How to Increase SEO on WordPress

Your WordPress website is live, but your traffic, rankings, and leads are not where they should be. Increasing SEO on WordPress is not about one magic plugin — it’s a repeatable checklist of settings, content improvements, speed wins, and internal links that all work together.

In this guide, you will walk through a practical action plan you can apply to an existing WordPress site. You will tighten your core settings, configure an SEO plugin correctly, improve key pages and posts, and set up a simple process to keep SEO improving over time.

If you are brand new to search engine optimization, it can help to quickly review what SEO means in a WordPress context before you start working through this checklist.

Prerequisites

Before you start changing SEO settings, make sure you have the right access and safety nets in place. Most of these steps are done inside your WordPress dashboard.

• Administrator access to your WordPress site (you can install and configure plugins).
• Access to your hosting control panel or support in case something goes wrong.
• A recent full backup of your site (files and database) so you can roll back if needed.
• Basic familiarity with the WordPress dashboard (Settings, Posts, Pages, Plugins).

Step 1: Fix Your Core WordPress SEO Settings

WordPress can be very SEO-friendly, but only when the core settings are configured correctly. This step ensures that you are not accidentally blocking search engines and that your URLs are clean and readable.

1. Check your site title and tagline.
   • In WordPress, go to Settings > General.
   • Set a clear Site Title that includes your brand and primary topic (for example, “Smith Dental Clinic – Family Dentist in Manila”).
   • Use a short, descriptive Tagline or leave it blank if your SEO plugin will manage titles.
2. Make sure your site is visible to search engines.
   • Go to Settings > Reading.
   • Scroll to Search Engine Visibility.
   • Ensure that “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is not checked.
   Warning: Leaving “Discourage search engines” checked will keep your site out of Google’s index, even if everything else is configured perfectly.
   • Go to Settings > Permalinks.
   • Select Post name as your permalink structure.
   • Save changes to update your URL pattern.Use SEO-friendly permalinks.

1. Confirm your site uses HTTPS.
   • In Settings > General, check that both WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) start with https://.
   • If not, ask your host to install an SSL certificate and update the URLs, or use a plugin to help handle the replacements.

When you finish this step, your WordPress URLs should be clean (no dates or random IDs), your site should be indexable, and you should be serving pages over HTTPS.

Step 2: Install and Configure a WordPress SEO Plugin

WordPress core does not manage SEO titles, meta descriptions, or advanced schema on its own. A dedicated SEO plugin gives you the tools to control how your pages appear in Google and other search engines.

1. Choose one SEO plugin.
   • From your dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
   • Search for a major SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All in One SEO.
   • Install and activate one SEO plugin only — do not run multiple SEO plugins on the same site.

   For help comparing options, see our overview of the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools.

2. Complete the setup wizard.
   • Most SEO plugins launch a setup wizard after activation.
   • Select your site type (Blog, Business, Online Store) and whether you are a company or a person.
   • Make sure the plugin is allowed to create XML sitemaps and control your titles and meta descriptions.
3. Set default title templates.
   • In your SEO plugin settings, find Search Appearance or a similar section.
   • Define templates for posts and pages, such as Post Title | Site Name.
   • Keep titles readable and under ~60 characters when possible.
4. Configure indexing rules.
   • Use the plugin’s options to decide whether to index categories, tags, and archives.
   • For small sites, it is usually best to index main categories but noindex thin or duplicate archives.

Step 3: Optimize Your Existing Content for Target Keywords

Now that your global settings and SEO plugin are configured, it’s time to optimize the content that actually ranks. Start with the 10–20 most important pages and posts on your site — your homepage, key services, and best-performing blog articles.

1. Assign a primary keyword to each important page.
   • Identify what people should type into Google to find each page (for example, “wedding photographer Cebu” or “WordPress speed optimization checklist”).
   • Use simple keyword tools or even Google’s autocomplete suggestions to refine your phrasing.
2. Update the SEO title and meta description.
   • Open the page or post in the WordPress editor.
   • Scroll to your SEO plugin panel (below the content editor).
   • Set a clear, benefit-focused SEO title that includes your keyword near the beginning.
   • Write a compelling meta description (up to ~155–160 characters) that summarizes the page and encourages clicks.
3. Improve your on-page content structure.
   • Ensure each page has exactly one H1 heading (usually the post title).
   • Break your content into logical sections using H2 and H3 headings.
   • Include your main keyword in at least one H2 and in the first 100–150 words of the content.
4. Optimize images for SEO.
   • Give image files descriptive names before uploading (for example, wedding-ceremony-cebu.jpg).
   • Set alt text that describes the image and, where natural, includes your keyword.
   • Keep image file sizes small to avoid slowing down your pages.

