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Tag: organic traffic

  • How to Recover a WordPress Site from a Google Search Penalty

    Are you looking to recover your WordPress site from a Google search penalty?

    Google penalties are a dreaded nightmare for any website owner. Your web pages can be removed from search results or dropped down in search rankings, causing the organic traffic to fall significantly.

    In this article, we will show you how to recover a WordPress site from a Google Search Penalty.

    How to recover a WordPress website from a Google search penalty

    What is Google Search Penalty?

    A search penalty is a punishment that Google delivers to websites that violate its guidelines.

    Google’s goal is to present the best search results to its users. However, sites that try to manipulate or cheat the system to achieve higher search rankings through unethical means are usually given search penalties.

    As a result, penalized WordPress sites might see a drop in search rankings or be de-listed from the search results in extreme cases.

    Google imposes 2 types of penalties:

    • Manual penalties – These are imposed by Google’s internal team, and you are notified of any offense. It can be for things like spam content, cloaked images, hidden text, unnatural internal and external links, and other violations against the Google Search Essentials guidelines.
    • Algorithm penalties – An algorithm penalty is when Google rolls out an update to the search algorithm to provide better search results. This type of penalty is hard to diagnose because you don’t get any notification from Google.

    Since this is a comprehensive guide, we’ve added a table of contents. You can click the links below to easily navigate to any section you’re interested in:

    How to Check for a Google Search Penalty

    If your WordPress site is hit with a Google search penalty and you’re not sure how to check it, then there are different ways you can try.

    Check for Manual Actions in Google Search Console

    First, you can log in to your Google Search Console account and look for manual penalties imposed by the search engine.

    Simply head to Security & Manual Actions » Manual actions from the Search Console menu on the left. Here, you’ll see any manual penalty given by Google.

    Look for manual action

    If you see the ‘No issues detected’ message, then you’re in the clear.

    That said, here’s a list of manual actions that Google can apply to your site:

    • Site abused by third-party spam
    • User-generated spam
    • Spammy free host
    • Structured data issue
    • Unnatural links to and from your site
    • Thin content with little or no added value
    • Pure Spam
    • Cloaking or sneaky redirects
    • Cloaked images
    • AMP content mismatch
    • Sneaky mobile redirects
    • Hidden text or keyword stuffing
    • News and Discover policy violations

    Check Google Analytics for a Drop in Organic Traffic

    Next, you can check your site’s organic traffic in Google Analytics. If there is a considerable drop, then it could be a result of a search penalty.

    This method is useful to check for algorithm penalties, especially after Google releases a new update.

    In Google Analytics 4, you can go to Reports » Acquisition » Traffic acquisition and look at the Organic Search figures.

    Look at organic search figures

    You can edit the date range at the top and compare it to a previous period to look for a decline in traffic.

    To drill down further, you can use a keyword tracker tool and see search term rankings for your website. If you notice a drop in different keyword rankings, then it could mean you’ve been hit with a search penalty.

    Search Your Website and Content on Google

    Lastly, if you’re not seeing your web pages appear in Google search results, then there is a way to check if it’s been banned or delisted.

    Simply enter ‘site: example.com’ in Google and see if your site appears. Just replace example.com with your own site URL.

    Site search operator on Google

    If you don’t see your website appearing in the search results, then it could be delisted due to a search penalty.

    You can also search for some of the text from your most important pages on Google. This will also help check for delisting or decline in search rankings for core pages.

    Having that said, let’s look at different ways you can recover a WordPress website from a Google search penalty.

    1. Perform an SEO Audit to Find Critical Issues

    An SEO audit is a process of finding out whether your WordPress website is correctly optimized for search engines.

    Running an SEO audit can help uncover critical SEO issues and errors on your site. This way, you can quickly fix them and recover your site from a search penalty.

    A simple way to conduct an SEO audit in WordPress is by using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. It is the best SEO WordPress plugin that helps set up your site for search engines without technical knowledge.

