There are thousands of plugins available for WordPress – and the good thing is, lots of them are free! Whether you need a feature for forms, tables, social sharing, ecommerce, redirection or security on your website, there is almost always a plugin for you.

One of the most important add-ons you should have installed is an SEO plugin. Of course, you need to optimise your website for Google, so you can boost your online presence and go on to make new customers. This is especially true if your site is not being managed by experts.

However, with various options on offer, which of these should you really look into? Keep reading to discover the top SEO plugins for WordPress you should consider installing.

Yoast SEO

Rated 4.9 out of five stars, Yoast is a feature-packed SEO plugin that’s preferred by many, evidenced by over five million WordPress users across the globe. So what makes it a top-rated option?

First off, it’s an all-inclusive plugin. This means that you won’t have to install a number of different website add-ons to get the results you’re after. Second, it’s free. Well, except if you choose to get their premium package.

Nonetheless, it offers valuable features even with just the free version. Here are some things to love about this plugin:

• Content and SEO analysis
• Keyword optimisation
• Readability check
• Snippet preview
• XML Sitemaps management
• Webmaster tools verification

With its focus on analysis, Yoast is your go-to tool if you don’t have any experience on technical SEO. It gives you suggestions on how to improve upon your content, making everything as optimised as possible.

To make the most out of Yoast, you may choose to go premium and get access to additional features such as internal linking suggestions, content insights, redirect management and 24/7 support from their team.

All in One SEO Pack

Dubbed as the original SEO plugin, All in One SEO Pack is another great option if you’re after an in-depth solution. As the name implies, it has various SEO-boosting features packed in one plugin. It has been available since 2007 – and it just keeps getting better with each update.

All in One pretty much offers the same free features as Yoast. However, it is much more customisable. Probably the best thing about it is that you can choose whether to enable or disable specific functions, so you can tailor it exactly to your needs. With this, it’s no surprise that it is active on over two million websites worldwide! If you choose to subscribe to their pro version, here’s what to expect:

• Custom taxonomies
• Advanced support for WooCommerce
• Video sitemap module
• Tutorials and support forums

All these wonderful attributes makes All in SEO a solid add-on. But because it lacks features for analysis, it would be better if you have a bit of a technical background on SEO. Though newbies can easily learn their way around this plugin.

The SEO Framework

With a 4.9-star rating on over 200 reviews, The SEO Framework is proving to be an up-and-coming alternative. Whilst not nearly as popular as Yoast and All in One, this full-featured plugin is trusted by more than 100,000 users because of its lightweight and unobtrusive interface.

In terms of functionality, it is not far off from the two mentioned above. What makes it special is that it blends seamlessly with WordPress and prioritises performance above all. Plus, it has fewer ads! Check out a few more of its great attributes:

• Basic schema markup
• Social sharing
• Visibility settings
• Color-coded SEO suggestions

Like the SEO plugin leaders, The SEO Framework is free. But you can go premium to get access to functions such as content analysis and support.

SEOPress

SEOPress might be a new plugin, but it can definitely keep up with the pioneers. As it is active on over 20,000 websites with an almost-perfect rating, it says a lot about how effective this add-on is.

Much like the first three, SEOPress provides the core free features that most complete SEO plugins have. With its focus on analysis, it is a plugin you might want to look into if you’re looking for an ad-free alternative to Yoast.

Aside from that, it also offers a killer pro version at a more affordable price! Some of its best paid features are:

• 404 monitoring
• Automatic schemas
• Broken link checker
• Google keyword suggestions
• Google Analytics functionality

If you want to keep things streamlined and have control over which features you want to use, SEOPress is a prime choice. Not to mention, it has a well-designed interface that’s easy to operate.

Conclusion

Whilst each has its own set of advantages, Yoast generally tops every single SEO plugin available today, especially if functionality is your main consideration. It is also universal – perfect for beginners and experts alike.

You might be thinking that since each of these all-in-one SEO plugins are great, why not install them all to get the best effect? Well, it’s because this will only slow your website down. Plus, it makes no sense to use plugins that offer similar functions. It will just make things extra complicated.

Though comprehensive plugins have most of the search engine-based features you could ask for, you might still have some requirements that aren’t covered. As needed, you can add single purpose plugins such as Rank Math, Sucuri, WP Rocket and Broken Link Checker.

To find the exact function you’re looking for, you may visit WordPress’ plugin directory and browse through over 50,000 plugins on offer. But remember, having too much plugins can be bad for your site speed. As a rule of thumb, just install what you really need.

However customisable WordPress can be, there are still some areas of SEO-focused web design and development that are quite complicated, so it’s best to consult professionals regarding your concerns.

If you need assistance on any aspect of SEO, our team at FX Web Studio can help you out. We offer complete SEO solutions and self-managed plans to suit your needs. For more information, give us a call at 1300 090 401 today.