SEO is the backbone of every digital marketing strategy. As a website owner, you have to keep optimizing your site to generate more traffic and increase ranking in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
As you probably already know, content optimization has a large impact on your company and business growth. But if you are a newbie at this, you can always ask for an expert opinion from the best Los Angeles SEO company and start developing your SEO strategy.
Your optimization efforts have to include everything from keywords, images, article readability, and other details that impact your website’s Google rankings.
If you own a WordPress site, the good news is that you can install various SEO plugins to ensure that your optimization is done according to the best practices. Let’s see how that works in more detail.
Why Using WordPress SEO Plugins Is a Good Idea?
Before we can get to the best WordPress SEO plugins, let’s see how they help your SEO efforts first.
You can’t rank your site higher on Google or any other search engine without high-quality content. Therefore, that’s the first detail you should focus on before you start optimizing your site.
Remember that the goal is to attract more visitors to your website, and the only way to do that is to populate your pages with helpful content that gives your audience the information they want to find.
Your content should add value to your site, and since the competition is extremely fierce, it has to be perfectly written and presented.
According to Hubspot, 3 out of 4 users never even open the second page of Google results when looking for information, so you want your site to appear on the first page.
Plugins can help simplify site optimization by providing you access to essential KPIs and tactics that can help you boost visibility.
Moreover, most popular WP plugins offer some automation features, relieving you of various repetitive tasks so you can have more time to focus on other business processes.
The Best SEO WordPress Plugins
The plugins we are about to cover below are only some of the many available tools you can use to increase your site’s SERPs.
The goal of this article is to cover all of the possibilities these WordPress SEO plugins provide. So let’s dive right in.
1. Rank Math
If you’re on a tight budget and simply can’t afford to pay a team of SEO experts to optimize your site, Rank Math can help you get things done alone. It’s among the most popular WP SEO plugins that give you access to real-time insights into content performance.
The plugin offers an easy-to-use interface that gives you complete control over SEO.
It integrates with Google Search Console perfectly to give you more details about your site’s pages. That includes a summation of total search impressions, keywords, and underlines potential issues.
Other features include XML sitemaps, internal link-building recommendations, automated image SEO, and many others.
You can get the premium plan to access all advanced features for as little as $59 per year.
More Info - Download2. Yoast SEO
We have to start our list of the best SEO WordPress plugins with Yoast SEO since it’s the most downloaded WP plugin of all. The plugin became somewhat of a go-to tool for website optimization.
The free version of Yoast has over 5 million downloads, which is impressive, to say the least.
There are multiple reasons why this plugin is such a popular choice. It’s easy to use, it’s packed with useful features for site optimization, new features are added constantly, making this tool even more effective.
Yoast is now more useful than many other paid WP plugins, and the free version includes features such as meta title and description optimization, XML sitemaps, page previews, readability scoring, etc.
The paid version unlocks all features and gives you more optimization features such as keyword use, internal linking, and valuable content insights.
More Info - Download3. All in One SEO
With a name like All-in-one SEO, this WP plugin is all you need to optimize your website SEO. It’s an easy-to-use plugin that doesn’t require any previous experience in website optimization.
You don’t need more than a few minutes to figure out how All-in-one SEO works and get some valuable insights into on-page SEO.
The plugin has a real-time approach to page optimization, so it keeps displaying tips you can use to optimize your content and website pages. All issues are divided into multiple categories based on relevancy.
Once the plugin recognizes issues, it provides solutions and instructions on what to do to improve ranking. Other features include bad bot blockers, XML sitemaps, and basic WooCommerce SEO.
If you decide to get the premium version, you will get access to advanced features such as on-page SEO, social media integrations, Google AMP SEO, and others.
More Info - Download4. Ahrefs SEO
Ahrefs SEO is one of the most used tools among marketers, bloggers, and businesses all over the world. It offers a similar set of tools and features as SEMRush, which we will cover in just a second.
This simple WP plugin allows you to see what your competitors are doing to be successful. It provides details on backlink strategies and tells you which keywords to use in your content.
Ahrefs is especially good for identifying keywords your competitors are not using.
All data is displayed in detailed charts, graphs, and reports, making it easy to follow what’s going on. However, if you want to use Ahrefs to gain an edge over your competitors, you’ll have to pay at least $99 per month per user.
With that said, the investment will quickly pay off, as the plugin will help you increase traffic and conversions.
More Info - Download5. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is a WP plugin designed to help you track website performance using Google Analytics. It provides users with a detailed overview of site performance, including the data from Google Analytics.
All essential information is displayed in detailed reports that point out well-performing content, details into site visitor location, and how they interact with your site.
If you’re an online store owner, you can use MonsterInsights to track product SEO and find ways to improve customer satisfaction. However, one of the best features of this plugin is that it makes Google Analytics more manageable, especially for beginners.
The detailed reports provide a closer look at inbound traffic, outbound links, keyword analytics, and others.
The free version is an excellent starting point, but if you want to get the most out of this plugin, you’ll have to pay $99.50 per site.
More Info - Download6. Squirrly SEO
Squirrly SEO is one of the newest WP plugins designed for content optimization. It was released in 2021, and it offers over 200 features that will help you optimize your content.
For example, the plugin checks your writing in real-time, giving you the green light whenever you improve.
Squirrly SEO was trained for years using machine learning, which makes it very versatile and accurate.
When applied to a website, it can help improve multiple areas, including website authority, backlinking, and keyword use.
One of the best things about Squirrly is that you can switch to it from any other plugin, and all of your settings stay unchanged. The detailed reporting tool makes it easy to instruct writers about SEO details, allowing you to improve SEO efforts in the future.
The free version is great, but we recommend that you get the paid version for $20.99 a month to get access to all features.
More Info - Download7. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
Semrush is another hugely popular SEO optimizer with a simple interface, ideal for beginners. It’s especially useful for optimizing paid traffic, social media content, SEO, and content in general.
The software is divided into multiple handy sections. The Analytics section allows you to compare paid and organic traffic and set up better AD strategies on Google Ads.
The Semrush plugin is widely used by industry professionals and businesses of all sizes. It includes all necessary tools for growing traffic, performing competitive research, and identifying competitors’ keywords.
You can use Semrush to improve content quality and increase your site’s ranking until you appear on the first result page. It’s a paid tool with three different pricing plans ranging from $119.95 to $449.95 per month.
More Info - Download8. SEOPress
SEOPress is another powerful WordPress SEO tool that comes with all features and options you need to optimize your website according to the best industry practices. Apart from excellent SEO features, the plugin can also help you boost traffic, improve social sharing, create custom XML and HTML sitemaps, manage 301 redirects, and much more.
The tool has plenty of useful features that will make your SEO efforts much easier. For example, it allows you to import and export metadata from CSV files with just a few clicks.
It’s an all-in-one SEO plugin that’s super-easy to use since it doesn’t require any coding or previous SEO experience. Moreover, users have access to an impressive collection of free tutorials and ebooks that explain everything they need to know about SEO. Lastly, the plugin is available for $39 per year, and you can use it on as many sites as you want.
Conclusion
SEO might seem like a complex process, but it doesn’t have to be.
If your site is built in WordPress, any of these plugins can help you optimize your content according to the best practices and increase your website’s rank in Google’s SERPs.
Many more useful plugins can help you improve your SEO efforts, so remember to compare their features before you choose.
Good luck with your future SEO optimization efforts!
Author’s bio
Melissa Gray is a freelance writer and an organizational psychologist. Her focus is primarily on marketing and new digital trends across the world. She is also a passionate gamer, with special interest in narrative design. She writes for Digital Strategy One.