    With AIOSEO, you can use its SEO Analysis tool inside the WordPress dashboard to run an audit. It checks your site on different parameters and highlights any critical issues. Plus, you get recommendations for fixing errors, which will help recover your site from a penalty.

    SEO analysis

    You get started by following our guide on how to set up All in One SEO in WordPress.

    One of the most common reasons why Google issues a search penalty is because of unnatural links to and from your WordPress website.

    Sites that have bought spammy links or participate in different link schemes to boost their search engine rankings are mainly penalized by Google. This could be either through a manual action or an algorithm update.

    A quick way to recover your site from such penalties is by identifying and removing spammy backlinks. However, this can be a time-consuming task, especially if you have to visit every page on your site to remove the backlink.

    An easier way to go about this is by using AIOSEO. It offers a powerful Link Assistant feature that helps you see all the internal and external links on your site.

    First, you’d need to go to All in One SEO » Link Assistant from your WordPress admin panel. After that, you can click on the ‘Domains Report’ tab at the top.

    AIOSEO Link assistant dashboard

    Next, you can view all the domains linking to your website.

    On this page, domains that look unnatural or spammy are highlighted. Next, you can select the domain, click the Bulk Actions dropdown menu, and choose the ‘Delete’ option.

    Delete spammy backlinks

    After that, you can click the ‘Apply’ button to remove links from a particular domain.

    You can also click on any of the websites to view which pages they’re linking to on your site. Next, you can click the trash can icon to remove a backlink from a particular page or post.

    Remove unnatural links

    If you are unable to remove an unnatural, spammy, or artificial link, then you can disavow them using Google’s disavow links tool.

    Do note that this method is for users with technical knowledge and is unsuitable for beginners. For more details, you read Google’s instructions on how to disavow links to your site.

    3. Perform a Content Audit

    Another way to recover your website from Google search penalties is by auditing your content.

    Here are a few things you can look into and fix on your website.

    Fix Thin and Duplicate Content

    Google will penalize sites with thin content with little or no value for users. This includes low-quality content that’s auto-generated or spun through software. Or affiliate pages with a few paragraphs and a link to promote the product.

    Similarly, if you have duplicate content or articles scraped from other websites, then Google can also hand you a search penalty.

    A simple way to fix this is by identifying pages that have relevant or thin content and then rewriting them. You can use Google Analytics to uncover pages with very low or no traffic.

    Simply head to the Reports » Engagement » Landing page in Google Analytics.

    Find pages with low traffic

    After uncovering content with thin content, you can then add more value by covering the topic in depth, making the content engaging using images and videos, and ensuring you have unique content.

    On the other hand, you can find pages that have duplicate or auto-generated content and simply remove them from your website. Simply copy some of the text and enter it on Google. The search will show all the pages and posts on your site with the same content.

    If other websites have scrapped your content, then you can use tools like Copyscape to find plagiarised content. To learn more, you may also want to see our guide on how to easily find and remove stolen content in WordPress.

    Remove Keyword Stuffing and Hidden Text

    If your site’s text doesn’t make sense and is filled with search terms to rank higher, then you can also get a search penalty for keyword stuffing. Similarly, websites with hidden text and keywords in your site’s CSS styling can also be penalized by Google.

    You can easily fix this issue by removing or editing content that has keyword stuffing. Try using variations and avoid repeating the same search terms. You can also use keyword research tools like Semrush to find different keywords to use on your content.

    Semrush also offers an SEO writing assistant tool that helps you discover LSI and related keywords, readability score, language tone, and more to help you create optimized content.

    Remove User Generated Spam

    Next, you need to check your website for spam comments. These are comments that have advertising links, spammy user names, auto-generated or off-topic comments, and other irrelevant links.

    In WordPress, you can simply go to Comments from your WordPress dashboard and then mark the comment as Spam. You can also select the Trash option and remove the comment.

    Spam or trash the comment

    To learn more, please see our guide on tips and tools to combat comment spam in WordPress.

