The Best SEO Plugins for WordPress of 2024: Tested & Reviewed

Currently, WordPress is still the most popular website content management system in the world with more than 835 million websites in use and more than 2 million downloads each year.

Depending on whether you’re using Apache or Nginx, how you configure plugins may be affected. However, nowadays, plugin developers have optimized their products for these web servers.

Nevertheless, Apache is still more widely used.

WordPress may be a great content management system, but SEO plugins make your website successful.

The power of these SEO plugins adds a whole new level of functionality to your website, streamlining the process of optimizing everything from individual blog posts to your site’s overall technical health.

For those who know how to code, they can directly write lines of code to integrate into themes. On the other hand, for those who don’t know how to code, installing plugins will make it easier to optimize SEO activities. SEO plugins are categorized into various types, including those supporting on-page and off-page optimization, but most people use them to optimize content on URLs ( on-page) that we aim to SEO.

To optimize the user experience, developers continually update their plugins. We’re providing comments based on the most recently updated version for this review.

Now, let’s explore the best SEO plugins in the following content.

Which plugins do we choose?

In the current situation, with so many SEO plugins available on the market, choosing the right plugin is extremely difficult.

Why do we know that? When we first got used to using plugins, we spent a lot of time researching through social networking sites, through sharing from SEO experts on YouTube, and through sharing communities. But it’s difficult because each person has their own opinion and argument, making us extremely confused. We conduct testing and evaluation after use. Fortunately, these experiences have helped me accumulate certain insights so that I can share and recommend the best plugin options based on many different criteria.

What makes choosing a plugin difficult?

• There are too many SEO plugins integrated into the WordPress ecosystem, making it difficult to decide which SEO plugin to use
• Most of the Top SEO plugins will have free and premium services so it can be difficult to decide whether to go for the paid or free version.
• In fact, you need more than one SEO plugin for your website, so you need a specific SEO strategy to identify the right plugins.

And here are 5 SEO plugins that we rate well and want to introduce to you.

• Best Plugin Overall: MathRank
• Best Plugin Intuitive: AIO SEO
• Best Plugin Popular: Yoast SEO
• Best Plugin Performing: SEO Framework
• Best Plugin Integrates Utilities: Semrush

How do We Rate a Plugin?

Developers always aim to pack many features into a plugin. Essentially, plugins share similar features. So, how do you know which one is good? It’s all about how well developers optimize their products, from the interface to the core features. As an SEO practitioner, We constantly seeking the most effective plugins for myself. Thus, all the insights shared in this article stem from my experiences testing various plugins and learning from mistakes.

Based on the experience we have gained from implementing thousands of projects over the past 14 years, we identify 5 factors to determine a good SEO plugin:

• Setup and Config: We always prefer plugins with a simple interface that’s easy to understand and use. Installing shouldn’t be too complicated since users tend to avoid SEO plugins that require a lot of technical setup
• Features and Functionality: We required the plugin to support keywords, help website optimization, create XML sitemaps, analyze SEO, connect with social media, and handle schema markup to make sure the content is always in the best condition
• Performance: The performance of a website is evaluated by its page loading speed. Therefore, we always recommend selecting plugins with features that help speed up page loading to enhance user experience
• Compatibility: An SEO plugin will only be effective when installed on a website compatible with WordPress themes. Conflict between plugins and website functions can cause your website to stop working completely
• Support and community: The community will be the place to answer all questions and difficulties you are facing from the actual experiences they have gone through. The dedicated support of the support team will help you connect directly with experts to get the most complete answers.

We’ve personally tested all plugins on our own projects or projects for our clients (upon their request). Therefore, we closely monitor the testing process and make immediate changes upon any signs of issues. We’ll share with you how we adapt and evolve with each plugin in the next article.

RankMath | Rated: 4.9/5

Rank Math is a very simple SEO plugin but more powerful than any other plugin on WordPress.

From personal experience, I agree with the above point of view.

RankMath has quickly become one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins, rated 4.9/5 on WordPress.org with over 2 million website installs (updated 2 weeks ago).

We’ve asked questions about the development of this plugin and conducted tests on a few of our major projects. The results we received from the plugin were impressive. It gave us a completely different perspective on all the other plugins in the market.

Here’s a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the RankMath plugin based on the comments above:

First, we will give some initial impressions of the usage experience

• Perhaps many SEO professionals would agree with our viewpoint that the RankMath interface and setup process is incredibly user-friendly
• Honestly, it took us less than 10 minutes to successfully install this plugin and start using it. So, this is definitely a major plus point for this plugin
• Of course, when it comes to results, you get a comprehensive SEO picture of your website straight away because, during setup, you’re already connected to Google Search Console and Analytics
• Other features such as XML sitemap, basic website setup configuration, SEO editing tools on the website, and schema markup all contribute smoothly to support reading SEO analytics on your website

