Is WordPress bad for SEO?

23 replies
  • SEO
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WordPress is ok for SEO if you get the right plugins, the right theme and configure it properly.

But to get a really great SEO (core web vitals) score on your website I've found it very time-consuming. It seems there's so many plugins and so many different themes, many not designed in the most SEO-conscious way, that it means I have to spend a lot of time creating the site the right way.

Am I missing something here? Does anyone else have this problem when they set up a new site?
#bad #seo #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author tedroger
    My recommendation is to use Elementor Pro for website creation and designing with that for core web vitals using wp-rocket and Perfmatter. These are just awesome.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    One platform is pretty much the same as the other in terms of SEO. Plugins do not magically fix SEO issues. Knowledge of proper SEO procedures does.
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  • Profile picture of the author Deepanshu Jaral
    No, WordPress is not bad for SEO. In fact, WordPress is known for being a very SEO-friendly content management system. However, the SEO performance of a WordPress website depends on many factors, such as the quality of the content, website speed, mobile-friendliness, proper use of metadata, and other technical aspects of website optimization. Therefore, it's important to optimize your WordPress website correctly to ensure good SEO performance.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      Or, to be more to the point, on one factor: how well the person running the website knows SEO.


      Originally Posted by Deepanshu Jaral View Post

      No, WordPress is not bad for SEO. In fact, WordPress is known for being a very SEO-friendly content management system. However, the SEO performance of a WordPress website depends on many factors, such as the quality of the content, website speed, mobile-friendliness, proper use of metadata, and other technical aspects of website optimization. Therefore, it's important to optimize your WordPress website correctly to ensure good SEO performance.
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  • Profile picture of the author Naad Nodal
    WordPress is flexible, easy to use, and provides a good base for SEO. But it can only get you so far because it's just a CMS. If you're serious about ranking on Google, there are a few more things you'll need to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author ajay7522
    Wordpress works as charm for your website SEO if used in proper way for example using plugins and all. There are lots of useful SEO plugins that can increase your SEO rank without much efforts.
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  • Profile picture of the author raksmart
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    • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
      Originally Posted by raksmart View Post

      However, it's important to note that good SEO also requires high-quality content, relevant keywords, and other optimization techniques.
      And, most important, knowledge of what real best practices for SEO are - not the outdated, irrelevant and just plain wrong garbage you see repeated ad nauseum in so many places (including here).
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  • Profile picture of the author webfoxmarketing
    I agree, WordPress is a good option for SEO. In-fact Matt Cutts (old Google Search Exec) basically "endorsed" WordPress as a good option to build websites.
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    George Sinanis

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    • Profile picture of the author toysoldier80
      Originally Posted by webfoxmarketing View Post

      I agree, WordPress is a good option for SEO. In-fact Matt Cutts (old Google Search Exec) basically "endorsed" WordPress as a good option to build websites.
      I learned a lot from Matt Cutts when I started my online journey. I used to be a student to all of his videos.
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  • Profile picture of the author allensbrowns
    No, WordPress is not bad for SEO. In fact, it is one of the most SEO-friendly content management systems available. However, the success of a WordPress site's SEO depends on how it is built, designed, and maintained, and following best practices is essential for optimizing it for search engines.
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  • Profile picture of the author prasanth1964
    Whether it is WordPress or the traditional Blogger, the real knowledge of SEO matters the most when it comes to building link popularity. Plugins may assist SEO to some extent only. Every page of a website requires proper SEO basics for ranking,
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  • Profile picture of the author Thinkfast
    Its completely depend on your need .... If you are using WP for blogging site then its perfect .... but if you are providing any professional services or selling products then we will not recommend wordpress because wordpress is taking lots of space in database than other. For example if you are selling products then Opencart is much better than wordpress. If you are selling any services then try to use custom website ... because custom website always give long lasting result because all things will be according to need.
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  • Profile picture of the author alburjmarketing
    No, WordPress is not bad for SEO. It is the best CMS for the all search engines. If you use paid plugins then it is the very best for SEO. It is user- friendly CMS. Most of the SEO experts use and like this CMS.
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  • Profile picture of the author Solenn Hoyek
    WordPress is often considered to be one of the most SEO-friendly content management systems available, with features such as user-friendly URLs, customizable permalinks, and the ability to easily optimize content for search engines using plugins like Yoast SEO. However, like any platform, the SEO performance of a WordPress site ultimately depends on a variety of factors, including the quality of content, site structure, and technical optimization.
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  • Profile picture of the author spartan14
    Well i think you are mistaken ,if wordpress was bad for seo then why its the most popular platform in the world ?
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  • Profile picture of the author hubmag12
    Being one of the most widely used CMS systems, WordPress is great for SEO.

    Using an SEO-friendly theme makes WordPress even more search engine optimization-friendly.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanbiddulph
    Wordpress dot org is helpful for SEO.

    The reasons below point to ranking well on Google.

    When you begin blogging on dot org you need to buy your domain and hosting. Purchasing your domain and hosting means you basically own the site and unless you break lenient terms of service, you can monetize it, tailor it, brand it and customize it however you wish. Google loves branded, one-of-a-kind blogs. Peep page 1 to see what I mean. Cookie-cutters rarely rank.

    This is great news for bloggers who want to be an amateur or go pro because owning and customizing are secrets to blogging success. Anytime you build a blog just how you want to, in a crowded online world you stand out from the crowd. Standing out from the crowd is an important step in building a profitable blogging business.

    But even if you intend to blog just for fun as an amateur you still want readers, right? Otherwise, you would publish a cyber diary for yourself.