    Review Internal Linking on Your Site

    Google’s search crawlers use links on your website to find new content and build a contextual relationship between your new and old content.

    Auditing the internal links helps recover your WordPress site from an algorithm penalty. For instance, if there are no or few internal links on a page, then you can add internal links to other relevant pages and boost their rankings.

    Using the AIOSEO link assistant, you can improve internal linking on your website. It will show you existing links and also provide new linking opportunities. Besides that, you can also highlight orphaned pages that have no internal links.

    Find internal link opportunities and orphaned pages

    For more details, please see our guide on internal linking for SEO.

    Audit Page Load Speed

    When conducting an audit, you should also check your website load time. While a slow-loading site would not lead to a Google search penalty, it will impact your search engine rankings.

    That’s because Google now uses page load speed as a ranking factor. Sites that load fast will have an advantage over slow-loading websites.

    You can use IsItWP’s free website speed test tool for auditing page load speed. The tool will show an overall score and provide suggestions for improving page speed.

    IsItWP Uptime Checker Tool

    You can find more details by following our guides on how to run a website speed test and the ultimate guide to boosting WordPress performance.

    4. Ensure Your Site is Not Hacked

    If your WordPress website is hacked and injected with malicious code that can be deceptive to Google’s guidelines, then you can get a penalty.

    Usually, hackers would add scripts or pieces of code that would create sneaky redirects on your website. Since this goes against the guidelines, your websites might be deindexed from the search results.

    You can check for security issues in Google Search Console by heading to the Security & Manual Actions » Security issues section.

    View security issues

    Besides that, you can run a WordPress security audit to uncover any issues that might result in a penalty. For example, you can scan your site for malware and other security vulnerabilities.

    We recommend using a WordPress security plugin like Sucuri to prevent an attack on your website. It also checks your site’s files for suspicious code and helps clean up your website.

    You may want to see our ultimate WordPress Security guide to make your site secure and safe.

    5. Research Recent Google Algorithm Updates 

    Lastly, if you see a drop in traffic or search rankings after a Google update, then you might be hit with an algorithm penalty.

    Unlike a manual penalty, it is very hard to diagnose the impact of an algorithm change. Google won’t tell you the reason for the drop in rankings or traffic for your site.

    However, you can research the latest Google algorithm update and see what has changed. After that, you can audit your site’s SEO, content, and security to fix any issues.

    The best way to stay updated with the latest algorithm changes and adjustments is by following WordPress blogs. There are many popular marketing and SEO blogs that share the latest news, case studies, and other information about Google’s algorithm changes.

    Aside from that, you can also follow our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners and make sure your site is properly optimized for Google.

    Submit a Reconsideration Request to Lift Penalties

    After you’ve fixed an issue that led to Google search penalties, the next step is to submit a reconsideration request and lift the penalties.

    This step is fairly simple if you receive a manual penalty. You can head to your Google Search Console account, view the Security and Manual actions section, and request a review for the particle issue.

    When submitting the reconsideration request, we recommend that you cover the following things:

    • Explain that you understand Google’s guidelines and best practices in detail. You can share links to answers in Google forums, YouTube videos, and other documentation offered by Google regarding the manual action.
    • Show that you’ve done everything that you can to fix the issue, like removing unnatural links. You can include screenshots, a list of links removed, and provide other evidence to present your case.
    • Reassure that your site is made for users and not search engines, and you won’t make the same mistake again. You can also ensure that all other activities on your website are within Google’s guidelines.

    Once you’ve submitted a consideration request, Google will review it. The response time usually depends on the severity of the penalty. It can take days, weeks, and even months to hear back from Google and find out whether your penalty has been lifted or not.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to recover a WordPress site from a Google search penalty. You may also want to see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic and the best SEO checker and website analyzer tools.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Recover a WordPress Site from a Google Search Penalty first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • 14-Step Technical WordPress SEO Framework (Proven Checklist)

    Do you need a technical search engine optimization (SEO) checklist?

