SEO Checklist for WordPress

This morning a friend asked me on WhatsApp: "Do you have any WordPress SEO checklists you could recommend?". I do have one, but it's only in my head, I thought .

I could search for one online and send it to him, or I could write down what I use (which until now was only in my head) and send it to him via WhatsApp. But then I thought: this could be good content for the blog, and other people probably have the same question. So I decided to write this text:

Contents

WordPress SEO checklist for your website

Here I will write what my experience working with SEO and over 20 years creating websites have led me to gather:

How do I create a new, already optimized WordPress website?
How to create an already optimized WordPress blog?

SEO task list with optimizations into 6 areas:

Choosing hosting and servers
Setting up the basic configurations
Selecting the plugins
Using visual editors
Improvements to images, JavaScript, and CSS.
Keeping your WordPress up to date

And as always, this post will become outdated as WordPress is updated, so if you see something that no longer makes sense, let me know in the comments and I'll look into it and update it, okay?

How do I create a new, already optimized WordPress website?

The best way to have an website is to create it from scratch following SEO rules: a fast website, with well-written code and content semantically related to your business . So let's see how to create a new WordPress website that will make search engines love it right away!

Hosting and servers

Choosing good hosting for your new WordPress website is easier than ever these days. But there are a few things I recommend doing: select hosting providers that sell services within large structures, such as Google WordPress 's own hosting , which is extremely optimized but has a higher price, which can be a bit prohibitive.

I use a hosting service on this website that was recommended to me by friends, Closte . Importantly, I don't earn a single cent from this promotion.

I chose it for a few reasons: automatic updates (which frees me from worrying about server updates), a very fast and secure server hosted on Google, and easy to install a project on (even for me, who is not a programmer), and automatic backups.

One detail about hosting: choose one that's close to where your users . My website, for example: I don't have clients outside of Brazil, so I don't need to have my website hosted outside the country. Ask the hosting provider if your website will be hosted in Brazil.

Basic settings

Some technologies are fundamental, but the basic WordPress settings, after hosting it on a good service, are the system settings. The first thing is to configure the options.

Go to general options and configure the site title and description. I've lost count of the website owners who hire me to find out why their site isn't showing up on Google when they search for their brand, and this is the reason. Put your business name in the Site Title and describe what you do in the description.

Don't forget to include your website's language, time format, and other information below:

Pay attention to the reading options!

If you're going to use WordPress to create a blog, choose the "your most recent posts" option, but if you're going to create a complete website, choose a page you created to be its homepage. In the image you can see that I use AMP ( standard ), I'll talk about that in the plugin list.

Even if you choose a static page, you might want to have a blog on your website; to do this, select an articles page. But the most fundamental item is " Search engine visibility " . When developers create a new website, they generally want search engines not to find it before it's ready, and to achieve this, they select this item.

But then they forget to turn it off. And when the site is launched, search engines can't find it. Check that.

The last tip I want to give you regarding the basic settings is about the permanent connection options.

WordPress offers the ability to create a URL , which is one of the platform's strengths in achieving good search engine results.

Creating a custom URL structure not only improves the aesthetics and usability of your links, but also helps search engines better understand your website's content.

Choose the best template for your links.

I always choose the template called "Article Name" because it gives me a very clean URL. But news sites might want a URL that uses the news date. Always think of a simple and clean URL template, though; your users and search engines will thank you.

Plugins

The best SEO plugins for WordPress

Below is the list I use in my projects, on the websites I create:

Akismet Anti-Spam : This plugin will protect your website from spam . Messages within WordPress forms are the easiest way to spam your site, and this plugin prevents that.
Really Simple SSL : Having a website with HTTPS is a current security standard, and this lightweight, configuration-free plugin will make your website work securely.
Yoast SEO : Using a plugin to help you optimize your website is a good idea. There are other more advanced plugin options, but this one will meet your needs to start with.

But is that all? The basics, yes, but now let's talk about plugins that will make your WordPress faster and lighter. Speed and usability are criteria for a website to rank highly.

An important part of creating websites today is the use of visual editors.

WordPress has become a platform that allows designers, creators, and all types of digital entrepreneurs to create their own website, even without programming knowledge

A lack of technical knowledge can lead to some problems, such as insecurity and slow speeds; however, it facilitates website development and generates significant savings when launching digital projects.

To make this possible, most of us use visual editors.

Visual editors

Currently, two editors compete in the market: DIVI and Elementor . This website (and all the others I've made) were created using DIVI, my platform of choice.

They both work in a similar way: they allow you to create your website visually, directly on the page, as if you were using an image or website editing program.

This makes our lives much easier, but it creates a problem: unnecessary JavaScript and CSS. Therefore, we're going to talk about how to optimize these files.

Improvements: images, javascript and css

LiteSpeed Cache : This plugin is exclusive to hosting providers that use technology . If your server has this, install it. Each website has a perfect configuration; to learn how to configure yours, access this post .
Autoptimize : I use it along with LiteSpeed to optimize CSS, JS, images, Google fonts, and other things.

Updates

One of the most complicated, annoying, and problematic things about WordPress was updating plugins and WordPress itself. Anything could happen, even the site crashing completely.

But things are very different today. Most plugins can be set to update automatically.

Look at the image below:

Some, more critical ones, need to be updated manually. I usually leave the speed optimization cache with the auto-update functionality turned off. Another category is plugins that I've been using for a short time and haven't yet developed the confidence that comes with several trouble-free updates.

As you can see, some plugins are updated automatically, while others are not.

This brings us to a very serious topic: backups! As I mentioned in the section about servers, I always choose servers that have a reliable automatic backup system. These are usually the ones from the major players (Google, Amazon, etc.).

You can also use plugins to make backups. I've tested several, and the only one that has never given me any problems is All-in-One WP Migration . The only catch, if you choose to install a plugin to make your own backups, is: buy a license for it!

Free plugins have a limit on the size of the backup file, and as your website grows, there's a greater chance that you'll need to create a backup and then be unable to use it because it exceeded the limit. Be aware!

How to create an already optimized WordPress blog?

So, are you enjoying this WordPress SEO checklist I prepared especially for you? Up until now we've talked about launching a brand new, already optimized website, but now let's think about websites that are already live.

Creating a project from scratch, with SEO already in mind, with the help of an SEO consultant is great, I recommend you do it. But what if your website is already live? Is there nothing you can do?

Of course! You'll need to fix a few things, but even in that, WordPress helps us get everything running smoothly more easily.