WordPress is incredibly powerful for SEO, but its dynamic nature—frequent plugin updates, theme changes, and automated caching—means things can break without you even noticing. A plugin update might accidentally wipe out your meta descriptions, or a new theme might mess up your heading structures.
To maintain your search rankings, you cannot just “set it and forget it.” You need a routine.
Here is the ultimate monthly WordPress SEO Health Check. We have broken down the 12 critical technical metrics you must audit every 30 days to ensure Google loves your site.
Crawlability & Indexation (Is Google Finding You?)
1. Robots.txt Accessibility
Your robots.txt file is the first thing search engines check. A simple misconfiguration (like accidentally leaving “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” checked in WordPress settings) can de-index your entire site. Ensure it returns a 200 OK status and isn’t blocking vital directories.
2. XML Sitemap Status
Your sitemap should be a clean list of your most important, indexable pages. Check that yourdomain.com/sitemap_xml is live, formatted correctly, and successfully submitted in Google Search Console without errors.
3. HTTPS & SSL Certificate Validity
Google explicitly flags non-HTTPS sites as “Not Secure,” which kills user trust and SEO rankings. Ensure your SSL certificate is active and that all HTTP traffic permanently redirects (301) to the HTTPS version.
4. Canonical Tags
Duplicate content confuses search engines. Every page must have a self-referencing <link rel="canonical"> tag to tell Google which version of a URL is the “master” copy, especially important for e-commerce product categories or blog pagination.
On-Page Structure (Are You Communicating Clearly?)
5. Meta Titles & Descriptions Length
Are your titles between 30-60 characters? Are your descriptions 120-160 characters? Missing or excessively long meta tags will be rewritten or truncated by Google, severely hurting your Click-Through Rate (CTR).
6. Strict H1–H6 Heading Hierarchy
Every page should have exactly one H1 tag. Furthermore, you should never skip heading levels (e.g., jumping from an H2 directly to an H4). A logical structure helps Google understand the context of your content.
7. Image Alt Attributes & Dimensions
Missing alt text means you are losing out on Google Image Search traffic. Additionally, failing to specify width and height attributes on your <img> tags will cause Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), hurting your PageSpeed score.
8. Open Graph & Twitter Cards
When your post is shared on social media, does it look clickable? Check your <head> section to ensure og:title, og:image, and twitter:card tags are present and generating high-quality preview snippets.
Performance & Security (Are You Fast and Safe?)
9. Broken Links (404s)
Linking to dead pages (internal or external) creates a frustrating user experience and wastes your crawl budget. Audit your content to find and replace any links returning a 404 error.
10. Core Web Vitals (LCP & CLS)
Load speed is a direct ranking factor. Check your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) to ensure your main content loads in under 2.5 seconds. Monitor your Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) to guarantee visual stability.
11. Hidden WordPress Version Number
If your site broadcasts its WordPress version (e.g., <meta name="generator" content="WordPress X.X">), you are inviting hackers to exploit known vulnerabilities. A hacked site will quickly be marked as “Dangerous” by Google, wiping out your SEO traffic. Ensure this tag is removed.
12. Protected WP-Login & XML-RPC
Bots aggressively target wp-login.php and xmlrpc.php. Even if they don’t break in, thousands of automated requests will drain your server resources, slowing down your site for real users and crashing your Core Web Vitals scores. Ensure these endpoints are secured or disabled.
How to Automate Your Monthly SEO Audit
Checking these 12 metrics manually across your website every month is exhausting and prone to human error. But you don’t need to be a developer to keep your site healthy.
FunSEO is designed exactly for this. Our platform features a specialized WordPress Detection & Deep Checker alongside a comprehensive Technical SEO engine.
Simply enter your URL—no login required and 100% free—and FunSEO will instantly analyze your meta tags, validate your robots.txt and sitemap, check your PageSpeed via Google’s official API, and audit your WordPress security endpoints in seconds.
Make it a habit. Bookmark FunSEO and run a quick scan on your top pages at the start of every month to catch SEO disasters before Google does.