How to optimise a WordPress website
Creating and promoting a WordPress website may seem like a daunting task, but with the right approach, it becomes a manageable process. Get all the tools and knowledge you need to effectively promote your WordPress website online.
Template requirements
Choosing the right template is a key factor in optimizing a WordPress site for search engines. It is important to focus on several aspects:
- Responsiveness: The template should display correctly on various devices.
- Loading Speed: High page loading speed is crucial for SEO and user experience.
- Clean Code: A template with clean, optimized code will be better indexed by search engines.
- SEO-Ready: Built-in SEO options can significantly simplify the optimization process.
When selecting a template, pay attention to these criteria to improve your site’s visibility in search engines.
Basic site settings
Configuring SEO on WordPress is the first step towards successful site promotion. Choose the main version of your site in the console settings if you have versions like https://www.site.ru and https://site.ru. Search engines will treat them as two different resources, which duplicates content and affects originality.
Anastasia Bystrova
The success of your WordPress website begins with the correct basic SEO settings. This is the foundation upon which further promotion is built.
Visibility for search engines
To effectively promote WordPress sites through SEO, it is extremely important to ensure their visibility for search engines. This includes verifying the site in webmaster tools such as Google Search Console and Yandex Webmaster. It is also important to regularly check for technical errors that may interfere with inde
URL Structure (Permalink) Setup
Creating human-readable URLs (permalinks) in WordPress significantly improves SEO and site usability. Clean URLs make page addresses more understandable for both users and search engines, aiding better ranking and easier navigation. Here are the key steps to set up permalinks:
- Go to Settings > Permalinks in the WordPress admin panel.
- Choose the permalink structure that best suits your content. For example, use Post name for blogs or Category/Post name for news websites.
- Use targeted keywords in the URLs to enhance SEO.
- Avoid unnecessary words and symbols to keep URLs clean and simple.
- Make sure to save the settings and apply them across all pages of the site.
Following these steps will help make your website more user-friendly and search engine-friendly, improving overall SEO performance.
Robots.txt and Sitemap.xml Files
Optimizing WordPress sites requires proper configuration of the robots.txt and sitemap.xml files:
- txt directives control how search engines crawl and index your website content, allowing you to exclude certain pages or sections.
- xml provides search engines with a site map, making it easier to discover and index all pages.
Steps for optimization:
- Create and configure the robots.txt file to specify which pages search engines should crawl and which they should avoid.
- Generate the sitemap.xml file and submit it to webmaster tools such as Google Search Console to improve indexing.
- Regularly update the sitemap.xml file, especially after adding new content.
Anastasia Bystrova
Proper use of robots.txt and sitemap.xml files significantly improves SEO effectiveness by improving website visibility in search engines and facilitating faster content indexing.
Last Modified Header
Using the Last Modified header is important for SEO because it allows search engines to determine when the content on a page was last updated. This contributes to more up-to-date indexing of the site and can positively affect rankings. The Last Modified header informs search engines about the most recent content changes, making the crawling process more efficient and helping to avoid re-indexing unchanged pages. This improves the site’s interaction with search engines, benefiting SEO promotion.
Adding Schema Markup
To implement Schema.org markup in WordPress, there are various plugins such as All In One Schema Rich Snippets or Schema Pro that simplify adding structured data without manually editing the HTML of each page. These plugins provide a user-friendly interface for selecting data types and automatically generate the corresponding markup supported by search engines. Implementing schema markup improves search engines’ understanding of your site’s content, leading to higher rankings and more attractive search results, which increases click-through rates and user engagement.
Metadata for Social Networks
Metadata for social networks plays a key role in promoting your WordPress site by enhancing its visualization and informativeness when pages are shared on social media. Include the following elements for optimization:
- Open Graph (OG) tags for Facebook to control the page title, description, and image.
- Twitter Cards for representing pages as cards with images and brief descriptions.
- Rich Pins for Pinterest to display more detailed content.
Plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack automatically add these metadata tags, making your content more appealing and helping increase traffic from social networks.
File Caching
File caching in WordPress is a crucial aspect for speeding up your site, which is important for promoting blogs and websites. Effective caching reduces page load times, improving user experience and SEO metrics. To implement caching, you can use plugins such as W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache, which automatically optimize site resource caching. This helps improve site speed, positively impacting search engine rankings and contributing to successful promotion.
