The 10 Best SEO Plugins For WordPress To Make Optimization Easy

Do you find it challenging to select from the available list of SEO plugins for WordPress? 

This blog post contains a list of the 10 best SEO plugins for WordPress and a detailed explanation to aid your decision process.

When it comes to making your sites rank on the first page of Google, having a WordPress site takes you steps closer to your goal followed by Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

As you probably know, SEO is the talk of the decade. While the end goal of most SEO strategies is to increase organic traffic to a website, there are several reasons to optimize your website.

This is where plugins come in…

What are Plugins?

Plugins, also called ‘add-ons‘ or ‘extensions,’ generally refer to a software component that is made to enhance or add to the functionalities of an existing computer program without altering the program’s initial function(s).

Basically, you can add functions to a computer program without affecting the program.

When it comes to SEO plugins, the main focus is to be able to assist the content management system by expanding its SEO functionalities.

SEO plugins are extensions installed in a browser, software, or content management system that allows for an expansion of function or the performance of specific and technical optimization tasks that the program cannot perform.

How do plugins work?

Most plugins use a programming interface (API) to attach themselves to a computer program. 

This API allows the plugins to access and control functions on the existing program and carry out their specific functions.

However, plugins will not work without an existing program with which it is compatible.

What to consider when selecting a plugin.

• Compatibility
• Easy installation
• Cost
• The Plugin function
• Your SEO goals
• Technical knowledge

Why WordPress?

Besides the tons of search engine optimized themes available, it can load web pages faster and optimize for mobile devices; WordPress also has SEO plugins specific for their platform. This means that you do not have to worry about the plugin being compatible with your website.

These plugins help improve your SEO game without needing you to be tech-savvy.  

Most of these plugins are easy to install, compatible with all kinds of websites (e-commerce, blog, vlogs, educational, etc.), and include paid and free versions.

Why do you need a plug-in for WordPress?

There are several in-built features embedded in WordPress accounts that help to optimize your sites for search engines. 

However, there is a limit to their functionalities, and there might also be a need to add extra features depending on your optimization goals.

More powerful extensions can be added to your website to help carry out specific SEO functions.

It is possible to optimize your sites and rank well on search engines without plugins, but that also means that you are a step behind those that use a plugin.

The best thing to do is install a beginner-friendly free SEO plugin. This way, it doesn’t cost you capital, and you get to enjoy the benefits of an SEO plugin, albeit limited.

Aspects of SEO that you need plug-ins for

There are different reasons you’ll need SEO plugin asides from visibility and organic traffic.

You’ll also need SEO for:

• Website crawling
• XML Sitemaps
• Media optimization
• Snippet featuring
• Broken link checking
• Caching
• Redirection
• Backlinking
• Social media SEO
• Google AMP SEO
• Others

These various aspects are like the SEO needs that you need to consider when selecting the plugin to use for your website.

Best SEO plugins for WordPress

1. Yoast SEO 

This particular plugin is one of the most popular plugins among WordPress users, which helps with both on-page and off-page site optimization.

As effective and versatile as the Yoast plugin is, it is also beginner-friendly. This plugin is best for your websites to rank higher in search engines. 

The plugin appears on each post and reviews your content while also giving suggestions on how you can improve each blog post for search engines.

These suggestions include keywords and readability and show how your page will appear on Google’s SERPs when uploaded on the net.

The fantastic thing about Yoast is that the free version contains all the necessary functions needed to have a fully optimized post.

Features of Yoast SEO plugin

• Content analysis
• Readability analysis
• Schema blocks
• Google preview
• Automated technical SEO 
• Automatic XML generator
• Fast site loading speed

In addition to all these goodies, the Yoast plugin also comes with several extensions compatible with the free version, including WooCommerce SEO, Yoast video SEO, and Yoast local SEO, among a few others.

2. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)

Prioritizing user experience, AIOSEO is the best plugin for higher rankings and increasing your site’s traffic. 

As the name implies, it goes beyond just optimizing your site but starts right from website set-up and into everything needed for search engine optimization. It also contains functions that help to uncover new SEO growth opportunities.

AIOSEO is an easy yet powerful SEO plugin that effortlessly integrates with other important tools and social media platforms.

It is user-friendly, beginner-friendly, and incredibly easy to install. When you install the AIOSEO, it automatically generates all the necessary features, which you can later customize in the settings.

Features of the AIOSEO

• Easy installation
• Comes with a marketing toolkit
• Beginner-friendly
• Optimized for several search engines
• XML sitemaps
• Optimized search appearance
• Social media integration
• Schema markup for SEO
• Optimized SEO meta title
• Optimized SEO meta description
• 404 error page monitoring
• Redirection management
• Can integrate with other plugins, including speed and caching plugins

3. Rank Math

Named the first WordPress SEO plugin to use artificial intelligence (AI) and one of the fastest-growing SEO plugins, it is also the plugin of choice to increase site traffic while saving time.

