SEO checklist for your WordPress website

Want to grow organically? The best thing you can do is optimize your website for SEO. You can easily do that by having a proper WordPress SEO checklist. This will be easier as you just need to tick off the things that you have already done.

Therefore, we are here with the SEO checklist for your WordPress website. You can simply follow the list and make sure all the things are done.

Choose a Good Hosting Provider – WordPress SEO checklist

The first thing in your SEO checklist is the hosting provider. You will have to make sure that you are using a good hosting provider. It’s an important thing that most people forget to tick. If you are not using good hosting, Google might never rank your website. There are multiple reasons for this. The first one is speed and the next thing is that the servers might be marked as spam by Google if the hosting is not repeated. This will cause damage to your website as your website is on the same server.

SSL

SSL certificate is next on the checklist. Once you choose a good hosting provider, you will get an SSL certificate too. Not all the hosting provides free SSL but most of them do. If that’s the case, you can easily set up the SSL. SSL will cover the regular HTTP to HTTPS. With that, you will get extra security well as it will help you in ranking the website. Please note that you will also have to test the website a couple of times before you get to go to the next point in the checklist.

Site URL and Permalinks

Site URL is especially for the people who have different website URL and a different WordPress URL. In that case, you will have to make sure that you are using the correct form of the same. You can go to Settings > General and fix that. Along with this, permalinks are also a part that you will have to focus on. Head over to Settings > Permalinks and then you can change the permalinks type to “post name”. This will change the URLs of your website. This will be better for SEO.

Theme

You will then have to choose a good theme which you can trust. That’s the reason why you should use a reputed theme. When you use a reputed theme, you will always get an awesome SEO-friendly interface. However, the same thing doesn’t go with a random theme. The theme will decide the speed, appearance, and many other things. Many people think that there is only for appearance. However, there are a lot of other things that go inside it. You can surely work it out.

SEO Plugin – WordPress SEO checklist

If you are not using an SEO plugin, you are missing the most important point as per the SEO checklist. Using an SEO plugin is the first thing that you will have to do. When you have a good SEO plugin, you are almost there. The SEO plugin will help you configure your website and it will also help you with all the analysis. All the SEO plugins come with content analysis. In simpler words, it will analyze the content you have written, and then it will give you the rest of the SEO details such as keywords usage, etc. That brings us to another point.

Keyword Research

How we can forget keyword research when we are talking about SEO? When you consider SEO, keyword research plays a very important role here. If you have not done keyword research, you might never rank. Keyword research will tell you which are the right keywords for your website. For example, instead of ranking for “Dogfood”, you can try to rank for “Dog food in XYZ city”. You can archive it via keyword research. So, make sure you do a checklist with the keyword research for successful WordPress SEO optimization.

Caching

Caching is another important factor you need to see. With proper caching, your website will perform better. Caching is the process of storing the static page data in the cache memory. This will decrease the total number of requests sent to the server. If the number of server requests is less, your website will load at greater speed. Therefore, it’s important to do caching. This will show a huge difference on your website. So, you should surely do it.

Web Page Content – WordPress SEO traffic optimization checklist

Now, the next thing is to go with the content creation. Content creation is the place where you will have to add the text and the images as well. When you add both of these things to your website, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. You will need to keep in mind the number of words and the images as well. If you use all these things, you will surely rank the website. Further, you will also keep in mind the subheadings too. You can also create the content from the blogs as well, this brings us to another point.

Blogs

Blogs are another great point where you can provide value to the users. The blog will increase the number of visitors as they are coming to your website to find information it is an important part for improving traffic in your WordPress website and should be considered as important par of SEO checklist. For example, if your website is selling countertops, you can use add blogs where you can compare all types of countertops. People might be confused about many things. So, you can surely compare all the countertops. So, if people are searching for similar things, they will find your website. This will increase the number of visitors to your website.

Image Compression

Images are the main thing here. Well, it’s not just about the images. Instead, it’s more about compressing the images and then uploading them. If you directly upload it on the website, it will cause various troubles. Well, not trouble but it will cause a lot of load in your website. Huge images will take a lot of time in loading. So, you will have to keep in mind all these things. You can always use a compression plugin for the same.

