WordPress is one of the most diverse website platforms out there. If your site is built on WordPress, then you’ve got access to a whole host of excellent plugins and add-ons that can help you launch your venture to the next level.
Unfortunately, WordPress can also be somewhat arcane and difficult to use; it’s not always easy to know exactly what kind of plugins you’re going to need or where to get them from, nor whether they’re going to be any good. Here are the best free WordPress SEO plugins to use in 2023.
All In One SEO (AIOSEO)
As the name suggests, All In One SEO is intended to be an all-purpose, holistic SEO solution for your site. There’s a free version that comes with plenty of tools you can use, including a site audit, social profile links, and sitemaps, and you can also upgrade to the paid version if you feel that AIOSEO is the tool to take you forward. However, if your site is fairly small or you’re determined not to pay for an SEO plugin, AIOSEO’s free version is more than sufficient.
Yoast
You’ve probably already heard of Yoast if you’ve done even cursory research into the world of WordPress SEO plugins, and there’s a very good reason for that. This is one of the best free WordPress SEO tools you can get; it offers sitemaps, SEO improvements, and faster loading times without you having to pay a penny for the privilege. As you’d expect, there’s also a premium version that adds even more functionality if you want to pay a little extra.
WP Meta SEO
WP Meta SEO is a great option if you’re new to the world of WordPress SEO and you need something simple and streamlined. This tool gives you control over how your SEO works; with features like broken link redirects, XML and HTML sitemap generation, and custom social sharing elements, you’ve got everything you need to boost your SEO and increase your visibility online, and you can get all of it completely for free.
SEOPress
Here’s another excellent free WordPress SEO tool. Not only does SEOPress offer all the usual SEO features you’d expect from a tool of this calibre, but it also uses AI to “automagically” generate meta descriptions and titles for you, taking some of the hard work out of SEO (although this feature is locked behind the premium paywall, unfortunately). Even without AI generation, though, SEOPress has lots of great SEO tools to help your website get ahead.
MonsterInsights
This plugin offers something a little different to the usual SEO tools. MonsterInsights is essentially a WordPress Google Analytics integration, so it lets you check your Analytics stats at the touch of a button or two. Using MonsterInsights, you can easily track ecommerce stats, page speed, post popularity, and affiliate links, as well as plenty of other things. There’s a pro version if you don’t feel the free version is enough, but for most people, the lite edition should suffice.
XML Sitemap Generator
Considering just how useful XML sitemaps are when it comes to SEO, you’d be amazed by how many website owners neglect this incredibly important element. Don’t be one of them; grab this XML sitemap generation plugin to easily and quickly create both XML and HTML sitemaps, as well as RSS and more. Naturally, this plugin is completely free, and there’s no pro version available either, so you won’t pay a single penny for any of the features contained within.
Rank Math SEO
The WordPress plugin page for Rank Math is pretty aggressive in claiming that this tool is the best one out there for all of your SEO needs, and it’s hard to disagree, honestly. With a huge range of features available even at the free point and plenty more on offer if you want to upgrade to premium, Rank Math offers a straightforward setup wizard to help you get started, as well as automatic canonical URL generation, Yoast and AIO import functionality, and much more.
Keyword Research Tool
This plugin is criminally under-reviewed, but it’s one of the best SEO add-ons you can get right now. Using the Keyword Research Tool plugin, you can easily and quickly discover long-tail keywords that are related to the topic you’re currently writing about. You can then use these suggestions to boost your SEO visibility by including them in your content. You can group keywords, auto-generate lists of them, and more.
Squirrly SEO
Squirrly SEO prides itself on including all of its basic SEO tools for free, so you’ll get access to things like keyword research tools, site audits, and more without having to pony up for the premium version. What’s more, this plugin integrates with others of its kind, so if you want to use it alongside Yoast, AIO, Rank Math, or SEOPress, for instance, then you can do that. You can also choose to import your data from those plugins and use Squirrly exclusively if you like it.
Redirection
We’re ending on a simple, straightforward WordPress plugin that is nevertheless one of the most useful tools you’re likely to find for your site. Redirection does exactly what it says on the tin: it’ll help you to manage 301 redirects and 404 errors, leading to fewer users hitting broken pages and optimising your site for Google’s crawling algorithm. The importance of this process really can’t be overstated!
