How to Choose the Best WordPress SEO Plugin?

As an easy-to-use Content Management System (CMS), WordPress helps website owners and bloggers curtail website development time and cost. WordPress themes and plugins help users set up websites and publish content without writing long lines of code. However, website owners cannot increase website traffic without improving their websites’ ranking and visibility on “search engine results” pages.

According to the latest search engine statistics posted on 99 Firms,

“Nearly 93% of all web traffic comes through search engines.”

While ranking websites, Google considers over 200 factors, including website speed and mobile optimization. Hence, no website owner can increase the quality and quantity of website traffic without focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For instance, website owners must focus on making the website load in less than 3 seconds.

Also, they must ensure that the websites deliver a richer user experience on both PCs and mobile devices. However, it is also important for them to implement an SEO strategy to get traffic to the website regularly from organic and natural search results. Here are some quick WordPress SEO tips to improve the performance of websites.

WordPress makes it easier for website owners and digital marketers to implement SEO strategies by providing many SEO plugins and tools. Some of these SEO plugins are free, while others are available in both free and premium editions. The website owners must invest in premium SEO plugins to avail several additional features. However, they must choose the right SEO plugin to increase search engine traffic to the website regularly. They can easily choose the best WordPress SEO plugin by focusing on two important factors – comparing various WordPress SEO plugins and keeping in mind some important points.

How to Choose the Best SEO Plugin for Your WordPress Website

WordPress allows users to choose from a wide range of SEO plugins. But the users must remember that the SEO plugins for WordPress differ from each other in several aspects including reliability, data security, and update frequency. Users must consider some important factors to choose the best WordPress SEO plugin.

SEO Requirements

The website owners can meet their SEO requirements using a variety of SEO plugins and tools for WordPress. However, they cannot increase search engine traffic to the website by integrating multiple plugins. They must compare the SEO plugins according to their SEO requirements. Also, they must opt for an SEO plugin that meets all their SEO requirements precisely.

Features

Most SEO plugins for WordPress are designed with similar features. However, they differ from each other in the categories of usability and functionality. For instance, some SEO plugins generate an XML sitemap for the website automatically, while others don’t. Hence, website owners must focus on the pros and cons of each SEO plugin for WordPress.

Use Cases

The WordPress SEO plugins differ from each other in the category of use cases. For instance, some plugins help users to perform keyword research, while others help them to optimize blogs and content. Likewise, website owners need to focus on the use cases of each SEO plugin. The use cases will help them to choose the SEO plugin that meets their precise SEO requirements.

WordPress Theme

Many website owners these days change WordPress themes to make their websites look and feel different. There are certain themes that make the website lose the SEO setting while being changed. The website owners must explore ways to retain the SEO setting while changing the existing theme. They must opt for an SEO plugin that is compatible with any theme.

Website Speed

According to Developer.Google.com, “Speed is now a landing page factor for Google Search and Ads.”

While choosing and installing an SEO plugin, website owners need to ensure that it does not adversely impact the WordPress website’s loading speed. They must opt for a fast SEO plugin to keep the website’s search engine visibility and user experience intact. Here are some tips to improve WordPress website page speed.

Security

Many cyber criminals these days launch free WordPress plugins to attack websites and access sensitive data. Website owners cannot keep their websites secure and prevent website downtime without opting for an SEO plugin that is 100% secure. They must use security and credibility as key criteria while comparing the SEO plugins for WordPress.

Update Frequency

Search engines update search algorithms frequently without making any announcements. Website owners cannot get search engine traffic without proactively updating and adjusting their SEO strategies. They can easily make changes to the SEO strategy by updating the SEO plugin. Hence, the website owners must opt for an SEO plugin that is being updated regularly.

16 Widely Used SEO Plugins for Your WordPress Website

1. Yoast SEO

The usage statistics posted on various websites suggest that Yoast SEO is more popular than other SEO plugins for WordPress. The website owners have the option to choose from free and premium editions of Yoast SEO. Each edition of the plugin implements schema, generates XML sitemaps, facilitates SEO-friendly content writing, and supports snippet preview. The premium edition suggests internal linking, synonyms, and related keyphrases, along with providing a Yoast redirect manager.

Yoast has been a personal favorite for me and many SEOs around the world. I have been using it for multiple sites for more than 6 years now. Do check out my quick guide on Yoast SEO.

2. Rank Math

Rank Math is probably one of the newest entrants that has created a mark in the already crowded space of WordPress SEO plugins. In addition to being an easy-to-setup WordPress SEO plugin, it emphasizes making SEO a consistent source of website traffic. It comes with robust features and tools to simplify common SEO tasks like rich snippets integration, unlimited keyword optimization, Google keyword ranking, and Google Search Console integration. It further facilitates detailed SEO testing and deep content analysis testing, while supporting multi-site SEO.

This is probably the best alternative to Yoast SEO. Some say it’s better than the Yoast plugin, because of the wide gamut of features it provides, that too all of which are available in the free version.

3. All in One SEO Pack

The popular SEO plugin is compatible with other plugins and supports several languages. All in One SEO Pack is designed with basic features for beginners and advanced features for WordPress developers. It simplifies SEO by providing useful features like XML sitemap support, Google Analytics support, Google AMP support, automatic META tag generation, and duplicate content detection. It further sends notifications to Google and Bing to convey the changes made to the WordPress website.

4. The SEO Framework

The SEO Framework emphasizes optimizing websites according to the guidelines imposed by WordPress and search engines. In addition to being easy to customize, the WordPress SEO plugin generates SEO Meta tags in multiple languages. It comes with features provided by other popular plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. But it is designed as a lightweight SEO plugin. Hence, website owners can use the SEO Framework without impacting the WordPress website’s loading speed.

