WordPress News Site SEO Checklist: 20 Things to Set Up

Good WordPress news SEO is mostly about getting the basics right and keeping them right as your site grows. News sites publish often, so small mistakes repeat hundreds of times. This checklist covers 20 things to set up, in a sensible order, so search engines can find, understand and trust your posts.

You do not need to finish everything in one day. Work through one section at a time and tick items off as you go.

Foundations

These items affect every page on your site. Set them up first, ideally before you publish many posts.

1. Use HTTPS on every page

Install an SSL certificate. Most hosts offer a free one through Let's Encrypt. Then:

1. Go to Settings > General in WordPress.
2. Make sure both the WordPress Address and Site Address start with https://.
3. Check that http:// versions of your pages redirect to https://.

HTTPS is a light ranking signal, and browsers show a warning on sites without it. That warning alone can make readers leave.

2. Set clean permalinks

Go to Settings > Permalinks and choose Post name, or a custom structure such as /%category%/%postname%/. Avoid the default ?p=123 format.

Decide this early. Changing permalinks later means redirecting every old URL. Keep slugs short and readable, for example /petrol-price-cut-delhi/ instead of a full sentence.

3. Choose fast hosting and turn on caching

A news site gets traffic spikes when a story takes off. Cheap shared hosting often slows down or fails at that exact moment. Choose a host with good server resources and support for PHP caching.

Then add page caching. You can use your host's built-in cache or a caching plugin. A CDN (content delivery network) also helps if your readers are spread across regions.

4. Use a fast, mobile-friendly theme

Google mainly uses the mobile version of your site for indexing. Pick a theme that:

• Looks clean on small screens.
• Loads quickly without heavy sliders and animations.
• Shows the headline, date and featured image near the top.

Test your pages on a real phone, not just a desktop browser window.

5. Connect Google Search Console

Add your site to Google Search Console and verify it. Also consider Bing Webmaster Tools. Search Console shows:

• Which pages are indexed and which are not, and why.
• Which search queries bring you clicks.
• Problems with mobile usability, structured data and Core Web Vitals.

Also check Settings > Reading in WordPress and make sure "Discourage search engines from indexing this site" is not ticked. This one box has blocked many new sites.

Technical

These items help search engines crawl your site efficiently and understand each article.

6. Submit an XML sitemap (and a news sitemap if relevant)

WordPress creates a basic sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml. Many SEO plugins create a more detailed one. Submit your sitemap URL in Search Console under Sitemaps.

If you publish timely news, a Google News sitemap can help Google find new articles faster. A news sitemap lists only articles from the last two days. Some SEO plugins can generate one. Note that a news sitemap does not guarantee your site will appear in Google News or Top Stories.

7. Check your robots.txt file

Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. Make sure it does not block important sections such as /category/ or your post URLs. A simple WordPress robots.txt usually blocks /wp-admin/ (while allowing admin-ajax.php) and lists your sitemap.

Remember that robots.txt stops crawling, not indexing. To keep a page out of search results, use a noindex tag instead.

8. Add NewsArticle or Article schema

Structured data tells search engines that a page is a news article, who wrote it, when it was published and which image to use. Use NewsArticle for timely news and Article or BlogPosting for evergreen posts.

Most SEO plugins and many news themes add this automatically. Test a few posts with Google's Rich Results Test and fix any errors about missing headline, image, datePublished or author.

9. Set canonical tags

A canonical tag tells Google which URL is the main version of a page. It matters when the same article is reachable through several URLs, such as with tracking parameters or in AMP and non-AMP versions.

Most SEO plugins add a self-referencing canonical to each post. Check a post's page source for rel="canonical" and confirm it points to the clean URL.

10. Pass Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure real-user experience. Google's "good" thresholds are:

Check the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and test individual pages with PageSpeed Insights. Common fixes on news sites are: reserving space for ads, lazy-loading images below the fold, and removing unused plugins and scripts.

11. Optimise images

Images are often the heaviest part of a news page. For every image:

1. Resize it to the largest size your theme actually shows.
2. Compress it, and use WebP where possible.
3. Give it a descriptive file name and alt text.
4. Make sure the featured image is at least 1,200 pixels wide if you want it to be eligible for large previews in Google Discover.

