5 Best SEO Plugin for WordPress – 2021
Search Engine Optimisation can be complicated or complex for a business owner who is new to the digital world. Having properly understood the SEO nuances can help you rank higher on search engine result pages.
People often ask us what are the best SEO plugins and tools for WordPress that we recommend. This is because having a decent WordPress SEO plugin makes the entire process of SEO really simple and breezy as it provides features like sitemaps, audit checklists, content insights, etc. to optimise your website.
Keeping all the things and concerns in mind, today we will cover the 5 best SEO plugins and tools that you should use for your WordPress website.
1. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO plugin is helping WordPress users optimise their website since 2008. With more than 25,000+ five-star rating and more than 5 million downloads, Yoast SEO is considered one of the best free SEO plugging available on WordPress. It is the most downloaded SEO plugin on WordPress and comes in both free and premium (paid) options. The free version is best suited for beginners who are new to SEO and help them conquer. Whereas the premium version helps the businesses take their content to the next level. Moreover, another plus point of this plugin is that it is extremely easy and effortless to use.
The free version includes features like:
- XML sitemaps
- Title tags and Meta descriptions
- Keyword analysis
- Readability analysis
- Google/Mobile preview
- Schema blocks
- Full language support
- Full control over site breadcrumbs
First-time users can produce great results using this free version of Yoast. Most of the other plugins offer features like breadcrumb control and schema markup in their premium account. Additionally, if you wish to upgrade to premium in Yoast SEO, there are a number of added features in that as well like:
- Internal linking suggestions
- 24/7 email support
- Internal linking blocks
- Social previews
- Content insights
- Redirect manager
- Elementor integration
- Orphaned content filter
- Internal linking blocks
- Automated Publishing
- No in-app advertisements
If you are in the market for a free SEO plugin, we highly recommend Yoast SEO. For zero dollars, you can start your SEO journey. And after some time when you are properly acquainted with the SEO, you can switch to the premium subscription which starts from $89 USD.
2. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
All in One SEO is also one of the best SEO plugins that are on the market. All these years since its entry into the market, AIOSEO has grown exponentially and covers all the aspects of SEO you could possibly want to manage. It is a very powerful SEO tool but remarkably easy to use as well even for beginners.
Currently, over 2 million smart website owners use AIOSEO to properly setup WordPress SEO, so their websites can rank higher in search engines. All you need to do is answer some simple questions related to your business or industry and the setup wizard will automatically help you choose the best SEO setting for your business. Also, one of the best features of this plugin is that it is constantly auditing your website and explaining the changes you need to make in plain English. Further, it automatically prioritizes issues, showing you what needs to be addressed immediately as well as missed opportunities for search engine optimisation.
The free version of AIOSEO is loaded with features like:
- XML sitemaps
- Quick setup wizard
- Titles and Meta descriptions
- Custom title tags and Meta descriptions
- Basic schema markup
- Search engine notification
- Basic Woocommerce integration and SEO
On the other hand, if you upgrade to AIOSEO’s premium subscription you’ll get more added features to manage SEO across all of your sites like:
- On-Page SEO optimisation
- Advanced Robots Meta SEO Settings
- RSS Content for SEO
- Advanced SEO Canonical URLs
- Rich Snippets Schema
- Advanced Woocommerce SEO
- Social Media integration
- Google AMP SEO
- Redirection manager
- Competitor Site SEO Analysis
Even with so many features and integration abilities, the AIOSEO’s premium subscription is quite reasonable and affordable. The prices of the premium version depend upon the number of sites you want to optimise, for example, if you wish to optimise only one site it will cost you less than $50 USD/year whereas optimising 10 sites will cost you around $200 USD/year.
3. SEMRush
SEMRush SEO Writing Assistant plugin is equally competitive as compared to other plugins on WordPress. Reports suggest that SEMRush is the leader when it comes to SEO tools and functionality. It is used by professional SEO experts, marketers, bloggers, and businesses of all sizes as it provides a comprehensive set of tools to grow your traffic, analyse your keywords, researching competitors, comprehending over paid search marketing and much more.
The plugin offered by SEMRush is known as SEO Writing Assistant Tool which helps you in enhancing website content and beat the top 10 results for your centre keywords. Simply enter the keywords you are targeting for your business and start writing your content. The plugin tool will show you recommendations and content scores broken into readability, SEO originality, and tone of voice. Further, the tool gives you concrete actions to perform to fill the gap in the content.
To use the plugin, you need to have a SEMRush account (free). Although the free account gives you really limited features, for instance, you can only make a single content template. Whereas the premium account is quite expensive but this investment can deliver huge dividends and benefits in the future.
The features of this plugin are as follows:
- Overall score
- Readability score
- Target keywords
- Recommended keywords
- Tone of voice
- Plagiarism
- Linking
We at New Online Road use SEMRush for our websites and clients because of its competitive intelligence, keyword analysis, business listing, and SEO rank tracker features.
4. Ahrefs SEO
Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool for marketers, bloggers, and businesses. The WordPress plugin by Ahrefs is called Ahrefs SEO. It is a superlight plugin that anyone can install for free but needs to get an Ahrefs license to use to its full potential.
Moreover, the plugin allows you to do keyword research, competition analysis, backlink research, monitor keyword rankings, and much more. Also, the plugin also suggests what to do with the content on different pages of the website, for instance, after a full audit of the website you can see which pages of the website require changes and which pages are performing well. Additionally, it helps in identifying duplicate content and keyword cannibalization which helps the users merge and update the right content to boost search engine rankings.
Pursuing and tracking backlinks and rankings on your own is incredibly time-consuming. With Ahrefs SEO plugin, everything you could possibly need is at your fingertips. If you are new to SEO and plugins, we prefer you go with the free/basic plan to start off and if you are an advanced user and have sufficient knowledge of SEO, we recommend you to go for the paid version as it opens up a load of features like backlink research, content gap analysis, and getting a complete picture of how your competitors’ sites are ranking. The paid subscription starts from around $99 USD for a single user and goes upto $999 USD.
The features in the Ahrefs SEO plugin are as follows:
- Backlink Index
- Google analytics integration
- Google search console integration
- Full content audit
- Easy to setup and configure
5. SEOPress
SEOPress is one of the cheapest yet powerful SEO plugin for WordPress that covers all the basic search engine optimisation needs of any user. This SEO plugin is available in more than 15 languages like English (UK), Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, etc. which is great for users with different language background. The average cost for SEOPress is $39 USD for unlimited sites. People often believe that the plugin this cheap won’t have many features but let’s check it out. The features that are included in the free version of SEOPress are:
- Installation Wizard
- Content analysis
- Mobile/Desktop Google preview
- Titles tags and Meta description
- Open graphs and Twitter cards
- Google knowledge graph
- Custom canonical URL
- Meta Robots
- Image SEO
- Redirection in posts, pages, etc.
- Import/Export settings from site to site
- Build your custom XML and HTML sitemap
Now, let’s take a look at the premium features:
- Import/Export metadata
- Video XML sitemap
- Google suggestion in content analysis
- Google structured data types (all the schema)
- Control over breadcrumbs
- Google local business
- Broken Link Checker
- Woocommerce integration
- Google page speed insights
- Create unlimited redirections
- Easy customisation of RSS feeds
Conclusion
We hope this blog gave you a brief and clear idea of some of the best SEO plugins for your WordPress site. We recommend you choose the right plugin according to your SEO needs and expertise to get fruitful results for the future. Also, to gain a more clear picture of SEO visit this link and learn in-depth about what is SEO and why it is important? before you take a dive into SEO plugins.