Technical SEO for WordPress
Make every page you publish easy for Google to find.
We crawl your WordPress site the way a search engine does, fix what stops pages being crawled, indexed and understood, and show you the result in Search Console. No content writing, no link schemes, no ranking promises — just a clean technical base.
Full site crawl
Schema validated
Search Console explained
- OK
robots.txt200 OK — sitemap declared, CSS and JS crawlable - WARN
/wp-sitemap.xmlLists tag archives that are set to noindex - FOUND
/category/news/page/2/Canonical points to a URL that returns 404 - FOUND
/2019/05/old-guide/Redirect chain — three hops to the final URL - WARN
/author/admin/Thin author archive indexed - FOUND
Article markupNo author or datePublished on older posts - OK
reportIssues ranked by impact — fixes ready for staging
3 issues found · 3 fixed
What a WordPress SEO audit finds
Small technical gaps, repeated across the web.
The 2025 Web Almanac crawled millions of pages. The basics are still missing on a large share of them — and each gap makes it harder for Google to pick the right page or show it well.
25%
higher click-through for Rotten Tomatoes pages with structured data
How Google sees your site
Four steps between “Publish” and a search result.
01 / 04 — Crawl
Google has to find the page first.
Crawlers discover URLs through links and sitemaps. We make sure robots.txt lets them in, your XML sitemap lists only pages worth indexing, and internal links reach new posts quickly.
02 / 04 — Index
Then decide it’s worth keeping.
Google groups duplicates and keeps the most representative URL as the canonical. Tag pages, ?replytocom URLs and paginated archives can compete with your articles — we set clear canonicals and noindex rules.
03 / 04 — Understand
Then work out what it is about.
Structured data in JSON-LD — the format Google recommends — describes each article, its author, dates and breadcrumbs. We add it, validate it and keep it consistent across templates.
04 / 04 — Serve
Only then can it show up.
Google says it doesn’t guarantee it will crawl, index or serve any page. We can’t promise rankings, but we remove the technical reasons a good page gets left out.
Search Console, decoded
What your Page indexing report is really telling you.
Google is clear that not every URL should be indexed — only canonical pages. The skill is telling healthy exclusions from real problems. Tap a status to see what Google means and what we do about it.
Duplicate content on WordPress
Three ways to tell Google which URL counts.
WordPress can publish the same post at several addresses — with and without trailing slashes, in feeds, archives and paginated comments. Google treats your choice as a signal, not an order, so we make every signal agree.
Strong signal
301 redirects
For URLs that should no longer exist. Google calls a redirect “a strong signal that the target of the redirect should become canonical.”
Strong signal
rel=canonical tags
For variants that must stay reachable — sorted, filtered or tracked URLs. Every template gets a canonical that points to a live, indexable page.
Weak signal
Sitemap inclusion
Listing a URL in your sitemap only hints that it is canonical. That’s why a sitemap full of noindexed or redirected URLs sends mixed messages.
Your SEO health score
Score your WordPress site in under a minute.
Nine checks drawn from Google Search Central’s documentation, grouped the way Google works: crawl, index, understand. Tick what you’re sure of — anything you’re unsure about is worth an audit.
Crawl
Index
Understand
Google — Page experience · Google — Introduction to robots.txt
For news sites and magazines
Fresh stories, found while they’re fresh.
Publishers live and die by how fast Google discovers a story. Google’s own rules for news sitemaps and article markup are strict — and most WordPress setups get at least one of them wrong.
- A Google News sitemap done rightOnly articles from the last two days, and no more than 1,000 news entries per file — split automatically when you publish more.
- NewsArticle markup with real authorsEvery author listed separately, a clean name and an author.url that links to their profile page — as Google recommends.
- Sitemaps without noiseGoogle ignores priority and changefreq and trusts lastmod only when it is accurate — so we make lastmod change only when an article really does.
Google — News sitemap · Google — Article structured data · Google — Build and submit a sitemap
AI Overviews and AI Mode
Visibility in AI answers starts with plain old SEO.
Google says there are no extra requirements or special optimisations for its AI features. A page needs to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet — the same technical base this service builds.
01
Be indexed first
If a page isn’t in Google’s index, no AI feature can cite it. The crawl and index audit comes before anything else.
02
Skip the special files
Google says you don’t need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema to appear. We won’t sell you an llms.txt.
03
Make authorship clear
Clear headings, visible author details and valid article markup help any system — search engine or AI tool — understand who wrote what, and when.
The audit, step by step
From first crawl to a clean Search Console.
We start with read-only access and change nothing until you’ve seen the list. Every fix is tested before it goes live.
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See the site the way Google does
Read access to Search Console and analytics, then a full crawl of every URL your site exposes.
- Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools connected
- Full site crawl
- Sitemap and robots.txt checked
-
Rank every issue by impact
We compare the crawl with the Page indexing report and review structure, schema and internal links.
- Index and canonical review
- Redirect chains and broken links
- Schema and internal linking gaps
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Fix it inside WordPress
Redirects, canonicals, noindex rules, sitemaps and schema — each change tested on your templates.
- Redirects and duplicates resolved
- Article, Organization and BreadcrumbList markup validated
- Internal linking plan
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Know what changed — and what to watch
A short report of every change and the Search Console reports to keep an eye on.
- Plain-English change log
- Search Console walkthrough
- What to re-check after redesigns
Estimate your project
A ballpark for your WordPress SEO audit.
Pick the size of your site and what you need. Your written quote confirms the exact scope and price after we’ve looked at the site.
Large sites rarely need a different process — just more templates, more archive types and more redirects to untangle.
Questions, answered
Why aren’t all my pages indexed?
Google’s own Page indexing help says you shouldn’t expect every URL to be indexed — only canonical pages. Duplicates, redirects and noindexed archives are meant to be excluded. We look for the pages that should be indexed but aren’t.
Will blocking a page in robots.txt remove it from Google?
No. Google says robots.txt is not a way to keep a page out of search — a blocked URL can still be indexed if other pages link to it. Use noindex or a password instead; we set that up correctly.
Do I need an llms.txt file for AI search?
Not for Google. Its AI features documentation says you don’t need new machine-readable files or special markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode — being indexed and eligible for a snippet is what counts.
Do you guarantee rankings?
No. Rankings depend on content, competition and links as well as technical health. We fix the technical side so it is not holding you back.
What is a news sitemap?
A sitemap listing articles published in the last two days. It helps Google find fresh stories quickly.
What does AI answer visibility mean?
AI search tools pull answers from web pages. Clear structure, schema and author information make it easier for them to understand and cite your articles.
Does a slow site hurt SEO?
Page experience is one factor among many. If speed is a problem, combine this with speed optimisation.
Are your themes SEO friendly?
Yes. Our themes use clean markup and work with the main SEO plugins. Plugin settings and site structure still matter, which this service covers.
Get a free quote
Let’s build something great.
Tell us about your project and goals. A WordPress engineer — not a salesperson — will reply within one business day with a plan and a fixed price.
- Free, no-obligation quote within 24 hours
- NDA available on request
- Fixed price — you approve the scope before work starts
