Recently, we’ve covered topics such as landing page optimisation, website design, and even human-managed live chat; all aspects that can help to engage visitors, keep them on your site for longer and ultimately increase the chances of conversion.
We’re not going to waste your time introducing SEO. You already know what it is (or you can check out the incredible SEO guide by Brian Dean of Backlinko for that). What we are going to do is look at how you can boost the visibility of your WordPress site with a great SEO strategy – and we’ll check out some top WordPress tools to make it even easier.
WordPress and SEO
As with SEO for any website, there’s a lot that needs to be considered for WordPress SEO. This includes:
- Content and keyword density
- Linking profile
- Optimised WordPress tags
- Content categorisation
- Image optimisation
- Site speed
…and much, much more. SEO often ends up being a much bigger job than many website owners realise, but the good news is that there are some excellent WordPress tools and plugins available to help in getting this right. While these tools aren’t magic, and won’t handle all aspects of SEO for you, they will make it easier to stay on the right track.
So just what plugins do we recommend for improving SEO? Here are 4 of our favourites:
1. Yoast SEO
Why we love it: it’s for everyone. It’s just as suitable for complete beginners as SEO professionals.
If you’re looking for something that covers all bases, it’s got to be Yoast. It’s practically impossible to find a plugin that includes quite as many SEO features as this one does. Yoast offers internal linking suggestions, built-in keyword research tools, page indexing to satisfy Google’s context obsession, content frequency reminders, duplicate content warnings, page redirects to avoid broken links, and much more. Even the free version is pretty comprehensive, so there’s no need to pay out unless you really want to dive in.
2. Ahrefs SEO
Why we love it: it’s completely unique, offering niche features no other plugin can.
The Ahrefs WordPress plugin isn’t a one-stop-shop like Yoast. Nor does it pretend to be. Instead, Ahrefs focuses more on the analysis side of SEO, providing you with valuable, real-time insights into your efforts, and creating the foundations on which to develop your strategy. Ahrefs allows you to run audits to better manage your older content, keep a close eye on your backlinks, and attribute organic traffic to those backlinks, making it easier to see what’s working, and what isn’t. Best of all? It’s free to use.
3. All in One SEO Pack
Why we love it: it’s currently the only SEO plugin to offer totally free e-commerce integration.
All in One is a lot closer to Yoast than Ahrefs is, offering a broad range of SEO features that cover almost all bases. It’s a little more streamlined than Yoast, however, which can make it easier to navigate if you’re completely new to WordPress SEO. Its standout feature is its integration with e-commerce sites such as WooCommerce stores, so you can optimise product pages and categories using the same interface. But it does all the usual stuff, too, like automatic XML sitemaps, schema support, and on-page optimisation.
4. Rank Math
Why we love it: you can easily pull data from other SEO plugins at the click of a button.
Rank Math falls somewhere between the multifunctional platforms of Yoast and All in One, and the more niche Ahrefs. That’s what makes it shine. It allows you to use some of Rank Math’s more advanced features – mostly in-depth analysis features – which aren’t offered by the broader tools. However, you’ll still benefit from the data they hold through the built-in importer. This makes it easy to pull data from other SEO plugins you might be using. Don’t worry if you’re a beginner; the setup wizard walks you through it all.
Compatibility issues
As with many types of software, especially WordPress plugins, it’s important to be aware of potential compatibility problems. In this case, you certainly shouldn’t run Yoast, All In One and/or Rank Math together – they’re doing a lot of the same things and may interfere with each other, causing fatal errors on your website and reporting skewed data. Ahrefs should play nicely with Yoast, however, so you can install that on your website to see more data (or simply login to your Ahrefs account if you don’t want to add the plugin to your website).
Want to know more?
Keep your eyes peeled on our SEO blog for more guides, tips, and plugin recommendations. We’ll be covering even more SEO topics, and taking a look at the latest plugins that can help your site rise through the ranks and get closer to the coveted top spot for your chosen search terms.
In the meantime, here are some of the best SEO resources from other websites that we trust and fully recommend as reliable and trustworthy:
- Ahrefs SEO blog
- Yoast’s SEO blog
- Backlinko by Brian Dean