    Optimizing your site for search engines can be a challenge if you’re not sure what to look for. Many website owners will ensure basic SEO practices but overlook technical elements.

    In this article, we will show a WordPress technical SEO framework and share a checklist you can use for your business.

    WordPress technical SEO framework checklist

    Why Do You Need a WordPress Technical SEO Framework?

    Technical SEO is a key component of your WordPress SEO strategy. You could be creating the world’s best content, but if search engines can’t find and understand your content, then all your efforts are wasted.

    That’s why it is important to have a WordPress technical SEO framework.

    Our WordPress SEO framework checklist will ensure that search engines can easily crawl and index your content. Plus, you can also evaluate other technical aspects of your WordPress website that might be preventing you from achieving higher rankings.

    For example, your website might be taking a long time to load. This would result in poor rankings since the page load time is a ranking factor.

    Similarly, you might have mistakenly added nofollow tags and prevented search engines from crawling and indexing your content.

    How to Evaluate Technical SEO in WordPress

    There are many SEO tools that let you conduct SEO audits and find out if your site is technically optimized. However, not all tools will show details inside your WordPress dashboard.

    The easiest way to evaluate technical SEO for your WordPress site is by using All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It is the best WordPress SEO plugin that helps you optimize your website for search engines.

    It offers a free SEO Analysis tool that you can use to conduct a technical SEO audit. The tool is available in the AIOSEO Lite version, which you can use for free. There are also premium AIOSEO plans that offer more features like schema markups, sitemaps, redirection manager, and more.

    First, you’ll need to install and activate the AIOSEO plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you can go to All in One SEO » SEO Analysis from your WordPress admin panel. Under the ‘SEO Audit Checklist’, you’ll see an overall score for your website.

    SEO analysis

    Next, you can scroll down to the Advanced SEO and Performance sections.

    Here, the plugin will evaluate the technical SEO aspects of your website based on different parameters and ranking signals. It will then highlight missing elements and critical issues that could stop your site from ranking higher.

    View advanced SEO and performance

    You can use AIOSEO to continuously monitor your site’s technical SEO and fix issues. Similarly, you can also perform a competitor analysis and see what they’re doing differently for their technical SEO optimization.

    That said, let’s look at our WordPress SEO framework checklist that you can use to ensure higher rankings and organic traffic. You can click the links below to jump ahead to any section:

    1. Ensure Your Website is Visible to Search Engines

    The first thing you need to check is whether search engines are able to find your WordPress site.

    You can simply enter site:example.com in the search engine and see if your website appears in the search results. Just replace ‘example.com’ with your own domain.

    Perform site search

    If your site isn’t showing up, then you can check the visibility settings in WordPress.

    Go ahead and visit the Settings » Reading page from your WordPress admin panel. Next, scroll down to the Search engine visibility setting and be sure the ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ option is unchecked.

    Search Engine Visibility Setting in WordPress

    This option is usually enabled if your website is under construction or is put in maintenance mode.

    2. Uncover Crawling and Indexing Issues

    If your website is visible to search engines, then it is important to check that your content is crawled and indexed.

    Crawling is the process where Google, Bing, and other search engines discover and understand your website. Indexing is the process where search engines collect and store information about your website.

    A simple way of checking crawling and indexing issues is using webmaster tools. For example, Google Search Console is a free tool by Google that shows your site’s performance on search results, helps uncover bugs, and allows you to submit your site to Google.

    If you haven’t connected to the webmaster tool, then see our guide on how to add a WordPress site to Google Search Console.

    In Google Search Console, you can head to the ‘Pages’ report. Here, you’ll see pages that are indexed and not indexed.

    Page indexing in search console

    Next, you can scroll down to the ‘Why pages aren’t indexed’ report.

    Google Search Console will show you crawling and indexing errors on your website and which pages are affected by them. You can then resolve these issues, so your web pages can appear in Google search results.

