If you run a search for SEO in the WordPress plugin directory, there are 51 pages of results at the time of writing. Each page lists 20 SEO plugins for WordPress sites, for a total of 1,020.
By the time you’re reading this line, that number has increased. Yes, you must be feeling overwhelmed now.
How do you walk 51 pages looking for the best WordPress SEO plugins?
You don’t have to do that because I’ve made the task easier.
I have compiled a list of SEO tools for WordPress websites based on my experience over the years and the ones I now use on this blog and others.
But before we dive in, there is something important you need to know.
There is no such thing as a complete or definitive list of the best SEO plugins for WordPress. These are fallacies…each author has their own experience and what works.
So use the list below to find the right SEO and optimization plugins for your blog.
If you’re a beginner, you must wonder if WordPress needs an SEO plugin. Let’s answer this question first.
Does WordPress Need an SEO Plugin?
The short answer is no… You don’t necessarily need an SEO plugin to run a WordPress blog; you can do most of what these plugins automate manually.
Your core WordPress installation has basic SEO features that help with on-page optimization.
WordPress enables you to add headline content in the H1 tag, write custom meta descriptions, select a custom permalink, insert an image alt tag, and more.
Suppose you’re skilled in PHP and other coding stuff; you know your way around things such as robots.txt files, .htaccess files, XML sitemaps, Schema markup, etc.
You can do SEO without WordPress plugins.
SEO plugins are meant to provide direction or guidance on optimizing your content and blog for better search-engine-friendly pages.
You’re responsible for implementing and optimizing your WordPress pages.
Besides using plugins, many online tools help with on-page SEO, content audits, keyword analysis, etc.
So, you can audit and optimize your content without using SEO plugin features for WordPress sites.
What Does an SEO Plugin in WordPress Do?
Okay, so if you can run a WordPress blog without installing an SEO plugin, what does a WordPress SEO optimization plugin do?
There must be something extraordinary about these plugins to attract millions of downloads.
SEO-friendly WordPress plugins help optimize, audit, automate, and simplify the SEO process.
These tasks range from basics like using keywords properly in content to more complex tasks like caching.
WordPress SEO automation plugins can help with technical tasks like generating and submitting XML sitemaps.
Top SEO plugins help you simplify complex SEO tasks so you can follow through and complete every step effortlessly.
This lets you focus on other important tasks like content creation and marketing.
Best SEO Plugin for WordPress
If you’re looking for the top SEO plugins for WordPress, use the list below as a starting point or recommendation to find what works for you.
Some plugins are more user-friendly, have a better user interface, and require little to no learning curve.
Other plugins need a bit of WordPress knowledge to get the right settings for your blog.
Either way, the plugin’s help documentation will guide you.
From on-page optimization, speed, and performance solutions, to file modification and checking for broken links, there are plenty of WordPress SEO plugins on this page.
Let’s check the list.
1. All-in-one-SEO
The original WordPress SEO plugin.
The All in One SEO plugin has many customizable features; it is one of the best free SEO plugins for WordPress websites.
Since Seyed Balkhi of WPBeginner bought it, many improvements and features have been added.
All-in-one SEO has lots more features than any other WordPress SEO plugin.
Even if your blog doesn’t use every feature, having everything in one tool is still valuable.
For example, the plugin includes Search Console integration, a Local SEO module, Google AMP SEO integration, WooCommerce SEO, etc.
AIO SEO also has smart built-in schema markup to help drive traffic through rich snippets.
You can also:
The video below is a brief walk-through of the All-in-one SEO plugin features.
2. Yoast SEO
One of the most popular SEO WordPress plugins with over 5 million active installs. The Yoast SEO plugin is undoubtedly a top-of-the-bar search engine optimization WordPress plugin.
It is the SEO plugin used on this very blog. Updated: I have switched to Rank Math.
You can do lots of on-page and sitewide technical and optimization tasks with Yoast. You can:
The Yoast SEO plugins help with content optimization signals. It adds a meta-SEO box to posts/pages as you write.
You can write custom content titles and meta descriptions here and set up target keywords in the content.
It also adds default schema markup to posts and pages. You can also change the settings per web page and content type in Yoast.
One notable feature of Yoast is the content SEO panel. This panel overviews how well your content is optimized for the target keyword.
While the information in this panel can be helpful, you don’t have to pay too much attention to it.
Most of the SEO analyses in this panel are not significant ranking factors. There are far too many essential ranking signals to worry about than exact keyword placements in content.
However, the readability score is more helpful.
This tells you how easy or hard your content is for users to read. So you can create better content that is easy for all users to read.
3. Imagify
Images are a major cause of slow web pages. Since page speed is an SEO ranking factor, optimizing images for better performance is necessary.
