As a marketing or blogging professional, you're probably already aware of what WordPress is and how powerful of a tool it can be when you're trying to grow your website. Similarly, you likely already utilize search engine optimization (SEO) strategies and other tools, such as ScanBacklinks.com, to ensure your website is running its best.
What you may not know, however, is that there are several valuable SEO plugins that pair well with WordPress and designed to help improve your presence online and ensure that your business is appearing at or near the top of the results on Google and other popular search engines. Are you new to the world of SEO and WordPress and have no idea what a plugin even is? Fear not. Nowadays, many popular plugins for WordPress are user-friendly and straightforward.
Before we begin exploring a few of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress, though, let's take a peek at what SEO is and why it matters. For starters, SEO refers to factors that, when combined, help improve website rankings. Essentially, the end goal of many businesses is to have their website rank as close to the top of organic search results as possible. In doing this, businesses often see more website traffic and a boost to total revenue overall.
Now that we've established what SEO is and why it's important, what do you think the best SEO plugin for WordPress is that your business can and should be utilizing?
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO, a free WordPress SEO plugin, is a favorite among bloggers and business owners because it helps boost a business's online presence and tackles technical optimization. Additionally, it offers many convenient features and is easy for even first-time users. A few primary features included with the SEO by Yoast plugin for WordPress include:
- Meta data and title tags: Allow users to decide how individual pages are described in search results.
- Integration with social media: Simplifies how website pages are linked to social media platforms.
- SEO analysis of websites: Ensures website content meets certain requirements when it comes to meta data descriptions and keywords in order to rate the best in search results.
WP Meta SEO
Loaded with convenient features, WP Meta SEO simplifies how users create and edit content for improved SEO performance and churns out reports on areas your site can improve on in terms of optimization. Factors the plugin looks at when compiling these reports include meta titles, permalinks, image sizes, link titles, and meta descriptions.
SEOPressor
SEOPressor is another popular on-page SEO plugin, largely due to the fact that it offers so many useful features, some of which include the following:
- XML sitemap generator: Helps create SEO-friendly websites.
- Readability score: Boosts website ranking by improving the readability.
- SEO keyword checker: Monitors how often your keywords appear on your website.
- Automatic smart internet linking: Reduces bounce rates by automatically adding internal links.
SEO Ultimate
Not only does SEO Ultimate excel at offering many basic SEO features, it also boasts many unique features that help put SEO at the forefront of your business's content creation. Additionally, it's designed with meta and title tag description editors and a number of useful functions for deep linking.
SEO Squirrly
Specifically designed for users new to SEO and things like WordPress plugins, SEO Squirrly is an easy-to-use SEO plugin that helps content creators write easy-to-read content. Additionally, the plugin boasts many convenient features, including:
- Suggestions for headlines: Offers suggestions for captivating headlines based on a list of preferred keywords.
- Social AI: Utilizes artificial intelligence to help users create great content using quality keywords.
- Monitoring services: Monitors website progress weekly.
All in One SEO Pack
Another popular SEO plugin for WordPress is the All-in-One SEO Pack. It's well liked because it pairs well with e-commerce websites and stands out from other plugins because of its ability to automatically generate meta data tags. Another great feature is that it optimizes titles, improving a website’s search result rankings. As an added bonus, the particular plugin easy to use, even for beginners.
Google Analytics WD
Many are aware that one of the primary purposes of SEO is to attract more visitors to your website. But how can you tell if all your hard work is paying off? That's where Google Analytics comes in. Thanks in large part to the fact that many people use Google while searching for things, Google Analytics WD has increased in popularity because it gives users a glimpse into their website's traffic. This makes it easy to make business decisions based on the data compiled by Google Analytics. It's also an easy way for website owners to track visitors, analyze conversion rates, track outbound clicks, and more.
SEO Optimized Images
Written content isn't the only thing that helps grab the attention of visitors; pictures do, too. Fortunately, with plugins like SEO Optimized Images, users can incorporate images with SEO keywords in their title and alt tags. Over time, the plugin will dynamically add tags to images once a pattern is established, saving time that can be spent on writing great content.
Rankie
Rankie is one of those useful plugins that will actually track Google rankings of a WordPress website and provide ranking reports and updates to users to help them improve their standing. It also offers features like keyword tracking and keyword research, nifty tools that assist users in incorporating the best quality keywords possible.
Final Thoughts
Technology is always changing, and as more people experiment with creating plugins and other website tools, there's no way of knowing all the ways that websites will be improved in the future.
One thing is for certain, though. In 2018, WordPress plugins will continue to go a long way in driving traffic to websites and improving rankings in search results. In fact, it's getting to the point where websites that don't utilize plugins to improve their search rankings will simply be left behind.
If you have something to share on the topic, please, don't hesitate to start the discussion in the comments.
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