From the guy who doesn’t use SEO plugins…comes a list of his supposedly “best” SEO plugins.
Read this for what it’s worth. Just a mixed bunch of passing first-hand experiences, along with second-hand engagements on client sites.
I am far from an “expert” SEO plugin user. But you guys keep asking for my opinion so here goes!
1. The SEO Framework
I like their features, UI, and overall vibe the best. Just the right amount of features for devs and none of the newbie stuff for people with crap sites and crap themes.
2. All-in-One SEO
I loved what this plugin used to be…before Syed Balkhi touched it. AIO SEO is now acquired under his umbrella companies and everything he touches loses its soul. I’m sure it’s worth it but no thanks.
3. All the others
Here goes more stuff I don’t use personally, and only deal with occasionally on client sites.
SEOPress – seems like a nice brand. I haven’t tried it much. I did hear some people complaining about it making a mess out of the database and lots of unnecessary entries in there (even for small sites).
Slim SEO – super lean one with a good community vibe. But not many users like the others
RankMath – wildly popular and many people like it. I do like its modular approach, but I feel it’s kinda bloated (high autoloads). Also kind of buggy sometimes or has random issues that break a site.
YOAST – the biggest SEO plugin out there in terms of user base (resulting from their heavy marketing and backroom partnerships). I think it’s a safe bet if you don’t know what you’re doing. But its vibe feels like a dinosaur to me. They were one of the most hated WP brands in the past many years. Their blogs can be helpful for newbies learning about SEO.
Ultimately…what makes a good SEO plugin for me is that it has only the features you need and nothing else.
Newbies need more features and handholding descriptions. It’s easier for them to handle all SEO from one plugin.
Devs need a cleaner/clutter-free SEO plugin that doesn’t conflict with their custom-designed site handling SEO functions in several places (whether in theme or other task-specific plugins).
Great post, I´ve started to use Slim SEO more on my sites, used to use SEO Framework, but betting more on the content instead of fancy functions nowadays … But thats just me … =)
I like using The SEO Framework and SlimSEO since both are fast and free.
Most of the features such as redirections and keyword rankings that appear in the big plugins (RankMath & Yoast) are unnecessary. Redirections can be done with another plugin or even from within the host itself, and there are plenty of SaaS for keyword rankings that we can use outside of Wordpress to make the website faster.
There’s also plenty of talk about GDPR friendly Google Analytics as of late. RankMath has published an article regarding a cookieless Google Analytics tracking option, and they have also mentioned the alternative method to set up GA without RankMath (tl;dr disable data sharing and user-id in GA console and add a script in your website to anonymize IP).
As of late, SlimSEO has released a paid add-on known as Slim SEO Schema which can even work without SlimSEO. It now looks like a Schema Pro competitor with a much better rep.
@Martin
I think we would very much like to know your “Best xxx plugins” for all categories (themes, forms, etc.) as well given your years of experiences and testing so many plugins.
