WordPress SEO Plugins Bloggers Should Not Ignore

SEO plugins are extremely valuable to any blogger that wants a good search results PageRank. They help you analyze your audience, optimize your content, and refine your link profile – depending on which plugin you choose. Many plugins come with both a free and paid version. The free one might have ads or less features, while the paid version removes the ads and includes additional functionality.

Yoast SEO

Yoast is one of the most well-known SEO plugins used on WordPress. It’s designed to help you increase the search engine optimization of your content so that you can get more hits on Google, Bing, and other search engines. It can also be used to increase engagement and pick up more views from social media platforms. Yoast also includes support for XML sitemaps and search console integration.

The premium version of Yoast is $89 dollars for one site. While you can get by with the free version, the paid version expands the capabilities of the plugin a great deal. For example, you can use five keywords instead of one, get previews for Twitter and Facebook in addition to Google, see suggested links to your site, make use of their link redirect manager, and see Yoast’s content analysis.

All in One SEO Pack

All in One SEO Pack (AIOSEO) is another popular plugin that optimizes your content, helps improve your site’s PageRank, and provides developer features as well. For example, you can submit your XML sitemap to the two biggest search engines on the web with the plugin. It supports accelerated mobile pages, offers SEO support on custom post types, and will redirect attachment pages to parent posts. It also offers SEO integration for e-commerce sites even on the free version.

If you choose to go for AIOSEO Pack Pro, you’ll be one version ahead of the free version. It includes more features like a video SEO module, advanced WooCommerce support, and SEO for categories. It also gives you priority support and works without advertisements. The annual fee ranges from $97 to $699, depending on how many sites you need to support.

SEO SQUIRRLY

SEO SQUIRRLY can actually be installed alongside Yoast or AIOSEO without affecting either program’s functionality. They’re complementary. The plugin helps you make sure your published content is better optimized to be picked up and ranked highly by search engines. As you work on your blog post, SEO SQUIRRLY lets you know whether or not your content is going in the right direction. When you’re done, it helps you figure out the right keywords and topics for future posts. It also generates a report every week that tells you exactly where you stand in terms of SEO.

SEO SQUIRRLY also has a Pro Plan that costs between $21.99 and $71.99 per month. It adds the ability to use the SEO Live Assistant fully, use the plugin on more sites, optimize more articles, and audit up to 300 pages per week to see how your SEO measures up.

WP Meta SEO

WP Meta SEO can help you tackle problems that keep you from reaching a higher PageRank. For example, you can bulk edit all the metadata for your site from one location. It also lets you fix HTML image resizing in your content, bulk edit SEO link titles, and create XML and HTML sitemaps. It also offers a dashboard SEO check and the ability to view a live Google snippet preview through the plugin.

There’s also a paid addon that adds error indexing and redirection, an SEO email reporting tool so you can quickly send SEO results to others, and keyword suggestions that are sourced from the Google Search Console.

SEO Internal Links

SEO Internal Links offers features like custom keyword lists, an easy nofollow attribute, and a way to open links in new windows. You can match your custom keywords to a set of matching URLS. SEO Internal Links can help you link your old blog entries and post affiliate links to site if you’re hoping to get the monetization benefits of such links. The plugin is free to use.

Google Analytics WD

Google Analytics WD works with Google Analytics and offers a customizable tracking code. The data available includes your audience, their locations, real time statistics, and what operating systems people are using. Using this plugin gives you lots of information about who your blog viewers are, which can help you better connect with them. Installing this plugin places a Google Analytics area on your admin panel, giving you easy access to the information.

There’s also a pro version that costs between $30 and $60, depending on the number of domains and how long you’re purchasing a license for. It adds AdSense and AdWords reports and lets you use pushover notifications, in addition to other features.

Keep in mind that not every plugin works for every site. A site that provides services that help people getting an education is quite different than a Hollywood gossip site. Click here to see the former and here to see the latter, then consider their different audiences and needs. Each one might benefit from a different type of plugin, depending on what type of SEO assistance they require. The first site might benefit more from a plugin that focuses on content optimization while the latter might do better with one that really focuses on analytics, since the content will be wildly different week to week.

Most SEO plugins will work with any type of WordPress site, though. So you can look at the features of each and maybe give a few different ones a try. If you try the free version first, you’re not losing money to make the comparison either – you can always switch one out for another relatively easily. When combined with SEO optimized themes, great content, and dedicated posting, an SEO plugin can help improve your search engine PageRank and get your blog in front of more people.