WordPress SEO plugins

Search engine optimization (SEO) aims to increase traffic to your website through organic search engine results. It encompasses many tasks and strategies that can be implemented with the help of WordPress SEO plugins.

But which SEO plugin should you choose?

In this article, we’ll give you an overview of eight of the best WordPress SEO plugins. Conveniently, they all offer free solutions.

WordPress SEO plugins for better ranking

If you’re in a hurry, check out our top recommendations below:

Top WordPress SEO plugins

  • Best choice for beginners: Yoast SEO
  • Most feature-rich free version: Rank Math
  • Most feature-rich premium version: Squirrly SEO

Eight best WordPress SEO plugins in 2024

Now that we’ve discussed why you should use an SEO plugin, let’s look at eight excellent options. The one that’s the best fit for you will depend on the depth of features you need, but they all offer a budget-friendly way to implement your SEO strategy.

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins, and it’s easy to see why. It comes packed with excellent features out-of-the-box to help you produce search-engine-friendly content that’s also easy to read.

For instance, Yoast SEO adds a meta box to all your pages and posts, which enables you to set your focus keyword (keyphrase), meta description, canonical URLs, and more. Also, its readability analysis helps you optimize your posts with practical suggestions for copy improvement.

Key features ⚙️

  • Advanced XML sitemaps
  • Schema markup
  • Breadcrumbs control
  • Support for ‘noindex’ content
  • Title and meta description templates
  • Language support
  • Access to free Yoast courses

Best for 🙋

WordPress beginners who are also new to SEO and want a free, user-friendly plugin to help them get started.

Pricing 💰

Yoast is a free SEO plugin for WordPress. It also offers a premium version which includes advanced functionality such as internal linking suggestions, content insights, and a redirect manager. Pricing starts at $99 per year for one website. Learn more in our extensive Yoast SEO review.

2. All In One SEO Pack

The All in One SEO Pack plugin is an excellent alternative to Yoast (see All In One SEO vs Yoast SEO in-depth comparison). As a beginner, you won’t have to worry about complex settings as it does some of the work for you upon activation. For example, it automatically generates meta tags and optimizes your titles for Google and other search engines.

That said, advanced users will be able to customize their experience and override automatic features. Additionally, you can use the Robots.txt editor to instruct web crawlers about the contents of your site. All In One SEO Pack will automatically notify search engines about changes to your site as well.

Key features ⚙️

  • XML and RSS Sitemap support
  • Image SEO
  • Schema markup
  • Advanced canonical URLs
  • AMP support
  • Duplicate content detection
  • API support
  • Ecommerce SEO

Best for 🙋

Anyone looking to automate certain SEO tasks, like title optimizations.

Pricing 💰

This is a freemium plugin. The premium version gives you access to more advanced features, including support for unlimited keywords, and starts at $49.60 per year.

3. WP Meta SEO

WP Meta SEO is designed to help bloggers optimize their content more quickly. For example, it enables you to bulk edit image file names, SEO titles, and all website meta data.

It also comes with a broken link checker, which can help you remove outdated URLs without having to scour your content for them. Plus, it integrates with Gutenberg and Elementor, so you can optimize your pages within these editors.

Key features ⚙️

  • 404 error redirects
  • Internal broken link checker
  • XML and HTML sitemaps
  • Live SEO analysis of your content
  • Ability to bulk edit SEO titles, meta data, and more

Best for 🙋

Busy bloggers who want to monitor broken links and update content more quickly.

Pricing 💰

This is a free WordPress SEO plugin, but you can purchase the premium version to access features like Google keyword suggestions, WooCommerce SEO, and more. The price is $49 per year.

4. Schema

You may have heard of schema markup. This is structured data that enables you to feature your content as rich snippets in search engine results. With the Schema plugin, this process is much easier.

This tool implements schema types like Review, Events, Recipes, Article, Products, and Services into your website. All you have to do is enter key details about the content (e.g. cooking time and ingredients for recipes), and the plugin will configure the rich snippet.

The one big downside is that unless you upgrade to the pro version of the plugin, the added schema will affect the front-end design of your site. The pro version is also fully compatible with plugins like ACF and Yoast SEO (the first plugin on our list), whereas the free version has either no compatibility or limited compatibility with them.

Key features ⚙️

  • Supports a variety of content types, including reviews, events, products, recipes, articles, and videos
  • Provides a user-friendly interface where you can enter the main details about the content, and the plugin will generate the rich snippet

Best for 🙋

Anyone who wants to drive more traffic to their site with rich snippets.