Imagify is one of the best image optimization plugins today, and it also offers an online solution for non-WordPress users.
This plugin compresses, resizes, and optimizes WordPress images on the fly.
You can compress and optimize the most common image formats – PNGs, JPGs, PDFs, and GIFs. In addition, you can specify how to optimize your WordPress theme folder.
It also supports WebP images for supported browsers. It includes built-in bulk image optimization.
Imagify optimizes your WordPress images on its servers, which helps save hosting bandwidth and storage space.
Three image compression levels are available: Normal, Aggressive, and Ultra.
The normal compression level is lossless; there is no image quality loss at this level.
However, Aggressive and Ultra compression levels provide better compression optimization, but they may reduce image quality slightly.
You need to test a few images to find the best balance between image quality and optimization.
One drawback of Imagify is that it doesn’t support an image Lazy-load feature.
But that’s never a problem if you’re a WordPress user and JetPack is installed and activated on your blog.
4. Jetpack
Jetpack is one of the most downloaded free WordPress SEO plugins ever.
It is an essential WordPress plugin that gives you access to many features and functionalities. It is active on over 5 million WordPress blogs.
Jetpack is a feature-rich free WordPress plugin. In this post, we’ll focus on the SEO features.
You can:
The Jetpack site accelerator feature provides image optimization and CDN services.
This feature compresses and serves WordPress images from Jetpack’s global CDN. It also optimizes and serves static files like HTML and CSS from its global network of servers.
Hosting images and static files from its CDN servers reduces the load on your hosting server and provides a faster website experience for users.
To activate these features, go to Jetpack settings and switch to the Performance tab. Then toggle the “Site Accelerator” and “Lazy-loading for images” gears.
That’s it; you don’t need to do anything else.
However, Jetpack Site Accelerator only acts on images in posts/pages; it does not optimize theme folders like Imagify.
If you need a plugin to compress and optimize images in WordPress posts, pages, and theme folders, try Imagify today.
5. WP Rocket
Page speed is an integral part of Google SEO ranking factors, so you must pay more attention to improving page loading time.
The faster a page loads, the higher its conversion rate.
According to a study, conversion rates dropped by 4.42% for each additional second of loading time. This means the longer a page takes to load, the less likely it is to convert.
The easiest and most efficient way to solve page speed issues is to use a cache plugin, especially for non-tech WordPress users.
WordPress cache plugins like WP Rocket optimize and solve most page speed problems, such as optimizing CSS and JS delivery and reducing server response time.
Unlike a cache plugin, WP Rocket helps improve page speed scores, boost website performance, and improve Google Web Vitals reports.
Although it is a premium WordPress cache plugin, it offers good value for money.
The plugin offers advanced performance features like delayed JavaScript execution, minification, unused CSS removal, GZIP compression, and image lazy loading.
The setup is easy and requires no complex process.
Upon activation, the plugin automatically deploys 80% of its settings to deliver maximum page speed.
6. Broken Link Checker
Do broken links on a site affect SEO?
In a word, yes!
Broken links hurt user experience, which is a ranking factor for most search engines like Google.
They lead to a high bounce rate, low time on site, and poor navigation, and they can cause indexation and crawling issues.
When search engine crawlers visit your site and find broken links, it will affect the crawlability rate.
Therefore, you must fix broken links quickly and set up redirects correctly.
Google knows that broken links are natural and inevitable in website maintenance.
However, you must take responsibility to ensure their effectiveness doesn’t disrupt the user experience on your site.
Installing and activating the Broken Link Checker plugin is the best way to fix dead links on your site.
The plugin has many advanced settings that let you define how it works and the impact on your server load.
You can define how often the plugin checks for broken links on your site.
You can also tell where it looks for broken links – whether in pages, posts, or comments.
When the plugin finds dead links, it shows the HTTP status error code so you can decide how to fix them and whether to ignore them.
The plugin interface offers a few options to fix dead links: edit, unlink, remove, recheck, set up a redirect, or dismiss them as not broken.
The plugin offers easy access to the link source and anchor text directly from its data page.
Another helpful feature is link suggestions when you try to edit a dead link.
The plugin suggests replacements for the dead link, so you don’t need to leave the plugin interface.
With one click, you can swap the dead link for a working one without editing the post itself.
If you are worried about its impact on server load, you can set a link-checking suspension if the server load rises above a specific limit.
7. Rank Math
Another popular free WordPress SEO plugin on the list is RankMath SEO.
Launched in 2020, Rank Math is quickly rivaling Yoast and All in One SEO.
With over 1 million active installations, Rank Math has already gained popularity among WordPress users.
