WordPress SEO services, with your posts and pages moved into our own system

Can you do SEO on my WordPress site without moving it?

No. The SEO we run happens on sites we build and look after, so a WordPress site we take on is rebuilt in our own system first. We don’t install SEO plugins, edit WordPress themes or keep a WordPress install updated, and none of the monthly work happens inside WordPress. With the site in code we run, each change the work calls for, from a page template to a redirect, is ours to make without waiting on a theme or a plugin.

If you’re comparing a WordPress SEO agency, company or consultant, ask where their work will happen: inside your WordPress install, through its plugins and theme, or on a site they run themselves. Either can work. If the site should stay on WordPress, a developer who works in WordPress every day is the better fit, and we’ll tell you so on the 15-minute call.

What is WordPress SEO?

WordPress SEO is search work on a site that runs on WordPress: making its posts, pages and archives easy for search engines to read, and worth showing for the searches buyers make. WordPress’s own documentation puts the starting point plainly. Search engines can’t see a site; they can only read it, so what counts is the words, the links and the titles.

The parts that are WordPress’s own:

• Permalinks: the pattern every address follows, set under Settings, Permalinks. WordPress’s documentation calls “pretty” permalinks, built from words such as the post’s title, SEO-friendly.
• Categories and tags: each one gets an archive page listing its posts. Categories can sit under a parent; tags have no hierarchy.
• The sitemap: from version 5.5, WordPress publishes a sitemap index at /wp-sitemap.xml for its public post types, taxonomies, author archives and homepage, and lists it in robots.txt.
• Themes and plugins: meta tags live in the theme’s header template, and WordPress doesn’t include them by default, so a meta description is added by hand in the theme, through custom fields or with a plugin.
• The visibility box: a setting under Settings, Reading that asks search engines not to index the site.

Is WordPress good for SEO?

For the basics, yes. WordPress’s documentation says that straight out of the box it “comes ready to embrace search engines”, guiding them through the posts, pages and categories. From version 5.5 it builds a sitemap by default too.

Two things can work against it, and both are in the site owner’s hands:

• The visibility box left ticked: with “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” checked, WordPress adds a robots meta tag with noindex and nofollow to the site’s pages (from version 5.3) and turns its sitemaps off. WordPress notes that it’s up to search engines to honor the request.
• Themes and customizing: the same documentation warns that once you start using themes and customizing WordPress to your needs, you may break some of its search-friendly features.

Beyond the settings, a WordPress site ranks the way any site does: on which pages exist, what each one says and who links to them. Our Shopify SEO page sets the two platforms side by side.

How do I improve SEO on WordPress?

Start with the settings, then the pages:

1. Clear the visibility box: under Settings, Reading, make sure “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is unticked once the site is live.
2. Settle the permalink pattern early: WordPress’s documentation says permalinks are meant to be permanent and should never be changed, and calls the plain ?p= pattern not user-friendly. If a live site has to change pattern, every old address needs a permanent redirect.
3. Give each page its own title and description: Google’s starter guide asks for titles that are unique, clear and concise, and meta descriptions that are short and written for one page.
4. Merge posts that compete: where two posts chase one search, combine them into the stronger one and redirect the other.
5. Decide what each archive is for: keep a category or tag archive that people search for, and give it a description if your theme shows one. Fold the rest into pages that say more.
6. Submit the sitemap: add /wp-sitemap.xml in Google Search Console, and check its Sitemaps report for how many of the listed pages are indexed.

Where do I add keywords for SEO in WordPress?

In the places a reader looks first:

• The title: Google says most CMSes can turn the titles you write into the page’s title element, one of the sources it uses for the headline of a result.
• The slug: the last part of the address. Words there help a reader, and Google learns breadcrumbs from them, but it says that for ranking, keywords in a URL path alone have hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs.
• The opening and the headings: say what the post covers early, in the words people search with.
• Image alt text: a short description of each image, which Google uses to understand the image and how it relates to the page.
• The meta description: written into the theme by hand, or added with a plugin or custom fields. Google takes a result’s snippet from the page’s content and, occasionally, from this tag.

WordPress’s documentation suggests using the words people search with more than once, but not in every sentence. Google adds two limits: it doesn’t use the keywords meta tag, and keyword stuffing is against its spam policies.

Do WordPress tags help SEO?

