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// guides

WordPress SEO guides, and the tools that go with them

Each guide answers one question a site owner asks before they'd hire anyone: how a setting works, what the rules are, and how you'd check it yourself. Where a free tool helps, it's built into the guide and runs in your browser. When you'd rather have it fixed, each guide links the service that'll do it. For how I do a whole job from start to finish, see the posts on how I fix WordPress SEO.

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// for crawlability and indexing

Crawlability and indexing guides

guide Discovered and crawled, currently not indexed Discovered means Google knows the URL and hasn't crawled it yet; Google says the crawl was typically put off because it was expected to overload the site. Crawled means Google fetched it and didn't index it at that time.

The Crawlability and indexing service →

// for page builder seo

Page builder SEO guides

guide Divi SEO Divi is fine for SEO once one SEO plugin handles titles, meta, social cards and schema, and Divi's own SEO tab is switched off. guide Elementor SEO Elementor doesn't stop a site ranking. Google reads the HTML the builder prints, so the build habits decide whether that HTML is clean.

The Page builder SEO service →

// for duplicate content and canonicals

Duplicate content and canonicals guides

guide Duplicate without user-selected canonical Google found a URL that duplicates another, no canonical named the main one, so Google chose one itself and won't show the copy in Search. guide Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user You declared a canonical, Google thought another URL made a better one, and it indexed that URL instead of yours.

The Duplicate content and canonicals service →

// for hreflang and multilingual

Hreflang and multilingual guides

guide Hreflang and canonical tags Every language version should have a canonical tag pointing at itself, and hreflang tags listing every version, itself included. guide + free tool Hreflang sitemaps A hreflang sitemap gives every language URL its own url entry, and it's each entry's job to list every version, itself included.

The Hreflang and multilingual service →

// for keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization guides

guide + free tool Keyword cannibalization checkers A keyword cannibalization checker finds the queries where you've got more than one page taking a real share of the impressions.

The Keyword cannibalization service →

// for robots and sitemaps

Robots and sitemaps guides

guide WordPress robots.txt WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt with four lines by default, and a physical file or an SEO plugin replaces it the moment one exists.

The Robots and sitemaps service →

// free tools

Which free SEO tools are on this site?

i.

Keyword cannibalization checker

Paste a Search Console export and it'll show which queries your own pages split. Open the checker.

ii.

Hreflang sitemap generator

List each page's language versions and it'll write the XML, with every entry's full set. Open the generator.

iii.

Nothing leaves your browser

Both tools run on your own device, so your data doesn't travel. There's no sign-up, no upload and no email to hand over before you see a result.

// questions

Questions about these guides

Are the guides written for WordPress only?

Mostly, yes. The rules come from Google and apply to any site, but the settings, plugins and examples are WordPress and WooCommerce ones, because that's the platform I work on.

Do I need to be technical to follow them?

No. Each guide says what you can safely check yourself and where it's worth getting help, and the tools don't need any setup.

How often are the guides updated?

When Google changes something they cover. Each guide shows the date it was last updated, and the sources it links are Google's own documentation.

Can you apply a guide to my site for me?

Yes. Each guide links the service that does exactly that, and you can book a call on Upwork to scope it.

// how these are chosen

Why these guides, and not a hundred?

Every guide here answers a search people actually make, one that the matching service page can't answer without turning into a manual, and it's checked against live results before it's written. If a guide would compete with its own service page for the same search, it doesn't get written; that content goes on the service page instead.

They're written by one WordPress technical SEO consultant from Google's documentation and from what shows up on real WordPress and WooCommerce sites. Where a claim comes from Google, the guide links the source. They aren't sponsored, there's no affiliate link in any of them, and I don't sell the plugins they mention.

// next step

Rather skip the reading? Book a call.

Share the URL and read-only Search Console access on Upwork, and you'll get back the problems actually costing your site clicks, and they're fixed by the person who found them.

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