SEO by platform
WordPress SEO, step by step: where each setting lives
Nine settings in the order to change them, where each one lives in your WordPress dashboard or theme, and the WordPress documentation that says so.
The settings, in order
Work down the list once. Each step names the menu, what WordPress does by default and what to set.
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Untick Discourage search engines
Settings > Reading > Search engine visibility
If this box is ticked, often left on from a staging site, WordPress adds a noindex, nofollow tag to every page. Untick it and save before you do anything else.
Pick a readable permalink structure
Settings > Permalinks
Choose a structure that puts the post name in the URL, such as Post name, then keep it. WordPress's own docs say a post's URL should be permanent and never change.
Check it free: URL slug generatorWordPress documentation: Permalinks settings
Let the theme manage title tags
Your theme's functions.php: add_theme_support( 'title-tag' )
The title tag comes from your theme. A theme that declares title-tag support lets WordPress and SEO plugins set each page's title for you.
Check it free: SERP snippet previewWhat is Title tag?WordPress developer reference: add_theme_support
Add meta descriptions
Your theme's header, or an SEO plugin from the plugin directory
Core WordPress has no meta description field. Add the tag to your theme's head yourself, or use a plugin that puts a description box on each post and page.
Check it free: Meta description generatorWhat is SERP?WordPress documentation: search engine optimization
Find your sitemap and submit it
yourdomain.com/wp-sitemap.xml, then Search Console > Sitemaps
Since WordPress 5.5, core publishes a sitemap index at /wp-sitemap.xml and lists it in robots.txt. Many SEO plugins replace it with their own, so submit the one your site actually serves.
Check it free: Sitemap checkerWhat is XML sitemap?Make WordPress Core: sitemaps in 5.5
Keep robots.txt close to empty
yourdomain.com/robots.txt, served by WordPress
WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt that only keeps bots out of the admin area. Its SEO guide says to leave pages unblocked there and use a page-level noindex for the weak ones instead.
Check it free: Robots.txt testerWhat is robots.txt?WordPress documentation: search engine optimization
Check canonical tags on posts and pages
Printed by core on single posts and pages
WordPress adds a canonical link to single posts, pages and custom post types. Archives and the blog index get none from core, which is one gap SEO plugins fill.
Check it free: Canonical checkerWordPress developer reference: rel_canonical
Set alt text in the Media Library
Media > Library > an image > Alt text
Alt text set in the Media Library becomes the default wherever you insert the image later. Alt text typed in an Image block only changes that one post or page.
Turn on page caching
Plugins, or caching at your host
WordPress builds each page with PHP on every visit. A caching plugin saves posts and pages as static files, which the WordPress docs call the fastest way to speed a site up.
Check it free: Website speed testWordPress advanced administration: optimization
Every step is from WordPress’s own documentation, read 29 Sep 2026.
What SearchBlueprint does for a WordPress site
A planning tool, not an editor: it doesn't change your WordPress settings. It crawls your site and tells you which searches to go after and which page should win each one.
Try each one below, on SearchBlueprint’s own plan for its own site
1Starting from a blank list
Your keyword list, started from your own site.
Most keyword tools hand you thousands of phrases. Your plan starts from your own WordPress site instead: the searches you already show up for, and the ones a site like yours could rank for.
- Your current position for each search you rank for
- Searches a site like yours could rank for, marked not ranking yet
- Monthly searches and cost per click for each keyword
- #71
free website traffic rankings
170 searches a month · $6.33 a click
- #71
web traffic statistics free
110 searches a month · $10.71 a click
- #50
spy seo
30 searches a month · $20.47 a click
- #80
what is my hosting
30 searches a month · $3.45 a click
2Which page gets which search
Give each search its own page.
You've watched two of your own pages chase the same search and neither win. Every keyword you confirm goes to one page. Where two pages compete, you're told which ones, and where nothing fits, the plan suggests a page to create.
- One main keyword per page, across the site
- A warning when two of your pages compete
- Pages to create, where no page answers a search
40 pages mapped · 2 to build
Primary keyword
seo automation
1,900 searches a month · KD 14
Page
- /
3What people ask ChatGPT
Questions to answer for ChatGPT and AI Mode.
People ask ChatGPT full questions, not two-word searches. From the keywords you pick, your plan drafts the questions a buyer might ask and ties each one to a page. You keep the ones that sound like your customers.
