In this post, we would like to show you which WordPress SEO plugins can be used to achieve better rankings and make your visitors happier.
WordPress remains the most popular content management system. According to current trends, every second CMS website uses WordPress. If you want to leave a negative point here, the widespread use of WordPress makes it interesting for attacks, which can be easily avoided by regular updates and the right plugins.
Much more interesting is the huge community, which provides a huge number of useful plugins (more than 50,000 according to estimates). You can often achieve your goal with free plugins. Many plugins that make use of the freemium model are also worth a look in their premium version!
Let’s talk about WordPress SEO
Let’s dedicate ourselves to the current topic: WordPress SEO. We can classify SEO into two basic categories: OnPage and OffPage optimization. All plugins in this post belong to the OnPage Optimization category. In other words, all changes that are made directly to your own website in order to positively influence its position or ranking.
Simply installing WordPress still doesn’t give you the features you need. It complements them with the help of plugins. I would always try to install as few plugins as possible. It is better if a plugin already covers several necessary functions.
It is much less error prone to keep three plugins up to date (especially if they are well known, well maintained) than ten, each covering a small area of responsibility. Less is more!
Let’s start with a basic SEO plugin. This gives us the opportunity to define our SEO title (title) and meta description (description). We can also configure Open Graph settings for Facebook and Twitter and control the indexing of content (so you can influence whether Google can include a certain page, category or post in its index. Otherwise, this content will not be finished later find google search). Additionally, a site map is generated.
There are 2 main WordPress SEO plugins: Yoast SEO and All in One SEO
We’ve used SEO All in One a lot over the years, simply because it was the first SEO plugin we actively used and it still covers all the important aspects today.
But now we use Yoast SEO more and more. The reason for this is that Yoast SEO makes a very complete impression overall. I really liked the clear options and configuration options on the backend.
Especially from the point of view of a rather inexperienced user, it is extremely useful that almost all options are described in a very simple and amateur way. Additionally, hundreds of useful articles on the Yoast Blog form a vast collection of knowledge for beginners and advanced users. For this reason, I chose Yoast SEO for this post.
WordPress SEO made easy – with Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is an all-in-one WordPress SEO plugin from Dutch developer Joost de Valk. The plugin has been developed since 2010 and has been called Yoast SEO since 2012. The plugin is free and covers a lot of the basic WordPress SEO setup.
As already mentioned above, the plugin shines for me with its easy-to-use operation. After a brief familiarization, everyone should find their way around the setup. You always have to put in a little effort, of course. SEO is a topic that can only bear fruit through sustainable work. To do this, it is very important that you take the subject seriously and invest the necessary work time. Trust me, it will be worth it after a while!
Yoast SEO also offers a premium version. You may find this version useful if you want to actively work on your WordPress SEO game. The most interesting thing is the focus on content. The following features (some premium) help you write the right texts:
- Optimize to focus on keywords and related keywords
- The free version allows you to set a focus keyword or keyphrase. So you have to decide what you want to optimize your text for. In the premium version, you can also add related keywords. Say you optimize for the keyword “glasses”, you can optimize as a related keyword for “visual aid”. For cakes, for example, at the same time for cakes, etc. If you are looking for related search terms, you can use services like OpenThesaurus or Semager. wear. However, on the topic of keyword research, we will write our own article in the future as the topic would go beyond the scope of this one now. The goal of related keywords is to reach a broader audience with a post or article.
- Internal Link Suggestions (Premium Feature)
A good internal link structure is extremely important as it helps search engines understand the structure of your website. From my point of view, there is no need for auto-suggestions, especially for websites with smaller size (less than 100 pages).
Especially if you write and know your content yourself, it shouldn’t be a problem to link it to suitable content on your website. But if you’re using the premium version anyway, this feature analyzes your text and automatically suggests links to related posts (as you type). Then you have to think a little less! Nice feature that makes a lot of sense, especially with magazines and in connection with multiple authors.
- Schema.org code to determine content
Since April this year, Yoast has made a big update in the direction of “structured data”. Structured data helps the search engine not only read your content but also understand it better. So now you can tell Google that your website is an organizational article. Other combinations like these are also possible.
