SEO Kickoff

WordPress SEO Guide: Every Setting, Plugin, and Optimisation You Need

8 min read
WordPress SEO Guide: Every Setting, Plugin, and Optimisation You Need

WordPress powers 43% of the web, and its SEO potential is enormous — but only if you configure it correctly. Many WordPress sites underperform in search simply because the right settings were never turned on.

Step 1: Install the Right SEO Plugin

You need one SEO plugin. The two leading options:

PluginBest For
Yoast SEOBeginners; guided on-page analysis
Rank MathAdvanced users; more features free

Both handle title tags, meta descriptions, XML sitemaps, canonical URLs, and schema markup. Rank Math includes more built-in schema types for free. Yoast has better onboarding for newcomers.

Install one, configure the setup wizard, and never install both.

Step 2: Configure WordPress's Core SEO Settings

Permalink Structure

The most important WordPress SEO setting. Go to Settings → Permalinks and choose Post name.

✗ Bad:  yourdomain.com/?p=123
✓ Good: yourdomain.com/keyword-rich-post-title/

If your site is live with a different structure, be very careful changing it — all existing URLs will break and require 301 redirects.

Discourage Search Engines (Check It's Off)

Go to Settings → Reading and confirm "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is unchecked. It's a common accidental setting that makes your site invisible to Google.

Discussion Settings

If you don't moderate comments actively, go to Settings → Discussion and uncheck "Allow people to post comments on new articles". Comment spam creates thin, duplicate content.

Step 3: Optimise Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

In your SEO plugin (Yoast or Rank Math), edit title tags and meta descriptions for:

  1. Homepage — brand name + primary keyword + value proposition
  2. Every post/page — unique, includes target keyword, within character limits
  3. Category pages — often overlooked; treat them like landing pages
  4. Archive pages — typically set to noindex (thin duplicate content)

Title Tag Formula

Primary Keyword – Brand Name
How to [Achieve X] in [Year] | Brand Name
[Number] Ways to [Benefit] – Brand Name

Step 4: XML Sitemap

Your SEO plugin generates a sitemap automatically. Submit it to Google Search Console:

  1. Open GSC → Sitemaps
  2. Enter your sitemap URL (usually yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml)
  3. Click Submit

What to include: Posts, pages, categories (if they have enough content) What to exclude: Tag archives, author archives, search results, thank-you pages

Step 5: Speed Optimisation

WordPress is slow by default. Fix it:

Hosting

Managed WordPress hosting (Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways) is significantly faster than shared hosting. If your TTFB is over 500 ms, your host is the problem.

Caching Plugin

Install one caching plugin:

  • WP Rocket (paid, best performance)
  • W3 Total Cache (free, complex)
  • LiteSpeed Cache (free, excellent if your host runs LiteSpeed)

Image Optimisation

  • Install ShortPixel or Imagify to compress and convert images to WebP on upload
  • Use lazy loading (built into WordPress since 5.5)
  • Serve images from a CDN (Cloudflare is free)

Core Web Vitals

After caching is configured, test with PageSpeed Insights. Common WordPress-specific issues:

IssueFix
Render-blocking JSDefer or async load non-critical scripts
Unused CSSWP Rocket's "Remove Unused CSS" or Asset CleanUp plugin
Large layout shiftsSet explicit width/height on all <img> tags

Step 6: Internal Linking

WordPress makes internal linking easy — every post should link to 3–5 related articles. The Link Whisper plugin suggests relevant internal links as you write.

Internal link anchor text should:

  • Describe the destination page's content
  • Include the target keyword of the destination page where natural
  • Vary slightly (avoid the exact same anchor text repeatedly)

Step 7: Schema Markup

Rank Math includes rich schema types out of the box. With Yoast, you get basic Article and BreadcrumbList schema.

For additional types (FAQ, HowTo, Product), use:

  • Schema Pro plugin
  • Manually add JSON-LD in a Custom HTML block

Always test with Google's Rich Results Test after adding schema.

Step 8: Security (Affects Rankings)

A hacked or malware-infected site gets a Google penalty. Protect WordPress:

  • Keep core, themes, and plugins updated
  • Use strong admin passwords + two-factor authentication
  • Install Wordfence or Solid Security (formerly iThemes Security)
  • Limit login attempts
  • Change the admin username from "admin" to something unique

WordPress SEO Checklist

  • Post name permalink structure set
  • "Discourage search engines" unchecked
  • SEO plugin installed and configured
  • Sitemap submitted to Google Search Console
  • All posts have unique title tags and meta descriptions
  • Images compressed and served as WebP
  • Caching plugin installed
  • Core Web Vitals all in "Good" range
  • Internal links added to every post
  • Schema markup validated

Follow these steps in order and your WordPress site will be technically sound, fast, and ready to rank.

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