    Wordpress dot org gives you a rich platform with plug-ins and other functionality to make it easier to attract readers, to gain trust and to build credibility. Ultimately, readers trust your blog and follow it because each frames your blog as being credible, trustworthy and helpful to follow. The professional nature of dot org conveys a professional, trusted image via its design elements available and in making these blogs seamless for readers. Being able to publish detailed, SEO-optimized content with all the special bells and whistles WP offers boosts your SERPs.

    Dot org blogs make for easier list building, commenting and overall engagement because developers designed plug-ins for capturing email addresses, for genuinely easy commenting and for social sharing, too. Blogs with a high level of engagement seem to appease Google.

    Dot org boasts a massive, tight-knit global community of bloggers and developers who know this platform inside-out.

    When something goes wrong, they will be their to help you for free or for hire.

    Other platforms are helpful in many regards but none boasts the large, loyal community as does Wordpress dot org.

    This is about the #1 reason why the platform is the best for you and for anyone who wants to drive Google traffic. Skilled bloggers and developers help to fix what's wrong quickly and also optimize WO blogs perfectly for Google.

    Even when things do not appear to go wrong you will want bloggers and developers to help you learn the in's and out's of the technical sides of blogging. Dot org carries a steep learning curve to access these sugary sweet benefits. Accessing a huge, loyal community of bloggers and programmers who help to teach the platform, and to shorten the learning curve, is invaluable in this process.

    This global community knows what it takes to rank and shares insights, plug-ins and overall functionality to help get you onto page 1 of Google.

    Ryan
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    Ryan Biddulph helps you to be a successful blogger with his courses, manuals and blog at Blogging From Paradise
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  • Profile picture of the author robin rivera
    After using WordPress and being a WordPress developer for a few years, my vote is against it.

    Yes, it is scalable, you can do a lot with it, there is probably a plugin for most of your needs, but, it's just a mess.

    All of the plugin updates, WordPress version updates, maintenance, etc. It's just not user friendly. It's bulky and rather slow and large to download compared to other platforms.

    There are newer, more modern and simplistic platforms out there that are much faster and than WordPress and easier to work with, especially for beginners. I would recommend anyone getting into blogging to go with a WordPress alternative usually.
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  • Profile picture of the author actw
    You are right on timgreen.

    Bad-coded plugins and themes (none is designed with SEO in mind BTW) will generate core web vitals issues, it happens on every site out there.

    The core web vitals are critical as UX areas of interest, and affect SEO performance, indirectly, as UX factors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Akhiyani Jai
    WordPress makes it easy to structure, manage and publish your content in an SEO-friendly way. That's why it's considered the best CMS for search engine optimization.
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  • Profile picture of the author Subho D
    WordPress is one of the most SEO-friendly content management systems available. WordPress allows you to easily edit the title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs of your pages and posts. It also allows you to create SEO-friendly URLs that include relevant keywords. But yes for adding multiple plugins may be you will get an avg score in core web vital. I will suggest hiring a developer to manage your website backend.
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  • Profile picture of the author phpnetpro
    WordPress can be good for SEO, but you are correct that it can be tough and/or time consuming. The easy availability of free themes and plugins is a main contributor to this issue. Using too many plugins or plugins that are poorly optimized can cause site speed issues that result in lower search rankings.

    I have set up thousands of WordPress sites over the years (using it since it was first released). Even though each site can have different features and plugins, I have still figured out a basic process to follow to get the best results with site speed scores and search rankings.

    Here are my recommendations...

    Website Hosting
    -*Best: High-speed dedicated server
    -*Better: High-speed specialty hosting like WP Engine

    -*Good: WordPress specific hosting
    -*Insufficient: Basic shared hosting

    The first thing that needs to be mentioned is your web server. Cheap shared hosting accounts will typically not do a very good job providing a fast WordPress website. In general, if you're paying $10 or less per month for hosting, this could end up being a bottleneck no matter how optimized you make WordPress.


    It can be a fine line between cost and speed though. I recommend WP Engine for a faster experience if your business can justify the extra cost. I'm not affiliated with them in any way and actually don't use them for my own sites because I have my own servers, but a completely dedicated server is crazy expensive compared to WP Engine and not worth the cost for most startups. At the very least, if you stick with your current host or a cheaper plan, go for a plan designed for WordPress at least (many of them are $25/mth or so).


    Theme Selection
    -Lightweight themes with few customization options are best
    -Create and modify child theme to design as needed

    Themes with a lot of customization options will have much more coding and processing time. HTML / CSS designs are often more complex with those themes too. For this reason, I almost always choose a very simple theme to begin a site design. Find something that fits the general design you want, and then create a child theme to modify as needed. By modifying through HTML / CSS this way, you'll minimize code bloat and have a faster website.

    Just to give you one example of this type of theme, try Colibri WP (the free version without any of the added customization features / plugins).

    Plugin Selection
    -Classic Editor
    -Disable Comments
    -Disable XML-RPC-API
    -Loginizer-All in One SEO or SEOPress
    -301 Redirects (when needed)

    -Cloudflare or Caching Plugin (cache site pages, minify/compress css/js)

    -WP Mail SMTP (Only when site needs to send emails)That is the basic plugin list that I'll use for most WP sites. Use as few as possible. As needed, I may add other plugins. For example, an eCommerce site will need WooCommerce and possibly a small selection of plugins to support it.
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  • Profile picture of the author prateek kumar
    No, WordPress is not bad for SEO. In fact, WordPress is a very popular content management system that is widely used for creating and managing websites, including those with a strong focus on SEO.
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