WordPress SEO basics: settings, plugins, and on-page optimisation

Executive overview

WordPress doesn't rank sites by itself — it's a tool that makes SEO best practices easier to implement. Configured correctly, it handles URL structure, sitemaps, title tags, and media in ways that directly support search visibility.

This tutorial covers the essential WordPress settings and the Yoast SEO plugin to get on-page optimisation right from the start, without touching code.

Core insight: the technical foundation — domain format, permalink structure, and sitemap — must be set correctly before content work matters.

Theme selection

• Choose a mobile-responsive theme; Google may rank mobile-friendly content higher for mobile searches.
• Avoid themes bloated with unnecessary plugins or third-party scripts.
• Test the theme demo URL with PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, or GTmetrix before committing.

Core WordPress settings

• Decide between domain.com and www.domain.com — Google treats them as separate; WordPress auto-redirects the unused version.
• If both versions have existing backlinks, use Ahrefs Site Explorer to check which has more referring domains, then pick that one.
• Changing the URL on an existing site can break pages — have a developer on hand.

Permalink structure

• Use the post name format (domain.com/post-name) — it's readable and keeps URLs short.
• Short URLs correlate with higher rankings in Ahrefs' on-page SEO study.
• Changing permalink structure on an existing site can create broken pages; add redirects with a plugin like Redirection if needed.

Yoast SEO setup

• Install Yoast SEO — it handles XML sitemaps, title tags, and meta descriptions out of the box.
• Enable the XML sitemap and submit it to Google and Bing.
• Disable author sitemaps, media pages, tags, and format pages from the sitemap — only include pages you want Google to index.
• The focus keyword field in Yoast is cosmetic only; it has no effect on actual rankings.

On-page optimisation for posts and pages

• The post title acts as the H1 tag — make it click-worthy without being clickbait.
• Include the primary keyword phrase in the title.
• Edit the URL slug to the primary keyword target using dashes instead of spaces (e.g. best-nike-running-shoes).
• Use H2s and H3s via the editor's formatting dropdown to create a logical content hierarchy.
• Add alt text to every image: it signals context to Google, supports screen readers, and displays if the image breaks.
• When linking to external resources, open links in a new tab to keep visitors on the site.

Title tags and meta descriptions

• Paste your post title into Yoast's title tag field rather than leaving the default.
• If the title tag shows red (too long), shorten it — truncated titles are less appealing in search results.
• The title tag can differ from the H1, so adjust it independently without changing the article title.
• Write a meta description that supports the title and gives users a clear reason to click.

Page hierarchy

• Pages (vs posts) can be nested under parent pages using subfolders.
• Example: five service pages can sit under domain.com/services/seo, domain.com/services/paid-advertising, etc.
• Set the parent via the Parent dropdown when creating or editing a page.