Hello,
This article is intended for those who are about to publish their very first blog post but want to pay attention to important technical SEO settings right from the start.
It’s important to emphasize that this guide is not about writing, wording, or editing your content. While I may briefly touch on those topics, the main focus here is on the fundamental SEO settings that every website owner should implement.
The goal is to establish a healthy SEO foundation that remains relevant not only in 2026 but for many years to come. For experienced website owners and SEO professionals, many of these settings may seem obvious. However, for someone publishing their first article, these concepts are often completely new—and incredibly valuable.
If you’re just getting started with WordPress, taking the time to configure these basics correctly can save you a lot of headaches later and help search engines understand and index your content more effectively from day one.
Step 1: Log In to Your Website
The first step is to log in to your WordPress website’s admin dashboard.
Step 2: Create a New Post
From the left-hand menu, navigate to Posts → Add New.
Once you click Add New, the WordPress editor will open, and you’ll be presented with the workspace where you’ll create and optimize your article. This is the interface we’ll be working with throughout the tutorial.
Step 3: Add Your H1 Title and Article Content
Start by entering your main article title (H1) and then add the body content of your article.
The H1 is typically the primary heading of your page and should clearly describe the topic of the article.
Step 4: Review Your Heading Structure
Carefully check all of your subheadings. It’s important that both the formatting and the heading hierarchy are set up correctly.
By clicking on a heading block, you can choose whether it should be formatted as H2, H3, H4, or H5. Use these heading levels logically to create a clear structure for both readers and search engines.
You can also create bulleted lists or numbered lists from the same editor options. Simply highlight the relevant text and select the appropriate list format. Proper use of headings and lists improves readability and helps search engines better understand the structure of your content.
Why Lists and Tables Matter for SEO
Bulleted lists, numbered lists, and tables play an important role in SEO.
They improve the readability of your content by presenting information in a clear and organized format, making it easier for visitors to scan and understand your article. Well-structured content also tends to appear more professional and trustworthy, which can positively influence user engagement.
From an SEO perspective, lists and tables help search engines better understand and categorize the information on your page. They can make key points more accessible to search engine crawlers and improve the overall structure of your content.
As a result, articles that make effective use of lists and tables are often easier for search engines to index and may have a better chance of achieving strong visibility in search results. While they are not a ranking factor on their own, they contribute to a cleaner, more user-friendly content structure that aligns with modern SEO best practices.
Adding images to your article is important, but it’s equally important to add them correctly.
Step 5: Upload Images Properly
Always upload images directly to your WordPress media library instead of copying and pasting them from another website. When an image is embedded from an external source, you’re relying on that website to continue hosting the file.
If the original website later deletes the image or removes the article containing it, the image may disappear from your content as well, leaving behind a broken image icon or error message. This creates a poor user experience and makes the article look unprofessional.
For this reason, it’s considered best practice to upload your images individually to your own website.
In addition, every image should include:
- A descriptive file name
- Alt text (alternative text)
- A title (meta title)
- A description (meta description), when relevant
These elements help search engines understand the content of the image, improve accessibility, and can contribute to better image indexing in search results.
Taking a few extra moments to properly upload and optimize your images is a simple but valuable SEO practice that every website owner should follow.
Step 6: Set a Featured Image
The featured image is an important part of your article’s presentation and branding.
When your article is shared on social media, displayed in blog archives, or shown in various sections of your website, the featured image will often be the first visual element visitors see. A well-designed featured image can attract attention, increase click-through rates, and make your content look more professional.
Choose an image that is:
- Relevant to the topic of the article
- Visually appealing
- Clear and easy to understand
- Designed to encourage clicks without being misleading
Just like the images within your article, the featured image should be uploaded directly to your website, not linked from an external source.
Don’t forget to add:
- A descriptive image title
- Alt text
- Image description (where applicable)
Properly optimizing your featured image helps with accessibility, image SEO, and overall content quality while ensuring your article looks its best whenever it is shared or displayed online.
Step 7: Choose the Most Relevant Category
Before publishing your article, make sure to assign it to the most relevant category.
Categories help organize your website’s content and make it easier for both visitors and search engines to understand the structure of your site. A well-organized category system improves navigation, enhances the user experience, and contributes to a stronger overall SEO foundation.
When selecting a category:
- Choose the category that best matches the main topic of the article.
- Avoid assigning the same article to too many categories.
- Keep your category structure simple and logical.
- Use consistent categories across your website.
Think of categories as the major sections of your website. If a visitor lands on a category page, they should find articles that are closely related to that specific topic.
