WordPress is a handy platform for building your business website, especially when it comes to SEO. With a bunch of SEO-friendly attributes available right out of the box (as well as helpful add-ons), you can set up a site that will rank well and make it easy for people to find you online.

But this doesn’t mean that you can take a “set it and forget it” approach to SEO. Common technical SEO issues can trip up your website performance and hurt your rankings. Here are a few common issues to watch out for (and fix).

Internal Linking Issues

There are several internal linking issues that can negatively impact your SEO. For example, do you have correct link targets? Internal links should always open in the same tab, rather than opening a new tab. This improves site navigation, especially for mobile users.

You should also periodically check for broken links, as this can impact Google’s crawl quality, hurt the ranking of internal pages, and disrupt the user experience.

Finally, make sure you use high value anchor text for internal links. Detailed anchor text that provides contextual information can improve SEO rankings and make it easier for users to navigate your site. Reevaluate anchor text like “read more” or “click here” to find more detailed alternatives.

Maximizing Site Speed

Slow site speed is an important ranking factor that also impacts the user experience. In fact, bounce rates increase by 32 percent when page load time increases from one second to 3 seconds.

A few simple technical SEO practices to improve site speed include compressing all images to 200kb or smaller, using a content delivery network for faster delivery, and using system fonts that load faster are all simple ways to maximize site speed.

Be mindful of theme selection as well, as your WordPress theme could also affect your loading times and how it ranks in Google’s Core Web Vitals standards.

Improving Your E-E-A-T Score

E-E-A-T is Google’s standard for ensuring that a website’s content is relevant and helpful to users. This stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. You display these attributes in how you display your content — and it’s easier than you might think.

Examples of how you could improve your E-E-A-T score include showing published or modified dates on your content, including your credentials and media mentions on your about page, linking to reputable sources, and creating custom author pages for your blog. Show that your organization is made up of real people (and don’t be afraid to use real photos).

Regularly updating your content, avoiding errors, and making sure information presented on your site is accurate and easily verified can further build trust. Essentially, you should be trying to share helpful information, while at the same time showing that your business is run by real, trustworthy people who know what they’re talking about.

Make Time For Technical SEO

The nice thing about these “technical” SEO fixes is that many of them don’t feel super technical (or require major technical know-how). By making these simple adjustments, however, you can improve how Google evaluates your website and improve the user experience. And if you need help, Site Rockstar’s Website Care Plans will help you stay on track with theme and plugin updates, 24/7 security monitoring, and more to keep your site working smoothly!