- Questions for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Mode
- Each question tied to a page
- Remove any that don't sound like your customers
5 of 5 kept
4On a paid plan
A title and description for every page.
Confirm your keywords once and every page gets a title and a meta description in one list, ready to paste into your SEO plugin's title and description boxes. Your WordPress site only changes when you paste them in.
- A row for every page, not just the homepage
- Based on the keywords you confirmed for each page
- New pages to consider, listed with your current ones
- Keyword
- seo tool for agencies
- Secondary: client seo reporting, seo software for agencies
- Meta title
- SEO Tool for Agencies: Every Client Site | SearchBlueprint
- Meta description
- Run SEO and AI search plans for every client site, with branded reports and share links your clients open without a login.
- Recommended H1
- SEO for every client site, in one workspace
Publishing to WordPress
Writing opens to customers in October.
Articles publish straight into WordPress as ordinary posts. Categories are matched by name and created when missing, images are re-hosted into your media library rather than hotlinked from us, and on each publish you pick draft or published, with draft the safer default while you get a feel for the output. Re-publishing an edited article updates the same post: the slug never changes, and a live post is never demoted back to draft.
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Create an application password
In WordPress admin, open Users, then your profile, scroll to Application Passwords, name it SearchBlueprint and press Add. Copy the password: WordPress will not show it again. Prefer no passwords at all? Install the plugin and copy its Integration Key instead.
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Connect it in SearchBlueprint
Open the project's Publishing tab and choose WordPress. Enter your site URL, your WordPress username and the application password. Pasting the password with its spaces is fine, they are stripped.
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Test, then publish
Test the connection before saving, then publish an article as a draft and open it in WordPress. Once the first few posts reach Published, the whole chain is proven.
An application password, never your login
The direct connection accepts only a WordPress application password. It can be revoked on its own without touching your login, and your real account password is never accepted in the first place.
Docs: WordPressThe plugin needs no password at all
Install the official plugin and paste one Integration Key. No WordPress username or password is involved, the connection survives password rotations, and the key authorizes only the plugin's own endpoints, never posts the plugin did not create.
Docs: WordPress pluginStructured data survives, through the plugin
Articles published through the plugin keep their Article and FAQ structured data on the page, printed from wp_head, which is where a script tag survives on WordPress.
Docs: WordPress pluginPublished means the public URL answered
After every publish we fetch the public URL and record what came back. Published shows only when the page was found, a fresh 404 waits out a grace window, and a server error never concludes the page is missing.
Docs: Publish verificationArticles come off a planned calendar
Plan items on the content calendar and write them two ways: click Write on a card, or let Auto-write pick each one up at midnight on its calendar date. Both run the same researched pipeline, which drafts the article and then revises it against the content score across sweeps.
Docs: Content calendarThe connection is probed daily
A daily authentication probe runs against every connection. A failure marks it unhealthy with the cause named, authentication, permissions, or unreachable target, so you find out before the next article tries to publish into a dead connection.
Docs: Connection health
What it won’t do on WordPress
Better to know before your first publish.
The direct REST connection cannot carry JSON-LD: WordPress strips script tags out of post content, so sending it would publish the schema as visible text. Connect with the plugin instead and it is printed from wp_head.
The direct REST connection cannot set a separate SEO title: WordPress core's REST API exposes no SEO title field, it lives in Yoast, Rank Math or AIOSEO postmeta, which only a plugin can write. Through our plugin the SEO title lands in whichever of those you run.
The site must be reachable from the internet. Local or IP-restricted installs cannot be published to.
- Docs: WordPress
Questions people ask
Does re-publishing an edited article create a second post?
No. We keep the WordPress post id from the first publish and update that post in place. An update never changes the post's slug and never demotes a live post back to draft.
What happens to published posts if I disconnect?
Nothing. They are ordinary posts in your WordPress and stay exactly as they are. Disconnecting deletes our stored credentials and cancels queued sends, and reconnecting the same site later still updates the original posts instead of duplicating them.
My site is on wordpress.com, does this apply?
Use the WordPress.com connection instead. On wordpress.com-hosted sites the /wp-json/ API this connector uses is not reachable, and plans below Business cannot install plugins, so there is a separate connector for them.
See the plan for your own WordPress site
Your first plan is free and needs no card. It shows your rivals, the searches people type to find sites like yours, and which page should answer each one.
- Free first plan
- No credit card
- Keep your plan