WordPress SEO in London

Plugin and theme audit

Every plugin and theme reviewed for what it loads, what it duplicates and whether it is still needed. Dead weight removed, conflicts resolved, updates brought current.

Core Web Vitals work

Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and layout shift fixed at the source: images, fonts, scripts, caching and hosting, measured with field data from real visitors.

URL and archive structure

Permalinks, categories, tags, author and date archives, attachment pages and pagination decided on purpose, so Google indexes the pages you want and nothing else.

Schema in the theme

Organization, LocalBusiness where a real address exists, Service, FAQPage, Article and BreadcrumbList markup implemented and validated, not left to a plugin default.

Service and location pages

A page for each service and, where you serve several areas, each London area you genuinely cover, written to answer the searcher and linked properly.

On-page optimisation

Titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal links and image alt text set from the search map on the pages that drive enquiries.

Security and hygiene

Redirect management, 404 clean-up, XML sitemap configuration, robots rules, staging kept out of the index, and a backup and update routine.

Monthly report

Impressions, clicks, enquiries and Core Web Vitals field data from Search Console and GA4, with what changed and what is next.

How we do it

Start with what the site is loading

A WordPress site is as fast as its worst plugin. Our WordPress developer reviews every plugin and the theme for the scripts and styles they load on every page, the database queries they run and the features that overlap. Most sites we see can lose a third of their plugins without losing a feature. Page builders are kept where the business depends on them and tamed where they are not; forms, sliders, social feeds and chat widgets that load before anyone interacts are deferred or removed. We then work through images, fonts, caching and hosting until the Core Web Vitals field data shows the site passing on a phone. Lab scores are a diagnostic; the field data is what Google uses, and it is what we report. The Core Web Vitals guide explains the three measures in plain English.

Decide what should be indexed

By default WordPress creates an archive page for every category, tag, author and date, an attachment page for every image, and paginated copies of each. For most business sites that is hundreds of thin pages competing with the pages that matter. We decide, with you, which archives deserve to exist, set the rest to noindex or remove them, fix the permalink structure if it is working against you, clean up redirects and 404s, and configure the XML sitemap so it lists only what should rank. The result is checked in Search Console’s indexing report, not assumed from a plugin setting.

Build the pages the searches need

The commonest reason a London WordPress site does not rank is that it has no page for the search. One services page cannot rank for ten services. We build the search map first: which services, which areas, which questions. Then we create a page for each service with real substance, area pages only for areas you genuinely serve (a Croydon page for a Croydon business, not thirty-two borough pages with the name swapped), and guides for the questions clients ask before they call. Every page gets a title, description, heading structure and internal links set from the map. The pattern that works for area pages is explained in the guide to ranking in your London borough.

Schema done properly

SEO plugins add a basic Organization or WebPage markup and stop. We implement structured data in the theme for what the business actually is: LocalBusiness with your real address and hours, Service for each service page, FAQPage where questions are answered on the page, Article for guides with a named author, and BreadcrumbList throughout. Each template is validated. Nothing is marked up that a visitor cannot see on the page, and no review markup is added unless real reviews are displayed. Our schema markup guide covers which types matter for which business.

Keep it that way

WordPress needs maintenance: core, theme and plugin updates, backups, security, and the discipline not to install the next plugin that promises everything. We set a routine, document it, and either run it for you or hand it to your own team with instructions. A site that was made fast and then left for a year will not stay fast.

What changes, and when

Technical fixes are usually re-crawled within two to eight weeks, which is when speed and indexing changes begin to show in Search Console. Local search changes, including new service and area pages for a business serving particular boroughs, often show within one to three months. Competitive London head terms such as the main searches for solicitors, dentists or estate agents usually take six to twelve months. These are typical ranges from our own work, not a promise for your site, and we report progress every month so you can see which it is.

What you will hold early: a faster site, a clean indexing picture, a documented list of what was changed and why, and pages that describe what you do for the places you do it. What we will not promise: a position, a date or a number of enquiries. Google says nobody can guarantee rankings and our code of ethics commits us to the same.

How it is measured

We report what a business owner can check: impressions and clicks by page and by search in Search Console, enquiries and calls from organic traffic in GA4 (with form submissions and phone clicks tracked as events), Core Web Vitals field data for the pages that matter, and the count of indexed pages against the count that should be indexed. The accounts sit in your name, so you can open the same screens we do. A written report arrives every month; at 90 days we meet in person at Tower 42, by appointment, or on video, and decide together what is working. See what to expect from SEO reporting for the full picture.

On proof: we have not yet published a WordPress-specific case study, and we would rather say so than relabel one. The cases shown on this page, Gladstone Garage and Leam Taxis, show the pattern this service follows for a service business: a site rebuilt around the services customers search for, with local SEO alongside. Their figures are the clients’ own, with the source stated on each card.

What it costs to find out

Before any quote, an SEO specialist reviews your WordPress site for free. The free SEO audit is a written review delivered within two working days of your request: where the site shows up today for the five searches that matter most to your business, the plugin and speed problems we can see from the outside, the indexing picture, the content gaps against the two sites that outrank you, and the three fixes that matter most, written so you or your developer could do them without us. No automated score, no call required, three fields on the form. Prices for the ongoing work are on the pricing page, with every inclusion listed and the terms beside them.

Get your free SEO auditSend your web address and an SEO specialist reviews the site by hand within two working days. Three fields, no call required, no automated score.

Common mistakes we see on London WordPress sites

• Thirty or more active plugins, several doing the same job, every one loading its scripts on every page.
• A premium theme running at its demo settings, with sliders, animations and a page builder the business never uses.
• Tag, author, date and attachment archives indexed by the hundred while the services page is one long scroll.
• A single "areas we cover" paragraph for a business that serves six boroughs, or thirty-two borough pages that differ only in the name.
• The SEO plugin installed and never configured: default titles, no descriptions, the sitemap listing every archive.
• Staging or development copies of the site left open to Google, competing with the live site.
• A redesign that changed every URL without redirects, dropping the rankings the old site had earned. The migration checklist covers how to avoid it.
• Cheap shared hosting chosen in year one and never revisited, so no amount of on-site work makes the site fast.

How it fits with other services

WordPress SEO is technical SEO and on-page work applied to one platform, with a developer who knows that platform. For a business serving particular parts of London it sits beside local SEO and the Google Business Profile work, because the website and the profile need to agree. SEO content writes the service pages and guides. If the site needs to move platform, change domain or be rebuilt, SEO migration protects what the old site had earned, and web design builds the new one with search in the plan from the start. Owners who want to understand the platform first can read the WordPress SEO guide and the technical SEO checklist.