Taking a moment to place each article in the correct category helps maintain a clean site structure and makes your content easier to discover for both users and search engines.
Step 8: Configure the Essential SEO Settings with Rank Math
Now it’s time to set up the most important SEO elements using the Rank Math plugin.
The key settings you should pay attention to are:
- Focus Keyword
- SEO Title (Meta Title)
- Meta Description
- Permalink (URL Slug)
Set Your Focus Keyword
Choose the primary keyword that best represents the topic of your article. This is the search term you want your content to rank for in search engines.
Create an Optimized Meta Title
Your meta title should be clear, compelling, and include your primary keyword whenever possible. This title is often displayed in search engine results, so it should encourage users to click on your article.
Write a Strong Meta Description
The meta description should briefly summarize the content of the article while naturally incorporating your target keyword. Although meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor, they can significantly influence click-through rates from search results.
Optimize Your Permalink
Make sure your permalink (URL slug) is concise, descriptive, and includes your primary keyword. Avoid unnecessarily long URLs and remove filler words whenever possible.
For example:
Good:yourwebsite.com/wordpress-seo-settings
Less Ideal:yourwebsite.com/how-to-configure-all-of-the-wordpress-seo-settings-for-beginners-in-2026
Keyword Placement Best Practices
As a general rule, your target keyword should appear naturally throughout the article. For the best results, consider including it in:
- The H1 title
- Some H2 subheadings where relevant
- The meta title
- The meta description
- The permalink
- The introduction (preferably near the beginning)
- The main content and paragraphs throughout the article
However, always prioritize readability. Keywords should be used naturally and in context. Excessive repetition, commonly known as keyword stuffing, can negatively affect both user experience and search performance.
The goal is to make it clear to search engines what your article is about while keeping the content useful, engaging, and easy to read for real people.
Step 9: Add Internal Links
The final step is to add relevant internal links to your article.
Internal links connect one page of your website to another, helping both visitors and search engines navigate your content more efficiently. They are one of the simplest yet most effective on-page SEO practices.
Benefits of internal linking include:
- Improved website navigation
- Better content discoverability
- Faster and more efficient indexing by search engines
- Stronger site structure and topical relevance
- Increased time spent on your website
- More opportunities for visitors to explore additional content
Internal links also help distribute authority throughout your website, allowing search engines to better understand the relationships between your pages and articles.
Whenever possible, link to other relevant articles, guides, or resources that provide additional value to the reader. The links should be natural and useful rather than forced.
While internal linking is often overlooked by beginners, it is an important final SEO optimization that can contribute to improved visibility and, over time, help increase your website’s overall traffic and engagement.
With your content optimized, images properly configured, SEO settings completed, and internal links added, your article is now ready to be published with a solid SEO foundation.
Using Link Whisper for Internal Linking
As the first step, publish your article and then refresh the page. Once the page reloads, Link Whisper will begin displaying its internal linking suggestions.
The plugin typically recommends both:
- Outbound internal links (links from your new article to other pages on your website)
- Inbound internal links (links from existing articles pointing to your newly published article)
Ideally, you should create 2–3 links in each direction whenever relevant opportunities exist.
This approach helps search engines discover and understand your content more effectively while strengthening the connection between related articles across your website.
A healthy balance of inbound and outbound internal links improves:
- Crawlability
- Indexation
- Site structure
- User navigation
- Overall SEO performance
Remember that every suggested link should be relevant and useful to the reader. Internal linking works best when it naturally enhances the user’s journey through your content rather than being added solely for SEO purposes.
Final Thoughts
I hope I haven’t missed anything important.
Keep in mind that some of these settings and menus may vary depending on the platform, theme, page builder, or editor you’re using. The exact layout may look different from what is shown in this guide. However, anyone who is familiar with WordPress should be able to find their way around without too much difficulty.
One final tip: if you get stuck or notice that something appears differently in your setup, don’t hesitate to ask an AI assistant or LLM for help. Simply describe your situation and ask a specific question, such as:
“Where can I find this setting in the Gutenberg editor?”
“How do I change the permalink in this version of WordPress?”
“Where is the featured image option located in this editor?”
AI tools can be incredibly helpful for solving small technical issues and locating settings quickly.
As with anything else, the quality of the answer often depends on the quality of the question. The more specific and detailed your question is, the more accurate and useful the response is likely to be. Likewise, vague questions tend to produce vague answers.
In any case, I wish you the best of luck with your content creation journey. Hopefully, this guide has helped you build a solid SEO foundation for your articles and given you a clearer understanding of the essential settings that matter most.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on WhatsApp. I’m always happy to help.
