Do you require a technical checklist for search engine optimization (SEO)?
If you are unsure of what to consider, optimizing your website for search engines can be challenging. Although website owners usually ensure basic SEO practices, technical elements are often overlooked.
This article presents a technical SEO framework for WordPress and provides a checklist for your business.
Why do you need a WordPress Technical SEO Framework?
Technical SEO is an essential aspect of your WordPress SEO strategy. Your content could be of the highest quality, but if search engines cannot find and comprehend it, your efforts would be in vain.
Hence, having a WordPress technical SEO framework is critical.
Our WordPress SEO framework checklist guarantees that search engines can easily crawl and index your content. Additionally, you can evaluate other technical aspects of your WordPress website that may be hindering you from achieving higher rankings.
For instance, a lengthy website load time would result in poor rankings since page load time is a ranking factor. Similarly, adding nofollow tags unintentionally could prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your content.
Evaluating Technical SEO in WordPress
To ensure technical optimization of your site, various SEO tools can be employed to perform an audit. However, not all tools display details within the WordPress dashboard. The easiest way to perform a technical SEO audit is by using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin, which is the best WordPress SEO plugin available. It offers a free SEO Analysis tool in the AIOSEO Lite version, which you can use for free, and premium plans with additional features such as schema markups, sitemaps, and redirection management. Once installed and activated, AIOSEO can be accessed through the WordPress admin panel. You can monitor your site’s technical SEO and fix issues with the tool. Moreover, you can perform competitor analysis to determine their technical SEO optimization strategies.
In order to enhance rankings and organic traffic, we present a checklist of our WordPress SEO framework, comprising the following areas: website visibility to search engines, identification and remediation of crawling and indexing issues, HTTPS security implementation, detection and correction of broken links, identification of duplicate site versions, use of SEO-friendly URL structures, mobile-friendliness assurance, website speed and performance optimization, CSS and JavaScript file minification, generation and submission of XML sitemaps to search engines, schema markup for rich snippets, optimization of robots.txt file for SEO, malware detection to prevent Google flagging, and the option between server-side and client-side rendering. The section links are provided below for easy navigation.
- Ensure Website Visibility to Search Engines
The first step in evaluating technical SEO for your WordPress site is to confirm that search engines can locate it. You can verify this by searching “site:example.com” in a search engine and checking if your website appears in the results.
- Check for Crawling and Indexing Issues
After ensuring website visibility, it’s crucial to check that search engines are able to crawl and index your content. Webmaster tools, such as Google Search Console, can be used to identify any crawling or indexing issues.
- Secure Your Website with HTTPS
Securing your website with HTTPS through an SSL certificate is essential for technical SEO. HTTPS is preferred by search engines over HTTP. To check if your website is secure, look for the padlock icon in your browser’s search bar.
- Fix Broken Links
Broken links can harm your website’s SEO and negatively impact user experience. These links should be fixed as soon as possible to ensure search engine crawlers can discover new content and visitors can easily navigate your site.
- Check for Duplicate Versions
Choose a primary URL for your website and redirect all URLs to that one. This will avoid duplicate content issues and help search engines index your website properly.
- Use SEO-Friendly URL Structures
Use an SEO-friendly URL structure to help search engines crawl your pages and understand your content.
- Ensure Mobile Responsiveness
With Google going mobile-first, it’s important to ensure your site is mobile responsive.
- Check Website Speed
Check your website speed using a site speed test, such as the one provided by MonsterInsights. Google uses page load speed as a ranking factor, so aim for a fast-loading website.
- Improve Internal Linking Structure and Remove Orphaned Pages
Proper internal linking structure and less orphaned pages can improve website’s technical SEO. AIOSEO’s SEO Link Assistant automates the process of discovering link opportunities and provides a detailed report on the number of internal, outbound, and affiliate links for each post and page.
- Generate and Submit XML Sitemaps
Creating an XML sitemap helps search engine bots to crawl the important pages on your website quickly. AIOSEO automatically generates a sitemap upon activation and also provides options to create a video, news, HTML, and RSS sitemap.
- Use Schema Markup for Rich Snippets
Schema markup helps search engines understand your content better, and it appears in the search results as rich snippets. AIOSEO supports schema markup for recipes, reviews, events, organizations, FAQs, blog posts, product pages, multiple locations for local businesses, and more.
- Optimize Robots.txt File for SEO
Robots.txt file instructs search engine bots which pages to crawl and which to skip. Optimizing robots.txt file can improve website’s technical SEO.
- Ensure Your Site is Free from Malware and Unwanted Software
One important aspect of technical SEO is ensuring that your website is not flagged by Google for containing malware or unwanted software.
- Opt for Server-Side Rendering Instead of Client-Side Rendering
It is recommended to use server-side rendering for your website’s JavaScript files instead of client-side rendering. Client-side rendering places the burden of loading the site on the user, leading to a poor user experience and potential SEO issues. Search engine bots may miss JavaScript content during crawling and indexing, resulting in it not being included in search results.
Conducting a site speed test and checking for missed content in Google Search Console can help identify JavaScript-related SEO issues. It is not necessary to tackle all items on the technical SEO checklist at once. Instead, take one step at a time and work through the list gradually.
This article aims to guide readers on WordPress technical SEO framework. Additionally, readers may find our comparison of the best keyword research tools and our proven tips on how to increase blog traffic helpful.
0 comment
I’ve tried countless SEO checklists over the years, but this one is by far the most comprehensive and effective. It’s clear that a lot of thought and expertise went into creating it.
Your technical WordPress SEO framework is an absolute goldmine of information. It’s clear that you’re a true expert in this field and I’m grateful for the guidance you’ve provided.
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I love how this framework breaks down SEO into manageable steps. It takes a complex subject and makes it easy to understand and implement for anyone.
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I’ve been struggling to improve my website’s SEO for months, but your checklist finally helped me break through. Thanks to your guidance, I’m now seeing significant improvements in my search engine rankings.
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