Most WordPress SEO guides are 8,000-word listicles that mention everything and prioritise nothing. Here's the compact version: 12 steps, in the order they actually have impact.
Foundation: tech
1. HTTPS & clean domain setup
SSL certificate active, one canonical domain (with or without www, but only one), 301 redirects to the canonical version.
2. Permalink structure set to "Post name"
Under Settings → Permalinks. Avoid date or category in the URL — it makes future migrations painful.
3. Submit the XML sitemap to Google Search Console
Each of the big three SEO plugins (Yoast, RankMath, AIOSEO) generates one. Submit the URL, done.
4. Check robots.txt
Most common mistake on new sites: a leftover Disallow: / from the staging phase. Google sees nothing.
Performance: Core Web Vitals
5. Caching
WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache or your host's caching. Biggest lever for LCP.
6. Modern image delivery
WebP/AVIF format, lazy loading (default in WordPress since 5.5), explicit width/height attributes.
7. Remove unnecessary plugins
Every plugin potentially loads scripts and styles on the frontend. A bi-annual plugin audit is worth more than the next performance plugin.
Content
8. One topic per page
One URL = one search intent. If you want to cover two related topics, that's two pages that link to each other.
9. Title tag & meta description as click magnets
Title under 60 characters, meta description under 160. Tutorial: Set a meta description in WordPress.
10. Internal linking
Every new post should link to 2–3 related older posts — and ideally be linked from 2–3 older posts.
Monitoring (the ignored part)
11. Connect Google Search Console & Analytics
Without data you optimise blindly. GSC shows you which keywords you nearly rank for — those are the fastest wins.
12. Track changes over time
What changed since last week? Which page is up, which is down? That's the question the classic SEO plugins have no answer for — and exactly what SignalWP is for.
What you can safely ignore
- Keyword density tools. Haven't mattered since ~2013.
- "LSI keywords". Don't exist in that form.
- Link buying. Risk > reward.
- Mass schema for every post. Article schema is enough.