
WordPress periodically updates its SEO plugins list to keep up with the ever-changing search engine algorithms. But while, technically, having countless plugins at your fingertips is a significant advantage, the trouble is finding the right one for your site.
SEO optimization is time-consuming and too complex for the average person already. You don’t want to sort through tons of plugins only to install a bunch that offers repeat actions.
So, if you are simply looking for one plugin, I suggest going for Yoast SEO or AIOSEO.
However, if you’re considering more options, I have compiled some of the best WordPress SEO plugins for you.
Let’s get started!
1. Yoast SEO
WordPress Yoast SEO genuinely fits its company slogan SEO for everyone.
Widely known for content and site optimization, the plugin shares easy-to-follow guidelines and recommendations on how to improve your SEO.
Yoast also offers additional plugins for generating site maps, optimizing video, and ranking your website locally.
If you want to start with a single plugin, I highly recommend Yoast WordPress SEO.
Here are the basic features of this plugin.
Key Features
- It optimizes your readability score.
- It provides content insight.
- It evaluates page SEO.
- It highlights keywords and allows you to edit your meta tags and alt text.
- It displays a post preview to adjust your content for the site and social media.
2. Rank Math
Think of Rank Math as a Yoast competing sibling. The plugin offers similar features to Yoast, only with more options in its freemium plan.
For instance, Yoast SEO grants one keyword space in its free version, while Rank extends five. Additionally, you can get redirection, and link manager, unlike Yoast.
Many prefer Yoast over Rank Math solely because the plugin is relatively new, but by all means, check out its full details to evaluate its worth.
Key Features
- It’s visually appealing and has a better user interface.
- It has excellent content optimization functions.
- It provides automatic keyword suggestions.
- It runs a complete SEO Analysis.
- It offers rich snippets, site maps, and WooCommerce SEO.
3. All-In-One SEO (AIOSEO)
AIOSEO is a plugin for site ranking. Despite being an early software, it is still favored for its comprehensive and straightforward approach.
You’ll pretty much find all the required modification options on a single page.
AIOSEO setup wizard leads you through a step-by-step guide with tips to choose the best SEO practices. You can go for default settings or customize them, it’s entirely up to you.
If you are looking for a Yoast SEO substitute, this is a decent choice.
Key Features
- It offers advanced Sitemap settings.
- It provides a canonical URL.
- It can be easily integrated with Google Analytics and Woocommerce.
- It auto-generates meta tags and optimizes titles.
- It gives you control over the technical functions.
4. Ahrefs
This plugin is famous for its in-depth content and off-page SEO analysis.
Ahrefs audit feature is incredibly useful. It shows you a clear picture of where your website stands and what you need to improve your ranking.
You can discover low and high-volume keyword performance, monitor visitors, and evaluate which content is performing well.
It’s a great tool to increase your site’s traffic.
Key Features
- It offers site audits to optimize on-page SEO.
- It detects new and lost backlinks.
- It provides competitor data.
- It’s lightweight and user-friendly.
5. SEO by Squirrly
For a non-expert, Squirrly is an extremely helpful plugin.
It has an AI consultant who will tell you exactly how to optimize your content and drive traffic to your site.
For instance, while you’re writing, the SEO assistant will suggest an amendment on the spot, giving you the opportunity to fix errors right away. You will also have the option to share insights with aspiring SEO writers.
Its dashboard may feel overwhelming, I admit, but the plugin is easy to use.
Key Features
- It delivers live recommendations on content and site improvement.
- It allows importing previous plugin settings.
- It offers competitive analysis.
- It provides a downloadable audit report to enhance your writing quality.
6. The SEO Framework
SEO frameworks might appear similar to other SEO plugins, but they’re particularly sought after for their user-friendly interface, speed, and extensions.
Besides getting standard SEO functions such as; META tags editing, XML sitemaps generation, and seamless integration, you can add extensions to extend the plugin utility. It’s by far the most lightweight full-featured SEO plugin.
I recommend it for beginners, especially as an alternative to Yoast, which sometimes is a bit overwhelming.
So far, the SEO framework has a remarkably high rating and active support. Here are a few features you may find interesting.
Key Features
- It’s faster than other plugins.
- It offers resourceful extensions.
- It optimizes META tags.
- It provides all relative SEO options to increase your site traffic.
- It’s devoid of advertisements.
7. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
This plugin takes an interesting approach to content optimization.
Semrush not only shares recommended keywords and SEO tips to rank your site, but it also suggests a readability score matching top articles. You may not find this option on Yoast
Semrush SEO Writing Assistant is well-known in the market, and almost 10k are actively using it. You should at least explore it.
You need to have an active SEMrush account to use this plugin. Try SEMrush for 14 days – free.
Key Features
- It provides an overall score on our content quality.
- It corrects your readability score with smart instructions.
- It detects and alerts you of high-value keywords.
- It extends to a plagiarism report.
8. WP Rocket
If you are scouting for tools to boost your site performance and improve user experience, you might want to check out WP Rocket.
The caching plugin significantly decreases your site loading time. If your page takes 8 seconds to load, WP Rocket will probably reduce it to 4 or even 2.
WP Rocket also cleans unnecessary files, updates cached pages, and loads selected images. The plugin comes with preset settings and user guides to ease the learning curve.
WP Rocket might feel like an additional expense, particularly when you’re running a set of paid software, but it is an extremely convenient tool.
Key Features
- It creates a cache to accelerate site speed.
- It provides CSS optimization.
- It is compatible with other servers.
- It extends Lazy Load to reduce image size.
- It has a gzip Compression option.
9. Broken Link Checker
Links riots happen more often than you think. Considering Linking is one of the top SEO factors, you must constantly scan and fix links to avoid negative impact.
