As far as content management systems go, WordPress is among the most SEO-friendly solutions. However, simply using WordPress isn’t enough to ensure your site has a great Google ranking, because the standard version only covers the most basic SEO requirements. If you want more advanced SEO features to help you optimize your website, you’ll need to get a WordPress SEO plug-in (there are both free and paid options).
Combined with a caching plug-in (for enhanced performance), the WordPress SEO measures that come as standard are a good basis for any WordPress site. To build on this, you should look for an SEO plug-in that has the following functions:
If you’re planning to make major changes to your website, it’s best to do a backup first. We’ve put together a list of WordPress backup plug-ins.
The WordPress directory contains lots of different SEO optimization plug-ins. But which ones actually do everything you need? To help you choose, we’ve identified three plug-ins that tick all the right boxes. See below to find out how they can help you optimize your site.
Yoast SEO has over 5 million active installs (correct as of June 2020), making it one of the most popular WordPress SEO plug-ins. This is largely thanks to its user-friendly interface and extensive range of functions. Yoast comes in two versions – free and premium. Both are installed just like any other plug-in. The premium version offers more advanced features and functions, but all of the most important SEO optimization tools are included in the free version. Here’s what you get:
The Yoast installation wizard helps you configure all of the basic SEO optimization settings. It’s especially helpful for newbies.
In the “Search appearance” section you can define which pages Google should index and what the corresponding meta titles and descriptions look like. Taxonomies like keywords and categories often contain the same content. By carefully configuring the settings in your WordPress SEO plug-in you can avoid duplicate content – and the resulting slide down the rankings.
You can change the indexing settings and meta data for specific posts or pages directly on the corresponding page. To do this, simply open the “Google preview” for the page in question.
Just below the meta title and meta description you’ll see a colored bar. The bar will be green, orange, or red depending on how well your meta data is optimized. This is Yoast’s way of showing you where you can make improvements. The preview feature is also very helpful because it gives an idea of what your meta data will look like in the Google search results.
To define whether or not Google indexes a particular page or post, you’ll need to go into the “Advanced” tab. In this tab you can also enter a canonical URL and configure the advanced meta robots settings.
The free version of Yoast SEO only lets you define one focus keyword (the keyword you want the page to rank for). In the Premium version you can enter multiple similar keywords or synonyms. Yoast SEO uses the same traffic light system to tell you how well you’ve optimized your page.
To avoid keyword stuffing, if you’re using the free version of Yoast SEO, you should only use the traffic lights as a rough guide, because Yoast won’t take any synonyms or similar keywords into account.
When it comes to picking the right keywords, keyword tools such as Keyword Planner, Google Suggest, and Google Trends can be very helpful.
The Yoast SEO plug-in uses the Flesch Reading Ease Score to evaluate how easy content is to read. It also analyses sentence and paragraph length and looks at how subheadings are distributed in your text. The traffic light system is used here too.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| User-friendly interface and intuitive feel | Some functions are only available in the Premium version, e.g. multiple keywords/synonyms |
| Regularly updated to reflect changes to the Google algorithm | No 404 monitor |
| Highly compatible with other WordPress themes and plug-ins | Code is slightly overloaded, meaning the plug-in can cause slow load times and security vulnerabilities |
Rank Math was launched in November 2018 and has been steadily gaining in popularity ever since – something which comes as no surprise given its user-friendly interface and the fact that it is arguably the most feature-rich WordPress SEO plug-in available for free.
Like Yoast SEO, Rank Math has a setup wizard that takes you step by step through the basic settings.
If you’re switching from Yoast SEO to Rank Math, it’s worth noting that Rank Math lets you seamlessly import all of your Yoast settings.
In terms of user interface design, the Rank Math keyword analysis is very similar to that of Yoast SEO. However, in Rank Math you can enter several keywords and as many synonyms as you like.
The only fly in the ointment is that the readability analysis feature is not quite as sophisticated as in Yoast SEO. It does still give you guidance on how to optimize each page though, and when you look at the product as a whole, the free version of Rank Math offers more settings than its competitor – even if you pay for the premium version of Yoast SEO.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Lightweight WordPress SEO plug-in | Less sophisticated readability analysis compared to Yoast |
| More functions than any other free WordPress SEO plug-in | |
| User-friendly interface and intuitive feel |
All in One SEO Pack is a lightweight plug-in for WordPress but still offers most of the essential functions. The real strengths of this plug-in lie in its social media functions and the fact that it allows users more flexibility for editing the XML sitemap settings. If you don’t need a keyword or readability analysis, All in One SEO Pack is the right choice for you.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Lightweight WordPress SEO plug-in | No readability analysis |
| Ability to configure priorities and frequencies for web pages in the XML sitemap | No keyword analysis |
| Social media functions |
| Function | Yoast SEO | Rank Math | All in One SEO Pack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customizable meta title and description | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Global and page-level indexing settings | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Canonical URL & robots meta tags | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Keyword analysis | Yes | Yes | No |
| Multiple keywords and synonyms | Premium version only | Yes | – |
| Readability analysis | Yes | Yes, but limited | No |
| XML sitemap | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Frequency/priority settings for the XML sitemap | No | No | Yes |
| Social media previews | Premium version only | Yes | Yes |
| Integration with webmaster tools | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 404 monitor | No | Yes | No |
| Redirect manager | Premium version only | Yes | No |
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