Table of Contents
In WordPress, technical SEO helps search engines better understand your site’s structure, algorithm, and how it works.
Anything technical in WordPress that can improve search rankings falls under technical SEO for WordPress.
Today’s resource will explore how to ensure your site’s technical SEO is up to the mark.
Let’s start.
Technical SEO for WordPress
Search engines need to crawl, assess, and rank your site’s pages and content on search pages. You could gain endless opportunities if your site’s technical SEO messes around.
Let’s proceed and learn how to improve your site’s technical SEO.
There are two options to proceed:
Do It Yourself
If you’re technical enough, doing technical SEO will take:
- Expertise: Technical SEO is a complex job, including dealing with WordPress backend infrastructure, source code, or core files.
- Time: If you proceed, it takes time. The maintenance, re-submitting to GSC, and following up on the process can take time.
See if you can proceed without harming your WordPress site.
Hire a Digital Agency or Service
We at WP Tech Support® help customers with technical SEO, WordPress maintenance, backup, monitoring, and error removal.
Here is what our service includes:
- Our services, including Business and Advanced, support WordPress technical SEO.
- You can conduct a live session to investigate, discuss, and fix your site’s technical SEO issues.
We offer discounted rates for clients who want to improve their sites’ technical SEO, using the Business or Advanced plan. See our care plans for more information.
Use HTTPs, not HTTP
Users and search engines trust a secure site’s protocol—HTTPs. This shows that your site’s communication is protected from bad guys.
If your site’s SSL is correctly installed, automated protocol configuration and redirection should already be configured. Let’s check.
The SSL Checker helps you check your site’s SSL configuration. Once you’ve done this, you can see if the SSL has been installed correctly. One thing: Check if your site is loading correctly on HTTPs. If yes, you’re good enough.
Sitemap submission to Google Search Console
Have you created an account for your site on Google Search Console?
Once logged into GSC, the left panel shows “Sitemaps.” There, you can see a list of submitted sitemaps or submit a new one.
That’s all for now.
From now on, search engines (Google) can periodically crawl your sitemap, which helps Google understand your site’s structure.
Improve page speed
Page speed, also known as site speed in WordPress, is vital to technical SEO for WordPress.
Let’s find out how it works.
Check your site in GT Metrix, the tool that helps users speed issues on a site, suggests improvements, and offers premium services.
Speed issues require a technical routine to track and fix problems. Here is why our services matter.
WP Tech Support can help with our speed optimization service.
WordPress site structure
Site structure shows how WordPress’ directories, pages, and posts are organized. It helps search engines better crawl WordPress websites.
How can the site’s structure in WordPress be improved?
To improve site structure, you need to plan it first. Planning site structure comes first.
Create main categories and ensure the following content pages fall under relevant categories. For example, see the screenshot below.
Remove Thin content pages from your website
Thin pages have no content at all. Here, pages without detailed content are called “Thin content.” Such pages need more value for users.
Let’s learn how to find thin pages on WordPress.
Use SEO tools like Semrush, SEO Scout Ubersuggest, or Ahrefs can help.
Once identified, you can proceed in the following ways.
- Remove thin pages from WordPress.
- You can change the content of the Robots.TXT file to tell search engines to “Do not index thin pages.”
For more information on how to use the No Index tags, read Google’s official resource.
Check Broken links
Broken links are dead ends.
As its name suggests, broken links lead nowhere. If your site hosts broken links internally – this can cause SEO issues.
Internal links are different from externals. If a link leads to an internal resource, the one doesn’t exist – it can create SEO issues. Search engines count such links as problems.
This can cause technical issues, such as difficulty in crawling a website, and that’s why you should track and fix internal dead links on WordPress.
Here is what to do.
Before you run an SEO audit, you can use Screaming Frog to find broken links. See the following screenshot.
Check for Mobile usage compatibility (Responsiveness)
No doubt, it is the age of hand-held devices. Users are accessing their favorite sites on mobile devices, too.
Here is what to do:
- The Google Search Console’s (Mobile Usability Report) helps you find issues.
What to do?
Log into GSC and see the report.
You can find actionable advice on how to fix issues. For instance, see the following screenshot.
Removing Category pages can help
If you have categories created in the Dashboard, WordPress automatically creates category pages. Once you assign a category to a post, you can see its category page.
This can sometimes create duplicate content issues once a resource is assigned multiple categories. While the WordPress feature aims at categorizing content, you have to think of another way possible.
SEO – categories need help with SEO.
Here is what to do instead.
- Create categories and always – assign a single category to each piece of content. This can help prevent the same page from appearing on multiple category pages in WordPress. To see how many posts are assigned to a category, visit the Category page in the Dashboard.
For instance, if you have an idea, see the following screenshot.
Google Search Console
GSC is a free tool from Google. It helps you improve your site’s rankings on search pages. Also, GSC can help you spot technical issues on your website.
GSC’s approach to helping users fix issues is fantastic. It can help you find problems and provide actionable advice on resolving them.
