The 12 Best SEO Plugins and Tools for WordPress Websites

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Search engines are a major source of traffic for most websites on the internet. Optimizing your site for search engines can improve your site ranking and bring in more traffic, significantly growing your business.

Our top 12 favorite SEO plugins for WordPress websites:

  1. Yoast SEO

  2. All In One SEO

  3. Ahrefs

  4. SEOPress MonsterInsights

  5. Rank Math

  6. WP Rocket

  7. Semrush

  8. MonsterInsights

  9. Schema Pro

  10. Redirection

  11. Google Search Console

  12. KeywordTool.io

Things you should know about SEO plugins and tools

For beginners, this can be completely overwhelming. Lists often include a lot of different options and many people feel like they need to download a dozen different SEO tools for their site to be successful. You don’t want the competition to get ahead.

But we have a secret for you.

You don’t need a dozen SEO tools for your website to be successful.

In fact, you only want one.

The trick is to find the tool that’s going to work best for you.

The truth is that any one of these plugins would be a great tool for your business, what we’re here to do is to help you find the one most suited to your needs.

That’s why we’ve compiled this list of our favorite SEO tools and plugins. Yes, there are a dozen of them, but we’re going to list everything out for you.

We’ve reviewed the pros and cons, the features, capabilities, and even the different pricing points so that you can select the best option for your business.

#1 – Yoast SEO – The Most Popular & The Best Free SEO Plugin

Yoast SEO is the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress. It has more downloads than any other SEO tool and has the most comprehensive free version out of any other SEO tool or plugin.

Additionally, Yoast has their own website filled with a thriving community forum, informative blog posts, and extensive courses for beginners, intermediates, and advanced users so that you can learn everything there is to know about SEO.

With all this information at your fingertips, and a free version that contains more features than any other SEO plugin, it’s no wonder why Yoast has garnered so much popularity.

You can check out the free version of Yoast SEO and Yoast SEO Premium right here.

What are the differences between Yoast SEO and Yoast SEO Premium?

Features

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO Premium

Wincher Integration

X

X

REST API

X

X

Elementor Integration

X

X

Enhanced Slack Sharing

X

X

Keyword Data via Semrush

X

X

Schema Controls

X

X

Internal Linking Blocks

X

X

FAQ Block

X

X

Function Words Check

X

X

Image Alt Attributes Check

X

X

How-To Block

X

X

Redirection Attachment URLs

X

X

Readability Analysis

X

X

Breadcrumb Controls

X

X

Structured Data

X

X

Key phrase Density

X

X

Duplicate Key phrases Check

X

X

Meta Descriptions

X

X

Meta Tag Variables

X

X

Google Preview

X

X

XML Sitemaps

X

X

Yoast SEO Analysis

X

X

Migrate from other Plugins

X

X

Canonical URL Tags

X

X

Breadcrumbs

X

X

Outbound Links

X

X

Robots Meta Tags

X

X

File Editor robots.txt

X

X

Word Complexity

X

SEO Workouts

X

Estimated Reading Time

X

Zapier Integration

X

Stale Cornerstone Content Finder

X

Yoast SEO Premium Analysis

X

Orphaned Content Finder

X

CSV Import/Export

X

Internal Linking Suggestions

X

Social Previews

X

Redirect Manager

X

Pricing

Yoast SEO doesn’t do pricing tiers like some other plugins, they offer their premium version to everyone at a baseline price of $99/year. You can also opt for their plugin subscription, which gives you access to 5 different premium Yoast plugins and full access to all of their online SEO training courses for $229/year.

If you’re looking for a free SEO tool for your site, you won’t find anything better than Yoast SEO. Not only do they have the best free plugin available, but they also offer many high-quality premium plugins, including Yoast SEO Premium, to help your site rise to the top.

#2 – All In One SEO (AIOSEO) – The Best SEO Tool for Beginners

All In One SEO (AISEO) is one of the most popular and powerful SEO plugins on the market. It has more than 3 million users worldwide and is considered to be the most comprehensive SEO tool available for WordPress users.

Not only is it powerful, it’s also incredibly easy to use. It also comes in both a free and Pro version.

