We’re quickly nearing the end of 2017. These final days of the year are for contemplating, thankfulness and optimism about what’s ahead. While we’re looking back at this past year – which has been incredible for us -, we wanted to present for your reading pleasure: the twelve most read posts of 2017. A super powerful collection of SEO knowledge. Time to start the countdown. Happy reading!
12: Which redirect should I use?
We often get questions about redirects and the redirects manager. Not many people know the difference between all these codes like a 301 or a 410, so we set out to remedy that. This post gives you an overview of what a redirect is and which one you should use when. We hope this makes it a bit clearer.
11: How to use the content & SEO analysis of Yoast SEO
The content and SEO analysis is a core feature of Yoast SEO. Many users will spend most of their time in the post editor, fixing the readability and SEO-scores of their articles. Doing so improves the findability and readability of your articles. This article shows you how to use it to its full potential.
Write for your user and use language they can understand. It’s advice you hear all the time; but what does it mean and how do you incorporate it into your work? In this post, Marieke presents five great tips to improve that next blog post you are working on.
9: Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines
Part one of our Image SEO series; part two is even higher on this year’s list. Over the years, we’ve seen how vital site speed has become. One of the first things you should do to make your site faster is to optimize your images. Seems like a no-brainer, but people still seem to forget. This post explains how you so go about that.
Many WordPress users seem to struggle to make sense of the robots.txt file and how it influences SEO. Well, this post explains what the best practices are for your WordPress robots.txt. Also, Joost describes how the robots.txt file was used some years ago and how it works today. A must-read!
rel=canonical is an important tool in your SEO toolkit. It helps you determine which version of identical or similar url’s Google should index. If you’re not using it, you might be confusing Google with duplicate content and ultimately, competing with yourself. In this ultimate guide, we’ll teach you everything about rel=canonical.
This is the one that started it all. Joost’s original WordPress SEO article still draws lots of visitors and rightly so; it’s an impressive piece of work. In it, you’ll find loads of tips and tricks to make your WordPress site awesome, for both visitors and search engines. Haven’t read it yet? What’s stopping you? Read it!
Image SEO can have a significant effect, not only on your rankings but accessibility as well. By adding the correct tag content to images, you describe what’s in them so search engines and screen readers can identify it. Find out how you can improve your image SEO.
Together with the page title and structured data, the meta description is one of the few tools you have to make your site stand out from your competitors in the search results. You have to write an enticing text that makes it impossible for potential visitors to resist your site. How? Well, you can read all about it in this article.
It’s quite hard to pick a great and fitting focus keyword. Finding the right keyword might be the missing link for your SEO efforts. Joost de Valk wrote an excellent post on how to find the perfect focus keyword. He even gives you tips on how to get a sense of the search volume you can expect for a particular keyword.
2: Practical tips to set up a clear text structure
You guys love practical tips. Most of the posts in this top twelve set out to answer your questions. This post surely delivers those answers since it has been in our most-read lists for some time. In this article, Marieke shows you how to create a structure in your text that makes its message clear and easy to understand.