    Why pages are not indexed

    Besides that, you can also check indexing and crawling issues for individual URLs.

    Simply enter the page link in the URL inspection tool at the top. Google Search Console will then show you a report on whether the URL is indexed and on Google.

    URL inspection tool

    If it is not, then you’ll see a ‘URL is not on Google’ message. To fix this, you can click the ‘Request Indexing’ button so Google can crawl and index your page.

    3. Make Sure Your Website is Secure with HTTPS

    Another important thing to check from a technical SEO framework standpoint is whether your website is secure or not.

    Google and other search engines will give preference to sites that use HTTPS over those that use HTTP. To secure your site, you will need an SSL certificate to encrypt the connection between your website server and the user’s browser.

    You can check this by looking for the padlock sign in your browser’s search bar at the top.

    Look for padlock sign

    Most WordPress hosting companies now offer free SSL with all their plans. You can ask your host to see if they offer that.

    For more details, please see our guide on how to move your WordPress site from HTTP to HTTPS.

    Broken links are bad for your website’s SEO framework, and it negatively impacts your user experience. These are links that no longer exist and will return a 404 error.

    Since search engine crawlers find different pages on your website by following internal links. A broken link can stop them from discovering new content. As a result, your page might not get indexed in the search results.

    Similarly, if a visitor clicks on a link and is unable to find a page they’re looking for, then they might exit your website.

    The MonsterInsights custom 404 error design

    With All in One SEO (AIOSEO), you can easily find and fix broken links on your WordPress website.

    It offers a powerful redirection manager that helps track 404 errors on your website and lets you set up permanent 301 redirects to fix broken links.

    404 error logs in AIOSEO

    To learn more, you can follow our detailed guide on how to find and fix broken links in WordPress.

    5. Look for Duplicate Versions of Your Site

    It is important that Google and other search engines only index one version of your website.

    Your website can have different versions, but they should all point to one version. For example, you can have a site that has www and non-www version or HTTP and HTTPS version:

    https://www.example.com
    https://example.com
    http://www.example.com
    http://example.com
    

    Whether you choose a www or non-www version, all the URLs should redirect to the primary WordPress URL. Otherwise, Google will consider each version as a different website.

    This can negatively impact your overall SEO rankings. Search engines won’t know which version to index, and it could cause duplicate content issues.

    You can check the primary URL for your site by going to Settings » General from the WordPress dashboard. Next, look at the web address in the ‘WordPress Address (URL)’ and ‘Site Address (URL)’ fields.

    Look for primary URL

    With AIOSEO, you can automatically set the proper canonical URL in your site header, so search engines will know your preference.

    6. Use SEO-Friendly URL Structures

    After setting a primary URL for search engines to index, you can now check the URL structure of your website.

    URL structure plays an important role in your SEO. Having an SEO-friendly URL structure will help Google, Bing, and other search engines easily crawl your pages and understand your content.

    Here’s an example of a bad URL structure:

    https://www.example.com/category.php?id=42012
    

    Instead, you should be using URLs that describe the content, like:

    https://www.example.com/blog/how-to-start-a-wordpress-website
    

    You can create SEO-friendly URLs by making sure that they are short and descriptive. Besides that, don’t forget to include a keyword in the permalinks, use hyphens to separate words, keep all the words in lowercase, and don’t use stop words.

    Pro Tip: Don’t include numbers in your URL slugs, either. That way, you can update your content in the future

    7. Ensure Your Site is Mobile Friendly

    The next item in the technical SEO framework checklist is to ensure your WordPress site is mobile responsive.

    With Google now going mobile-first, it will now index your site’s mobile version instead of the desktop version.

    You can check your site’s mobile responsiveness by using the free Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

    Mobile friendly test

    Simply enter your website URL and click the ‘Test URL’ button.

    The tool will then show results for your website. You can see if it is mobile-ready or not.

