specifically for purchasing stuff online. Users who are searching with a transactional intent usually intend to buy something.

These searches typically include action words like ‘buy,’ ‘order,’ or ‘download’ and a specific product or brand.

Transactional intent example

For example, a search using the terms ‘order birthday cake Oaklawn’ will return Yelp reviews and cake delivery services in Oaklawn, Illinois.

Commercial Investigation

This type of search intent is related to transactional intent. However, users who search with this type of intent are still researching what specific product or service they want to buy and require reviews, product information, or other details.

As such, they might still need a bit of convincing regarding what exactly they want or need to buy. A good example of this intent can be seen in the following search queries:

  • Best gaming chairs
  • Top hair products for curly hair
  • Best inverter washing machines
  • Best keyboard for writers
  • Which Mac laptop should I buy?

Why Does KW Intent Matter, and Why Use It for WordPress?

Understanding keyword intent is important if you want to start a WordPress blog or eCommerce site because of the following reasons:

Keyword Intent Helps You Understand Your Target Audience

By understanding the intent behind their search queries, you can provide them with corresponding content that will both help them and convince them to convert.

For example, you can come up with:

  • Article titles or blog posts that match keyword intent
  • Product reviews to help consumers see the best features of your product
  • Eye-catching landing pages that supply consumers/readers with information about your product

Keyword Intent Helps Identify (and Fix) Conversion iIssues

Keyword research and intent give you powerful insights into consumer behavior. As such, looking at user intent can help you pinpoint specific issues concerning conversion and improve your overall conversion marketing strategy.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re a ‘Brand X Shampoo’ marketer and you find out that users search for the following terms related to your brand:

  • Brand X vs. Brand C shampoo
  • Is Brand X shampoo good for curly hair?
  • Is Brand X a good substitute for Brand Z shampoo?

Keeping searcher intent in mind, these long-tail keywords may help you identify where you could improve your conversion. For example:

‘Brand X vs. Brand C shampoo’

You might find that you lack promotional and informational content that highlights your product’s advantages over Brand C. Whereas Brand C has content related to this everywhere, you do not.

‘Is Brand X shampoo good for curly hair?’

You might find that your blogs and product descriptions are mostly catered towards straight-haired people when in fact, there’s a good chunk of users discovering and searching about Brand X being a great shampoo for curly hair.

‘Is Brand X a good dupe for Brand Z shampoo?’

You might also find insights from actual users pointing towards your shampoo being a good ‘dupe’ or affordable counterpart for a high-end brand. However, you do not have a lot of conversions because you lack content supporting these claims.

Top 3 WordPress Plugins for Keyword Research

You might already be familiar with keyword research and SEO and how important it is to optimize your blog or eCommerce site. Below, you’ll find our most recommended WordPress plugins to help your keyword research and SEO efforts easier.

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO plugin

A lot of site owners love Yoast SEO because it’s easy to use and is very intuitive. Yoast allows you to easily add metadata to your WordPress posts and pages. You can also easily conduct keyword research with Yoast, as well as embed social media photos to your articles.

It also automatically generates a sitemap for your website, making it easier for Google to crawl your site regularly.

Simply put, Yoast SEO ensures that your WordPress site meets SEO standards. To learn more about keyword research via Yoast, click here.

2. SEOPress

SEOPress

SEOPress is powerful yet easy to use. It has features for adding meta titles and descriptions, generating XML sitemaps, and more.

It caters to both beginners and advanced users with its simple setup and options to access advanced features. SEOPress also has other handy features for SEO like:

  • Google Page Speed
  • 404 Monitoring
  • Robots.txt Editing
  • Backlinks Monitoring
  • Content Analysis for Keyword Research

3. All-In-One SEO

All in One SEO Plugin

All-In-One SEO is a great SEO plugin for WordPress since it can help even beginners optimize their sites for rankings. It’s incredibly easy to use as it constantly audits your website to spot common SEO mistakes.

It has helpful features such as:

  • Titles and meta descriptions
  • XML sitemaps
  • Basic schema markup
  • Keyword research
  • Bad bot blocker

What Are the Dangers of Ignoring Search Intent?

As much as keywords themselves are at the core of most SEO efforts, keyword intent is also a crucial part of SEO. Google’s algorithms continually grow ever more contextual and intelligent, simply picking keywords with high search volumes doesn’t work as well as it used to.

And as more WordPress site owners are getting used to SEO, more people are also gunning for similar keywords within niches. That’s why it’s also important to understand search intent. It’s like an extra layer of SEO that allows you to bolster your strategies and optimize your content better.

With keyword intent, content can be optimized effectively, and rankings can be pushed much higher. However, ignoring keyword intent can lead to consequences, such as:

  • Poor site traffic
  • Lower conversions
  • Low SERP rankings
  • Unoptimized ads

Best Practices to Maximize Keyword Intent

So, how can you make the most of keywords on your WordPress site? Below you’ll find actionable strategies you can put to good use today.