Second, we will focus on the remarkable features

• Optimize unlimited keywords: RankMath allows users to freely choose the number of keywords they want to optimize for. By simply adding focus keywords, users can take full advantage of RankMath’s content analysis capabilities to optimize their content. We like this flexibility in RankMath.
• Content AI: RankMath uses AI to make intelligent recommendations to enhance and optimize content. Now, content optimization is not just about adding the main keyword and related words anymore. This feature has revolutionized content creation
• Rank tracking feature: Only with the free version, you can completely track the position of keywords over the past 12 months, helping you compare changes in your data with market reality

Even though Rankmath has some great features, there are still a few things that could be better. We hope the creators of this plugin will improve them in the future:

• If you’ve been using RankMath, you won’t be able to transfer the features you’ve set up to other WordPress SEO plugins, but you’ll still receive insights from other plugins
• RankMath’s data reading feature compared to Yoast SEO may be a bit less detailed, but it’s still sufficient for you to read and analyze your website. After all, we’re still operating on the free version

Overall, RankMath has the richest free features of any WordPress SEO plugin and offers many free features that most other plugins charge for, such as Basic and Ultimate Local SEO Schema Image SEO optimization, Internal linking suggestions, and basic WooCommerce SEO.

You can scale when you move to the premium version—starting at $79/year ($69 for the first year) for multiple personal, business, and client sites.

Download FREE Version

AIO SEO (All-in-one SEO) | Rated: 4/5

All-in-One SEO for WordPress (AIOSEO) is also in our opinion the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market, right after RankMath.

Based on statistics, AIO SEO is currently being used by more than 3 million users (updated one week ago). That speaks volumes about its popularity, and why it counts as among the best SEO WordPress plugins.

For us, this is also the perfect set of SEO tools that help improve search rankings without learning any complicated SEO techniques.

The new upgraded version provides all the features for users. But in our experience, the free version also completely meets all the necessary features for you to start with your website.

Here’s a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of the AIO SEO plugin:

Similar to the Rank Math plugin, the AIOSEO plugin also possesses extremely impressive features. Below are the outstanding advantages we found in this plugin:

• Analysis on TruSEO site: This function allows AIO SEO to provide suggestions on how to improve on-page SEO, helping users analyze and identify focused keyword phrases to best improve the quality of their content.

We are absolutely sure, this is definitely the most outstanding feature of this plugin:

• Automatic meta tag generation AIOSEO can automatically generate optimized title tags and meta descriptions based on your content, saving you time
• Social media integration: Supports customizing how your content appears when shared on social networks with distinct titles, descriptions, and social media images
• Redirection Manager: AIOSEO has a powerful redirection manager that makes it easy to find broken links and set up 301 redirects to fix them

So why do we rank this plugin after the RankMath plugin? During use on real projects, we encounter the following problems:

• AIO SEO has great features, but most are in the premium version, so if you’re committed to using it, consider investing in the premium version
• Compared to other plugins, the interface of AIO SEO is a bit more complex, requiring some time to get used to

In conclusion, we believe that AIO SEO is one of the best SEO plugins available today. It has everything you need to optimize your blog, website, or online store for search engines and attract more visitors.

For $49.60 per year, you can perform unlimited SEO checks and track as many keywords as you like.

Download FREE Version

Yoast SEO | Rated: 4,5/5

In the SEO community, Yoast is a very famous tool. With over 13 million users (updated 2 weeks ago), Yoast SEO is the most popular SEO plugin that analyzes your content and evaluates overall readability.

It is useful in many ways of making a website SEO friendly as meta title & description fits and content optimization.

The feature I really like about this Plugin is to notify you of what needs to be improved. This is very important, especially if you are new to SEO. At the bottom of the page, the plugin will tell you what your SEO score is. If your description is not long, and meta tags/descriptions are not optimized, you will immediately know that you will receive a red notice for improvement.

In addition, it is impossible not to mention the ease of understanding and use of this plugin.

The pros and cons of this plugin are in the table below:

Here, the amazing features of this plugin, which helped us improve our SEO:

• Yoast SEO Integrate with Elementor: allows you to build beautiful and fully functional websites and marketing landing pages without writing a single line of code.
• Yoast SEO specifically has a traffic light and content analysis system that always ensures your content is safe.
• Breadcrumbs: This feature is incredibly effective in helping users (and search engines) understand your site’s structure. Yoast allows for easy customization of breadcrumbs

Along with those advantages, Yoast SEO also has some quite significant limitations:

• The first limitation of Yoast SEO is that it can slow down page loading times, affecting user experience to some extent. We believe this is a limitation that needs to be addressed promptly.
• While the plugin has many useful features, most of them are available only in the premium version
• Considering the relatively high cost of Yoast SEO, with premium version $99/year and niche add-ons $79/year. This is also a factor we are considering

Overall, Yoast SEO is a great choice for both beginners and experienced users. We are still using and satisfied with the features this plugin brings.

Download FREE Version

The SEO Framework | Rated: 3,5/5

SEO Framework is the plugin we rate as the most effective. Its plugin’s built-in features run smoothly.

The SEO framework prepares it for users to use on their website without any hassle.

The ability to protect your website from negative SEO attacks will be activated as soon as the user successfully installs The SEO framework because this plugin says no to cookies.