    See mobile friendly test tool results

    If your site is not mobile-friendly, then you can start by changing to a responsive WordPress theme.

    You can also follow our guide on how to change your WordPress theme without losing any data or traffic.

    8. Check Your Website Speed and Improve Performance

    Your website speed is also a critical part of your WordPress technical SEO framework. Google uses page load speed as a ranking factor and will rank fast-loading sites higher compared to slow-performing websites.

    You can check website load time by running a site speed test. For instance, you can use MonsterInsights, which is the best Google Analytics plugin that shows a site speed report inside your WordPress dashboard.

    You’ll first need to install Google Analytics to your WordPress site using MonsterInsights.

    After that, you can head to the Insights » Reports page from your WordPress admin panel. Next, you can go to the ‘Site Speed’ tab. Here, you’ll see an overall score for your website speed for desktop and mobile.

    Site speed report

    The report will also show other metrics that are important for measuring your website speed.

    If you scroll down, then MonsterInsights offers recommendations and benchmark goals for each metric you should target.

    Recommendations for improving speed

    To improve website load time, you can see our ultimate guide to boost WordPress speed and performance.

    A quick tip that you can use to improve your website speed is minifying your CSS and JavaScript files.

    The term minified means reducing the size of website files by removing white spaces, lines, and unnecessary characters. When a user visits your website, different files are sent to the user’s browser, which includes CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files.

    By reducing the file size, you can significantly improve website speed and performance. There are many WordPress plugins and hosting services that allow you to minify CSS and JavaScript files, like WP Rocket and SiteGround.

    For more details, you can check out our guide on how to minify CSS and JavaScript files in WordPress.

    9. Improve Your Internal Linking Structure and Remove Orphaned Pages

    Internal links play an important role in your website’s technical SEO framework. Search engines reward websites that have a proper internal linking structure without too many orphaned pages.

    AIOSEO has a powerful SEO Link Assistant feature that makes it easy for you to discover link opportunities and even automate the process for you.

    It is the best internal linking plugin for WordPress that crawls the links on your WordPress website and provides a detailed report. You can see the number of internal links, outbound links, and affiliate links for each post and page.

    AIOSEO Link assistant dashboard

    You can see all the link suggestions in one place, and it can even automatically go back and add internal links in your older posts with a single click.

    Find internal link opportunities and orphaned pages

    10. Generate XML Sitemaps and Submit Them to Search Engines

    Another important part of technical SEO framework is making it easier for search engines to find your content. One of the ways you can do that is by creating an XML sitemap.

    It tells search engines about the important pages on your website. This way, search engine bots can crawl your site faster and index your content. While a sitemap won’t boost your rankings, it will improve the overall crawling and indexing process.

    You can create and customize the sitemap using AIOSEO. The plugin will automatically generate a sitemap upon activation. Besides, it also lets you create a video sitemap, a news sitemap, an HTML sitemap, and an RSS sitemap.

    AIOSEO sitemap options

    Once you’ve created a sitemap, you can then submit it to different search engines using their webmaster tools.

    For instance, Google Search Console gives the option to enter the sitemap URL and submit it to the search engine. To learn more, you can see our guide on how to submit your site to search engines.

    Submit sitemap to Google

    Similarly, you can also add your site to Bing Webmaster Tool and then submit an XML sitemap to improve crawling and indexing.

    11. Use Schema Markup for Rich Snippets

    The next technical SEO framework item you should check is schema markup. It helps search engines understand your content better and how it will appear on the search results.

    You can use schema markup for recipes, reviews, events, organizations, FAQs, blog posts, product pages, multiple locations for local businesses, and more.

    Search engines can use this information and display rich results. It also helps capture Google featured snippets, which can increase organic clicks and traffic.

    For example, here’s how Google shows recipes, ingredients, ratings, cooking time, and other information for blog posts that use a recipe schema markup.

    Recipe schema markup

    You can easily add a schema markup in WordPress and WooCommerce using AIOSEO.

