10 WordPress SEO tools to maximize your traffic10 min read

Online business owners and entrepreneurs are focused on ranking high in the search engines and to maximize the traffic. If you want traffic them you should be embracing SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

In this article, we will share the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools that you should use. Some of these tools offer similar functionalities, so we will also highlight which ones are the best for specific use-cases.

Facts to remember:

Do not opt for using multiple WordPress SEO tools.

Select the appropriate one depending on your requirements and scenarios handled by the tool. There are multiple SEO tools that may satisfy the same usecase

1. All in One SEO

All in One SEO or AIOSEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress 2021. It has a huge user base exceeding almost 1 million. It is simple to use and packed with comprehensive features; best suited for improving the search rankings. Both novice and experienced professionals can comfortably use the tool.

The key features of the tool are:

• Provides a built-in API
• Supports Google accelerable mobile pages and XML sitemap
• Automatically selects the best SEO settings for the website content
• TruSEO On-page analysis with a checklist to optimize the pages and the posts
• Provides a meta tag generator
• Automatically optimizes the Blog or Content title
• Enables SEO health check-up
• Integration with social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and also with e-commerce sites like Shopify.

With AIOSEO, you can control the access of all users; no doubt it is considered one of the best WordPress SEO tools.

It has a free version with limited features. For availing of the best and advanced features, AIOSEO has 2 plans. One is basic and the other is Pro; plan cost being USD 99 per year and USD 399 per year consecutively.

3. Rank Math SEO

RankMath nowadays has been gaining wide popularity in the list of the best WordPress SEO tools. If you have any other SEO plugin, you can easily import the data and use it further in RankMath. Its powerful features help you increase your website ranking in the search engines as well as in social media.

The key features of RankMath are:

• Assists in adding metadata description and title to your content or blog posts.
• Helps in adding Open Graph metadata to the website content.
• Connects to Google search console thus enabling visibility during keyword search by the readers.
• Generates an XML sitemap.
• Monitors administer and control access to its features by granting specific and segregated user roles.

RankMath is an alternative to the All in One SEO tool.

It offers two pricing plans – Pro for a price of USD 59 per year and Business for a price of USD 199 per year. The plans are comparatively cheaper than the other popular SEO tools. Both the prices are excluding VAT.

3. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the most popular and one of the preferred WordPress SEO tools. Its free version can be comfortably used, providing all the basic features. Yoast SEO review is positive, being used by a considerable amount of users.

The key features of the Yoast SEO checker are:

• Enables adding of SEO titles and descriptions in all the pages and posts
• Facilitates adding of social media images Open Graph metadata
• Supports generation of XML sitemap
• Allows importing data from a different SEO tool that you must be using earlier
• Provides suggestions for internal links, SEO title, metadata description, keyword density, readability of the content, and length of the writeup
• Provides analysis on the performance of the website
• Has a page analysis tool that helps in offering a snapshot of the overall performance of the website or page

A Yoast SEO tutorial available on the internet will help to provide a complete guide on how to use the plugin. It is also the best SEO plugin for Woo Commerce.

The Yoast SEO basic version is free with free installation. The premium version costs USD 89 per annum excluding VAT.

4. SEMrush

Semrush is one of the best WordPress SEO tools in the market. It is used by the majority of the companies involved in online businesses and content marketing. Individual freelance content writers, too, prefer using Semrush.

The key features of Semrush are:

• Easily search of organic keywords for usage in the content or blog, seeking high traffic and ranking
• Shows the keywords that your competitors are targeting and how you can leverage the words to stay ahead in the competition
• It has a writing assistant tool, guiding to further enhance the website content and be at the top in ranking among focus keyword results
• Social Media tracker and social media poster tools help in connecting with the social media platforms

Integrated cohesively with WordPress and hence assists in providing SEO-friendly quality content.

The basic version of SEMRUSH is free and has limited features. You can access it thrice a day. For advanced features, you can select from any of the paid plans as well.

Get a detailed review on Semrush, click here

5. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword planner has powerful features to generate keywords for your website content. The keywords are meant to generate traffic to the website. The best part is the keywords are from Google directly, hence are reliable and trustworthy.
The key features of the tool are elaborated below:

• Provides a wide combination of keywords to use in your content
• Displays the keywords that the advertisers can bid for their campaigns
• The keywords are categorized based on their search volumes and difficulty level

One can select the primary keyword and a list of secondary keywords for SEO marketing and content marketing. You can also provide your preferred keyword to check its weightage and search volume. The tool automatically displays the various suggested combinations based on your input. You can say it’s the best free SEO plugin for WordPress 2021 especially if you are looking for a budget-friendly affordable tool.

6. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Ahrefs is one of the best WordPress SEO tools and is the best SEO plugin for WordPress 2020 onwards. Many use it as an alternative to Semrush. It offers a wide range of user-friendly features and options.