Step 4: Improve Speed and Mobile Experience

Google uses speed and user experience signals (including Core Web Vitals) as ranking factors. A slow WordPress site will struggle to reach the top positions, no matter how good your content is.

1. Audit your current performance.
   • Run your homepage and a few key pages through a performance testing tool such as PageSpeed Insights or a similar service.
   • Note metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
2. Enable caching and page optimization.
   • Install a caching plugin if your host does not provide one.
   • Enable page caching, browser caching, and minification for CSS and JavaScript (test features gradually to avoid breaking layouts).
   • Clear the cache and re-test your pages to compare improvements.
3. Optimize images and media.
   • Compress large images and convert to modern formats where possible.
   • Use appropriate dimensions so you are not loading huge images in small containers.
   • Enable lazy loading so images below the fold load as the user scrolls.
4. Check mobile usability.
   • View your site on several mobile devices and screen sizes.
   • Ensure buttons, menus, and forms are easy to use on touch screens.
   • If a lot of visitors use mobile, prioritize fixing any layout or font-size issues there first.

Step 5: Build Strong Internal Links Across Your Content

Internal links connect your articles together so both visitors and search engines can navigate your content easily. A strong internal linking structure can significantly increase the SEO value of your existing posts and pages.

1. Identify your “pillar” pages.
   • List your key service pages or in-depth guides that you want to rank highly.
   • These will become the hubs that other related posts point to.
2. Add contextual links while editing content.
   • Open a relevant post in the editor.
   • Highlight a phrase that describes another article you want to link to.
   • Click the link icon in the toolbar and search for the target post by title to insert the link.
3. Use descriptive anchor text.
   • Avoid generic phrases like “click here”.
   • Instead, use descriptive anchors such as “WordPress speed optimization checklist” or “local SEO for small businesses”.
4. Follow best-practice internal linking patterns.
   • Link up from smaller supporting posts to your main pillar pages.
   • Link across between related posts in the same topic cluster.
   • Review our detailed guide on internal linking strategies for WordPress to build a more advanced structure over time.

Step 6: Track SEO Results With Analytics and Search Console

SEO improvements take time, and you need data to understand what is working. Connecting your WordPress site to analytics and Google Search Console lets you see which pages bring traffic and which keywords drive clicks.

1. Confirm your analytics setup.
   • Ensure Google Analytics (or a similar tool) is properly installed on your site via a plugin or theme settings.
   • Check that pageview data is coming in for key pages in real time or for the current day.
2. Set up Google Search Console.
   • Add your site as a property in Google Search Console.
   • Verify ownership using DNS, HTML file upload, or an HTML tag.
   • Submit your XML sitemap URL generated by your SEO plugin.
3. Create a simple monthly SEO review routine.
   • Each month, review which pages gained or lost traffic.
   • Note new keywords that are generating impressions but low clicks.
   • Plan small improvements (better titles, more internal links, fresh content) based on these insights.

Keep Improving Your WordPress SEO Over Time

Increasing SEO on WordPress is not a one-time task; it’s an ongoing process of improving your settings, content, performance, and link structure. By working through this checklist, you’ve created a stronger foundation for search engines to understand and trust your site.

From here, keep publishing helpful content, refining your internal links, and monitoring performance every month. As you repeat this cycle, your rankings, traffic, and conversions will steadily grow — and WordPress will become a powerful driver of new business for you.

Further Reading

• How to Improve Google Ranking on WordPress
• WordPress SEO Complete Beginner’s Guide
• How to Add Keywords in WordPress Without Hurting Your SEO
• How to Optimize Images for WordPress
• WordPress Speed Optimization Checklist

Frequently Asked Questions