Pricing 💰

The basic Schema plugin is free. The pro version is $69 per year, and a lifetime license is also available for $229.

5. Google XML Sitemaps

If getting your site indexed by search engines is your only concern, Google XML Sitemaps could be an excellent solution. This plugin enables you to automatically generate a sitemap for WordPress so that crawlers can easily assess your site. Also, you can save your settings and re-apply them each time you publish new content.

This tool’s sole focus is on providing complete XML sitemaps, so you won’t get as many features as you would with other SEO plugins. Still, it’s an excellent no-frills option that supports all WordPress-generated content without overloading your site.

Key features ⚙️

  • Lets you generate XML, HTML, RSS sitemaps for your website
  • Automatically notifies all major search engines every time you create a new post
  • Supports custom post types and taxonomies

Best for 🙋

WordPress users who are mainly interested in generating up-to-date sitemaps to improve their SEO.

Pricing 💰

This is a completely free SEO plugin.

6. Squirrly SEO

Squirrly SEO is a beginner-friendly SEO tool that generates recommendations in real-time. It enables you to optimize content for your chosen keyword as you’re writing your content. Also, it provides a competitor analysis with suggestions of what you can improve to outrank similar pages.

Besides that, Squirrly SEO comes with innovative features to help with your marketing efforts. For instance, it measures your audience engagement and offers actionable advice to improve your click-through rates (CTRs). Plus, it will transfer all your pre-existing settings if you switch from another SEO plugin.

Key features ⚙️

  • Schema markup
  • Free coaching sessions
  • ‘Noindex’ options
  • Advanced ecommerce features
  • Google Analytics integration
  • Custom Robot.txt for site crawlers
  • Sitemap XML
  • Social media monitoring

Best for 🙋

Marketers who want real-time insights into audience engagement and competitors.

Pricing 💰

You can get started with the free version, or upgrade to the premium plugin for more advanced features. Pricing starts at $20.99 for the first month, and then $29.99 per month after that.

7. SEOPress

SEOPress is a powerful plugin that’s completely white-labeled and free of ads. It comes with comprehensive features that enable you to fully optimize your site. As such, you can build your custom XML sitemap, manage redirections, analyze content based on keywords, and more.

The plugin is fully integrated with Google Analytics, enabling you to track your SEO efforts. Additionally, its content analysis tool will provide optimization tips to help you write better posts. Developers will be able to apply additional hooks to customize the plugin fully as well.

Key features ⚙️

  • Intuitive setup wizard
  • Support for unlimited keywords
  • Image SEO
  • Social media monitoring
  • Dynamic titles and meta descriptions
  • Custom canonical URLs
  • ‘Noindex’ support
  • Free SEO tutorials

Best for 🙋

Advanced WordPress users or developers who want more control over their SEO settings.

Pricing 💰

This is a free SEO WordPress plugin with a premium version. Plans start at $49 per year and are suitable for multiple sites. They come with advanced features for WooCommerce, integration with Google Search Console, integration with OpenAI (to auto-generate your meta descriptions), and more.

8. Rank Math

Our final recommendation is Rank Math, a feature-rich SEO plugin that’s easy to use. It comes with an intuitive setup wizard and smart automation features that will help beginners optimize their content in a few clicks.

Rank Math also integrates with Google Search Console and keyword ranking tools, which is useful if you want to stay ahead of your competitors. Besides that, its built-in 404 monitor helps you resolve errors for a better user experience. Plus, its Content AI feature gives you access to keyword suggestions and insights straight from the block editor.

Key features ⚙️

  • Schema markup
  • Support for unlimited keywords
  • Advanced SEO auditing
  • Redirect manager
  • Local SEO
  • Breadcrumbs optimization
  • Internal linking suggestions
  • XML sitemap
  • Image SEO

Best for 🙋

Bloggers and marketers who want advanced keyword tools and insights.

Pricing 💰

Rank Math is available for free. There’s also a premium version, which starts at $5.75 per month and can be used on multiple websites.

Improve your SEO with these plugins today

SEO is an essential activity for any site owner. Fortunately, this is now an easy task for WordPress users thanks to the vast array of SEO plugins. The right tool can help you stay on top of your meta descriptions, optimize content to rank for your chosen keyword, create XML sitemaps, and more.

In this article, we’ve discussed eight of the best WordPress SEO plugins to help you with these tasks. Yoast SEO is the go-to solution for many, but All In One SEO and Rank Math include comparable feature sets.

For some tips on how to get started with your chosen SEO plugin, check out these articles:

Do you have any questions about WordPress SEO plugins? Let us know in the comments section below!

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