The purpose of an SEO WordPress plugin is to optimize the web pages for search engines so that search engine spiders can easily crawl (and understand) the content. A WordPress plugin might not increase search engine ranking to a noticeable extent but it will help pave the path.
The SEO plugins help optimizing pretty much everything ranging from the title to description to permalinks to images to content and more. Consider yourself covered.
Here is the list of the must-have and the best SEO WordPress plugins.
1. Yoast SEO
It is probably the most used and one of the most popular free WordPress plugins for SEO. Yoast SEO has tons of SEO features. It optimizes the content, images, titles, generates sitemap, and give suggestions to improve the on-page SEO of every single page and post.
It is great for beginners and is perfect for advanced users. You can play with index, nofollow and follow, permalinks, and a lot of other technical features. The plugin covers almost all the on page SEO aspects.
2. All in One SEO Pack
It is the direct competitor of the Yoast SEO. All in One SEO Pack covers entire on page SEO of every single page and blog post. It is free and has several features ranging from sitemap creation to meta description to content optimization to canonical URLs and more.
This is more of a beginner’s SEO plugin that doesn’t need a lot of editing. It can be used with the default settings right away without any issues.
3. SEOPressor
It is a premium search engine optimization WordPress plugin better than the Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack but since it isn’t free, therefore, it is not as popular.
SEOPressor handles on page optimization, SEO and keyword suggestions, link management, search engine crawler management, offers customized SEO trends, site audit, and much more. It is more than a normal on page SEO plugin. It deals effectively with other aspects that are the part of off page SEO.
4. W3 Total Cache
This should be surprising. Well, W3 Total Cache is best at optimizing the performance of your WordPress blog. It boosts the speed of the website which leads to better search engine rankings.
This plugin improves website speed by caching objects, pages, and optimizing CDN. It deals with the technicalities of the website that are associated with the cache, performance, speed, and browser. The result is better user experience and higher rankings.
It is an extremely easy-to-use plugin. Install it and use it with the default settings. No need to play with the settings unless you know what you are doing.
5. EWWW Image Optimizer
Those who post a lot of photos on their blog shouldn’t miss this plugin. EWWW Image Optimizer is the best plugin for optimizing images. It will reduce image size resulting in fast page load and a significant increase in site speed.
6. SEO Smart Links
Internal linking is as important as links from other websites. SEO Smart Links lets you create internal links on complete autopilot.
Whenever you publish a new post, set specific keywords and phrases for the post in the plugin and it will link to the post every time one of these keywords will be used on your blog. Easy, isn’t it?
Plus, you can choose link type and number of links per post. It will make your life easy.
7. Broken Link Checker
This tiny SEO plugin will help fix broken links. Broken Link Checker will detect and notify you of any broken links, 404 pages, missing images, and external 404 links.
If you have a small website or a blog that you have just started, you probably don’t need this plugin as you can inspect links manually. However, if you have a 5 year old blog with a couple thousand blog posts, you will love it.
How Many WordPress SEO Plugins You Should Use
You don’t have to use all of these 7 SEO WordPress plugins instead you have to choose which ones you need. For example, you have to use one plugin from the Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack, and SEOPressor.
Once you have installed one of these plugins, you don’t need separate plugins for Google sitemaps, Google analytics, image optimization, etc. as these three plugins cover everything related to on page SEO.
The other four SEO plugins are must-have for every WordPress website. You cannot go without the W3 Total Cache, EWWW Image Optimizer, SEO Smart Links, and Broken Link Checker. Each one of these plugins offers you a unique SEO feature that is not available with your main on page SEO plugin.