ALT Tags

Along with the compression, you will also have to keep in mind the ALT tags. These are the tags used in images. Whenever you are using any ALT tags, you will have to note them down as per the keyword of the image. Whenever you upload an image and head over to the image properties, you will be asked to enter the ALT tag. Make sure you have entered it. You don’t need to worry about this more as when you install the SEO plugin, it will tell you about the changes needed. In this way, you can be sure that the ALT image is safe and intact.

Schema – WordPress SEO optimization checklist

Schema is also now an important thing to take care of. If you have not added schema, you should surely do it right now. The type of the schema will depend on the website you are working with. For example, if you are working with a blog, you can upload FAQ schema. In the same way, there are many types of schemas that you can try. You don’t need to ask for a thousand schema, you will just have to add the most important ones. Depending on the content you upload and depending on the website you will have. You can surely use the plugin for the same. Even some of the SEO plugins like Rank Math provides schema markup.

Meta Titles and Description

Meta titles and descriptions are the details that will show up in Google. When you search for something on Google, you will see the links where you can visit the website. Right below the website, you will see a small description of the website. That’s a meta description. You can easily use meta titles and descriptions. You can surely use the meta titles and description. Don’t forget to add it to all the pages like the home page and blog pages. Most people either forget the blog page or they forget about the home page. You will have to make sure that you have added both of them to your website. When you have added both of that, don’t forget to add the keywords its important for WordPress SEO optimization checklist.

Internal Linking and External Linking

Internal linking is the next thing which is to remember. If you forget about the internal linking, you will not be able to keep the visitors busy for a while. For example, if you have internal linking, you can easily keep the visitors rolling around your website. You will have to make sure that you have added all the links accessible. This doesn’t just apply to the content but also the menu. In the same way, you will also have to add the external linking to increase the authority of the website. Just like the backlinks, relevant external linking is important here.

AMP and Responsive

You will also have to make sure that your website has an AMP version of it’s responsive. AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. This is a new version which works on mobile phones. If your visitors are using mobile, they will see a faster version of the website in the AMP. AMP will remove some of the functionalities from the website. So, if that’s not applicable for you, you should make sure that the website is mobile-friendly. It should be accessible on all devices. If the mobile version is good, you are almost halfway there. In that case, you can surely use the AMP version or use the responsive website.

Google Search Console

Google search console is a solution provided by Google which allows you to see how Google sees your website. You can see if Google will rank the website or not. In simpler words, there is an option called to inspect the URL. This option will fetch the website as Google. So, if Google sees any problem on the page, it will show you here. In this way, you can know whether the page will rank or not. You can surely use the Google search console to find the average position of the website.

Submitting Website and Sitemap

Now comes the point that you should never forget. You will have to submit the website and sitemap to all the search engines and major directories. You can submit the website to Google by the search console. When you are inside the console, you can also submit a sitemap to the website. If you are doing all these things, you are almost halfway there. Now, you will have to submit the website to other search engines. You can also send the websites to the directories. Don’t use bulk submitter. Instead, you should do it manually.

Analytics – WordPress SEO tracking checklist

It’s important to add analytics to your website. Make sure you have a track of all the visitors who are visiting your website. You can use Google Analytics for the same. It will help you a lot.

Auditing and Monitoring

The last part is where you will have to conduct a complete SEO audit. When you complete the SEO audit, you will come to know about the things that need your attention. Depending on your website, there could be some of the things that no checklist will tell you. Your job is to make sure that everything is fine. In that case, you can surely conduct an adult. You can also use online tools to inspect your website and see the SEO score. Talking about tools, you can also start using some tools to check the speed of your website. Once everything is done, you will have to monitor your website and keep an eye on the rankings. You can change things depending on the ranking and the position of your website.

Final Words about WordPress SEO checklist

To conclude, these are the major points in any checklist that you will have to keep in mind. If you keep all these things into consideration, you have almost done your SEO. There might be a couple of things missing which you can easily do with the help of the audit.