Technical SEO for WordPress: fix order

Most sites I audit do not need more blog posts first. They need the plumbing fixed: can Google reach the money pages, is crawl budget wasted on junk, and do structured data and internal links make the site coherent?

I have done technical SEO on WordPress since 2008. I built SEO Perception and SEO Booster because I got tired of guessing from hundred-issue reports. Below is the order I actually use when someone asks what to fix first.

In short: crawl and index the right URLs → cut WordPress indexation waste → clarify schema and entities → fix internal links → touch Core Web Vitals when they block users or bots → only then pour energy into new content and keywords. That is also how I run technical SEO work for clients.

1. Can Google crawl and index the right pages?

I start in Search Console coverage, not in a keyword tool.

• Pages / Indexing: what is indexed, excluded, or soft-404?
• robots.txt and meta robots: are money URLs accidentally blocked?
• Canonicals on paginated archives, parameter URLs, and slash variants
• Redirect chains and 404s on pages that should earn money
• XML sitemap submitted, returning 200, without junk URLs

If the right pages are not in the index, nothing else matters yet.

When I triage Search Console I sort by affected URL count and business impact, sample a handful of money pages (status, canonical, robots, sitemap), note templates that fail together — all tags, all filters, all paginated archives — and fix the template or rule once instead of chasing URLs forever.

2. Fix indexation waste

Next I stop Google spending crawl budget on junk: thin or duplicate archives on noindex, consolidating www/non-www and slash variants with 301s, cleaning the sitemap so it matches what you actually want indexed, and pulling faceted URLs out of the index when they create near-duplicates.

On WordPress the usual culprits are tag archives, attachment pages, and search-result URLs. A small robots or SEO-plugin tweak often fixes more than a month of content writing. I also watch old /page/2/ archives of thin content, print or AMP leftovers, and staging or “dev” hosts that leaked into the index.

3. Structured data and entity clarity

Once crawl and indexation look sane, I make the facts machine-readable: Organization and Person on about/home, Service or Product where you sell something specific, breadcrumbs on inner pages, FAQ schema only where FAQs are visible, Article/BlogPosting with coherent dates.

Structured data does not guarantee rich results. It reduces ambiguity — for Google and for systems that pull quotes. That overlaps with AI & GEO visibility: clear entities help citation engines too.

4. Internal linking and site architecture

Then I look at how authority flows. Orphan pages in the sitemap with no internal links show up constantly. Important service pages buried three clicks deep rank worse than they should. Anchor text that says “click here” wastes context.

I usually sketch a short internal link map: homepage → money pages → supporting posts. No 200-line spreadsheet — just fix the obvious dead ends.

5. Core Web Vitals when they block crawling or users

Speed is not always step one. It matters when LCP or TTFB is so poor that users and bots bounce, when server errors spike under load, or when render-blocking assets keep primary content from loading.

See PageSpeed & Performance and WordPress Core Web Vitals for how I approach CWV without breaking WordPress. Performance and SEO are not the same project, but they share a queue.

6. Content and keywords — after the plumbing works

Only now does keyword research and new content usually pay off. Publishing into a site with indexation holes, duplicate canonicals, or broken schema is expensive busywork.

If you use SEO Perception, its AI/LLM readiness checks fit naturally after step 3 — once entities and crawl paths are coherent.

What I need from you to start

Search Console access (or a coverage export), CMS/admin access, and a list of money pages — what actually drives leads or sales. I return a prioritized fix list, not a 40-page PDF nobody reads. Implementation can be me, your team, or a mix.

If you want me to run that work on your site, start on the Technical SEO service page — that is where engagements begin. This post is the fix order I use. Related: SEO Perception: what to fix next · SEO Booster and Search Console in WordPress · tell me about your site.