SEO gets treated like a mystery box a lot of the time plugins promising “100/100 scores,” agencies selling vague monthly retainers. Most of it is simpler than it sounds. Here’s the actual short list we check on every WordPress site, before anything fancier.
1. Titles and meta descriptions that say something
Every page needs a title and meta description written for a human, not just stuffed with keywords. This is the first thing people see in search results, before they even click through a vague or duplicated title across pages is a quiet, ongoing loss. RankMath or Yoast make this easy to fix once you know what to write.
2. One clear heading structure per page
Every page should have one H1, followed by a logical run of H2s and H3s underneath it not five H1 tags because a theme’s styling looked good on that element. Search engines use heading structure to understand what a page is actually about, and a messy structure makes that harder than it needs to be.
3. A sitemap that’s actually submitted
Most SEO plugins generate an XML sitemap automatically, but it still needs to be submitted to Google Search Console that step gets skipped surprisingly often. Without it, new pages can take far longer to get discovered and indexed than they should.
4. Images with real alt text
Alt text exists first for accessibility, but it also gives search engines context about what an image shows and it’s one of the easiest things to leave blank. “IMG_4821.jpg” with no description helps no one; a short, accurate description does double duty.
5. Site speed, because it’s a ranking factor too
This ties directly back to why your site might feel slow Google factors load time into ranking, particularly on mobile. A beautifully optimized page with slow load times is still fighting an uphill battle.
Where we’d start with your site
We usually run through this list first before recommending anything more involved most sites get a real, measurable lift just from getting these basics right. If you want an honest read on where your site stands, that’s exactly what a discovery call is for.
“Most SEO wins aren’t secret tricks they’re the basics, done properly, on every page.”