If you auto-post from feeds, check how images are handled. AI AutoPost downloads the feed item's featured image into your media library with alt text, so the image is served from your own site.

12. Keep 404s and redirects clean

Old posts get deleted and URLs change. Every broken link wastes crawl time and frustrates readers.

• Check the Pages report in Search Console for "Not found (404)" errors.
• Use 301 redirects when you move or merge a post. A redirect plugin makes this easy.
• Avoid redirect chains, where one URL redirects to another that redirects again.
• Let truly dead, low-value pages return 404 or 410. Do not redirect everything to the homepage.

Content

Technical setup gets you crawled. Content quality decides whether your pages are worth showing.

13. Keep categories and tags tidy

Categories are your site's main sections. Tags are optional extra labels. Common problems are too many tags, tags used only once, and tags that repeat category names.

Simple rules:

• Use 5 to 15 clear categories (this is a rule of thumb, not a fixed limit).
• Put each post in one main category.
• Use tags only if the tag will be reused many times.
• Add a short introduction to each category page so it is not just a list of links.

14. Avoid thin and duplicate posts

Thin posts have little useful content. Duplicate posts repeat what is already on your site or elsewhere on the web. Google usually filters duplicates out of results rather than "penalising" them, but a site full of them can struggle to rank overall.

Google also has a spam policy against "scaled content abuse": publishing many pages mainly to manipulate rankings, whether by hand or with automation. Using AI or automation is not against Google's guidelines by itself. The content must still be helpful and made for people.

If you auto-publish, use filters. In AI AutoPost you can set a minimum word count (short posts are saved as drafts for review), block keywords, and skip duplicate titles. Our guides on avoiding duplicate content and whether AI content ranks on Google go deeper.

15. Write clear titles and meta descriptions

Make each title specific and honest, with the key topic near the start. Avoid clickbait. Write a short meta description for important posts. Google may rewrite it, but a good one still helps.

16. Build author pages and show E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It comes from Google's guidelines for its search quality raters. It is not a single ranking factor, but it describes what Google's systems try to reward.

Practical steps for a news site:

1. Show a real author name on each post, linked to an author page.
2. On the author page, add a short bio and relevant experience.
3. Create About, Contact and Editorial Policy pages.
4. Show published and updated dates clearly.

17. Credit and link your sources

If a story is based on another report, a press release or an official document, say so and link to it. This builds trust with readers and is fair to the original publisher. Republishing others' articles without permission can infringe copyright, so check the source's terms and add your own value.

Growth

These items help your site build strength over months, not days.

18. Link internally

Internal links help readers find related stories and help search engines understand which pages are important. In each new post, link to two or three related articles or to a relevant category page. Also go back to popular older posts and add links to newer coverage.

Use descriptive link text such as "our guide to petrol prices" instead of "click here".

19. Update old posts

Some news posts stay useful for a long time: explainers, "how to" guides and topic pages. Review your top pages every few months.

• Fix outdated facts and broken links.
• Add new developments.
• Change the "updated" date only when you make a real change.

20. Review performance every month

Set a monthly routine. In Search Console, look at:

• Pages that gained or lost clicks.
• New indexing errors.
• Queries where you rank on page two, which may need a better article.

Remove or improve sections that never get traffic. Put more effort into topics that work.

Quick checklist summary

If you are just starting out, our guide on how to start an automated news website with WordPress covers the setup before this checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an SEO plugin for a WordPress news site?

It is not required, but it saves time. An SEO plugin can handle sitemaps, canonical tags, schema and meta descriptions in one place. Pick one and do not run two at the same time.

Will this checklist get my site into Google News?

No checklist can guarantee that. Google decides which sites appear in Google News and Top Stories. Following these steps gives your site a solid, trustworthy base, which is the best you can do.

Is auto-posting bad for SEO?

Automation is not a problem by itself. The problem is publishing large volumes of thin, copied or unhelpful pages. Use quality filters, credit sources, add original value, and review what gets published.

How often should I check these items?

Set up items 1 to 13 once, then check them after major theme, plugin or hosting changes. Review items 14 to 20 as part of a monthly routine.

Next steps

Work through the Foundations section this week, then move on to Technical. When your site is ready for regular publishing, see the features that help you keep automated posts clean and well-filtered, or download AI AutoPost to start with the free starter posts.