Not on their own. A tag groups posts, and WordPress gives each tag an archive page at its own address, listing every post that carries it. Unlike categories, tags have no hierarchy, and each tag’s name and slug must be unique.

An archive is a page like any other, so it can rank when it says something a reader wants. A tag used on two posts, or one that duplicates a category, makes a page that mostly repeats others. Google says duplicate content isn’t a breach of its spam policies, but it can make for a bad experience and lead search engines to spend crawling on addresses you don’t care about.

So in a move, every archive gets a decision: kept with words of its own, folded into a category or a page, or redirected. Categories can nest under a parent, which lets them follow the sections of a site in a way tags can’t.

What happens to your posts, pages and addresses in the move?

The move starts with a map. We list every post, page, category and tag address, with the visits and links each one brings, and mark it to stay, to merge into another page or to redirect. Google’s guide to site moves, updated August 20, 2026, then shapes what happens to each part:

• Addresses: the domain stays the same, an address that can stay does, and one that changes gets a permanent redirect straight to its closest page, with no chain of hops. Google asks for those redirects to stay up as long as possible, generally a year at least.
• Images and downloads: Google says to bring across images and files such as PDFs, since they may already get traffic from search or from links.
• Plugins: a feature the old site got from a plugin, such as a form or a gallery, has to be rebuilt in the new site or retired.
• Measurement: analytics and Search Console are connected at launch, and Google suggests submitting the new sitemap, so visits to the old and new addresses can be followed.

Before launch, you review the rebuilt site on a private preview that search engines are asked not to index, and send one list of changes. Your proposal lists what moves, plugin features included.

What does moving a WordPress site cost?

Site-migration price pages and guides, read October 2026, give the market’s figures for moving an existing site:

• Established local business: about 5 to 30 pages, $2,500 to $7,500 (Suff Digital, Saffron Edge and ATAK Interactive).
• Multi-location or regional: about 30 to 200 pages, $8,000 to $20,000 (Suff Digital and Media Junction).
• National: 200 or more pages, or several domains, $25,000 to $75,000 (Suff Digital and Creative Corner Studio).

Our site migration is a one-time fee, set out as its own line in the proposal. SEO pricing breaks down the monthly ranges in the table above, and website design cost sets a move like this beside a full rebuild with a new design and new copy.

What does Google advise when a site changes its system?

Google’s guide to site moves would rather the new site ran on the same content management system as the old one, and it asks site owners to change one thing at a time. A move off WordPress can’t follow the first piece of advice, so the plan leans on the second: the domain stays, and the addresses stay the same wherever they can.

Google expects rankings to move about while it recrawls a moved site. For a medium-sized site, it says, it can take a few weeks or more before the new addresses show up in place of the old ones, and longer on a large site. It adds that 301 and other permanent redirects lose no PageRank, and suggests timing a move for a quiet stretch in your traffic.

The map and the redirects are ours to get right. The recrawl runs at Google’s pace, which its guide says depends on how many addresses a site has and how fast its server is. We do not guarantee search rankings, traffic, or uninterrupted uptime. If a redesign is planned too, that’s a second change, so settle the order before either starts; website redesign services covers the redesign side.

What runs each month after the move?

The same SEO as on any site we run, on a site we can now change directly. Titles, descriptions and markup are kept right, overlapping posts are merged, and new service pages and articles are added, with a location page wherever a place has the demand and the local proof to justify one, along with links earned from other sites. A site check runs every week, the links are checked every month, and the plan is reviewed every quarter.

On the last day of each month, a one-page report sets the results against targets, never promises, starting with the leads search brought in. Alongside the SEO, generative engine optimization makes a business easier for AI answers to find, read and cite.

When should a WordPress site stay where it is?

When the move would cost more than it returns, which happens in three cases:

• It doesn’t need to rank: a site that wins its work through referrals, and only has to look right when someone checks, gains little from a move.
• It runs on plugins the business depends on: memberships, courses, bookings or a shop would each have to be rebuilt or replaced before the site could move, which adds to the cost.
• The gap is small: if the site already ranks and only a few titles and descriptions need work, someone who works on WordPress sites can fix those where they are.

To find out whether your WordPress site should move, book a 15-minute call. Bring its address. If it’s better off staying on WordPress, that’s what we’ll tell you.