A Simple WordPress SEO Checklist with 35 Must-Do Steps

SEO is not a one-page thing; it’s a whole book. When you start doing SEO, there are so many things that need to be done, some periodically, while others daily. Keeping track of every SEO task is difficult, so a checklist may be helpful.

As many of you prefer WordPress, we have created a detailed WordPress SEO checklist that you can follow blindly while doing your site’s SEO, and it would be enough to make your website and its content SEO-friendly. 

Why Create an SEO Checklist for WordPress?

Harmony and consistency matter a lot while improving SEO on WordPress. This platform is recognized as highly SEO-friendly. But choosing WordPress or installing a few SEO plugins does not guarantee you visibility and a high ranking. Every aspect and piece of content on your site should be SEO-optimized to help it rank at the top of the SERP.

There are several factors of SEO, like technical setup, content creation, off-site strategies, etc. Without a checklist, you can miss tasks or repeat inefficient practices. A well-structured checklist will make sure that every vital SEO element is covered. This helps you:

• Track progress and improvements
• Stay organized
• Save time by following a proven process
• Avoid SEO mistakes

Now let us show you the WordPress SEO checklist crafted by our SEO experts, which contains all the required steps and hacks that we have optimized with years of expertise in SEO optimization.

Basic WordPress SEO Setup Checklist

Do you know your SEO should start when you are thinking about creating a site, whether for selling things, providing services, or blogging? Yes, even the domain name you choose should be SEO-friendly. And after that, everything you do, from setting up your WordPress to launching it, needs to be passed through an SEO check.

This is what you should do:

1. Get an SEO-friendly Domain

A domain name is not just your representation, but it also helps search engines understand the purpose of your site. Consider a domain name that includes a keyword with potential to rank. Make it short, trustworthy, and easy to remember. Domains like cheapshoesonline.com used to rank well, but now may appear spammy; therefore, avoid them.

2. Choose an SEO-Friendly Hosting Provider

Your site’s speed depends greatly on your hosting provider, and it can impact SEO. Choose a reputable hosting provider that offers CDN integration and advanced security features.

3. Select a Lightweight, Responsive Theme

Use a reliable WordPress theme that follows SEO best practices. Look for these features:

• Fast loading
• Clean code
• SEO compatible
• Mobile responsive
• Schema ready
• Lightweight design
• Regular updates

4. Install Reliable SEO Plugins

Plugins make the work easy. There are numerous tasks in SEO that can be automated without requiring hours of manual effort, and SEO plugins are designed for this purpose. Trustworthy plugins are:

• Yoast SEO
• All in One SEO
• Rank Math

These WordPress SEO plugins help with on-page SEO, XML sitemaps, and more.

5. Set Permalinks to SEO-Friendly Structure

Use clean URLs that help both users and search engines understand your content, and ensure they don’t appear spammy.

• Go to Permalinks in the Settings tab
• Select the “Post name”
• Avoid default URLs with numbers or dates
• Keep URLs short and keyword-rich
• Use hyphens

6. Set Up Google Search Console

To track your site’s performance and how your keywords are doing on search engines, create an account and add your site to it. You can track:

• Search Performance
• Keywords/Queries driving traffic
• Indexed Pages and coverage status
• Crawl Errors and indexing issues
• Mobile Usability Problems

7. Enable XML Sitemaps

Use your SEO plugin (such as Yoast SEO) to generate an XML sitemap, and then submit it to Google Search Console. Keep the sitemap updated automatically with new content and ensure it includes all the pages and excludes irrelevant ones.

8. Set Up Google Analytics

You likely want to know how people are using your site to craft your next strategy, and Google Analytics can help you with that. With this useful tool, you can track:

• User Traffic
• Audience Demographics
• Behavior Flow
• Traffic Sources
• Device & Browser Info
• Engagement Metrics
• Conversions & Goals
• Real-Time Data

9. Install Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing is less popular than Google, but it has not gone extinct. Therefore, optimizing your site from every aspect will not harm, but only benefit, even if it’s a minor one. So, set up BWT to get some valuable data and optimize your site according to it.

Technical SEO Checklist

After setting up your site and linking it with Search Console and Analytics, your site is ready to perform. But it is still not prepared to make a mark on search engines. This was just the beginning, and the next step is to do the technical SEO, and here is a checklist for this: 

10. Implement SSL and HTTPS

Security is vital for your site. Secure your website to gain Google’s trust and protect user data.

• Get an SSL certificate 
• Enable HTTPS to encrypt data transfer
• Update all URLs to HTTPS

11. Optimize Site Speed

The slower your site loads, the greater the visitors you will lose. So, make it load faster by compressing images, enabling caching, using a CDN, and minimizing CSS/JS files. And, as discussed earlier, selecting a lightweight theme is also crucial for improving site speed.

12. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

Do you know Google prioritizes sites that are mobile-friendly? Moreover, 70% of your users search on mobile. These two reasons are sufficient to demonstrate the importance of making your site mobile-friendly. Test your site on all types of devices and make sure it is responsive.

13. Fix Broken Links and Redirects

When you delete or move a page, it creates a broken link, which hurts the SEO. Check for 404 errors when making changes to your links, and set up 301 redirects. A plugin like Redirection can be used for easy management of broken links.

14. Enable Breadcrumb Navigation

One aspect of SEO is to make your site’s navigation easy, and breadcrumbs are a way to do it. They explain your site structure and help search engines understand your pages, so implement them. 

Keyword Research Checklist

Keywords are the soul of your digital presence. Without them, your site would be like a ship lost in the sea of the internet. There is no point in creating a site when your audience doesn’t know where it is. To guide the visitors to your WordPress site, Keywords work like a map. So, keyword research must be done correctly if you want the SEO to work for you.

