Most WordPress SEO advice is 5,000 words of theory. This is the opposite: the exact checklist to run on any site, in order. Steps 1–8 take about 30 minutes total.
The foundation (do once)
1. Clean permalinks — Settings → Permalinks → "Post name". No dates, no ?p=123.
2. One SEO plugin — Rank Math or Yoast, never both (our comparison settles the choice).
3. Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
4. Force HTTPS + one host — www or non-www, pick one, 301 the other.
5. Speed basics — caching plugin, WebP images, and a theme that doesn't ship 2MB of JavaScript.
The per-page work (automate it)
6. Focus keyword on every page.
7. Title under 60 chars, keyword first.
8. Meta description 120–155 chars with a reason to click.
9. Schema markup — Article or Product on every important page.
10. Image alt text, everywhere.
Doing 6–10 by hand across an existing site is weeks of tedium — the free PlugPage SEO fills all five for every published page in one click.
The growth loop (ongoing)
11. Instant indexing — every new URL pushed to Google's API and IndexNow (why this matters, or just install Auto Google Indexer).
12. Consistent publishing — the compounding step everyone skips. If writing is the bottleneck, SEO Auto Pilot publishes 80+-scoring articles on schedule while you sleep — our auto-blogging guide shows the full setup.