    The plugin lets you choose the schema type depending on your content, and it takes care of the rest.

    Schema markup settings in AIOSEO

    With AIOSEO, you can also add completely custom schema markups based on your needs using the WordPress custom schema generator feature. This can help you get star ratings, and other rich snippets in Google.

    AIOSEO Custom Schema Generator for WordPress

    12. Optimize Your Robots.txt File for SEO

    Robots.txt is a text file that specifies instructions for search engine bots on how to crawl your website. You can tell which pages to crawl and which pages to skip while crawling.

    Here’s what a robots.txt file would look like for a WordPress site:

    User-Agent: *
    Allow: /wp-content/uploads/
    Disallow: /wp-admin/
    Disallow: /readme.html
    Disallow: /refer/
     
    Sitemap: http://www.example.com/post-sitemap.xml
    Sitemap: http://www.example.com/page-sitemap.xml
    

    Adding a robots.txt file helps save the crawl quota. A search engine crawler will crawl a certain number of pages during a session. If they don’t finish crawling all the pages on your site, they will resume crawling in the next session.

    This can slow down the indexing of your content, and it will appear in search results after some delay. That’s why optimizing the robots.txt file is an important component of the technical SEO framework.

    You can disallow pages unnecessary pages like the WordPress admin area, theme folder, plugin files, and more. This way, you get to save the crawl quota and allow search engine bots to crawl even more pages.

    On the other hand, you can add sitemaps and other important pages to robots.txt. This way, search engines will crawl and index them as quickly as possible.

    A simple way of optimizing the robots.txt file is by using AIOSEO. You can enable custom robots.txt using the plugin and add rules to allow or disallow search engines to crawl.

    Optimize robots txt file

    To learn more, please see our guide on how to optimize your WordPress robots.txt for SEO.

    13. Make Sure Google Doesn’t Flag Your Site for Malware

    Another important technical SEO checklist item is to ensure your site isn’t flagged by Google for malware or unwanted software.

    If your website is a security risk for users, then Google will show the following warning message:

    Google safe browsing malware warning

    This can be really bad for your WordPress SEO. It will keep people away from visiting your website, and impact your rankings, and overall website traffic.

    To scan for malicious files on your website, you can use a WordPress security scanner. At WPBeginner, we use Sucuri as it is the best WordPress firewall and security plugin. It checks for vulnerabilities like malware, spam injection, malicious code, and helps clean up the website.

    You can also take a look at our guide on how to fix ‘this site ahead contains harmful programs’ error in WordPress, if Google flags your site for malware.

    14. Use Server Side Rendering vs Client Side Rendering

    Another technical SEO best practice is ensuring that your site’s JavaScript renders on the server side and not on the client side.

    Server-side rendering is when the JavaScript files render on the website server. While client-side rendering is when the JavaScript files render in the user’s browser.

    Client-side rendering is bad for your site’s user experience and SEO. All the burden of loading your site quickly falls on the visitor. Plus, search engine bots use JavaScript resources for crawling and indexing your content. This could result in JavaScript content being missed by crawlers and not included in the search engine index.

    With server-side rendering, your website server ensures everything loads quickly. This way, you get a better user experience, faster page load speed, and reduce any risk of content being missed from indexing.

    One way of ensuring that JavaScript is rendering on your site’s server is by running a site speed test. If your website speed is low, then it could be because of this issue. You can also look at crawled pages in Google Search Console and see if Google missed any content while crawling. If it did, then it could be because of JaveScript-related SEO issues.

    That’s it. You’ve made it to the end of the list. You don’t need to go through each and every point in the technical SEO framework at once. Simply go one step at a time and work your way through the list.

    We hope this article helped you learn about WordPress technical SEO framework. You may also want to see our comparison of the best keyword research tools, and our proven tips on how to increase your blog traffic.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post 14-Step Technical WordPress SEO Framework (Proven Checklist) first appeared on WPBeginner.