There are so many great premium seo plugins out there, but which one is best? That’s an extremely hard question to answer. However, I’ve recently been using a premium plugin by Neil Patel that I think does a good job of enhancing the overall user experience – Neil’s Yoast WordPress Plugin
The premium SEO plugin suite by Yoast is one of the most popular premium WordPress plugins because it’s simply the best.
There are many premium SEO plugins for WordPress that you can buy for your websites: HeadSpace2, Platinum SEO, SERP Snatcher, etc. They all claim to give you the best possible results in the quickest time possible. But which of these WordPress SEO plugins actually delivers on its promises? To answer this question I decided to give them all a try and then write a review of each. This article is structured as follows:
Best Premium SEO Plugin For WordPress
SEO is an involved and ongoing process, but fortunately, WordPress has a variety of resources to make it easier.
To optimize your WordPress site, you can select a quality WordPress theme and a WordPress SEO plugin to help you implement your SEO strategy. In this article, you’ll get an overview of the best SEO plugins for WordPress, what they do, and why they could work for your business.
1 – SEOPress Review — The Cheapest WordPress SEO Plugin That Covers All Your Bases
SEOPress is an approachable solution for people that are new to SEO and aren’t looking to spend the big bucks on one of the more established WordPress SEO plugins.
And it’s not just for US-based users either—SEOPress is available in 17 languages with professional translations in UK English, Chinese, Hindi and more.
Let’s talk about sticker price. SEOPress is less than half the cost of what other “do-it-all” SEO plugins will run you. And those are typically only good for a single site.
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SEOPress is $39 per year for unlimited sites. That’s right. Unlimited sites.
This is a major cost difference that adds up quickly. Five sites with Yoast or AIOSEO is going to be several hundred dollars. With SEOPress, you don’t have to worry about that at all.
So you might be thinking, there’s no way SEOPress can really cover all my bases at that price. You tell me.
Even the free plugin from SEOPress lets you handle:
Installation Wizard
XML and HTML sitemaps
Mobile/Desktop preview
Facebook/Twitter preview
Image SEO
Redirections
White label
Titles with dynamic variables
Twitter cards and
Content analysis
And some of these are really deep features. You get unlimited keywords in the content analysis. Yes unlimited with the free version. Usually you are limited to a single word or phrase unless you buy premium.
And you can white label services with the free version. This is a big deal for developers and agencies because they can put their own branding on SEOPress tools they use for clients.
Think about it, unlimited sites plus white labeling means you can build your brand without breaking the bank.
And if you go for SEOPress PRO, you’ll be able to address a much fuller scope of issues, including:
Video SEO
Structured Data Types (schemas)
Breadcrumbs
Local SEO
Broken link checker
Deep WooCommerce integration
404 Monitoring
RSS SEO
For those of you keeping score at home, you’ll notice that AIO SEO and Yoast have slightly larger feature sets. So there is definitely a tradeoff, no doubt about it.
But here’s the thing: for a huge number of users, SEOPress has everything they need, and it’s not freighted with tons of features they’re not going to use.
Pricing could not be more straight-forward or fair:
One quick thing about the pricing for SEOPress Pro. You pay $39 for the license, which comes with a full year of automatic updates and customer support.
If you decide not to renew, you can still use the plugin, you just won’t get the updates or access to customer service. And when you renew, you’ll pay $39, regardless of whether there has been a price increase since then.
For people looking to get deeper into keyword analysis and backlink research, SEOPress offers the Insights add-on for $99 per year per site. You’ll be able to track keyword rankings with information about cost per click and search volume.
With Insights, you’ll also get a much closer look at backlinks on your site. At a glance, you can see who is helping increase your domain authority, or get rid of low quality links that are hurting your reputation.
Insights is obviously a big increase in price, but it’s actually going to cost a lot less than comparable tools from Semrush or Ahrefs.
There’s no way to spend as little and get so much. Take advantage of the 14-day free trial of SEOPress today.
2 – WP Rocket Review — The Best for Ranking Higher With Site Speed
Site speed impacts your search rankings. People don’t like slow sites. They’ll leave if it takes more than a second or two for the page to load. Google notices that people are bouncing and moves you down in the rankings.
Speed is one of the few ranking factors that WordPress SEO plugins don’t typically address. But you definitely want to make sure you are doing everything in your power to keep your site fast.
This is why I recommend WP Rocket. It’s a cache plugin, not an SEO plugin, but it’s going to give your pages a performance boost which will help your page rank. You can learn more about cache plugins here (and see why I like WP Rocket the best), but for now I’ll just say it lets you deliver data to visitors a lot faster.