Since manual scanning is nearly impossible, take a smart approach and install Broken Link Checker to save your time and efforts.
The plugin checks the links on your website and alerts you if any links are broken through a notification.
Broken Links Checker will help you maintain both your internal links and external links. Be sure to periodically check for broken links; too many of them hurt SEO.
Key Features
- It tracks all internal and external links in your articles, comments, and pages.
- It detects missing links.
- It blocks broken links.
10. Link Whisper
Internal linking creates an immense effect on your site’s ranking, and it’s one of the SEO practices every site owner follows. Link whisper will help you save time you would otherwise spend manually connecting your blogs.
The plugin shares suggestions on where to put internal links as you write your article in the editor, making it easier for you to post and link to your content simultaneously.
Link whisper is an effective tool, particularly for bloggers.
Key Features
- It alerts you of internal links in the WordPress editor.
- It provides a user-friendly report on links.
- Flexible settings.
11. Schema Pro
Rich snippets help you attract site traffic. Schema Pro provides everything to make it easier for you.
It has a simple user interface and doesn’t require coding to create featured snippets.
All you have to do is pick a schema type and the page you want to summarize. Unlike free versions, Schema Pro also maps out the content field.
Key Features
- It offers 13 different snippet formats.
- It automatically implements schema markup for relevant pages.
- You can use a custom field to specify your target pages.
- It supports JSON-LD—meaning Google will find your site easier to crawl.
- It works without any technical input—a plus for non-tech individuals.
12. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
Ultra-efficient, ShortPixel Image Optimizer compresses any image or pdf file and automatically converts images that appear heavy.
If you upload images often, the plugin has a bulk image editing function.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer offers both free and multiple premium plans. The prices are affordable and worth checking out.
Recent updates allow you to add a custom domain as a CDN URL and even better lossless image compression.
Key Features
- It compresses jpeg, png, GIF, and pdf formats.
- It supports Webp format.
- It allows manually adding and removing images.
- It resizes your images, leaving your original image size intact.
13. Rankie
The right keyword can astonishingly boost your site’s ranking. Rankie will help you analyze whether the keywords you’ve selected are worth it or need improvement.
The plugin primarily tracks and updates the position of your keywords. With a simple user interface, you’ll be able to view all the keywords and their ranking in one place.
You can also research keywords and download reports for evaluation using Rankie. It’s a powerful tool to monitor your ranking.
Key Features
- It tracks your keywords.
- It summarizes your keyword history and generates sharable reports.
- It has a built-in keyword research option.
14. WPtouch
As a theme generator, WPtouch is a mobile plugin that creates simple and customizable themes to enhance user experience.
Given that 50% of your site visitors use mobile devices, the plugin can exponentially increase your traffic.
It has a free version, but a premium plan offers more themes and add-ons.
Install it only if you don’t have a responsive theme.
Key Features
- It shows a mobile version with an option to switch to the desktop.
- It provides extensions to cache pages, compresses images, and minimizes files to boost your site speed.
- It’s affordable and user-friendly.
15. MonsterInsights
Some people find going back and forth between accounts merely to monitor Google analytics tedious. If you want to connect analytics with your WordPress site, I recommend Monsterinsights.
The plugin set-up process is fairly easy and displays all Google Analytics reports on its dashboard.
You can get insights into visitor behavior, content performance, conversion report, and traffic demographics.
Besides the basic functionality, you’ll have access to advanced features to discover business opportunities.
Key Features
- It provides a real-time state on your site.
- It generates performance reports.
- It tracks the links making it ideal for affiliate marketing analysis.
- It’s flexible and offers seamless integration with popular plugins.
16. WP Meta SEO
Consider WP Meta SEO as a complete Meta Package.
WP Meta SEO dashboard shows the current status of your meta tags in percentage form. Based on the states, you can optimize meta titles, tags, descriptions, and alt images.
The plugin has a smart editor to edit meta tags in bulk. Additionally, it contains a tracking function to detect 404 errors.
Succulently put, WP Meta-SEO will give you control over everything related to META optimization.
Key Features
- It allows bulk edit of meta tags and image alt tags.
- It offers image resizing and site map generation.
- It provides on-page and off-page SEO analysis.
- It tracks 404 and broken links.
17. WPML
Global brands often use multilingual plugins to accommodate foreign site visitors. While you’ll find many amazing translates, WPML is one of the prominent plugins that offer advanced functions to fully transform your site language.
You can convert content, pages, categories, tags, and fields. The plugin is beginner-friendly and compatible with WordPress themes and other plugins.
Key Features
- It has fuss-free installation and configuration.
- It provides an add-on to manage translations.
- It allows SEO optimization in different languages.
18. Consolety
This plugin is a backlink generator that boosts your site authority, and in turn, your traffic.
Consolety automatically exchanges your content links with a peer blogger in the company’s network and displays them on your site in the related content section.
If you’re an aspiring blogger and struggling to find backlink partners, explore Consolety.
The plugin has relatively few reviews, but they’re positive, nonetheless.
Here are its key features.
Key Features
- It identifies similar sites by content, tags, and categories, and generates backlinks accordingly.
- It verifies links to detect spam links.
19. Internal Links Manager
This is another useful internal linking plugin you can opt for, as an alternative to the premium Link Whisper. It’s not as intuitive and doesn’t have an A.I. to guide you through.
Internal Link Manager automatically hyperlinks relevant content published within your site based on your keywords. Furthermore, it presents a detailed report on which posts require more links and which links are receiving high traffic.
The plugin has a good rating and 7000 active installations.
Key Features
- It generates hyperlinks to specified keywords and phrases in your published posts.
- It provides interlinking optimization.
- It tracks and shares your link data.
We hope you find this article informative.