Here is how you should proceed.
Log into your Google Search Console account and access “Pages”.
As shown in the screenshot below, GSC has identified various errors.
Once clicked, you can see more information, such as basic information about the error, the pages affected by the issue, and insights on how to fix the problem.
Helpful Content
Since AI emerged, Google has stressed the importance of creating helpful content for users.
As its name suggests, helpful content is specially designed to help readers fix problems. According to the readers’ search intent, helpful content is way better than one generated with automation.
So, what’s the relationship between helpful content and technical SEO?
So, make sure you create helpful content. While this part falls under “Content creation,” it can help you increase readers’ session time on pages, enabling you to improve technical SEO for WordPress.
Here is a screenshot of how session time can help you improve your site’s reading time.
Indexing issues
Google Search Console can help users find indexing issues. Once logged into the GSC account, see the Coverage report for more information.
The screenshot below shows that the Coverage report lists errors, warnings, and valid pages. Individual users can also help you better understand categorized issues.
Google Search Console provides actionable insights on how to fix technical SEO issues. Once you have made changes to the site, you can re-submit affected pages for validation. Here, validation is re-confirming affected pages and seeing if Google can recrawl, validate, and confirm that the problem has been fixed successfully.
Web Hosting
Web Hosting is the backbone of a WordPress website. A fast, cutting-edge, and optimized web host helps users host fast-loading sites – no doubt.
In this case, there are various options for WordPress. The screenshot below shows that multiple packages are available to best suit users’ needs.
However, there is a different approach to choosing a web host for WordPress technical SEO improvements.
Page speed matters. Here, choose a host that is fast enough. In our opinion, the speed of WordPress is based on two factors:
- Optimization of the site for improved speed, such as image optimization.
- Choosing a fast web host can help a lot.
WordPress Themes and Technical SEO
Themes help users quickly design WordPress sites – without learning to code or go through complex routines.
All you have to do is install a new theme on the Appearance -> Themes page in the Dashboard, activate it, and you’re good.
You should have chosen a premium theme for your site to improve technical SEO. Theme development can help users improve optimization.
So, it would be better to use a premium theme for WordPress. Here are the options for buying premium themes.
- Theme Forest
- Page builders, such as Divi, Elementor, and Visual Composer
Page builders are helpful for beginners who want to create custom layouts without learning to code. Also, remember that you don’t have to use pirated themes that are available online. Such packages could contain Malware.
Setup Redirects manually
In WordPress, you can set redirects in two ways:
- Use a WordPress plugin
- Set redirects manually
There is a difference between the two options.
A point-and-click plugin can help users perform tasks without going through manual routines, such as changing WordPress files.
On the other hand, manual routines have benefits, too.
Plugins can create problems in WordPress. Here is why you should avoid using plugins for redirects.
- Plugins can affect technical SEO in some cases, such as incompatibility issues.
- Bloated pack of features, unnecessary options, and issues in auto-updates.
Alternatively, manual routines can cause issues, too. For example, whenever you update a theme or WordPress core, you must make changes again. However, updates sometimes affect the kind of changes we need for redirects.
See this detailed tutorial to learn how to set manual redirects in WordPress.
Canonical Tags
Using Canonical Tags correctly allows users to handle duplicate content issues in WordPress.
The same content on multiple pages causes duplicate content issues. In this case, you’ll need to use Canonical Tags.
Canonical Tags help search engines understand which pages are seeds for specific keywords. Search engines are set free to index the main page with canonical tags.
Here is how it happens.
The Head section of a WordPress page can hold the source code for Canonical Tags. Here is how it happens.
Once changes are made, search engines can understand which page is the original version. This can fix duplicate issues in WordPress and, in return, can help you improve technical SEO in WordPress. However, remember to deal with duplicate content issues.
Site URL versions
Once you have installed WordPress, the preferred URL version is automatically set to one with HTTPs. In this case, the URL does not have “www.”
You can verify the preferred version of the site URL on the Settings page in the Dashboard, as shown in the screenshot below.
To avoid technical SEO issues in WordPress, you have to do the following things correctly:
- Ensure a site-wide redirect is configured to redirect all versions of URLs to the preferred URL.
- Also, make sure you’ve correctly installed SSL on WordPress. Once the web host and domain are bought, this happens automatically for WordPress users. If not, contact the hosting company’s support agents.
Use this tool to check your site’s site-wide URL redirects. Make sure to list all versions of your domain, such as the URL with and without “www.” Similarly, enter the URL with and without HTTPs.
Pagination
You must use the Pagination in WordPress to split long content into multiple pages.
This can help you overcome infinite scrolling WordPress, which can cause poor user experience, slow speed, and UX issues in WordPress. These things can affect your site’s technical SEO.
WordPress themes, by default, provide pagination, as shown in the screenshot below.
However, if you use a page builder, you can choose and set the number of items shown on a page. This is how you can configure and set pagination in WordPress.