AISEO comes with tons of features and is designed to handle every aspect of search engine optimization. The free version contains all the basics you need to optimize your site, and the pro version gives you all the tools you need to outrank your competitors.

You can check out the free version of AISEO here, and the pro version of AISEO here.

What are the differences between All in One SEO free and All in One SEO Pro?

Features

AIOSEO Free

AIOSEO Pro

Easy to Use Set-Up Wizard

X

X

Smart XML Sitemaps

X

X

Titles and Meta Descriptions

X

X

Custom Titles and Meta Descriptions

X

X

Bad Bot Blocker

X

X

Basic WooCommerce SEO

X

X

Search Engine Notification

X

X

On-Page SEO

X

Social Media Integration

X

Advanced WooCommerce SEO

X

Local SEO

X

RSS SEO

X

Video SEO

X

Google AMP SEO

X

Structured Data (Schema Markup)

X

Redirection Manager

X

SEO Meta Titles and Descriptions for Taxonomies

X

Access to Tutorial Videos, Support Forums, and Knowledge Center

X

Pricing

Despite All in One SEO’s lengthy list of comprehensive features and its powerful interface it has surprisingly competitive pricing, coming in at lower yearly rates than several of its competitors.

The difference between the pricing tiers is broken down by the number of sites you’ll need.

All the paid plans give you access to the same features. Only the Pro and Elite plans will give you priority support, and the Basic plan lacks a few features such as local SEO and the redirection manager. Overall, not much is left out of the lower tier plans and a few extra benefits are added to the higher tier plans.

The company also offers a 14-day money back guarantee, so if you try it out and you don’t like it you can always get your money back and go elsewhere for site optimization.

Because of its powerful yet easy-to-use interface, AIOSEO is our top recommendation as the most comprehensive, powerful, and beginner friendly SEO tool for your website.

#3 – Ahrefs – The Best SEO Plugin for Advanced Users

Ahrefs is one of the most well-known names in SEO, providing a high performance, all-in-one WordPress SEO plugin. It is a popular alternative to Semrush because it offers a lot of similar tools and features.

While there is a lot of overlap in features, the thing that Ahrefs truly specializes in is auditing your content and doing backlink analysis.

SEO auditing isn’t a feature that’s unique to Ahrefs, but they do it incredibly well. Instead of getting surface level information on your content, Ahrefs provides access to their databases that allow you to analyze your content and SEO on a granular level.

For each page you can see it’s ranking, the amount of traffic it’s receiving, how much of that traffic is organic, the number of backlinks the page is getting, and a clear list of suggestions on how you could improve based on the page’s performance.

Additionally, Ahrefs provides suggestions on when you should update an underperforming page to newer content or when you should combine two underperforming pages into one. While you always want to be producing more content, sometimes it’s best to clean up underperforming pages to keep your SEO high.

This article from Ahrefs explains how culling and merging underperforming pages can benefit your site and increase the amount of traffic you receive.

The backlink analysis that Ahrefs provides is an invaluable resource, giving you insight on your pages that would otherwise take hours to compile on your own.

It can also help you identify which sites are linking to multiple competitors, but not to you. You can see what keywords your competitors are ranking for that you aren’t and can create more content on those topics. It can even identify duplicate content and point out keyword cannibalization so that you can upgrade and merge the right content to boost performance.

Pricing

Ahrefs’ pricing is broken down by the number of features, sites, keywords, and other features that you can track. All the plans have the same set of base tools, but for additional features and higher performance limits you will have to pay for a higher plan.

The base plan starts out at $99/month for a single user. Keep in mind that all the plans only start out with one active user. For $20-$50 a month you can add on additional users, which is a nice option to have.

 

Ahrefs can certainly be pricey, which is why we only recommend it to advanced and seasoned users. If you’re new to the space, or haven’t worked much with SEO in the past, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to get your money’s worth out of this plugin.

For more advanced users and for businesses competing in a very lucrative space, Ahrefs can be an amazing tool to push you ahead of the competition and keep all your pages ranking as high as possible.

It’s not cheap, but if you’re looking to really up your SEO game to the next level, you won’t find much better than Ahrefs.

#4 – SEOPress – The Cheapest WordPress SEO Plugin That Really Works

 

SEOPress is the perfect solution for people that want to get into SEO but don’t want to drop a bunch of cash on the latest and greatest SEO tools.

