WordPress is a good platform for SEO out of the box, but a handful of settings decide whether a new site gets indexed cleanly or spends months fighting avoidable problems. This guide goes through them in the order you should check them, whether you are launching a new site or taking over an existing one.
The example is Bean & Barrel Coffee, a fictional roaster with a WordPress and WooCommerce store selling coffee beans and brewing gear.
Step 1: Make sure search engines are allowed in
Go to Settings > Reading and find Search engine visibility. The box labeled “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” must be unchecked on a live site.
Developers often tick it while building, and it gets forgotten at launch. When it is ticked, WordPress tells search engines not to index the site. It is the single most common reason a new WordPress site gets no search traffic at all.
If you use a staging site, keep it out of search with password protection rather than relying on this box, and never copy the staging database over production without checking the setting afterward.
Step 2: Pick one domain version and use HTTPS
Your site should load on exactly one version of its address, for example https://beanandbarrel.com. The others (http://, www.) should redirect to it with a single 301 redirect.
- In Settings > General, the WordPress Address and Site Address should both use
https://and your chosen version. - Test the other versions with the free redirect checker. You want one hop, not a chain.
- Fix any “mixed content” (images or scripts still loading over
http://), which causes browser warnings.
Step 3: Set your permalinks
Go to Settings > Permalinks and choose Post name. URLs become /pour-over-brewing-guide/ instead of /?p=123.
Readable URLs are clearer for people and give search engines a small hint about the page. If you are changing permalinks on an existing site, every old URL needs a 301 redirect to its new address, or you will lose the rankings those pages had. On an established site, it is often safer to leave a working structure alone.
Step 4: Install one SEO plugin, and only one
WordPress does not manage titles, meta descriptions or schema in detail on its own. An SEO plugin does. The most widely used are Rank Math, Yoast SEO and SEOPress. All three handle the basics well; pick the one you or your team find easiest.
Do not run two SEO plugins at once. They output duplicate tags, conflicting canonical tags and two sitemaps. If you are switching, use the new plugin’s import tool, then deactivate the old one.
Once installed, configure:
- Title templates. Set a sensible default for posts, pages, products and categories, such as
%title% | Bean & Barrel Coffee. Then write custom title tags for your important pages. - Meta descriptions for the homepage, main categories and top pages. See meta description.
- Your organization details: business name, logo and social profiles, which feed into schema.
Step 5: Set up the sitemap
WordPress has created a basic sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml since version 5.5. When you install an SEO plugin, it usually replaces it with its own (for example /sitemap_index.xml).
Check that the XML sitemap:
- includes your posts, pages, products and the categories you want indexed;
- excludes things you have set to noindex;
- does not list redirected or deleted URLs.
You will submit it to Search Console in step 9.
Step 6: Decide which archives should be indexed
WordPress creates many archive pages automatically: categories, tags, author pages, date archives and attachment pages. Most of them add little value in search and can create thin or duplicate content.
A sensible default for most business sites:
- Categories: index them if they are useful landing pages (on Bean & Barrel, “Espresso beans” and “Decaf” are real categories people search for). Give them an introduction so they are not just a list of links.
- Tags: noindex, unless you use a small, curated set.
- Author archives: noindex on single-author sites, since they duplicate the blog.
- Date archives: noindex.
- Attachment pages: WordPress 6.4 and later turns these off on new installs. On older sites, check that image attachment pages redirect to the file or the parent post. Most SEO plugins have a setting for this.
- Internal search results: never indexed.
All three SEO plugins let you set these per content type.
Step 7: Check robots.txt
WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt file that blocks /wp-admin/ while allowing the AJAX file themes and plugins need. That default is fine.
What to avoid:
- Blocking
/wp-content/or/wp-includes/. Google needs your CSS and JavaScript to render the page properly. - Blocking AI search crawlers by accident, through robots.txt or a security plugin, if you want to appear in ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude answers.
Test with the free robots.txt checker and AI crawler checker. More on the file in our robots.txt entry.
Step 8: Add schema markup
Your SEO plugin adds basic schema (Organization or Person, WebSite, WebPage, Article). WooCommerce adds Product schema to product pages. Check that:
- the organization name, logo and URL are correct;
- local businesses use LocalBusiness or a more specific type, with address, phone and hours;
- product schema includes price, availability and reviews where you have them.
The free schema generator creates JSON-LD you can add if your plugin does not cover something. Read more in schema markup.
Step 9: Connect Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
- Verify the site in Google Search Console (a DNS record is the most reliable method, and covers every version of the domain).
- Submit your sitemap.
- Do the same in Bing Webmaster Tools. Bing’s index also feeds other search and AI products, and you can import your setup from Search Console.
- Use the URL Inspection tool on your homepage and one key page to confirm Google can fetch and render them.
Step 10: Get the speed basics right
WordPress speed depends mostly on hosting, theme, plugins and images.
- Hosting: cheap shared hosting is the most common cause of slow WordPress sites. Server response time affects everything else.
- Theme: lightweight themes and the block editor are generally faster than heavy multipurpose themes with sliders and bundled page builders.
- Plugins: deactivate and delete what you do not use. Each active plugin can add scripts to every page.
- Images: compress them and use modern formats. WordPress supports WebP since 5.8 and AVIF since 6.5. Resize large uploads before they go in the media library.
- Lazy loading and priority: WordPress lazy-loads images by default and, since 6.3, adds
fetchpriority="high"to the image it expects to be the largest. Check that your main hero image is not lazy-loaded, since that delays Largest Contentful Paint. - Caching: use your host’s caching or a well-supported caching plugin.
Then check your Core Web Vitals in Search Console after a few weeks of real traffic.
Step 11: Build a clear structure with internal links
- Use a menu that reflects your main sections.
- Turn on breadcrumbs (most SEO plugins include them) so visitors and search engines see where each page sits.
- Link from blog posts to the related product, category or service pages. Bean & Barrel links its “How to brew pour over” guide to the pour over kit and its light roast category.
- Find pages with no internal links pointing to them and fix them.
Step 12: Keep it maintained
- Update WordPress, themes and plugins regularly, and test major updates on staging first.
- Remove unused themes and plugins.
- Re-check Search Console’s Pages report monthly for new errors.
- Run a full audit after redesigns, theme changes and migrations. See how to do an SEO audit.
How RankThat fits in
RankThat’s Site Audit runs 100+ checks on any site, including the settings above. On WordPress, the free RankThat Bridge plugin can then apply many fixes for you after you review them: SEO titles and descriptions in Rank Math, Yoast or SEOPress, redirects for broken pages, schema, image alt text and compression, LCP image priority, internal links to orphan pages, AI crawler rules in robots.txt and more. Every change can be undone in one click, and the plugin works behind firewalls because it pulls changes rather than waiting for RankThat to push them.
See the WordPress Bridge page or the WordPress solution for details.