The Definitive Guide to SEO for WordPress

I love WordPress! Seriously, I love it. I have used it since its first versions, and as it has evolved, I have evolved with it.

It has made my life so much easier in the development of projects, that I do not have enough words to thank its creators for what it means to me.

That is why I have decided to write this SEO guide for WordPress. To help all those who want to use this magnificent software to carry out their web projects. As you will see, it is perfect for applying On-page SEO techniques. It makes everything easy and simple, even for those who have no idea of ​​programming.

In this guide I explain all the SEO points that must be taken into account when working in WordPres, modifications that must be made to the basic installation, the best plugins for each point, and recommended best practices.

WordPress is constantly evolving, that is, I will keep this guide updated as new versions come out, so that it always serves as a reference. It is currently for version 3.0.4.

So, without further ado… Let’s get started!

1. Basic optimization

A newly installed WordPress is already very, very good for indexing. At least more than most CMS out there. However, we can still improve it. Let’s see how.

1.1 friendly URLs

This is the first thing that needs to be changed. The appearance of the URLs, so that they are friendly. In other words, instead of a mess of numbers and letters, they are interesting descriptive words. We must change the default structure to the following:

I usually use the structure /%postname%/. If you’d rather see the category of the post in the URL as well, type /%category%/%postname%/.

If you make these changes to an existing website, I recommend that you install the plugin, so that search engines do not deindex the existing URLs. This plugin is great, as it automatically creates 301 redirects for you when a URL changes.

1.2 Put “www” or not?

Does not matter. Choose one of the two possibilities, but choose one. In my case, I don’t use the “www”, I prefer the structure “https://”. Less is more. To make this change, you must go to Options -> General, and modify the following fields:

If you change this option and save, it will kill everything. But calm down, or nothing happens. It’s just that the URL has changed, and your browser has still directed you to the previous version. Simply access the control panel again and you will see that everything is fine.

1.3 Put the / at the end of the URL?

The same as with the www. Does not matter. Choose if you want to put a / at the end of the URL, but above all, that the same page cannot be accessed in both ways. More information in the article “”

1.4 Sitemaps

I don’t understand how WordPress still doesn’t have this option by default. A sitemap is a file, usually called “sitemap.xml” that contains a list of each and every one of the pages of your website that you want to index.

There is a fantastic plugin called that takes care of generating that file and keeping it updated every time you write a new post. It also allows you to select exactly which pages you want to place, and is responsible for notifying search engines every time you update your website.

Attention! What you choose here should match point , since the pages you have on your sitemap are supposed to be the ones you want to index.

1.5 Speed ​​of loading

I have talked about the speed of loading several times. More information can be found in the article “” and in “”. Follow the tips.

At the particular level of WordPress, we can use the plugin, which converts .php files to static .html, which loads much faster.

Another factor to take into account is having a good accommodation. Sometimes, to save a few euros, we lose much more than we think. I use the hosting of , which at the price-quality level is the best there is.

2. Code optimization

2.1 Clean up excess code

The WordPress code is full of requests to the database that in most cases we can save, since it always returns the same value. Let’s see an example with the definition of the language and the encoding. The code that comes in the template is the following:

>

Thus we improve the loading speed and save a couple of requests to the database. To find out what values ​​we should place, we can consult the source code of the page, where we will see those same lines, which we only have to copy in their corresponding place in the code.

There are many other requests that we can save, substituting the query for its direct value. The most common are:

2.2 Headers (

,

, etc.)

This should be set up well by the default template, but it’s worth checking. Make sure that the

is the name of the blog on the homepage, and the custom title that you decide on the rest of the pages (see point 1.2). You can modify it in the single.php and page.php files.

Category descriptions should be used. Really!

