Having now spent over a decade as a seasoned WordPress freelancer building, salvaging, and redesigning projects, I’ve seen sharp teams repeatedly make the same basic, costly mistakes with their on-page SEO. With my background in on-page SEO optimization, I constantly see weak search structure undermining entire projects.
Most people believe they need hundreds of expensive, hard-to-get backlinks to rank. The truth is, strong on-page structure amplifies every quality link you earn. Stop chasing link quantity and start building sites that Google actually understands, so the links you do get work harder for you.
Here’s how to do exactly that:
1 Build Authority from the Ground Up
The common approach is flawed, we must stop fixating on the money pages first.
Instead, we start with your supporting pages (blog posts, detailed guides). These pages are the vehicles that build topical authority—a strategy some call the reverse silo approach. You must build from the ground up, not top down. Every supporting page has one singular mission: to funnel authority directly to your money page. By focusing their internal links and avoiding connections to random service areas, we create a focused, powerful structure that elevates the pages that generate revenue.
2 Streamline Your URL Architecture
The hierarchical distance between your content and your root domain is crucial. The more folders you put between your target page and your domain, the harder Google has to work.
Eliminate unnecessary directories like /blog/ or /page/. Prioritize placing your most critical pages closer to your root domain to signal their immediate value & streamline indexing.
3 Match Search Intent Before Anything Else
Understanding what the searcher actually wants is non-negotiable. Before you write a single word, ask yourself, is this query informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial?
If someone searches “best running shoes,” they want comparisons and recommendations, not a 3,000-word history of footwear. If they search “buy Nike Air Max,” they want a product page, not a blog post. Google has become exceptionally good at detecting intent mismatches, and no amount of optimization will save a page that fundamentally answers the wrong question. Always analyze the top-ranking pages for your target keyword to understand what format and angle Google rewards for that specific query.
4 Context Trumps Word Count
The obsession with reaching a specific word count is a relic of the past, success does not lie in volume, but in semantic relevance.
Make sure your content contains enough contextual terms for Google to fully get the subject matter’s depth (this is precisely why generic AI content often falls short). While LLMs can produce human-sounding text, they frequently omit the specific semantic signals required by search engines. Always use content optimization tools (like Surfer) to verify your content has the necessary mix of related keywords before publishing.
5 Optimize, Don’t Over-Optimize
Aggressively stuffing your primary keyword throughout your content is counterproductive and harmful.
The target keyword only needs to appear in 4 critical spots to establish clear intent
- The URL
- The title tag
- The H1 tag
- Once in the body
Beyond those four points, we focus on leveraging variations and related terms to demonstrate comprehensive coverage of the topic.
6 EMD Domains Still Work
It’s time to retire the myth that Exact Match Domains (EMD) are obsolete. Anyone claiming they are must justify it with concrete data. In my experience, when the underlying on-page structure is sound, I consistently see keyword-rich domains outperform generic domains. Data dictates our methods, not industry dogma.
7 Understand Schema’s True Role
Let’s clarify the purpose of structured data, Schema markup will not directly boost your organic rankings. Its true value lies in helping you claim more real estate in search results (via rich snippets) and making your content easier for Google to index. It is a powerful presentation and clarity tool, not a shortcut to higher performance.
8 The Simplest Local SEO Signal
For businesses targeting a local market, avoid over-engineering your local setup with complex custom schema or fancy embedding tricks. The most effective technique remains the simplest, ensure your full address (NAP) is present in the footer of every page. This reliable, powerful act provides a consistent location signal across your entire site, making it far more impactful than any complicated alternative.
Ready to Build a Site Google Actually Loves?
Understanding these eight principles is the first step. For many, integrating them flawlessly into an enterprise-grade WordPress environment is the challenge. As an experienced WordPress freelancer from Frankfurt, my job is to translate these clear-cut SEO rules into robust, high-performance code. If you are planning a migration or need a high-performance WordPress solution built on a stable SEO foundation, I’m here to help. Let’s talk.