5. Site Kit by Google

The plugin developed by Google helps website owners to work with useful tools provided by Google. While implementing an SEO strategy, the users can leverage Google Site Kit to work with important SEO tools like Google Search Console. They can access Google Site Console to check how the web pages appear and how many searchers are viewing the website on Google SERPs. The plugin further helps users speed up WordPress websites using Google PageSpeed Insight.

6. Ahrefs

Ahrefs comes with features to help users direct traffic to their websites from organic search results. Despite being a lightweight SEO plugin for WordPress, Ahrefs simplifies SEO by providing useful features like content audit, backlink index, and Google Analytics integration. The users can further use Ahrefs to perform keyword research, backlink research, competition analysis, and keyword rank monitoring. The writers can leverage the plugin to create content that has more exposure and diverts more search engine traffic.

7. SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant

The WordPress plugin helps writers optimize content for search engines by providing instant recommendations. While creating content, bloggers and content creators can use SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant to assess the quality of content based on key parameters like readability score, target keywords, recommended keywords, tone of voice, and plagiarism. However, users can access SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant only through their SEMrush account.

8. SEOPress

Despite being designed as a simple SEO plugin for WordPress, SEOPress comes with robust features to optimize websites for search engines. While implementing SEO, the users can leverage SEOPress to avail useful features like titles, Meta descriptions, Google Knowledge Graph, Google Analytics, canonical URL, custom XML sitemap, image XML sitemap, redirects, content analysis, Facebook preview, and Twitter preview. Many people want to compare multiple SEO plugins before selecting one, here is a comparison between SEOPress and Yoast SEO.

9. Structured Content

The popular WordPress plugin helps content writers insert structured data elements in a blog or web page multiple times. The content writers can use Structured Content to embed a variety of structured data elements – event, course, person, job posting, and FAQ page – in a page. The plugin renders the structured data elements as JSON-LD – a schema understood by bots of major search engines like Google. The users also have the option to assess the information using a structured data testing tool provided by the SEO plugin for WordPress.

10. Broken Link Checker

Often, broken links and dead links negatively impact the search engine visibility of websites. While implementing SEO, professionals focus extensively on identifying and repairing broken links. As its name suggests, the WordPress plugin helps users detect and monitor broken links in pages, posts, comments, and blogrolls. In addition to detecting broken links, Broken Link Checker prevents search engines from following them. The users can further fix broken links directly from the plugin. 

11. Redirection

Redirection helps users improve the WordPress website’s search engine ranking by managing 3-1 redirections, tracking 404 errors, and reducing errors. The WordPress plugin supports both regular redirections and conditional redirections. The users can leverage Redirection to redirect URLs based on specific conditions like browser, server, cookies, IP address, HTTP headers, login status, page type, and custom filters. Unlike other WordPress SEO plugins, Redirections does not have any premium version.

12. Premium SEO Pack

This SEO plugin focuses on improving a WordPress website’s search engine visibility through on-page optimization. The SEO professionals use Premium SEO Pack to optimize web pages’ content and HTML source code. Premium SEO Pack simplifies on-page optimization by providing important features like title, description, keywords, canonical meta descriptions, open graph image, noindex, and nofollow options. The users can further customize the pages directly from the preview bar.

13. WP Meta SEO

This WordPress SEO plugin allows users to control search engine optimization end-to-end. WordPress users opt for WP Meta SEO to avail useful features like XML sitemap generation, HTML sitemap generation, canonical URL management, and breadcrumb generation. The plugin enables users to edit all website data in bulk, redirect 404 errors, and edit meta in content. WP Meta SEO also features an intuitive dashboard that allows users to check the SEO status of the WordPress website on demand.

14. Squirrly SEO

The WordPress SEO plugin developed by Squirrly helps writers create content by targeting genuine readers and search engines. The website owners can use this plugin to get more search engine traffic to the website by selecting the right keywords, conducting weekly SEO audits, and analyzing real-time statistics about the SEO campaigns. While writing content, the writers can use the Squirrly SEO plugin to assess the SEO-friendliness of the content. Also, the plugin provided real-time suggestions and recommendations to writers while writing or editing content. Hence, the writers can use Squirrly SEO to publish web pages and blog posts only when the content is 100% SEO-friendly.

15. LuckyWP Table of Contents

While writing long-form content, bloggers insert the “table of contents” in articles and blogs to make it easier for readers to read a particular section. Also, a “table of contents” helps bloggers enhance the search engine visibility of their blog posts or web pages. LuckyWP Table of Contents helps bloggers insert the table of contents in a blog or article automatically. The WordPress plugin also makes the table of contents appear as snippets on search engine results pages. The bloggers also have the option to customize the table of contents created using the plugin for WordPress.

16. AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages

As an open-source HTML project, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) improves the readability and loading speed of web pages on mobile devices. Bloggers can use AMP for WP to add AMP functionality to WordPress websites automatically. In addition to simplifying AMP functionality, the popular plugin for WordPress supports multiple designs for AMP, custom post types, Google Analytics, Google AdSense, YouTube video embed, Facebook video embed, Twitter video embed, Instagram embed, and WooCommerce. Bloggers can take advantage of AMP for WP to make their blogs deliver a richer user experience on mobile devices.

Wrapping Up!

The SEO plugins and tools for WordPress make it easier for website owners and digital marketers to divert search engine traffic to websites. However, they must remember that major search engines like Google and Bing update their search algorithms frequently. Also, they consider new factors regularly to deliver the best search results. Hence, website owners must implement a dynamic SEO strategy, in addition to investing in the right WordPress SEO plugin.

This blog was initially published in May 2020 and re-published in May 2023.