Consider Search Intent When Doing Keyword Research

A strong keyword research strategy is the backbone of a great SEO strategy. Part of this is considering search intent the moment you conduct your keyword research. Don’t just focus on high-value keywords. Make sure they’re relevant to your site or business and make them work for you.

Here are a few pointers for effective keyword research:

List Relevant Topics Related to Your Business or Brand

Consider what you want to rank for, even if it’s still in broader categories. Try to come up with around ten relevant topics that you think are crucial to your business. These topics will help you focus on more specific keywords later on. If you are not exactly sure on what might work, make sure to do a competitor analysis – it can be a good starting point.

Identify Keywords Under Each Topic

Now it’s time to look out for keywords under each broad topic you listed down. You can use a tool or plugin to do this, or you can just brainstorm and list down keywords and phrases that you think users would search for under each topic.

Maximize Google and Keyword Research Tools

Now that you have a rough draft of the keywords that fall under each umbrella, it’s time to consider search intent, too.

You can try searching for a term on Google to see what types of content it returns for each keyword. You can also look at related searches at the bottom of each page to get ideas about intent through long-tail keywords.

Then, you can run these keywords or match them against your keyword research tool’s results. From there, you can pick which ones would work best for your blog or eCommerce site, content-wise.

How to Optimize Existing Content for the Right Intent

Once you have your keyword research, you’ll want to ensure that your site pages match your target audience’s search intent. Here’s how you can optimize your content according to search intent:

  • Match informational searches with helpful articles or write-ups related to the topic or product. These can be straightforward blog posts that contain information, product reviews, how-to articles, and the like.
  • Pair transactional searches with product pages or landing pages within your eCommerce site. Don’t feed them with long articles when they intend to make a purchase.
  • Connect navigational searches to the right landing pages within your website. If a user is searching specifically for your brand, there’s a good chance they want to learn more about your blog or look through your eCommerce site.
  • Match commercial investigation searches with content that is engaging, convincing, and comprehensive. Since this person is probably ‘on the fence’ regarding a product or service, it’s a good chance to put out a good pitch for your brand through articles that showcase why your product or service would be a good match for them.

Optimize Anchor Text

Make sure you also optimize your anchor texts for SEO by using descriptive keywords to represent the page you’re linking to. Don’t over-optimize by using repetitive phrases either, even if they are keyword-rich.

As a general rule, you shouldn’t use broad phrases like ‘click here’ as an anchor text for something you want to rank for. You also shouldn’t create false intent by linking irrelevant pages to unrelated keywords.

For example, if your anchor text is ‘custom neck gaiters,’ make sure it does link to a page about custom neck gaiters and not a page about face masks.

Having A Good Backlink Strategy

Your link-building strategy should also have intent in mind. Having a good backlink strategy means that your site is linking to trustworthy sites, and these same high-quality sites are linking back to you. This tells Google that your site is a trustworthy site with quality content.

As such, you should link-out to content that properly reflects keyword intent. Never use misleading keywords or link out to unrelated links, as Google considers these practices spammy.

Keyword intent is an important part of creating and optimizing content in WordPress. Whether you have a blog or an eCommerce site, keeping in mind that user intent is a crucial part of SEO success is a must.

This way, you can create content with a better strategy and focus and optimize your site pages to rank higher on SERPs.

Article From WPExplorer

Website Optimisation – What Lies Behind?

Posted on by blogvault

If you run a website, then you’ll know just how important it is that the website optimisation is sorted to attract traffic and generate sales (or leads) thanks to a good conversion rate.

But what do we really mean by website optimisation?

Definition: Website optimisation encompasses all the technical and marketing techniques used to acquire traffic, engage visitors and then convert them into prospects or buyers using a clearly defined method which meets a number of pre-defined goals.

Beyond this definition, it’s hard to distinguish between the various constituent parts of website optimisation – there are so many of them.

In reality, the topic is so vast that it involves several professions and skills needed to be able to take all the website optimisation and corrective actions.

From design to development and from display speed to SEO, we take you through the basics of website optimisation with a three-step approach.

1. Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a digital marketing discipline that encompasses sub-activities linked to the creation of website content based on keywords targeted in advance in the search engine of your choice.

In the US and Europe, the vast majority of SEO focuses on Google: Yahoo and its competitors have never really managed to penetrate the markets.

And “Google” means “algorithms”: the Californian company frequently updates the algorithms underpinning the “laws” that dictate if your company can boost its ranking by using this or that keyword.

Search Engine Optimisation thus means your company’s ability to boost its Google ranking in a targeted, precise way: you’re looking above all to rank on keywords that will deliver qualified visitors.

While there are lots of myths around SEO, remember that the era in which people would buy low-authority links in bulk is over: Google now penalizes websites that have external links which have no relation to their sites.

In 2018, SEO is based on 3 fundamental pillars which will enable you to boost your ranking.

Website Content

The content of your site is what drives your ranking: it is what Google “crawls” your site and parses your content in order to display results in its search engine.

More than just padding out your site, creating quality content and resources allows you to engage your visitors and sell your products and solutions: along with design, it’s the most crucial aspect of your site.

Of course, the content of your site can be presented in various forms (written, visual and video) and will contain keywords you want to use to drive your ranking.