It has all the basic SEO tools you need to get started and is perfect for beginners that are working with a limited budget. It’s also available in 17 different languages, making it accessible to more than just the US-based user.

SEOPress has a free version and a Pro version. The Pro version is half the price of other WordPress SEO plugins, making it the perfect option for people just starting out or those on a stricter budget. You can still optimize your site, improve your rankings, and increase your traffic without breaking the bank in the process.

You can check out the free version of SEOPress here, and you can check out SEOPress Pro here.

What are the differences between SEOPress free and SEOPress Pro?

Features

SEOPress Free

SEOPress Pro

Installation wizard

X

X

XML and HTML sitemaps

X

X

Mobile/desktop preview

X

X

Facebook/Twitter preview

X

X

Image SEO

X

X

Redirections

X

X

White label

X

X

Titles w/dynamic variables

X

X

Twitter cards

X

X

Content analysis

X

X

Video SEO

X

Structured data types (schemas)

X

Breadcrumbs

X

Local SEO

X

Broken link checker

X

WooCommerce integration

X

404 monitoring

X

RSS SEO

X

SEOPress doesn’t have as many features as AIOSEO or Yoast, but it does come with all the necessary basics. In fact, many users prefer SEOPress because it has everything they need and isn’t weighed down by a bunch of features they won’t use.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, it doesn’t get more straightforward. $49/year for SEOPress Pro or download the free version. Simple and easy.

For those wanting to go deeper into keyword analysis and backlinking, SEOPress offers an additional plugin called SEOPress Insights for $99/year. They also give you the option of bundling the two plugins together for a discount.

#5 – Rank Math – Your One-Stop-Shop for SEO

Rank Math is a great alternative to AIOSEO. Being one of the most versatile WordPress SEO plugins, it’s the perfect one-stop-shop for all your SEO needs.

It comes with a user-friendly setup wizard and can easily import data from other SEO plugins. Combining the power of multiple plugins, it provides everything you need to take full control of your website’s SEO.

Rank Math is a lightweight and easy-to-manage plugin. For lack of a better term, it is the Swiss army knife of WordPress SEO tools.

Much like AIOSEO, Rank Math also comes in both a free and a paid version.

You can check out the free version of Rank Math here, and Rank Math Pro here.

What are the differences between Rank Math free and Rank Math Pro?

Features

Rank Math Free

Rank Math Pro

Meta descriptions and titles

X

X

Social media descriptions

X

X

Focus keyword analysis

X

X

XML sitemap

X

X

Structured data/schema

X

X

Google search console integration

X

X

Knowledge graph and local SEO

X

X

Image SEO

X

X

Internal link suggestions

X

X

Breadcrumbs

X

X

Link counter

X

X

Redirects

X

X

404 monitor

X

X

Google Analytics

X

X

Basic WooCommerce SEO

X

X

Keyword rank tracking

X

Google trends

X

Local SEO

X

Google news SEO sitemap

X

Google video SEO sitemap

X

Watermark social media images

X

Advanced schema generator

X

Google Adsense earning history

X

Advanced WooCommerce SEO

X

Pricing

Rank Math offers three pricing tiers, one for personal or small business use, and two for larger businesses and agencies.

The price difference between each tier is greater than some other SEO plugins, leaving AIOSEO the cheaper option for businesses that need a higher tiered plan.

However, Rank Math does offer competitive pricing for their Pro plan, making this a smart choice for beginners and personal use alongside AIOSEO for an all-in-one SEO WordPress plugin.

 

If you spend any time researching what the best WordPress SEO plugin is, you’ll quickly realize that everyone has a slightly different opinion on the matter.

The truth is that there are a lot of great options available, and many of them are similar. If you’re unsure of which plugin you want to go with, most of them offer free trial versions that you can test out. At the end of the day, a lot of it just comes down to personal preference.

#6 – WP Rocket – The Best WordPress Cache Plugin for Site Speed</2h>

WP Rocket is a cache plugin that focuses on increasing site speed. Because WP Rocket is not an SEO plugin, you can use it in tandem with the WordPress SEO plugin of your choice.