The key functionalities of Ahrefs are highlighted as follows:

• Backlink analysis of Ahrefs is better than any other SEO tool
• Assists in understanding how to get more backlinks and develop partnerships
• Content analysis by displaying areas where competitors are not focusing on
• Efficient keyword research utilities guiding in the proper keywords to be used in your content
• Monitors ranking of keywords and thus aids in selecting the top-ranked keywords in the content
• Helps in identifying duplicate content to prevent plagiarism and low order of search engine ranking
• Helps in identifying keywords cannibalization to boost up the SEO ranking of the website

Ahrefs has 4 types of pricing plans – Lite, Standard, Advanced, and Agency. Lite is charged USD 99 per month with a free trial for 7 days. Standard is priced at USD 179 per month with a free trial for 7 days. The monthly price of Advanced and Agency is USD 399 and USD 999 subsequently.

7. Premium SEO Pack

Premium SEO pack with its robust and extensive dashboard features, is considered one of the best WordPress SEO tools. It boosts up your website search engine ranking and the traffic of your website page or posts.

The key features of the tool are:

• Provides suggestions for keywords
• Analysis for focus keyword usage
• Determine custom permalinks
• Analysis of the page and recommendations for boosting up traffic
• Suggested optimization strategies and techniques
• Reports generating Page SEO scores and reports
• A W3C validator
• Monitoring of errors 404, notifying and rectifying the same
• Easy integration with Google Analytics
• The advantage is that it offers both free and paid options for usage. The basic features can be availed free and for advanced features, you need to pay a subscription of USD 44. You can customize the tool pack for better usability and personalization.

8. SEOPress

SEOPress is one of the simplest WordPress tools. All the basic features of a WordPress SEO plugin tool are available. The tool is equipped to be conveniently used by both beginner and experienced personnel.

The key features of SEOPress are mentioned below:

• Provides schemas and sitemaps
• Provision for broken link checker
• Accompanied by an installation wizard for easy deployment and usage
• Allows to modify the titles by providing appropriate suggestions
• No ads, white labels, watermarks, footprints in the source code
• Provides suggestions for meta description and metadata title
• Provides XML sitemaps to Google enabling and improving search engine ranking
• Facilitates tagging to social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
• 404 monitoring
• Monitoring backlinks
• Managing breadcrumbs
• Provides connectivity to WooCommerce

SEOPress has two versions for download. One is free and the other is Pro. The price of Pro is comparatively than other advanced SEO WordPress tools; only USD 39 per annum.

9. Schema Pro

The advantage of using Schema Pro is that it offers rich snippets eventually enabling higher ranking in Google search results. It creates a schema markup and applies automatically to all the website pages, and posts.

The key features of Schema Pro are:

• Provides option for star rating if you are reviewing movies, books, music, and products
• For news and other blog posts, it helps in enhancing the appearance during Google search
• If you are maintaining a recipe blog or page, the recipes are displayed as a rich card in Google search results
• If you intend to showcase software applications, books, any events or videos, then it provides an option to provide star ratings and appear easily in Google search results

Schema Pro is mainly used if you want to extend your schema types over and above what is provided in normal WordPress SEO tools and plugins.

10. KeywordTool.io

KeywordTool.io is considered to be one of the best WordPress SEO tools when it comes to keyword research. Just like Google Keyword planner, it can generate multiple keywords for leveraging in blog posts and website content.

The key features of KeywordTool.io are:

• Generates almost more than 750 keywords as suggestions for any relevant search
• The keywords are displayed and ranked based on the domain and language selected
• Leverages Google Autocomplete feature for analyzing and suggesting the keywords
• Keyword research is performed by leveraging the Google Suggest feature
• Autocomplete predictions of keywords the moment you start typing the search words for your content
• Provides keywords even from Amazon, Bing, eBay, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Unlike Google keyword planner, KeywordTool.io is best suited for blogging, marketing, and SEO. The keywords suggested by the tool are significantly helpful in generating lower cost-per-click (CPC), higher click-through rate (CTR), and higher conversion rates.

In its pricing options, it has both monthly and yearly billing subscriptions. The 3 pricing plans are – Pro-Business with a monthly rate of USD 159, Pro Plus with USD 79 per month, and Pro Basic with USD 69 per month.

Please note: If you intend to use WordPress SEO without plugin then you must ensure the following features are present in your WordPress:

• Meta descriptions
• Breadcrumbs
• Schema metadata
• OpenGraph metadata
• Provision to add a no-follow attribute to links

Conclusion

Hope you have gained a fair understanding of the 10 key WordPress SEO tools. The tools are capable of elevating your website or online business to the next level by leveraging their powerful SEO strategies, algorithms, analysis, and calculations. The only thing you need to be cautious not to overburden your website with the advanced functionalities of an SEO tool. Select the one which is beneficial for your website. It is vital to analyze and understand your business objectives and which features of an SEO tool are well suited for it.