{"id":2034,"date":"2017-09-21T18:01:57","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T18:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smarttofinish.com\/Blog\/?p=2034"},"modified":"2017-11-15T14:41:35","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T14:41:35","slug":"the-top-3-seo-plugins-for-wordpress-to-boost-your-website-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smarttofinish.com\/Blog\/2017\/09\/21\/the-top-3-seo-plugins-for-wordpress-to-boost-your-website-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top 3 SEO Plugins for WordPress to Boost Your Website Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have an online business, and you haven\u2019t thought about SEO (search engine optimization) for your website, you are more than likely missing out on a lot of traffic. And if you\u2019re missing a lot of traffic, that means missing a lot of sales. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While there is more than one way to drive traffic to your website, you shouldn\u2019t ignore the free traffic that you can get from Google and Bing with a good SEO strategy. But what if you don\u2019t know anything about SEO, and don\u2019t have the time to learn the ins and outs of it? That\u2019s where a good WordPress SEO plugin comes in. So, in this article, I will discuss the top 3 SEO plugins for WordPress and how they can help you boost your SEO efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yoast<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019ve already done some research on SEO plugins for WordPress, you probably ran across <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wordpress-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yoast.<\/a> It is the top SEO plugin, and it is my personal favorite and top recommendation. Not only does it provide SEO suggestions for better optimization (e.g., keyword utilization, alt-text for images, article length), it also provides tips for writing better content. Some of my other favorite features include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">XML sitemap generator (no need for a separate plugin)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Page analysis tool (uses a traffic light with red, yellow, and green to rate your SEO)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Built-in open graph metadata (which turns links into rich objects on social media)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Built-in Google authenticator and Analytics<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is fairly straightforward to set up, but if you ever need help, the built-in help section provides clear, concise directions. There is both a free option and a paid option, but if you\u2019re just starting out with SEO, the free version will be more than enough for your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All-in-One SEO Pack<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you don\u2019t want to use Yoast, my second recommendation for a WordPress SEO plugin is <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/all-in-one-seo-pack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">All-in-One SEO Pack<\/a>. Like Yoast, you don\u2019t need much experience to get it set up and working to boost your SEO. It also shares some of the same features as Yoast such as built-in Google Analytics and XML sitemap. But it has some features that Yoast does not:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automatic title optimization<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Automatic meta-tag generation<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both of these features might help your search engine rankings. AIOSEO provides you with as much or as little control as you want so that as you gain more experience, you will be able to use the more advanced features of the plugin. There is both a free version and a paid version for when you\u2019re ready to use the more advanced features of this plugin.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Squirrly SEO<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/squirrly-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Squirrly SEO<\/a> touts itself as the SEO plugin for non-SEO experts. It also works with both Yoast AND All-in-One SEO Pack, so there\u2019s no need to uninstall and reinstall either of those plugins and lose all of your SEO work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The features I like most are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Helps you find keywords and topics your audience actually uses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lets you know when you\u2019re doing things right by giving you the green light (much like Yoast)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Provides a keyword research tool that rivals Google Keyword Planner<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monitors progress and sends you reports<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is what\u2019s known as a \u201cfreemium\u201d plugin, which means that there\u2019s a limit to what you can use with the free version (e.g., you only get so many keywords you can research). But as with all of these SEO plugins, the free version should suit you just fine as you\u2019re just starting out. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So now that you have a better idea about how SEO plugins for WordPress can help you boost your website traffic, why not contact us here at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/smarttofinish.com\/Blog\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Smart to Finish<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">? We can help you choose the best plugin for your needs, install it, and get it all set up and running smoothly. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have an online business, and you haven\u2019t thought about SEO (search engine optimization) for your website, you are more than likely missing out on a lot of traffic. And if you\u2019re missing a lot of traffic, that means missing a lot of sales. While there is more than one way to drive traffic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[400,84],"class_list":["post-2034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordpress-maintenance","tag-plugin","tag-wordpress"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.11 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Top 3 SEO Plugins for WordPress to Boost Your Website Rankings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you&#039;re in need of simple yet effective SEO plugins 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