The free version of Rank Math offers more SEO features than any other plugin’s unpaid version and provides features that will otherwise be paid for in other plugins. The paid version also contains the AI content analysis, which is peculiar to this plugin, alongside SEO rank tracking.

Using the Rank Math plugin, you can import data from previous plugins to avoid data loss when converting. This plugin can be used instead of AIOSEO and not together to prevent conflict plugin. 

Like the AIOSEO, it contains all the features necessary to have a fully optimized post and site on several search engines besides Google.

In a WordPress review, it was said that the features of Rank Math are so numerous that if you need any SEO function to optimize your site, Rank Math probably has it, i.e., they cover everything and anything SEO.

Features of Rank Math

• Easy installation
• Simple and well-designed user interface
• Ability to disable unwanted  modules
• Loading speed optimization
• Quick customer support
• Add meta title and meta description
• XML sitemap 
• Schema markup
• Google Search Console integration
• Controlled access to features
• Local SEO

4. SchemaPro

SchemaPro is a plugin that allows you to add schema.org structured data markup automatically to WordPress sites in the recommended format. 

This optimizes your content and improves how Google presents it on its result page. This process helps sites to enhance their ranking and the way they appear on search engines. 

Although most plugins have in-built schema markups that provide the same function, you might want to consider SchemaPro if you need more variety of schema types.

The SchemaPro also simplifies adding schema markups to posts.

Features of SchemaPro

• Easy to install
• Runs in the background
• Enable several schema types
• Google Structured Data Testing tool
• Recommended structured data markup by Google
• Free plugin extensions
• Compatible with several plugins

5. XML Sitemaps plugin

When it comes to indexing your site, this plugin does it better. It creates a special XML sitemap that will help search engines index your site better.

It lets the crawlers get a complete and simplified view of your website’s structure and also retrieves this information completely and easily.

Features of XML Sitemaps

• It supports several WordPress generated pages
• Notifies search engines of new contents
• It does not affect the website
• Custom XML site sheet
• Add or remove posts from the sitemap

6. SEOPress

This is a WordPress SEO plugin that is easy, efficient, and powerful. It contains features similar to other plugins, including adding meta titles, meta descriptions, redirection, and XML sitemaps.

Installation is easy, and it is suitable for beginners and advanced SEO experts. If you are looking for a simplified plugin that addresses your SEO needs, you might want to consider SEOPress, although it has limited features compared to Rank Math, Yoast, and AIOSEO.

Features of SEOPress

• Installation wizard
• XML sitemaps
• HTML sitemaps
• SERP preview for mobile and desktop
• Social media previews
• Redirections
• Content analysis
• Google and Bing Instant Indexing
• Optimized titles and descriptions
• Image SEO

7. MonsterInsights

Ever thought of being able to access your site’s analytics quickly on your WordPress dashboard? The MonsterInsight plugin allows you to easily install Google Analytics on WordPress and access it on your WordPress dashboard.

It shows all the details found in Google Analytics and includes eCommerce SEO which shows the progress of your products.

Features of MonsterInsights

• WooCommerce Google Analytics Integration
• eCommerce add-on
• Easy installation
• Real-time stats
• Ads and Affiliate link tracking
• Headline analyzer
• Google Analytics AMP
• Performance tracking

8. SEO Framework

Are you looking for the best SEO plugin without ads? SEO framework focuses on increasing site speed and optimizing content for search engines. It is fast, lightweight, and visually appealing to its users.

The user interface is flexible and organized to make navigation easy for users and gives easy access to most SEO functions compared to other plugins.

Features of SEO Framework

• User-friendly interface
• Compatible with several extensions
• Spam comments extension
• Preconfigured SEO settings

9. Slim SEO

Compared to other plugins, the unique selling point of Slim SEO is in its automation. It can automatically generate meta tags, schema markup, redirections, and sitemaps.

The downside to Slim SEO is that it cannot do an on-page SEO analysis, but you can configure how your content will appear on social media.

Features of Slim SEO

• Automatic generation of several SEO functions
• Redirects for author pages
• Modification and sharing option for contents
• Easy configuration
• Addition of custom codes to headers and footers.

10. SEO Squirrly

SEO Squirrly is a WordPress plugin good for SEO beginners willing to optimize their content for search engines. This plugin assists the user in writing entirely optimized posts by giving suggestions as they are writing.

Features of SEO Squirrly

• Real-time keyword optimization
• Competitor analysis
• Keeps data from previous plugins
• Sharable content reports

It is important to note that when using SEO plugins for your website, it is usually best to limit it to a single plugin. This plugin should be able to address all your SEO needs or, at the very least, the most important ones.

Why?

To avoid plugin conflict. 

When you have a bunch of plugins installed on your website, it can reduce your site’s loading speed. This doesn’t speak well to search engines and will make your website slip down in search results.

It will be challenging to select a particular plugin as the best because our SEO needs can differ, so these explanations should help make your selection process a bit easier. 

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