The pros and cons of this plugin are in the table below:

Some outstanding strengths of this plugin compared to its competitors:

• The plugin focuses on performance. According to our own tests, SEO Framework loads 5.6 times faster than Yoast and up to 16 times faster than All in One SEO. This speed is considered by us to be the fastest among SEO plugins that I have ever experienced, which is something I especially appreciate
• The plugin also integrates AI for analysis and automatic setup based on data
• Integration with the following webmaster tools and automatic sitemap creation to notify Google, Bing and others of any changes to your site

However, compared to other competitors, we believe that certain limitations exist in this plugin, which can be a barrier for users:

• First, the plugin setup process is quite lengthy. As mentioned, the difficult setup can easily deter users
• In the free version, you won’t have access to useful features (keyword occurrences, presence of links, use of synonyms, etc.), which other competitors are doing well
• The SEO Framework’s premium license prices are on average higher than those offered by the competitors listed above. To use The SEO Framework’s cheapest plan on a yearly basis, it will cost you $84/year ex VAT. Rank Math’s most affordable plan, for example, starts at $59/year ex VAT, while SEOPress’ is $49/year ex VAT.

Overall, despite the limitations listed above, we rate this plugin as quite solid. However, I think it is most suitable for experts who are proficient in SEO and have strong technical skills in SEO. If you are a beginner, you may find it a bit difficult.

Download FREE Version

Semrush | Rated: 3/5

Overall, our experience with this plugin has been relatively satisfactory.

As for this plugin, we do not use it on our real projects but on projects requested by customers. It’s great that it’s been so successful and my customers are so happy.

Semrush is unique for its all-in-one approach. With all digital marketing tools in one place, it simplifies online marketing.

Semrush has a user-friendly interface, easy navigation, and rich features that make it popular.

Semrush also offers plenty of support resources to help users understand digital marketing better and use the platform effectively.

The functions of this plugin are basically quite simple and easy to use, just enough for us to perform our analysis.

The pros and cons of this plugin are in the table below:

Below are the useful functions we found in this plugin after successfully completing a customer project:

• Real-time SEO Optimization: Provides real-time feedback on the user’s SEO efforts, suggests optimal keyword passwords, recommends relevant keywords, and highlights any opportunities any SEO that ignore errors in content
• Readability score: the ability to evaluate and read text, bring up topics to simplify complex sentences, or adjust the language to better suit the website’s target audience. This ensures that the user’s content is accessible and absorbs the path
• SEO Optimization: Provides SEO details of publishing topics to improve content visibility and categorization. Tools for keyword research, backlink analysis, site auditing, position tracking, on-page SEO, and more
• Easy integration: Works seamlessly with platforms like Google Docs and WordPress

For this particular plugin, we’ve noticed a few limitations that the manufacturer should address:

• Complex user interface: A variety of tools and features can create the interface for returning users
• Learning Curve: New users might need time to fully utilize all features
• Limited Customization: There are fewer options for customizing feedback and analysis
• The plugin offers a free package but with limited features. Users can only perform 10 queries per day, with each query returning a maximum of 10 result rows

In short, Semrush is a worthwhile SEO plugin for anyone looking to take their SEO process to the next level. I like tools that cover as many use cases as possible. That’s why we happy using Semrush. And the results I got did not disappoint. However, at $99.95 per month, we rate it quite high. But that price is completely reasonable for businesses that use their platform as an essential part of their operations.

Download FREE Version

SEOLAT Tool Plus | Rated: 4,5/5

This is a plugin developed by the AffiliateCMS.com community and it is completely free. See full detailed article: SEOLAT Tool Plus WordPress Plugin – Helps you rank higher & makes SEO easier.

Conclusion

This article shares our view based on trying out the experience of someone who has used and tested numerous plugins. Honestly, each plugin has its own strengths, but what matters most is how well it fits your website.

As mentioned above, the most crucial aspect is the compatibility of the plugin with your website. A good plugin delivers good results and elevates your website to new levels.

We hope our suggestions help you find the right one for you.

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the SEO plugins for WordPress:

Do I need a SEO plugin for WordPress?

Utilizing an SEO plugin is unnecessary as WordPress provides fundamental functionalities for generating and modifying permalinks, meta descriptions, picture alt text, and other rudimentary elements of SEO. However, if you desire to elevate the performance of your website, utilizing an SEO plugin can help you achieve that goal.

Can I use multiple SEO plugins on my WordPress site?

No! It’s not recommended to use multiple SEO plugins simultaneously because they can conflict with each other and cause issues. Choose one plugin that best meets your needs and stick with it.

Can I switch SEO plugins later?

Yes, you can switch SEO plugins, but it’s important to carefully migrate settings and data to ensure you don’t lose any SEO work you’ve done. Many plugins offer import/export features to help with this process.

Before making changes, you should back up your website.

If I use the free version, will it meet SEO requirements?

Yes! You don’t necessarily need to buy the premium version unless you need advanced features.

Do SEO plugins guarantee better rankings?

No, Ranking on Search Engines involves a combination of on-page and off-page SEO strategies. SEO plugins can significantly improve your SEO efforts if used correctly.