How to ensure website SEO on WordPress

WordPress is an SEO-friendly CMS by default. But there are tasks without which the site cannot be considered fully compliant with the requirements of search engines. Here they are:

creating and updating the site map;
url canonization;
optimization of title pages;
automatic generation of meta data of pages;
blocking indexing of duplicate content;
creating micro-markup of pages;
adding files .htaccess and robots.txt .
To solve these problems, you will install one SEO plugin from three groups: programs for creating a site map, programs for technical optimization of the resource and programs for creating micro-markup. To create a site map, use one of the following plugins:

Google XML Sitemaps;
Google Sitemap by BestWebSoft.
Install and activate the selected plugin, for example, Google XML Sitemaps.

XML Sitemaps plugin Settings
Settings page of the site map generator plugin

It is better for novice webmasters to leave the default settings. After activation, the plugin created a sitemap, added its address to the file robots.txt and I got ready to notify search engines about resource updates.

Automatic generation of the site map takes a few seconds
Created a site map, thanks to XML Sitemaps

If you consider yourself an experienced webmaster, you can change the plugin settings. In the “Additional Pages” section, you can manually include URLs in the sitemap that were not included in it automatically. In the “Article Priority” section, determine how to calculate the priority of indexing content. In the “Change frequencies” and “Priorities” sections, you can recommend the most priority content types in your opinion to search robots.

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For technical optimization of the resource, use one of the following plugins:

All in One SEO Pack;
WordPress SEO by Yoast.
Install and activate the selected plugin, for example, All in One SEO Pack. Use the default settings if you are just getting to know WordPress. If you consider yourself an advanced webmaster, you can change some settings of the SEO module. To do this, select the All in One SEO menu in the engine console.

SEO content analysis can be run both in the classic WP editor and in Gutenberg’s
new All in One SEO Pack interface

Pay attention to the settings listed below.

In the “Basic settings” section, uncheck the box next to the Use item Schema.org Markup. It is better to mark up the page using a separate plugin.

If you use the records page as the main page, specify title, description and keywords in the “Settings of the main page” section. If a static page is used as the main page, select the checkbox in the “Enable” field.

Setting up the metadata of the main page
The static main page can be used (or not used) as the main page

In the “Settings for Webmaster” section, specify the resource verification code in the Google Webmaster dashboard. To do this, add a new resource to the “Tools for Webmasters”, select alternative verification methods. Copy the part of the HTML code shown in the illustration.

We need a code that is used to verify ownership in the Google Search Console
Copy this meta tag to the clipboard

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Paste it into the “Google Webmaster Tools” field on the plugin settings page.

Insert the code on the plugin settings page
Paste the code into the line “Google Webmaster Tools”

Save the plugin parameters. In the webmaster cabinet, click the “Confirm” button.

To mark up pages, use one of the following plugins:

A bundle of WPSSO and WPSSO JSON. The first plugin is basic, and the second is an extension. Using the basic solution, you can add Open Graph markup to the site. Markup is implemented using JSON-LD Schema.org .
WP SEO Structured Data Schema. With this plugin, you can add several types of markup to the site Schema.org , including Article, BlogPosting and Review. Markup is implemented using JSON-LD.
The Schema App plugin. With this program, you can add different types of markup to the site Schema.org . It is implemented via JSON-LD. The free version supports basic markup types. You can also use an online generator for markup, if you understand the basic principles of markup well Schema.org . Install and activate the WPSSO and WPSSO JSON plugins. In the console, on the plugin settings page, in the Essential Settings section, specify information about the site, as well as information for the Open Graph markup. Do not change other settings.
We specify information about the site and information for the Open Graph markup
Fill in the main information about the site

Go to the Google and Schema section. In the Organization Logo Image URL and Organization Banner URL fields, specify the URL of the website logo and banner. These images can be used on the search results page.

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We specify links to the logo and banner
Give the URL to the company’s logo and banner images

Use the drop-down menu to select the basic markup type for a blog entry page, a static homepage. You need the following types: Blog and Website respectively.

Select the markup type for publication pages, static pages, and media file pages. The Article and BlogPosting markup types are suitable for record pages. The choice depends on the format of blog posts.

The type of BlogPosting markup is a derivative of Article. In addition to BlogPosting, the Article particulars include the type of markup News Article or “News”. That is, BlogPosting contains all the semantic data of the Article markup.

Use the BlogPosting type if you publish small notes, personal observations and impressions, as in a “LiveJournal”. The Article type is more suitable for reviews, analytical articles, manuals, as in the blog “Texterra”. For static pages and media file pages, you need to specify the WebPage type.

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