Site speed is crucial piece of SEO. Your users don’t like slow sites and will leave the page if it takes longer than 2 seconds to load. Google notices this bounce rate and will bump you down in ranking if your site isn’t up to speed.

On top of that, speed is one of the few SEO factors that most WordPress SEO plugins don’t address. You want to be doing everything you can to keep your site running fast.

For this reason, we recommend WP Rocket. Specifically, WP Rocket in addition to your SEO plugin. It’ll keep your pages at top performance and won’t interfere with your other SEO tools or any eCommerce products you may have on your site.

All you have to do is download the plugin and it’ll start working on your site right away. It’ll optimize your files, media, and databases to ensure your site is as fast as possible.

Pricing

WP Rocket’s pricing tiers all come with the same features and are broken down by how many sites you have.

A single plan is good for one site, the plus plan can handle three sites, and the infinite plan will give you an unlimited number of sites.

#7 – Semrush – The Best SEO Tool for Content Writing

Semrush is one of the best overall SEO tools on the market, providing some of the most comprehensive platforms for keyword analysis, competitor research, and paid search marketing to boost your traffic.

It allows you to find organic keywords and search terms you can easily rank for. You can also do research on which keywords your competitors are ranking for, and how you can beat them.

Semrush also makes a free WordPress plugin called Semrush SEO Writing Assistant that gives you tips and guidance on how to make your writing more SEO friendly. It integrates with WordPress and can improve your website content enough to beat the top 10 results for your focus keyword.

Semrush SEO Writing Assistant will give you recommendations on your writing broken down into scores for readability, originality, tone of voice, and SEO. It will show you the sentences that could use improvement and will tell you exactly how you can improve them. It’s an incredibly intuitive and easy to use tool for content writers.

Semrush also integrates seamlessly with both Yoast SEO and AIOSEO.

Pricing

Unlike some other SEO plugins, Semrush doesn’t offer a free version of their product. They do offer a free trial if you want to try it out before purchasing a plan.

Semrush is on the more expensive end of pricing for SEO tools. It is an investment into SEO that can make a dramatic difference in your traffic and web presence.

 

One thing to be aware of is that the Pro plan doesn’t come with the content templates that are needed to fully utilize Semrush SEO Writing Assistant.

On its own, the free Semrush SEO Writing Assistant plugin doesn’t give you enough range so see much of a difference.

For this reason, we only recommend using Semrush with the Guru or Business plan in combination with Semrush SEO Writing Assistant to make the price worth it.

The Guru subscription allows you to create 800 templates a month and the Business subscription allows you to create 2200 a month.

#8 – MonsterInsights – The Best WordPress Analytics Tool for SEO

MonsterInsights is an analytics plugin rather than an SEO plugin, but it can still work wonders to boost your SEO and increase your web traffic. MonsterInsights is also the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, with over 3 million active users.

For most beginners, marketing your business is a guessing game. Without extensive knowledge or experience in the field, it can be overwhelming to know where to start.

This is where MonsterInsights can help. Connecting you directly to Google Analytics within your WordPress dashboard, MonsterInsights gives you access to easy-to-read reports and simplified data to help you make the right marketing decisions.

You can get reports on your top content, where your users are coming from, and what your users are doing on your site. If you have an eCommerce shop, you can also track which of your products are the most popular and which are causing you to lose customers.

In addition to the built-in reports, you can create custom reports to track the analytics of anything from email summaries to customer behavior and demographics.

Pricing

MonsterInsights’ price tiers are separated by the number of sites you need, with some additional features added on to each tier. All the pricing options come with unlimited users and pageviews.

The Plus tier is for use on 1 site, with all standard features available and access to standard support. The Pro tier allows use on up to 5 sites, with advanced features and support; and the Agency tier is for use on up to 25 sites with additional site management and premium support available.

This biggest jump in features happens between the Plus and Pro plans. The Plus plan has less features available and is more limited in its’ capabilities. The Pro plan and Agency plan give you access to all the same features, with better support given to the Agency Plan.

If you’re able to swing the extra $100/month, the Pro plan is the best bang for your buck and will give you the most analytical tools and features for the price.

#9 – Schema Pro – The Best Plugin for Getting More Clicks

Schema Pro adds rich snippets to your website that allow your website to stand out in search results.

