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WordPress-specific SEO faults, from sitemaps and feeds to plugin defaults. 19 posts, newest first.
Largest Contentful Paint in WordPress: find the slow part, then fix itLargest Contentful Paint in WordPress: what a good LCP is, why Search Console and PageSpeed disagree, and the three culprits I keep finding in audits.
Matt Mullenweg is back as Automattic CEO: what changed for your siteThe board vote, the 33-hour ouster and the on-record reversal, separated from rumor. Plus the plugin security change that shipped the same week.
WordPress MCP server: connecting AI to your site safelyWhat a WordPress MCP server is, which official option to use after Automattic archived wordpress-mcp, and the safety rules I enforce in my own.
Programmatic SEO in WordPress: the gates I run before generating a single pageEvery WordPress programmatic SEO guide teaches generation. None teach the indexing gates. Here is what I check before, during and after a rollout.
WordPress author archive pages in Google: keep or kill?Author archive pages in Google are usually thin duplicates. What Yoast and Rank Math actually do when you disable them, and why it is not a 404.
Pages not indexed after a WordPress migration: the recovery auditEvery migration checklist is written for the day before launch. This is the one for three weeks after, when the pages are already gone.
Why WooCommerce cart and checkout pages show up in GoogleWooCommerce has noindexed cart, checkout and my account since version 3.2. If yours are in Google, the guard missed them. Why, and the fix order.
Default robots.txt for WordPress: what core actually servesThe three lines WordPress core outputs, where the Sitemap line comes from, and why a physical robots.txt file silently switches all of it off.
WordPress search result pages in Google: why ?s= URLs show upWordPress noindexes ?s= search pages by default since 5.7. Here is why they still fill your Page indexing report, and when it is worth acting.
Should WordPress /page/2/ be indexed? What Google does with archivesShould WordPress /page/2/ be indexed? Yoast and Rank Math both leave paginated archives indexable by default, and the plugin advice online is stale.
WordPress redirect loop: how to fix it, and what it costs you in GoogleA WordPress redirect loop is usually two rules disagreeing about www or https. How to find which one, and what Google does to the URL meanwhile.
WordPress Core Security Initiative: what it is and why it matters for SEOWordPress announced a Core Security Initiative on 28 August: three pillars, driven by AI-assisted reports. Why hacked sites are an SEO problem.
Rank Math's support agent creates an admin application password: I read the codeRank Math 1.0.277 provisions an application password for its new support agent. I read the plugin code; here is what it does and how to revoke it.
What is wp-sitemap.xml? The WordPress core sitemapWordPress has shipped its own sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml since 5.5. What it lists, why entries have no lastmod, and when to disable or extend it.
Why WordPress /feed/ URLs show as crawled, not indexedEvery WordPress install publishes a stack of RSS feeds you never made. Why they fill the Page indexing report, and why the obvious fix backfires.
Should you noindex WordPress category and tag pages?WordPress creates an archive for every category and tag whether you use it or not. When those pages help indexing, when they hurt, and how to decide.
WordPress robots.txt: where it is, what it contains, how to edit itWhere is robots.txt in WordPress? Not on disk: WordPress builds it on every request. What the default contains, what rewrites it, and three ways to edit it.
WordPress attachment pages are still on your siteWordPress 6.4 turned attachment pages off, but only for brand new installs. Every upgraded site kept them, and Google still crawls them.
Discourage search engines from indexing this site: what it doesThe WordPress checkbox does not edit robots.txt any more. Since 5.3 it prints noindex, nofollow sitewide. Here is what that means and how to undo it.Nothing in that category yet.
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