All you have to do is install WP Rocket. It’ll get cracking on your site right away, optimizing your files, media, and databases to make sure your site is as fast as possible.
Have an ecommerce site? No problem. WP Rocket will keep things speedy without getting in the way of your shopping carts and user experience.
I highly recommend installing WP Rocket in addition to your SEO plugin. WP Rocket has compatibility with popular options like Yoast, so you can get the increased site speed without any plugin conflicts.
Go ahead and build a complex interactive website. Add videos and don’t worry about load times. With WP Rocket, you can design really cool pages without leaving visitors in the lurch.
All of the plans come with the same feature set, you just need to pick one based on the number of sites you have. Single is good for one site, Plus works for three, and Infinite will work for unlimited websites.
Because it’s a paid plugin, you get top-notch customer support. Submit a ticket from within the plugin and you’ll have an answer shortly.
When it comes time to renew WP Rocket, you’ll get 30% off the sticker price. If you let it expire, you’ll have to pay full price again.
It’s a really good deal on a truly plug-and-play product. There’s not much you have to do in order to see a benefit. If you are a veteran WordPress user, you’ll find that there is a lot you can configure to make your site even faster.
No matter what your experience level, if you are serious about SEO, you need a good cache plugin. Don’t leave such an easy win on the board.
And if you have a cache plugin that’s not getting the job done, it’s time to make a switch.
Get WP Rocket today. If you don’t see the results, the company will offer a full refund within 14 days of signing up. There’s no risk, only reward.
3 – All-In-One SEO (AIOSEO) Review — The Best Way for Beginners to See Their Pages Rank Higher
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the original WP SEO plugin, and it’s been helping people with no SEO experience get their pages to rank higher ever since it came out.
Over the years, it’s grown to handle every aspect of SEO you could possibly want to manage. But don’t worry, you’re not going to get bogged down making tons of decisions about sitemaps and JSON schemas.
For as powerful as the plugin is, it’s remarkably easy to use, even if you don’t have any SEO experience.
Simply download the plugin and follow the setup wizard. If you can answer basic questions like whether you have a blog or an online store, you’re good to go. 10 minutes later, your site is going to have all the fundamentals locked down.
Troubleshooting and fine-tuning things from there is a walk in the park. AIOSEO is constantly auditing your site, explaining the changes you need to make in plain English.
It automatically prioritizes issues, showing you what needs to be addressed immediately as well as missed opportunities for optimization. Simply follow the steps outlined in the checklist and you’ll be well on your way to maxing out your site’s potential.
There are explanations for everything you do, if not links to guided walkthroughs. You can really learn what you’re doing as you go.
Compared to Yoast, another solid plugin that covers WordPress SEO across the board, AIOSEO is just a little bit easier to use, especially for people who are new to the space.
Yoast is what I use. It’s definitely got more features for the power user close at hand, whereas the AIOSEO interface is going to be more intuitive for novices.
One of the reasons this plugin has more than 2 million active downloads is that the free version is loaded with helpful features:
XML sitemaps
Titles and meta descriptions
Basic schema markup
Custom titles and meta descriptions
Bad bot blocker
Basic WooCommerce SEO
Search engine notification
If you upgrade to AIOSEO Pro, you’ll get a lot more hands-on customer support, and additional features to manage SEO across all of your sites:
On-Page SEO
Social media integration
Advanced WooCommerce SEO
Local SEO
RSS SEO
Video SEO
Google AMP SEO
Structured Data (schema markup)
Redirection manager
Even with the full spread of powerful features, AIOSEO is very competitively priced. The pricing tiers are mostly broken down by the number of sites you need.
For the most part, all of the paid plans have the same set of features, but you only get priority support with Pro and Elite plans. There are a few things that don’t come with the Basic plan, such as Local SEO and the redirection manager, but not much is left out.
It can be really hard to choose between the various SEO plugins that “do it all,” but if you are new to SEO or WordPress, nothing is going to be as easy to get started.
The free version is very powerful and the pricing on paid plans is definitely less expensive than Yoast. While advanced users might be able to get more out of Yoast, AIO has everything you need to get your site to start ranking higher.
Get AIOSEO today. If you don’t think it’s 100% worth it, the company offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.
4 – Ubersuggest Review — The Best Web App for Domain and Keyword Research
If there’s a drawback with SEO plugins for WordPress, it’s the vulnerability and bloat they can cause. Plugins can open up new security concerns if they’re not kept updated and stable and a whole lot of plugins on your WordPress site can cause it to load slower for visitors, undoing any gains you make in SEO.