It prides itself on being feature-rich and user-friendly. The setup wizard guides you through installation and setup, making it easier for beginners.
Like other SEO plugins on this list, you can:
Rank Math offers more features than other SEO plugins like Yoast.
For instance, you can integrate with Google Trends and get free AI credit for content.
Rank Math also supports over 840 schema markup types. This page provides a complete list of its features.
8. JetPack Boost
The easiest way to optimize for mobile and desktop page speed and performance.
JetPack Boost is a new addition to the automatic WordPress plugin gallery. It is a simple plugin that optimizes page speed and user experience in one click.
It scores your page speed and site performance based on desktop and mobile devices. This score helps you understand how well your web pages are optimized for users on both devices.
The plugin does three things;
The setup process is simple. Install and activate the plugin. Open its settings page and toggle the required switch on.
That’s all it takes to optimize your WordPress blog for speed and performance.
9. Autoptimize
Autoptimize is a free WordPress SEO and performance optimization plugin, and it does one thing: minify CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files.
Simply, it helps you speed up your WordPress sites with minimal effort.
Minification can be a significant feature; the plugin helps aggregate and cache static files. Its features include inline critical CSS, moving and deferring JavaScript to the site footer.
This is standard practice for loading essential elements on a page before others.
10. Really Simple SSL
It is no longer news that HTTPS is a ranking factor.
Since Google announced it, most web hosts now offer free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt installed on your site.
However, switching from HTTP to HTTPS protocol can be tricky, and you need to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS URLs using a 301 permanent redirect.
This is where the Simple SSL plugin makes a difference. The plugin makes the switch painless, effortless, and as simple as clicking a mouse.
To do so, open its settings page and toggle the required boxes.
The plugin also helps fix mixed content issues, a common problem when moving from HTTP to HTTPS URL requests. Again, you need to check a box, and you’re done fixing this issue.
11. Redirection
Initially, I used the 301 Redirect plugin, but after discovering and testing Redirection, I fell in love with it.
The plugin is entirely free. There’s no premium version, but that does not mean it lacks features found in other premium plugins.
The plugin has several advanced features that are not found in many premium plugins.
You can set up URL redirection based on several conditions;
This powerful plugin improves a site’s user experience and matches the right page to the user’s intent.
You can save SEO juice by redirecting non-existent 404 pages on your site to relevant URLs with 301 redirects.
This plugin makes managing dead links easier and redirects them to dynamic pages.
12. Schema and Structured Data for WP and AMP
Why is Schema markup important for SEO?
Instead of indexing the page as-is and hoping search engine crawlers get the context right, schema markup helps search engines better understand a page’s content.
It clearly identifies a page’s content, helping search engines display relevant results based on the user’s intent.
Schema and Structured Data for WP and AMP add rich snippet markup data to your pages based on the Schema.org guidelines.
When added to your site, Schema markup enhances how your content appears in SERPs and provides rich snippets for relevant search queries.
13. MonsterInsight
SEO can be a guessing game without tracking and monitoring what’s happening on your site.
Google Analytics tells you what’s happening and how users find your web pages; MonsterInsights brings Google Analytics data into your WordPress dashboard.
You don’t have to leave the WordPress dashboard to access your Google Analytics data with MonsterInsights.
MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics WordPress plugin. It lets you set up universal and G4 Analytics tracking across all devices without installing code.
You can visually track everything on your WordPress blog.
MonsterInsights is an ideal WordPress analytics plugin for business websites with many on-site tracking needs.
Conclusion…
SEO Plugins for WordPress simplify, automate, and help with on-page SEO signals, but that’s not all there’s to SEO. WordPress SEO is more than installing a plugin and forgetting it.
If it were that easy, every WordPress blog would get millions of organic search engine visits each month.
Plugins will take you far, but not enough to eliminate the need for individual SEO knowledge.
You’re responsible for optimizing your web pages, and the results you get are proportional to the amount of work you put in.
Nonetheless, the SEO plugins mentioned in this post are a good starting point for every WordPress blog.
If you have any plugin suggestions, leave your response in the comments below. I’ll be glad to consider it for inclusion.
Hello there,
I was browsing for some wordpress plugin for calendar and landed on this blog. I am developing a WP site for a friend of mine who deals in garment business. The site is in its initial stage. This blog will going to surely help me. It very very nicely written and very well explained.
Thank you.
Glad you like it.
Hi there..!
I just searched for plugins used for seo and you wpuld be glad to know that this was one of the most enhanced and valueable article that i have just read.. Well done
Thank Adnan,
Glad to read I can help.
All these plugins are important for SEO. These extensions display SEO projections and recommendations on page and article editors.