15. Identify Target Keywords

You know your domain, your target keyword, and what your audience wants, so now find the relevant keywords with good search volume and low competition. For this, use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush.

16. Analyze Competitor Keywords

Research your competitor’s keywords at which they rank so that you can outrank them. To spy on your competitors, use SEMrush, and you will know what to do next. It’s simple. Take their place!

17. Start With Long-Tail Keyword

Keywords with more than two words have less competition and are easier to rank for. At the beginning, using these keywords would be to your advantage, as these queries are more targeted, so you will have visitors who are ready to convert. 

18. Use Question-based Keywords 

Do you know that half of the searches on Google are question-based, with most of them starting with ‘How’? Interesting, right? Now, what if we use this thing to our advantage? This can be achieved by adding relevant FAQs, appearing in rich snippets, and providing detailed answers to the most frequently asked questions within your content.

19. Group Keywords by Intent

Segment keywords based on user intent: informational, navigational, or transactional. Then, create content that users find valuable and search engines find authentic.

Content Creation Checklist

Search engines crawl and index your website based on the content you have. Without good content, there’s nothing for crawlers to crawl. This shows how important your content is for SEO. So, while writing content, here is what you must follow:

20. Create Original Content

The originality in your content can take you to the top. Moreover, write content that answers your audience’s questions better than your competitors. So, instead of paraphrasing what others have published or pasting AI content, research different articles and case studies to merge all the relevant information in a very precise way.

21. Optimize Content Length and Structure

Longer, well-structured posts with headings (H1, H2, H3) perform better in search results. Break text into short paragraphs and add bullet points when you are listing multiple things, so users do not have difficulty reading.

22. Use Keywords Naturally

Gone are the days when keyword-rich content was the best content. Now, the proper use of keywords holds much significance. Incorporate target keywords into titles, headings, and body text without stuffing them.

23. Add LSI Keywords

Other than your target keywords, try to add synonyms or relevant words that people can use instead of the specific phrase. Google now understands the synonyms as well, so it can rank your content for relevant searches. There is no need to use the same word repeatedly.

24. Add Your Keyword in the first 150 Words

Try to place your keyword in the first paragraph of your content so it appears relevant to both Google and the user. Do not stuff it and use only if it fits. Also, add your keyword in the last paragraph of your content.

25. Make Your Content Readable

Mostly, people define readability as dividing your paragraph into chunks and making your lines shorter. This is right, but that is not the complete definition of readability. Your content is considered readable when it makes sense to a person when they first read it, effortlessly. 

26. Write an Attractive Introduction

The introduction is a weapon that can be used to grab the visitor’s attention. If this portion of your content fails to impress the reader, there is a high likelihood that they will leave. Try to write an introduction that clearly states the problem the reader seeks to solve, and also explain how you plan to address it. Your introduction should be relevant to the query and must be written clearly and concisely.

On-Page SEO Checklist

Once you have researched the keywords and created the content, the next step is to post it on your site. This is where on-page SEO in WordPress starts. Everything from creating the post to publishing it comes under this category. Following is the checklist for on-page SEO.

27. Strategically Place Keywords

Other than content, your focus keyword should be in the meta title, meta description, URL, and alt text of images. Add secondary keywords in the subheading while using LSI keywords in the content.

28. Write Compelling Metas

Your SEO Title and the description are the only things that will be shown on SERP, and these are the phrases people see. If you want to get clicks, make your metas compelling. Additionally, these should be exactly related to the search query.

29. Add Internal and Outbound Links

Link your already published pages that are relevant to the content. Try to link those pages that are performing well. In addition to this, include relevant links from reputable external sites. Only add those links that are fresh and make sure they open in another tab.

30. Strategize Content in Clusters

While uploading content on your site, follow the topic cluster scheme. It includes subpages that have specific topics about a certain niche, and then a pillar page, which summarizes all the subpages under one topic. Internal link subpages to the pillar page to build topical authority.

31. Tags and Categories

These two sections are mostly ignored but hold primary importance. They group your content together. In WordPress, tags are the labels that are added to a post to highlight important words in the content. Categories typically define the niche of your content, and they are effective if your site publishes content from multiple categories.

32. Optimize Your Images

Image SEO in WordPress is as important as the content. For this:

• Name the image file with a relevant keyword
• Use the right format
• Compress to <100Kb
• Add Alt Text
• Add Caption (if required)

Off-Page SEO Checklist

Off-page SEO is typically done last, but it’s important. This SEO is done outside of your site but helps promote your site and make it look trustworthy. 

33. Build Quality Backlinks

Earn backlinks from authoritative sites through guest posts, partnerships, and quality content. Contribute your articles to reputable sites in your niche and earn backlinks to build authority.

34. Engage on Social Media

Social media is everywhere, and you can use it to make yourself visible. Promote your content and build relationships with your audience on social platforms. Post daily about your services, engaging content, and client reviews, to make people think you are active and trustworthy.

35. Encourage Testimonials

Get positive reviews from your clients or visitors to improve your site’s trustworthiness and local SEO. On your blog, make a comment section. If you are a store, email your buyers to leave a review on Google and your site. Offer a mini reward to encourage them.

Now Start Your SEO With This Checklist!

SEO is a lengthy process, but no worries because now you have a detailed WordPress SEO checklist with over 30 steps to put you on the right path. Start by setting up your site, then proceed to technical, keyword research, content, on-page, and off-page strategies. Regularly track your progress and optimize your approach to achieve improved rankings.

Explore our blog section to get more WordPress SEO tips to conquer the search engines!