Favourite WordPress Plugins For SEO

There’s a reason why WordPress is the content management system of choice for websites of all shapes and sizes around the world.  Plenty of reasons actually.  It’s easy and flexible, it’s free, it has a range of innovative features and most importantly, it’s really SEO friendly when compared to many other platforms.

Five Best WordPress Plugins For SEO

But the world of websites is constantly evolving and there are always tweaks and additions that can ramp up the performance and success of a website.  So, here are five of the best SEO plugins for WordPress that could just elevate your website from good to GREAT!

SEOPress

This is a powerful feature-rich plugin that enables you to add SEO information to each page of your website and fully optimise it.  There’s a free version (with a default set-up suitable even for beginners) and a paid version (USD $39 per year) which has greater customisable functionality for more advanced users.

This plugin has greater functionality in terms of SEO than Yoast does and covers the important basics like controlling the title tag, meta name description and URL of each individual page.  If you opt for the pro version of SEOPress, this enables you to easily add Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager to your website, or you can use it to add Schema, build your custom XML sitemap, analyse content based on keywords, manage redirections and use its great content analysis tool to create better content and improve optimisation.

If you’re starting out, it’s a good idea to begin with the free version and upgrade as your SEO skills improve.

GA Google Analytics

This free plugin is highly recommended if you want to easily add Google Analytics code to your website, Google Analytics is a great (free!) tool from Google to measure your site traffic and get detailed information like the demographics of your visitors, audience segmentation, the user experience, how people are actually finding your website and which pages and posts get the most visits.

It’s an excellent option if you’re serious about your business and the information can be used to shape your strategy, improve areas of weakness and make better business decisions.  Google Analytics can help you work out the best marketing techniques for your site which can lead to more traffic and more conversions – and ultimately improved revenues.

Updraft Plus

Updraft Plus is one of the most popular free WordPress backup plugins because it enables backup of your website to a remote cloud location, Dropbox or Google drive as well as restoration of the backup without the need for a paid plan.

You won’t find a computer user in the world who hasn’t experienced the utter frustration and despair at losing information because it wasn’t backed up.  It’s the same with websites.  Websites need to be backed up regularly – and not on your web server because that’s where the problem may be!

Really Simple SSL

This is one of the most popular SSL plugins to use when you upgrade your website from an http to https.  Once you’ve installed an SSL certificate, this intuitive and easy-to-use tool is a seamless way of upgrading your website from http to the https protocol.   The plugin automatically detects your settings and configures all links to https, manages redirects and gives your site visitors the peace-of-mind that they are browsing a safe website.

Redirection

You know the feeling when you click on a page and you get a 404 page error, right?  Well, it’s not only the user experience that’s compromised by 404 errors, your SEO can be negatively affected too.

The Redirection plugin is especially useful for automating the monitoring of these errors and managing the directs from an old URL to a new URL.   It makes sure that anyone who visits an old page is seamlessly redirected to a new page as well as preventing any loss of SEO strength from the old page.  The plugin is particularly useful when migrating pages from an old website or changing your website directory.

The ever-evolving world of SEO can seem complicated and time-consuming, but these few WordPress plugins will be really useful in helping to optimise your website’s SEO   Another option to consider is a self-managed SEO course which will give you all the tips, tricks and techniques to make you master of your own SEO destiny!

Check out The SEO School – a brand new step-by-step programme designed and run by me, Karen Dauncey – which will help both Google as well as your customers find your business online, quickly and easily. Find out more about The SEO School here.

Karen Dauncey

Karen Dauncey has been working in SEO since 2003. She specialises in helping businesses get found online through Google using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) She is the founder and creator of The SEO School an online SEO Course to help teach business owners how to do their own SEO. She regularly delivers educational programs for both Local, State and Federal Government and is an advisor for the ASBAS Digital Solutions Program. Karen’s passion and commitment to help small business owners get found online is the driving force behind her online school, making SEO advice accessible to all with free resources and online courses.

Karen's wealth of SEO knowledge and practical digital marketing experience comes from running her own SEO and Google Ads agency, Blue Cherry Online Marketing since 2008. Karen has optimised over 1000 websites, managed millions of dollars' worth of spend on Google Ads and has a solid understanding of the constantly shifting industry of digital marketing and SEO. This gives her a unique advantage when it comes to being able to recommend the right online marketing strategies for your business.

Karen has attended search engine conferences in London, Stockholm, Adelaide and Sydney, and was also invited to attend a pilot Business Coaching Course at Google’s Head Office. She has a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.

She is also the co-owner of the Digital Experts Directory, an online directory for female serviced-based businesses to promote their business (with a great backlink for SEO).

To keep up to date with the latest in SEO, join her Facebook group The SEO School Community or follow her on Facebook or LinkedIn.