So, why mess with a plugin when you can use a web app to do detailed keyword and domain research? That’s exactly what Ubersuggest accomplishes.
My team has built one of the best SEO tools out there. Just plug in a domain name or keyword into the search bar and see all the detailed information you can glean.
The keyword analyzer shows you front-and-center the search volume, average cost-per-click for running a Google ad campaign on the keyword, and scores for how crowded the field of competitors is overall and in paid search.
You also get a handy graph showing historical search volume, plus keyword string ideas for finding less crowded opportunities and content examples to generate ideas of your own.
The same goes for domain searches. Plug one in to see how many keywords it ranks for in organic search, how many backlinks it’s generated, and stats for traffic and domain authority.
There’s even a great chart for breaking down how keywords rank in groups, split out between those placing in the top three of search results, between positions four and 10 on the first page, and so on.
And that’s all on the free version of Ubersuggest. You’re allowed three free daily searches.
Unlock even more data by paying for Ubersuggest, including longer historical search and ranking metrics, tracking, deeper competitive analysis, backlink opportunities, and a whole lot more.
And, guess what? It costs around 90% cheaper than competitors like Moz and Ahrefs.
Seriously, you can use all the features of Ubersuggest for as little as $29 per month. That’ll allow you to manage up to three websites. You can also pay for a lifetime license at that tier for just $290.
Need to manage more sites? The Business plan can handle between four to seven websites for $49 per month or $490 lifetime. Eight or more websites will require the Enterprise/Agency plan, which is still very reasonably priced at $99 per month or $990 lifetime.
So now there’s no need to add bulky plugins that can add security vulnerabilities to worry about. Use my web app Ubersuggest and get all the insights and data you need, no plugin required.
5 – Semrush Writing Assistant Review — The Best Way to Draft SEO-Friendly Content
Semrush is a leader in SEO. The company offers one of the most comprehensive platforms for analyzing keywords, researching competitors, digging into paid search marketing, and much more.
Semrush also makes a free WordPress plugin called SEO Writing Assistant, or SWA. Once you install SWA, you’ll get to draw on Semrush’s amazing platform for help and guidance as you draft content for your sites.
Simply enter the keywords you are targeting and then start writing. You’ll get recommendations and see your content score broken down into readability, SEO, originality, and tone of voice.
It’s all really intuitive. The factors that contribute to your score are broken down in plain English, and SWA gives you concrete actions you can take to improve. Below, I’ve grouped four separate screenshots together so you can see what kind of guidance you get for each category:
On the left, the tone of voice is rated as between neutral and formal, with 83% consistency. In this case, the writer is probably fine, but SWA calls out the most casual sentences in case they want to make it even more consistently formal throughout.
Similarly, SEO-friendliness, readability, and originality are clearly described. These terms are sometimes hard to figure out, especially for newer writers, but SWA makes it easy to see.
You’ll need to create a Semrush account in order to use the plugin, which you can do for free. I will tell you right now that the free account is very limited. You’ll only be able to make a single content template, which is more of a novelty than a tool to really improve SEO across your site.
I think a Semrush account is worth it, personally. My team uses Yoast, which has integration with Semrush, and I don’t know what we’d do without it.
Tackling issues like readability, keyword-density, and plagiarism is really important. If your articles aren’t original, or Google thinks you scraped them from someone else, your sites are going to take a major hit in the rankings.
Now a Semrush account isn’t free by any means. It’s definitely an investment you make in SEO that can pay huge dividends by bringing higher quality traffic to your site.
One thing to be aware of is that the Pro license doesn’t come with the content templates necessary to benefit from SWA—you’ll need a Guru or Business account.
The good news is that you don’t need a paid Semrush account for everyone in order to benefit. You could get a single Guru account for your content manager, and once they connect a document to a content template, any writer working on that document will have access to SWA.
With a Guru subscription, you can create 800 content templates per month, and with Business the limit is 2,000.
I know it’s expensive, but I really only recommend using a paid Semrush account with SWA. Like I said, the limits of the free plan don’t really give you the range to really see a benefit.
In that sense, I look at the free plugin as more of a free trial rather than a useful freemium license. Pretty much all the one-star reviews I read were people frustrated by the free version. On the other hand, people using the paid version were blown away by how helpful it was.
And, if you do spring for the paid version, you’ll get access to more than 40 other tools to help you improve SEO. I’m not going to lay everything out here, but you should definitely explore the entire Semrush platform.