2.3 Page titles (TITLE tag)

By default, WordPress creates a title of the style:

Blog Name » Blog Archive » Post Title

This can be improved, since search engines give more importance to the first words of the title, and the same with users, who read the first words first, as is logical. Any SEO plugin will let you change that structure. You can use the , for example. I recommend the following structures:

• For posts: Post title | blog name
• Categories: Category | blog name
• Tags: Tag | blog name
• Archives: Blog Name Archives

2.4 Descriptions (META Description tag)

With the same plugin that you control the titles, you can control the meta description tag, although it does serve to convince the user to click, since that text is what appears in the search results. Make sure that not only the posts and pages have a description, but also the categories. You can edit them in Entries -> Categories:

Do not use plugins that generate automatic descriptions. They are shit. For that, better do nothing. It is almost better that you let Google place what it wants. More information in .

2.5 Images (ALT and TITLE)

There has been so much talk about how to optimize images, which is already a bit tiresome. But it is true that it is increasingly common for images to appear in the . So we have to do it right.

For starters, the “alt” and “title” attributes of the tag. We must be consistent with the file name, which must be relevant, of the type name-of-the-image.jpg. We can’t over-optimize either, or Google will pick up on it. Above all, it must be coherent and relevant. oh! Don’t forget about your website, with the and XML tags.

If it bothers you to have to keep doing it (which would be the best), there are some plugins that do it automatically for you, placing TITLE and ALT variations of the post title.

2.6 The styles in the .CSS

All your styles must be in .css files. Usually “style.css“. Don’t use styles on the templates page, with the attribute style=”whatever:talycual;”, because users can load it in cache, which makes the web faster, and search engines don’t even have to load them, which which makes it even faster.

3. Links and internal navigation

3.1 Contextual links

It is very important to link the internal pages of the web with relevance to each other. I explain. If I make a post that talks about the usefulness of the Description tag, and after three weeks one about how to force Google to use that same tag, it’s worth manually including a link between them, inside the article. In this way, the themes are grouped conceptually, and Google sees more clearly “what the web is about”.

There are some plugins, like the , that do it automatically. It is not a bad idea to use them, as long as it is also done manually within the content of the post, since Google values ​​that link more. The best thing about this type of plugins is that sometimes they find a post that you didn’t even remember having written… it must be that I’m old 😉

3.1 Sidebar

One of the main sins we commit in the sidebar (or bars), is to put too much information, and also is usually the same on all pages. Is it worth having the blogroll visible all the time?

These links are called wide links, that is, “wide link”, since it is repeated in each and every one of the web pages. In other words, if our website has 500 pages, we will have 500 links to the same website. And Google has already discounted their importance for a long time, and they may even be a reason for suspicion of illegal strategies.

Also, the more external links you place, the more chances the user will leave. In other words, if you want to link to someone, do it on the home page, or on a special page for that.

And as far as the relevance of the content of the page with those links is concerned, it is zero. The same goes for that “files” section. Do you really think anyone would be interested in going to look at the “July 2007” posts? Nobody or will, and Google only complicate life. Or it was.

3.2 Exploration routes

The Exploration Routes (breadcrumbs or breadcrumbs) They are a line of words that is usually displayed at the top of the web that tells you where you are. It usually looks something like this:

You are in: Home > Category > Article

This prevents the user from getting lost, and helps search engines understand the structure of your web page. The best plugin in respect, is without a doubt.

3.3 Internal search engine

The WordPress search engine sucks. It is one of his weak points, and always will be. And it is that making a search engine is not easy at all. In fact, it is very, very difficult. very complicated That’s why I recommend removing it, and using a much better search engine. Maybe it sounds like you. It’s called Google.

Yes, exactly. You can use the king of search engines to search within your blog, without leaving it, thanks to a free Google service that allows you to place a search engine within your website, using its search technology. Let’s see how it is integrated into my website:

To use it you must register at , and install the . A 5-minute job that will fix this aspect forever.

4. Duplicate content

This is one of the worst problems of any web page. And if not set up right, WordPress can be a source of duplicate content.

First of all, we must understand what duplicate content is. The idea is easy. If Google can “read” the same…