WordPress Website Design: 7 Essential SEO Settings to Rank on Google in 2026

If you are a business owner or a developer building a new site on the world’s most popular platform, you know that a beautiful design is only half the battle. To rank on Google and attract traffic, your WordPress website design must be built with a strong SEO foundation.

As experts in WordPress design and SEO services in Bhopal, we’ve outlined the seven most critical settings you need to configure—ideally before you even launch—to ensure your site climbs the Google ranks.

1. Set Your Permalinks for SEO Success

Your permalink structure determines the URL (link) format for every post and page. WordPress’s default structure is often messy and non-SEO friendly.

• The Problem: Default links look like yourdomain.com/?p=123. Google and users can’t tell what the page is about.
• The Solution: Go to Settings > Permalinks and choose “Post name.”
• The Result: Clean, keyword-rich URLs like yourdomain.com/wordpress-seo-settings that instantly communicate the page’s topic.

2. Configure Your Yoast SEO Plugin

The Yoast SEO plugin is your most powerful tool for on-page optimization. It provides a traffic light system (green light) to guide your efforts.

Actionable Steps:

• Focus Keyphrase: Define one specific term (like the one for this article) you want the page to rank for.
• SEO Title & Meta Description: Use the Yoast meta box to write unique, compelling, and keyword-rich titles and descriptions (see the section above for examples!).
• Readability Check: Use Yoast’s analysis to improve sentence structure, use of passive voice, and heading distribution, which is a key factor in User Experience (UX).

3. Create and Submit an XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is essentially a roadmap that helps Google find and crawl all the important pages on your WordPress design.

• Actionable Steps: If you are using Yoast SEO, it automatically generates and constantly updates your XML sitemap.
• Next Step: You must submit this sitemap URL (usually yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml) to Google Search Console. This is the fastest way to tell Google about your new site.

4. Check Your Site’s Visibility Settings

This is the most common mistake for new sites, and it can be fatal to your rankings.

• The Check: Navigate to Settings > Reading in your WordPress dashboard.
• The Fix: Ensure the box next to “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” is UNCHECKED. If this box is checked, you are telling Google not to look at your beautiful WordPress website design.

5. Optimize Images for Speed and SEO

Slow loading speeds kill your conversions and your search ranking. Images are the biggest culprit.

• Speed Optimization: Before uploading, compress your images using tools like TinyPNG. Install a caching/optimization plugin (e.g., WP Rocket or LiteSpeed Cache) to speed up delivery.
• SEO Optimization: Always add descriptive Alt Text to every image, including your focus keywords where natural. This helps Google understand the image and assists visually impaired users (accessibility is an SEO factor!).

6. Secure Your Site with HTTPS (SSL Certificate)

An SSL certificate encrypts the connection between your user and your website, displaying a padlock icon. It is non-negotiable for modern SEO.

• Importance: Google confirmed HTTPS as a minor, but required, ranking signal. Without it, browsers flag your site as “Not Secure,” instantly eroding user trust.
• Action: Most modern hosting providers (like Bluehost, SiteGround, etc.) offer a free SSL certificate that can be activated with a single click.

7. Implement Strategic Internal Linking

Internal links (links from one of your pages to another on the same site) help Google understand your content structure and pass “link equity” (authority) between pages.

• Strategy: In every new blog post (like this one), link back to 2-3 of your most important “money pages” (e.g., your Website Design Services page or your Digital Marketing page). This tells Google which pages are the most authoritative on your site.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Getting a green light in Yoast SEO is a great start, but true SEO success for your WordPress website design requires diligent application of these foundational settings.

Need help building a custom, high-performing WordPress site that is optimized from the ground up?

Contact Silvery Infotech today for a free consultation on building a beautiful, SEO-ready website that converts for your Bhopal-based business.