WordPress SEO Checklist

WordPress installs by default with the permalink structure "?p=123" — a number-based URL that tells Google nothing about the page. This single setting silently caps your SEO ceiling because every URL is meaningless.

Go to Settings → Permalinks and change to "Post name" (yoursite.com/your-post-title/). Do this on day one of a new site. If your site is already established with the default URLs, changing it requires 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones — use the Redirection plugin or have your SEO plugin handle it. Skipping redirects loses all your existing backlink equity and indexing.

For ecommerce on WooCommerce, change product permalinks to "/product/" prefix or no prefix at all. Avoid "/?product_id=" structures. For multilingual sites, use the language code as a subfolder (yoursite.com/es/) rather than a subdomain — subfolders consolidate domain authority better.

After changing permalinks, immediately check Google Search Console for crawl errors and submit an updated sitemap. Then watch the Coverage report for 7–14 days to make sure Google has fully transitioned to the new URLs.

The big three WordPress SEO plugins are Yoast, Rank Math, and SEOPress. All do the same core jobs: title and meta tag editing, sitemap generation, schema markup, breadcrumbs, and on-page analysis. The differences matter at the margins.

Yoast is the most established, with the largest user base and the longest track record. The free version covers basic SEO; the premium version ($99/year) adds internal linking suggestions, redirect manager, and content insights. It's the safest choice for non-technical users — the documentation is excellent and the interface is the most polished.

Rank Math is the rising challenger. The free version includes features Yoast charges for (redirect manager, schema generator, multiple keyword tracking). It's more feature-dense but the interface can be overwhelming. For technical users who want maximum control, Rank Math typically wins.

SEOPress is the lean alternative. Lighter codebase, faster, fewer "upsell" prompts than the other two. The Pro version ($49/year) is cheaper than Yoast premium. Best for performance-conscious users who don't need every advanced feature.

Whichever you pick: don't run two SEO plugins simultaneously. They generate conflicting sitemaps, fight over schema markup, and tank performance. Pick one, migrate your settings if switching, and stick with it for at least a year.

Most WordPress sites are slow not because of WordPress itself, but because of two compounding problems: a bloated theme and underpowered hosting. The combination loads pages in 6–10 seconds on mobile — a Core Web Vitals catastrophe.

Theme audit: avoid "multipurpose" themes (Avada, Divi default install, BeTheme) that load every CSS and JavaScript file for every page in case you use them. They make development easier and SEO worse. Lightweight alternatives — GeneratePress, Astra (default config), Kadence, Blocksy — load under 100KB of CSS/JS on a typical page and routinely score 90+ on PageSpeed Insights without optimization plugins.

If you can't change themes, install a code-cleanup plugin like Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters to disable unused plugin scripts on pages that don't need them. The WooCommerce cart JavaScript shouldn't load on your blog posts. Contact Form 7 scripts shouldn't load on pages without a form. Each unused script is a download the visitor's browser still has to make.

Hosting tier: cheap shared hosting ($3–10/month from Bluehost, HostGator, GoDaddy) cannot serve a modern SEO-competitive site. Move to managed WordPress hosting (Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways, SiteGround GoGeek tier or higher). The cost difference is $20–40/month; the speed difference is typically 2–4 seconds per page load — directly proportional to ranking impact and conversion rate.

WordPress sites usually fail Core Web Vitals on Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) because of unoptimized images. Two plugins solve most of this.

Image optimization: ShortPixel, Imagify, or Smush. They compress every uploaded image automatically, generate WebP versions, and serve the right format based on browser support. Aim for hero images under 200KB, content images under 100KB. The free tiers of these plugins handle a typical small business site.

Lazy loading is on by default in WordPress 5.5+ but verify it's working — open dev tools, scroll the page, and confirm images load as you scroll, not all at page load. Add explicit width and height attributes to every image to prevent layout shift (CLS). Modern WordPress does this automatically; older themes don't.

Caching: install one (only one) page-caching plugin. WP Rocket ($59/year) is the best paid option — fewer settings, faster results. LiteSpeed Cache is excellent and free if your host runs LiteSpeed (SiteGround, NameHero, some Cloudways setups). W3 Total Cache is free but requires more configuration. Avoid running two caching plugins — they conflict catastrophically.

Add a CDN (Cloudflare free tier or Bunny.net at $1/month minimum) to serve images from edge servers globally. This single change typically improves LCP by 500ms–1.5s for visitors outside your hosting datacenter.