Lastly, quality content necessarily lends itself to sharing: when your content is shared, Google interprets it as a positive sign.

On-page optimisation

In SEO, on-page optimisation covers all the technical aspects needed to rank in Google.

Getting down to basics:

  • Your tags must be consistent and must contain your targeted keywords.
  • Your site must load quickly.
  • Your site must be responsive.
  • Your site must be HTTP Secure (HTTPS).
  • Your site architecture must be consistent and organized.

Links

This is becoming less true but links fuel SEO. In quite an intuitive way, Google takes it as a positive sign when several sites linked to your business point to yours using an external link.

When you share content or your users share your site, you make it more likely that a site will share information or talk about you: you, therefore, create external links organically.

2. Optimizing technical performance

Page speed optimization

Technical performance is the driver of your website; on it depends on the ease with which your visitors will be able to visit and interact with your site: it is, therefore, a crucial aspect of website optimisation.

Complementing SEO, technical optimisation also determines performance factors which will influence your site’s Google ranking.

To get straight to the point and save you time, we’ve split this section into three:

Optimizing site speed

Site speed is one of the most critical performance indicators of all: it’s estimated that you risk losing traffic when a site takes over 2.5-3 seconds to load and that the abandon rate shoots up after 5 seconds.

A site can be slowed down for any number of reasons. However, there are several (fantastic) tools that will give you a quick appraisal of the situation:

By boosting speed, you cut abandons caused by slow loading and also help to improve your SEO.

As an example, the BBC calculated that it was losing 10% of its traffic for every extra second its pages took to load (see the study).

Display on mobiles and tablets

In 2018, 52% of global traffic is generated by mobiles, on which web browsing has improved markedly in the last five years. For some sectors (including shopping), the proportion of mobile traffic can be higher still, rising to 70-80% for some sites.

Given this high rate of mobile web browsing, it’s imperative that your website is optimized (or “responsive”) for display on mobiles and tablets.

If you build landing pages, remember there are various landing page builders which offer 100% responsive templates: a good way of saving time when creating your pages.

Making sure your site is responsive therefore means building your page so that the content displayed adapts to the size of the display window the visitor uses.

For more information, see the Google guide to creating adaptive web pages.

Page errors and hosting performance

Loading errors: we’ve all experienced them. They take the form of an HTTP protocol starting 4XX or 5XX. The most common are:

  • 404 (not found)
  • 403 (forbidden)
  • 401 (unauthorized)
  • 400 (bad request)
  • 500 (internal server error)

The problem with page errors is that visitors who encounter them, they often signal the end of their visit. Using a crawler, you can identify the page errors on your site so that you can redirect visitors to useful resources. Tools like Screaming Frog or Botify might help you with this.

When it is not your site that is causing the performance problems, they might be caused by your host: i.e. the company that hosts your site data which are loaded by internet users visiting your site.

There are two ways of solving this problem:

  • Change hosting subscription (should your traffic exceed the limits included in your package).
  • Change hosting provider (if you’re hosted by an inferior low-cost solution).

3. Optimizing conversion and user experience

Conversion Rate and UX Optimization

Optimizing conversion rates covers everything you do to give visitors to your site a better browsing and interaction experience: this is a crucial aspect for any ecommerce site.

If you improve the user experience, you will naturally also improve your site’s conversion rate: users are reassured more quickly and gain a better understanding of your added value.

As well as improving your conversion rate, a good user experience (UX) will also increase customer loyalty: your users will be more likely to return and make other purchases.

To improve your UX, you should start by identifying problems by analyzing your data. Tools like Google Analytics will help you gain crucial insights into:

  • User type (age, location, sex, etc.)
  • Bounce rate
  • Conversion rate
  • Abandonment rate

Of course, there are other data you can use to understand all the UX mechanisms at play on your site, but these four will help you make a start on targeting the biggest obstacles.

To take things further, you can then use a more advanced data analysis solution like AB Tasty’s. With our tool, you’ll be able to track your users’ behavior and understand how they interact with your site using the following features:

  • User Session Recording. Record your visitors’ sessions and then view how they interact with your site to gain more insights into their behavior.
  • Heatmaps. View clearly how your visitors interact with your site using heatmaps: you’ll know where they click and where the logjams are.
  • Surveys and user feedback. Save time and ask users how they think your site could be improved!
  • Visitor Segmentation. All your customers are different: segment your site traffic to create standard profiles to which you can push content and exclusive offers.
  • Advanced A/B testing. Use A/B testing to put your hypothesis to the test: improve your pages and compare them with previous versions to find the formula that works best.

When seeking to optimize a site, people will often focus on a single type of optimisation (SEO or UX, for example): this is a common mistake which will not help you to substantially boost your revenues.

In digital marketing, we take the view that the 3 types of optimisation (SEO, technical and UX) work hand in hand: there’s no use acquiring traffic if it is not qualified and if your site cannot convert it. Conversely, a technically optimized site will be of little use if it doesn’t attract qualified traffic.

Contact us today to find out how to optimise more of your website