WordPress SEO plugins can be great tools if they’re used properly. Find out how to boost your website traffic by effectively using your plugins.
82% of marketers expect the importance of SEO to increase in 2018, so now’s a great time to get into the SEO game.
If you are using WordPress as your content management system, there are vast resources and tools to make your work easier. With a simple plugin, you can optimize your pages, posts, images, and site to ensure the maximum SEO value.
Knowing how to improve your site’s SEO can be tricky, but an easy way to start is by using WordPress SEO plugins, such as Yoast.
Read on to learn how you can use plugins to improve the SEO of your WordPress site dramatically.
Why Are Plugins Important for WordPress SEO?
While a lot of WordPress themes have built-in SEO optimization options, you don’t want to start over every time you switch themes.
By using a plugin, you get customizability and portability. Plugins are the best way to maximize your SEO potential. Plus, they are great for people who don’t know how to code. This is important for themes that aren’t SEO-ready.
Which WordPress SEO Plugin Should You Use?
Choosing the perfect SEO plugin will involve experimentation and patience, but in the end, it’s best to choose only one or two so you don’t bog your site down. Below, we profile the two most popular WordPress SEO plugins.
Yoast SEO
Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin available for WordPress. It has been downloaded over five million times and has a near perfect five-star rating.
Yoast excels in a few key areas. First of all, it makes it really easy to run an SEO test on your site.
This test will take an SEO keyword of your choice and determine how well you have distributed it throughout your site. It will also analyze aspects of your site such as format and readability to make sure search engines won’t have any trouble indexing it.
The test displays the feedback as simple green and red dots. If you’ve optimized a specific SEO category, a green dot appears; otherwise, you get a red dot. This simple interface makes Yoast easy to use and an excellent option for beginners.
In addition to helping you run SEO diagnostics, Yoast also make is very easy for you to edit your site’s metadata.
Metadata is the information that appears when someone shares your site on social media or when it shows up in search results. Having clear and enticing metadata will encourage people to click on your site and improve your site’s SEO.
Furthermore, Yoast makes it easy to set up an XML sitemap. A sitemap will make it much easier for search engines to read and process your site.
And that’s not all. Yoast also offers a variety of more advanced SEO options. Basically, you can’t go wrong with Yoast.
All in One SEO Pack
All in One SEO Pack is Yoast’s biggest competitor and for a good reason. In fact, All in One SEO Pack offers just about everything that Yoast does.
All in One SEO Pack leaves many things disabled by default, which allows you to build the SEO package that’s perfect for you. This also goes a long way toward keeping your site running smoothly. One of the biggest criticisms of Yoast is that its abundance of features could slow your site down.
All in One SEO Pack also has a much sleeker interface. Overall, it’s a lot like Yoast in a slimmed-down package. It might be a bit more confusing for beginners, but it’s a great WordPress SEO plugin nonetheless.
And Many More
If you want to play it safe, we recommend you start with one of the two popular WordPress SEO plugins listed above. But after you get the hang of SEO and WordPress, do some exploring and find the right plugin for you.
There are a lot of great ones out there such as Squirrly, SEOProfessor, and The SEO Framework. Don’t be afraid to experiment!
Google Search Console
No matter which SEO plugin you choose, make sure you register your site with Google Search Console.
Google Search Console, also called Webmaster Tools, allows you to see how your site looks from Google’s perspective.
The service provides a wide variety of information, including how often your site is clicked, which search terms bring visitors to your site, and how your pages appear in search results.
It is in Google’s best interest to ensure that your website is easy to read, so you know this is reliable information.
Non-SEO Plugins You Should Consider
WordPress SEO is about more than SEO plugins. For example, downloading a caching plugin will make your site run smoother and improve your SEO strength.
A caching plugin will store relevant information and web pages on your visitors’ computers (don’t worry, this is normal and completely legal) so they don’t have to query your server every time they come back. Your site will function better and move up on search rankings.
You should also download a plugin that will help you customize your robots.txt file. This file is what Google’s bots use to index your site, and by optimizing this file, you can improve your SEO.
SEO Is About More Than Plugins
While good plugins are essential for a successful SEO strategy, they’re only a piece of the puzzle. Google’s search engine algorithm is complicated and takes account of almost every aspect of your site.
Make sure your site is technically optimized and that all your links are functioning properly. And ensure its well designed and attractive.
Most importantly, your website needs great content. Without great content, Google won’t have anything to index, and customers won’t have a reason to visit. If you really want great SEO content check out a content site such as SEOClerks.
Good content comes first. It’s more important than keywords or sitemaps, but a winning SEO strategy will include it all.
Get Started
Now’s your chance to use what you’ve learned to turn your site into an SEO powerhouse.
If you don’t yet have a WordPress site, now’s the time to make one. It’s easier than you think.
We offer a wide variety of gorgeous WordPress themes; choose one and get started today!