Website Technical SEO Fixes — 2026-02-24

Discussed during ^[1]. A set of technical and on-page fixes identified for the Cordwainer website to improve SEO health and form reliability.

Overview

A site audit surfaced several structural and technical issues on the Cordwainer website: orphaned pages with no internal links, incorrect H1 tags, broken form notifications, and an unresolved SMTP configuration problem. These were prioritized alongside ^[2] and ^[3] as part of the broader effort to drive leads and fill beds.

Issues & Resolutions

1. Orphan Pages

Problem: Several pages have no internal links pointing to them, making them invisible to crawlers and users.

Pages affected:
- Respite Care
- Professional Events (link via "Request a Brochure" in footer)

Fix: Add footer links to each orphaned page. For "Request a Brochure," create a footer entry that links directly to the relevant page so it is no longer isolated.

Owner: Sebastian Gant (via Eshock)

2. H1 Tag Corrections

Problem: Incorrect H1 tags exist across multiple pages on the site.

Fix: Audit and correct all H1s site-wide.

Owner: Sebastian Gant (via Eshock)

Note: Mark ran an additional crawl the morning of this call and identified further issues. A follow-up crawl should be run after fixes are applied — it typically takes 3–4 crawl cycles to reach a clean state.

3. Form Migration: WP Forms → Gravity Forms

Problem: WP Forms is not sending admin notification emails. The site previously used Gravity Forms before switching to WP Forms, likely in an attempt to resolve this same issue — but the root cause was never fixed.

Root cause: WordPress sends email natively via PHP, which almost never works reliably. The underlying SMTP configuration is broken.

Fix:
1. Revert to Gravity Forms (Sebastian / Eshock)
2. Fix SMTP configuration so outbound email works correctly (Mark)
3. Test admin notifications end-to-end after both changes are applied

Owners:
- Sebastian Gant — switch forms plugin, configure Gravity Forms
- Mark Hope — resolve SMTP issue

"I think there's an issue with their SMTP which needs to be addressed right away. But Gravity Forms needs to be there. We don't want this form that's on there now." — Mark Hope

4. SMTP Configuration

Problem: WordPress is using PHP mail, which is unreliable and is the likely cause of all outbound email failures (including form notifications).

Fix: Configure a proper SMTP connection for the WordPress installation.

Owner: Mark Hope

Dependency: Must be resolved before Gravity Forms notification testing is meaningful.

5. CallRail Setup

Decision: Start with static numbers rather than dynamic number swapping.

Rationale: Dynamic number insertion can confuse customers who expect to see a consistent phone number. Static numbers avoid this friction while still enabling call tracking.

Owner: Sebastian Gant

6. Minor Content/UI Fixes

The following small issues were also flagged during the call:

Owner: Sebastian Gant (via Eshock)

Action Items

• [ ] Add internal links for Respite Care page and "Request a Brochure" footer link (@Sebastian Gant)
• [ ] Fix H1 tags across the site (@Sebastian Gant / Eshock)
• [ ] Switch forms from WP Forms to Gravity Forms and test notifications (@Sebastian Gant / Eshock)
• [ ] Configure SMTP for WordPress; verify Gravity Forms admin emails send correctly (@Mark Hope)
• [ ] Set up CallRail with static numbers (@Sebastian Gant)
• [ ] Change blog CTA from "RSVP" to "Learn More" (@Sebastian Gant / Eshock)
• [ ] Remove trophy image from blog page (@Sebastian Gant / Eshock)
• [ ] Run new site crawl after fixes are applied (@Mark Hope)

Related

• ^[4]
• ^[5]
• ^[6]