SEO Housekeeping: Focus Keywords and Sitemaps That Match

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 12:03:00 +0000

We run a travel blog on a budget VPS (joyofexploringtheworld.com) that helps travellers plan itineraries. Keeping SEO clean without premium plugins is part of the game. Here’s how we fixed mixed signals between focus keywords, noindex, and sitemaps using Rank Math’s free tier.

Why focus keywords matter Link to heading

Each post should have one clear focus phrase—the main search term you want it to rank for. Rank Math stores this in rank_math_focus_keyword post meta. We filled gaps in bulk using WP-CLI, deriving keywords from post titles and search intent (e.g. “cherry blossoms in Paris”, “5 day itinerary Budapest”). Skip utility pages like checkout, receipt, and privacy—they don’t need focus keywords.

Rank Math sitemap not loading with Traefik (and how to fix it)

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000

We run a travel blog (joyofexploringtheworld.com) on a budget VPS with Docker Compose, Cloudflare, and Traefik. When we added Rank Math for SEO, the sitemap worked in the admin but returned 404 on the public URL. Here’s what was going on and how we fixed it.

The problem Link to heading

Rank Math generates sitemaps at runtime via index.php?sitemap=1. On Apache or Nginx with .htaccess/rewrite rules, the pretty URL /sitemap_index.xml gets routed to WordPress automatically. With Traefik, that routing doesn’t exist by default—Traefik doesn’t use .htaccess, so /sitemap_index.xml never reaches WordPress and you get a 404.

Rank Math on Luis Sousa Blog

SEO Housekeeping: Focus Keywords and Sitemaps That Match

Why focus keywords matter Link to heading

Rank Math sitemap not loading with Traefik (and how to fix it)

The problem Link to heading