Currently, Yoast is the only plugin that processes and serves this information in this way. Other plugins only tell Google if it is a website or an article. The contents are not meaningfully linked to each other. The more complete your information is, the greater your chance of increasing your traffic.
Google Fragments Preview
Of course, the plugin offers a preview of the search result in the SERPs (search engine results pages). In the premium version you can also see the screen preview on Facebook or Twitter. But that’s not a reason to buy. You can also show a preview of OG with a browser plugin. I use Open Graph Preview for this, for example.
Readability check
This test is designed to increase the chances of your article being read. You have to know how today’s reader works, because many users don’t read, they scan! In a world where we are bombarded with information every day, we have to quickly check the relevance of content without wasting much time. Sometimes we decide in a few seconds whether we are in the right place or not.
It is therefore important not to be too long (which I sometimes find very difficult) and, above all, to divide the content sensibly into subtitles.
Then the interested reader has the opportunity to put aside everything that does not interest him at all at the moment. That’s why it’s often helpful to start with a brief summary.
Then the visitor already knows what it is going to be. Yoast SEO Premium also displays the Flesch readability score. This is a numerical readability value that can be calculated from a text. The higher the value, the easier it is to understand the text. Easily understandable SEO texts have a value between 60 and 70.
Avoid duplicate content
It is possible that your website could display the same content in different addresses, resulting in duplicate content. Yoast SEO solves these problems by choosing one address as the original source. The technical term for this is “canonical linking.” This way, the plugin ensures that your content can be found at the web address (URL) you want. In general, it is important to avoid duplicate content in any case!
Works with all WordPress editors
According to Yoast, the plugin works in combination with any editor. This can be the classic WordPress or Gutenberg editor. But it also works if you create your pages with the help of a page builder (Divi, Avada, Visual Composer, etc.).
Of course, it makes sense to offer the most support as a plugin developer anyway, but it’s also good to know because it makes a plugin extremely future-proof.
Better WordPress SEO through Content Insights (Premium Feature)
This feature lists the five words or combinations of words that appear most frequently on your page. So you can easily check the keywords you want to rank for in search engines to match what you actually type.
In the free version, you have to verify its content yourself. In my opinion, a nice extra, but not essential for the success of your content. If you have a good text structure and are careful not to ramble completely, you should also rank for the search terms you are looking for.
If necessary, you can then check the number of keywords and phrases yourself with the good old CTRL + F. Always remember: high-quality, serious and well-researched articles will always do well with your readers.
Redirect Manager (Premium Feature)
This feature is really cool as it now automatically creates a 301 redirect if you change a page’s URL. This ensures that visitors are automatically redirected from the old address to the new one. 301 redirect means a permanent page move.
You definitely want a redirect so that visitors coming from the old link can continue to find the correct content. This is how the site retains its value. What you usually don’t want is 404 pages! A visitor is presented with this when the content at the address is no longer accessible. However, as a general rule, it shouldn’t happen that often. Before posting new content, choose a meaningful URL.
What does a good URL (permalink) look like?
This shouldn’t be too long, but not too short either. Up to 5 words is ideal, as Google considers it natural. Do not use underscores, but rather words separated by hyphens (lowercase). Also, avoid duplicating words within a URL. Ideally, the visitor can already see exactly what it is based on the address.
From Google’s point of view, the point is to describe a “resource” as accurately as possible. In this case, the resource is your topic-specific information page. Of course this should appear in the URL (primary keyword). By the way, permalink is short for “permanent link.”
Regular WordPress updates, optimized for the current Google algorithm
Yoast SEO brings an update every two weeks. If you’ve heard of Google updates, chances are it was a major update like Panda or Penguin. Other than that, Google changes its algorithms in small changes throughout the year. Thanks to Yoast’s regular updates, you can be sure that you, as a website operator, will not miss anything.
Tip: Only install actively maintained WordPress plugins
When installing plugins, always make sure they receive regular updates (not necessarily frequent; this always depends on the purpose). WordPress as a CMS is constantly developing, which sometimes also leads to changes to the WordPress core and related features. If plugin developers do not follow up quickly after so-called major updates, there may be problems with your website.