Image Optimization
Image optimization is an important part of SEO on WordPress. Here’s how to do it:
- Compress images: Use plugins like Smush or TinyPNG to reduce file size without losing quality.
- Proper file naming: Name images with keywords reflecting their content.
- Use alt texts: Include descriptive alt texts with keywords for better search engine understanding.
- Choose the right format: Use PNG for graphics with fewer colors and JPEG for photos.
- Lazy loading: Implement lazy loading for images to improve page load times.
These steps will help improve your website’s loading speed and ranking, ensuring better optimisation for search engines.
Current Plugins for SEO Optimization in WordPress
There are many plugins available in WordPress for SEO optimization that help improve your website’s visibility in search engines. Below, we will review some of the most popular and effective plugins, offering a wide range of features from metadata management to content analysis.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugins for SEO optimization in WordPress. It offers user-friendly tools for managing metadata, creating sitemaps, analyzing content readability, and assisting with keyword optimization. The plugin also supports social metadata settings and provides detailed recommendations to improve your website’s SEO performance, making it more search engine-friendly.
All in One Seo Pack
All in One SEO Pack is another leading SEO plugin for WordPress that offers comprehensive features to optimize your website. It provides support for metadata configuration, XML sitemap generation, social media integration, and automatic notifications to search engines about site updates. The plugin is also beginner-friendly thanks to its intuitive interface and ease of use.
The SEO Framework
The SEO Framework is an automated SEO plugin designed to optimize your WordPress site without the need for extensive configuration. It offers a simple interface with minimal setup, making it an ideal choice for those who prefer a “set it and forget it” approach. The plugin automatically generates metadata and provides recommendations to improve SEO based on best practices.
Rank Math
Rank Math is an innovative SEO plugin for WordPress that offers deep integration with Google Search Console and advanced content analysis tools. It makes managing metadata, optimizing keywords, and tracking your site’s SEO performance easy, thanks to its intuitive interface and automatic recommendations for improving SEO metrics.
Clearfy Pro
Clearfy Pro is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance site performance, security, and SEO. It offers a wide range of optimization tools, including metadata management, removal of unnecessary code from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as improving page loading speed. Clearfy Pro helps make your site faster, more secure, and more search-engine-friendly, simplifying optimization settings management through a unified interface.
WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache is a caching plugin for WordPress that dramatically speeds up page load times by reducing server response time. It generates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress content, lessening the server load and improving overall site performance for both visitors and search engines.
Effective SEO Optimization for Your WordPress Site
In this article, we’ve discussed the key aspects of SEO optimization for WordPress websites. Proper application of these methods and tools will help improve your site’s search ranking and increase its traffic.
Don’t hesitate to experiment and choose the solutions that best fit your needs. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires time and consistent effort. You can also partner with our professional team and take advantage of SEO promotion services from SEO Lebedev, where you’ll find additional resources and support for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions on SEO for WordPress
- Do I need SEO optimization if I’m using WordPress?
Yes. WordPress is SEO‑friendly out of the box, but it still requires manual configuration: setting up URL structure, metadata, caching, image optimization, and installing the right plugins. - Which plugins are best for SEO on WordPress?
The most popular are Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All in One SEO Pack. They let you configure meta tags, generate sitemaps, manage robots.txt, improve readability, and much more. - How do I properly set up human‑readable URLs (permalinks) in WordPress?
Go to Settings → Permalinks, choose the Post name or Category/Post name structure, and avoid special characters or numbers in your page URLs. - Which is more important: robots.txt or sitemap.xml?
Both are crucial. robots.txt restricts indexing of pages you don’t want crawled, while sitemap.xml helps search engines discover new content faster. Configure and update both regularly. - How can I improve my WordPress site’s speed?
Use caching plugins (W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache), compress images (Smush, TinyPNG), disable unnecessary scripts, implement lazy loading, and choose a lightweight theme. - Does schema markup affect SEO?
Yes. Schema.org markup helps search engines understand your content and enhances your appearance in the results (e.g., star ratings, prices, authors). You can add it via plugins like Schema Pro. - How can I make sure my site is visible to Google?
First, check that the “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” box is unchecked in Settings → Reading. Then add your site to Google Search Console and verify its indexing status. - Can I promote my WordPress site on my own?
Yes—especially using the available SEO plugins. However, for consistent, long‑term results, it’s best to conduct a full SEO audit and adopt a comprehensive strategy that includes SEO copywriting, analytics, and link building.
