Technical SEO checklist for WordPress websites
September 16, 2026 · Alin Digital
Technical SEO is about making it possible and efficient for search engines to discover, fetch, understand and index your content—while the website still works well for people. On WordPress, prioritise real issues rather than installing as many SEO plugins as possible.
1. Indexing and crawling
- Check that important pages are not marked
noindex. - Make sure robots.txt is not blocking pages or resources you want crawled.
- Maintain a working XML sitemap and submit it in Search Console.
- Use URL Inspection when an important page is not being indexed as expected.
2. Canonicals and duplicates
If the same or very similar content exists at multiple URLs, first understand why. Avoid accidental -2 URLs or language alternatives that effectively duplicate the same page. Canonical can be a useful signal, but fixing the underlying URL structure is better when practical.
3. Titles, descriptions and headings
Write descriptive titles that summarise the page. Meta descriptions can influence snippets, but Google may choose other text from the page when it better matches a query. H1 and H2 headings should first make the page easier for people to understand.
4. Internal links
Google recommends crawlable <a href> links and descriptive anchor text. Important pages should be reachable through relevant internal links. A sitemap does not replace clear navigation and internal information architecture.
5. Structured data
Use structured data only when it accurately describes visible content and a supported type. Validate markup after changes. Structured data can help machines understand a page but does not guarantee rich results.
6. Performance and mobile
Technical SEO overlaps with user experience. Heavy scripts, oversized images and ineffective caching can make pages slow. Measure before and after changes, and prioritise problems that affect real users.
A monthly technical check
- Review new crawling or indexing issues in Search Console.
- Check sitemaps and important canonical/hreflang relationships.
- Review valuable 404s and redirects.
- Test representative pages on mobile.
- Document what changed and why.
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