WordPress has become the undisputed leader for Content Management Systems (CMS). There are pretty consistent statistics stating that nearly 20% of all websites use WordPress and of all sites that use a CMS, WordPress is used by an incredible 58% of them. That is staggering and also a testament to how powerful WordPress is. One of the many great features of WordPress is it’s predisposition for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and not simply because it has a powerful blogging engine.
The plugin based architecture of WordPress allows the site owner to select tools and functionality that work best for their website. Some of the plugins are put in place to enhance the visitor’s experience, but this article is focusing on the plugins for SEO.
Doing a quick search on WordPress.org for “SEO” you will quickly see 1000+ plugins returned. There are a number of great plugins but we will review 2 SEO plugins we like.
All In One SEO was one of the first and most powerful SEO plugins available. It is one of the most downloaded plugins at WordPress and as of right now has been downloaded over 15 million times. The All In One SEO tool works very well with nearly any template, e-Commerce sites (WP Commerce & WooCommerce), and is very easy to use and understand. Although this plugin has treated us well in the past and is still in use on many of our customer’s sites, it isn’t our preferred SEO plugin anymore.
WordPress SEO by Yoast has quickly grown on us as well as many SEO companies. It has a loyal following and a fantastic rating…for good reason. This plugin has just over 6 million downloads and growing rapidly. We particularly like how easy it is to use and the guidance it provides for some of our less experienced customers. By giving a Focus Keyword, Yoast will grade your focus on that keyword and analyze your page. How cool is that? Compared to All In One, the Yoast plugin feels easier to use, offers more specific and appropriate SEO guidance. Sitemap creation, Social Integration, easy administration of what to index and what not to index are second to none. The best news, the default settings are fantastic and you can be up and running in no time. We build everyone of our sites with this plugin, it’s one of our favorites!
