10 Little-Known WordPress SEO Tips That Still Work (2026)

So you’ve installed WordPress, added an SEO plugin and published keyword-rich posts. What next? The gains now come from the settings most people never touch: thin archive pages, attachment pages, titles and internal links. Some advice from the original 2010 version of this post, such as nofollowing your own category links, is now outdated. Here are 10 little-known WordPress SEO tips that still make a difference in 2026, updated from Jonathan Brealey’s guest post.

Quick answer: Noindex thin date, author and tag archives, keep attachment pages switched off, write a unique SEO title and meta description for every post, use clean permalinks, keep tags few and meaningful, link related posts together, add schema and an XML sitemap through Rank Math or Yoast, compress images with alt text, speed up the site with caching, and update or prune weak old posts.

10 little-known WordPress SEO tips

1. Noindex date archives

Date archives (like /2010/04/) repeat your posts and add nothing new. Set them to noindex or disable them in your SEO plugin. The same goes for author archives on single-author blogs.

2. Keep attachment pages off

Every uploaded image used to get its own thin “attachment page”. Since WordPress 6.4, new sites have them disabled; check that older sites redirect attachment URLs to the file or parent post (Rank Math and Yoast both have this setting).

3. Write unique SEO titles and descriptions

Don’t rely on the default “Post Title – Site Name”. Write a unique title of about 60 characters with your main keyword near the start, and a meta description of up to about 155 characters. Search Console flags duplicates.

4. Use clean permalinks

Short, descriptive slugs work best. Never change the URLs of posts that already rank without a 301 redirect. Here’s how to verify 301 redirects.

5. Keep tags few and useful

Hundreds of one-post tags create thin pages. Use a small set of categories, a handful of meaningful tags, and avoid near-duplicates like “blog” and “blogs”. You can also convert categories to tags or the reverse when restructuring. QuickOnlineTips cut hundreds of tags down to a select few.

6. Link related posts together

Internal links with descriptive anchor text help readers and search engines find your best content. Don’t nofollow internal links, as the original post suggested; it just wastes link value.

7. Add schema and a sitemap

SEO plugins add Article, Breadcrumb and FAQ schema and an XML sitemap automatically. Submit the sitemap in Search Console. See how to add WordPress SEO breadcrumbs.

8. Optimise images

Compress images, use WebP, and write descriptive file names and alt text. Our guide to optimizing images covers it.

9. Make WordPress fast

Use a caching plugin, a CDN, a lightweight theme and few plugins. Here’s how to make WordPress faster and safer.

10. Refresh or prune old posts

Outdated, thin posts can drag down the whole site. Update posts that still get impressions, merge overlapping ones with 301 redirects, and remove the rest. It’s exactly what we are doing across QuickOnlineTips in 2026.

What about dates in your content?

The original post worried about months showing up as “keywords” in Webmaster Tools. That report no longer exists and dates don’t hurt rankings. Showing a clear “last updated” date actually helps readers trust that a tutorial is current.

For the full basics, use our SEO checklist.

FAQ

Which is the best SEO plugin for WordPress?

Rank Math and Yoast SEO are the most popular; both handle titles, sitemaps, schema and redirects well. Use only one.

Should I noindex category pages?

Usually not. Well-organised category pages with a short introduction can rank. Noindex thin tag and date archives instead.

Do WordPress tags help SEO?

Only if they group several related posts. One-post tags create thin pages.

Originally written by guest author Jonathan Brealey, co-founder of UK web host Heart Internet. Updated for 2026 by QuickOnlineTips.