For example, when using Divi Builder, when dealing with a Blog module to show the latest blog items on a page, you can choose how many recent posts are displayed to the user. You can also decide if you prefer to show the pagination indicators if a user wants to see more posts. Almost any page builder can help you configure how pagination should work in WordPress. The overall pagination settings can help you improve your site’s technical SEO.
WordPress link structure
Link structure can affect how search engines see your content. The Dashboard’s Permalinks page in WordPress helps users set a link structure.
Once set, WordPress generates new URLs based on the structure selected. This can play a vital role in how WordPress arranges content pages and affects technical SEO for WordPress.
Here is how you should use the Permalinks page in the Dashboard.
- Users can choose from various link structure formats based on the site’s type, such as eCommerce, blog, or portfolio.
- There is a custom link structure, helping users create custom structures as well.
- The structure labeled “post name” is ideal for content blogs.
However, changing the link structure can create redirect issues if your site is established and old enough.
Set a structure right after you’ve started your WordPress website. Using link structure, the positive signals of arranging information in WordPress can significantly improve your site’s technical SEO.
Internal links
Internal links improve the page, user experience, and technical SEO for WordPress.
Unlike external links, internal links are opposite and point to pages within the same website.
Here is why changing internal links can improve technical SEO.
- Links from one page to another help improve user experience, which is why they improve technical SEO. If your site contains broken links, as discussed above, you should immediately scan it with SEO tools to determine how many need attention and fix them accordingly. The routine for fixing broken links is to remove them or point them to a relevant resource on your site.
- Orphaned pages are pages with no links pointing to them from other pages on a website. In simple words, orphaned pages don’t receive incoming internal links. To improve technical SEO for WordPress, ensure no orphaned pages are left. The WordPress Posts page helps users find orphaned pages. If you find things hard manually, you can use SEO tools to find orphaned pages on your site. The tools can also suggest where to place links to fix “orphaned pages issues” on your WordPress website.
- Point internal links to relevant pages. Here, you can find similar pages with Google’s SITE operator. Once you have a list of similar pages, make changes accordingly. In this case, SEO plugins like Yoast SEO can help. Here, it is possible to use WordPress plugins that automatically point out possible opportunities for internal linking. In this case, some plugins do make changes automatically. If your site is not huge, you should do things manually. Otherwise, you can carefully use a point-and-click plugin for internal links.
Internal links via manual procedure are ideal for a small website. You can find a plugin for internal links in WordPress if there are many pages.
Check your site for Malware
While checking sites for Malware seems irrelevant to technical SEO, the possibility of hosting Malware on WordPress can affect everything – from simple SEO to the technical health of a website.
That’s why checking your site for Malware helps.
Here is what you need to do:
- Google’s Safe Browsing scans websites for Malware, helping users ensure that there is malware possibility on WordPress.
- There are also third-party web scanners. These tools work like Google and help users scan for malware issues on a WordPress website.
The process of scanning a site for Malware is simple. All you have to do is enter your site URL. Once the tool generates scan results, it can show data on the next page or email you the scan status.
Schema Markup for Rich Snippets
Schema Markup is an interesting aspect of technical SEO for WordPress.
It helps users help search engines understand content better and tell search engines “how content should be displayed on search result pages”.
Schema markup helps users improve a site’s technical SEO. Here is how it works.
- Schema markups are available for different types of content. For example, schema markups exist for simple posts, recipes, and review-based content.
- Using WordPress plugins, such as AIOSEO, users can configure schema markups for content types.
Once set, search engines use schema information to enrich search results. This display can improve your site’s technical SEO and user experience overall. Schema markups also improve how your site is displayed on search result pages, which can drive more clicks as the content stands out on search pages.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Better SEO can result in a fast-loading website.
We can tune in the results indirectly by using a CDN.
A CDN, a network of servers, can help users increase site speed. Here is how it works to speed up WordPress websites.
- A CDN stores a site’s copies and serves it based on the nearest user location, significantly improving its speed.
- CDN is expensive, so if you’re concerned about technical SEO for WordPress, you’ll need to spend a small amount.
For more information on how a CDN works, refer to this resource.
Key Tips for Improving Technical SEO for WordPress
- As its name suggests, technical SEO requires technical expertise. Without prior knowledge of how something goes, you can break your site.
- Please outsource technical SEO for WordPress. It can cost a small amount.
- Before making any changes, make sure you’ve taken your site backup.
- Some changes, such as changing a site’s permalink structure, can cause more harm than positive improvements. Keep this in mind.
- After making changes, re-submitting your site to Google can help. This allows Google to crawl your site and notice what has been changed.
Wrapping up
Improving technical SEO requires technical SEO and WordPress backend knowledge.
As described, you have two options to proceed:
- Do it yourself if you know how things work.
- Outsourcing technical SEO work.
Before you proceed, look at our Business or Advanced care plans, which include technical SEO work and resolving related issues.