WordPress SEO
WordPress is by far the most widely used content management system (CMS) in the world: around 60% of all websites with an identifiable CMS run on it. Originally launched as a blogging system, WordPress is now used for company websites, magazines and, with the WooCommerce extension, online shops too. Reason enough to look at how to optimise WordPress for search engines – with the right settings, themes, plugins and content.
The most important points in WordPress SEO
WordPress alone doesn't ensure good rankings. It's the system for the content – technology, structure and content have to be optimised as with any other website. In German-speaking countries, Google is the most important search engine with around 90% market share.
The first and most important point: in the WordPress settings under “Reading”, the option “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” must not be enabled. It's often set during development and forgotten after going live. Equally important is a descriptive permalink structure (such as “post name”) instead of addresses with numbers and parameters.
Below you'll find further tips and options for what you can do specifically for WordPress SEO.
WordPress hosting
Hosting affects loading time, security and stability. Managed WordPress hosts are designed specifically for WordPress, take care of updates, backups and security and often offer caching out of the box. This costs a little more than simple shared hosting, but pays off for a professional website – not least because outages and hacker attacks would be more expensive.
The theme
When choosing a design (theme), it's not just looks that count. A good theme
is responsive, i.e. adapts to all screen sizes
loads quickly and achieves good Core Web Vitals values
generates clean, lean HTML code with a correct heading structure
only includes the features that are really needed
is updated regularly and maintained by an active team.
Website structure
A clear structure helps users and search engines. WordPress distinguishes between pages and posts: pages are hierarchical and suitable for permanent content such as services, landing pages or the homepage. Posts are chronological and suitable for a blog, magazine or news.
Posts can be assigned to categories and tags. Categories form the main thematic structure, tags connect posts via cross-cutting topics. Beware of having many tags: each tag creates its own archive page, which often contains thin or duplicate content. Such archive pages should be managed deliberately and set to noindex if in doubt.
Breadcrumb navigation
Breadcrumb navigation shows visitors where they are on the website and makes it easier to get back to higher-level pages. Marked up with structured data, Google can also display the path in the search results. Many SEO plugins and themes include breadcrumbs.
Content optimisation
WordPress SEO above all includes good content optimisation, because content decides whether visitors stay and whether Google considers a page relevant. This includes texts, images and videos.
It starts with keyword research: what is a page's main topic, which secondary terms and questions belong to it? The same principles apply as on any other website. Texts should match search intent, show expertise and above all be easy to read – because only content that convinces people leads to enquiries and purchases.
A page's main keyword should appear in these places:
In the H1 heading and, where appropriate, in subheadings
In the page's URL
In the meta title
In the meta description
In the alt text of the featured image, if it matches the image content
In the file name of suitable images
In the introduction
Naturally in the text.
Images are important too. They should be uploaded in an appropriate size and in modern formats such as WebP so that they don't slow down loading time, and they should match the topic. The alt text describes what can be seen in the image – for accessibility and for Google. The title attribute of images, on the other hand, plays no role for SEO. Descriptive file names such as womens-running-shoe-white.webp help too.
Content also includes internal and external links. Internal links show Google which pages are particularly important and lead visitors to further content. External links to reliable sources strengthen a text's credibility. Conversely, links from trustworthy websites to your own site are an important signal for Google.
Useful WordPress extensions
WordPress SEO can be simplified considerably with plugins. It's important to use only one SEO plugin, as several can interfere with each other. Well-known solutions are:
Yoast SEO
One of the best-known SEO plugins. It manages page titles and meta descriptions, generates an XML sitemap and structured data, controls the indexing of archive pages and gives tips on keyword placement and readability. The tips are a guide, not a ranking guarantee – a green light doesn't automatically mean good content.
Rank Math and The SEO Framework
Rank Math offers a similar range of functions to Yoast and additional options for structured data. The SEO Framework is leaner, fast and has no advertising in the backend. Which plugin fits depends mainly on your own needs. Caching and image optimisation plugins also help with loading time – but here too: better a few well-maintained plugins than many.
WordPress SEO for success
Plugins simplify SEO work but don't replace well-thought-out optimisation of content, structure and technology. Anyone who follows the basics – correct settings, a fast theme, a clear structure, helpful content and a few well-chosen plugins – has a solid foundation for good rankings with WordPress.