Rich snippets help your website stand out against the competition by showing star ratings below reviews, prices below your products, a local map showing the location of your business, images or videos next to your descriptions, and so much more.

Recipes are one of the best examples of how powerful rich snippets can be. If you search up a recipe for the best chocolate cake, you’re going to get search results that look a little bit like this:

If you’re anything like most users on the internet, you’re going to click on one of these top search results that includes a gorgeous image, the recipe’s reviews, and brief list of some of the ingredients used.

There are a lot of other results on the first page for chocolate cake, and most of them are probably delicious, but none of them are going to grab your attention like the top results.

So how do you get your own search results to look like this? Schemas.

Schemas are the building blocks that take info like this from your website and tells Google how to display it so that you get these beautiful results.

It used to be really challenging to get your website to show up like this in search results, which is why having a plugin that can do it all for you is such a game changer. Using a plugin like Schema Pro, you can get killer search results with just a few clicks.

The content types that Schema Pro supports include:

  • Articles
  • Books
  • Courses
  • Events
  • FAQs
  • How-To
  • Job Postings
  • Local Business
  • People
  • Products
  • Recipes
  • Reviews
  • Services
  • Software Applications
  • Video Objects

Top WordPress SEO plugins already add rich snippet data to your website. However, if you need additional schema types or want to extend the functionality of your existing WordPress SEO plugin then Schema Pro is the way to go.

Schema Pro isn’t an SEO plugin, which means that you can use it in combination with the WordPress SEO plugin of your choice to boost your rankings and page views even more.

Pricing

Schema Pro’s pricing is also highly competitive, costing only $79/year. You can also purchase a lifetime license of the plugin for a one-time fee of $249.

They also offer a growth bundle, which includes a bunch of excellent WordPress tools and plugins in addition to Schema Pro. With things like the Astra Pro theme, WP Portfolio, Convert Pro, and more, the growth bundle is a great deal for agencies or developers that want to get a competitive price on tools for their clients.

#10 – Redirection – The Best Redirection Manager

Redirection does exactly what it sounds like – helps you set up redirects for your WordPress site. It is a broken link checker that helps you fix 404 errors and set up 301 redirects for your webpages.

Broken links can damage your SEO and give your users a bad experience. Without a link checker, you might not notice right away if you have a broken link somewhere on your site. Checking for broken links can be time consuming. If you’re running a blog and consistently post new content, you’ll need to check for broken links from time to time.

Once you’ve found the broken link, you’ll need to fix it. Without a plugin this can be a lengthy and complicated process. Fixing a broken link could mean replacing the old link with a new one, or it could mean removing the link entirely. Redirection does the work for you so you can focus on more important parts of your business.

You can also easily set up automated redirects for 404 errors. The best part is that it’s free!

Keep in mind that some SEO plugins come with a redirection manager built in. If this is the case, you don’t need to download an additional plugin. You should only have one redirection manager on your WordPress site.

#11 – Google Search Console – The Best Way to Get Free Insights on Your Site

 

Google Search Console is a free tool offered by Google to allow website owners to monitor their site’s presence in Google search results. It’s useful for a lot of different things, but a lot of people don’t realize how it can be utilized as a helpful SEO tool.

You can use it to gain useful insights into your site’s performance. It will show your site’s ranking keywords, anchor texts, average position, impressions, and more. This data can also be used to help you produce new blog post ideas and see how the competition stacks up.

It will also alert you when Google is unable to crawl and index pages on your site. It is a great resource to see how your content is ranking, and it’s completely free.

#12 – KeywordTool.io – The Best Free Keyword Research Tool

KeywordTool.io is the best free keyword research tool available. It allows you to generate keyword ideas quickly and easily by typing in a keyword.

These suggestions are collected from Google’s autosuggest feature. You can also get keyword suggestions from Bing, Amazon, YouTube, and more.

KeywordTool.io will also show you the search volume, cost per click, and other crucial data for each keyword if you upgrade to their premium plan.

Pricing

The pro version can get a bit pricey, which is why recommend the free option for most users. If you choose to opt for it though, the pro version can give you invaluable data and is a treasure trove of ideas.

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