As a content management system (CMS), WordPress has cemented a solid place in the market. It's pretty easy to navigate, and there's a ton of information available on the web to help you make the most of your WordPress site.
Even better, a ton of plugins and add-ons are available to make WordPress even more functional. That's a major plus in terms of SEO since you don't have to rely on a developer or designer to make changes. These SEO plugins facilitate a ton of tasks, ranging from content creation and technical SEO to analytics and reporting.
Besides simplifying SEO tasks, they also help you proactively adapt to algorithm changes and other trends. Some of them, such as ContentShake AI, make it possible for you to create high-ranking content up to 12 times faster. However, finding the best SEO plugins for WordPress can be tricky with the number of options available.
Worry not; we've done the heavy lifting for you. Let's explore the options we found to be the most feature-rich and efficient.
1. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
Best For: Content creators and marketers who want to optimize for competitive and semantic keywords to improve content quality.
The Semrush SEO Writing Assistant is an SEO tool that lets you check the readability, SEO, originality, and tone consistency of a content piece in real time. Besides WordPress, it can be connected to your MS Word and Google Docs workspace, allowing you to get SEO recommendations as you write.
To find the SEO Writing Assistant in WordPress, you can simply search for it in the Plugins section. Alternatively, use this link to install the plugin.
One of the most notable benefits of using SEO Writing Assistant within WordPress is that you also get access to the Semrush SEO Content Template. The tool creates a customized and data-driven content template for your target keyword that you can use as such within WordPress.
As for its SEO features, the tool shows you two types of keywords:
- Target Keywords: These are the core terms on which the recommended keywords are based. You may change the core keywords while you're writing. For example, you may use a more precise long-tail keyword to optimize your content for that instead.
- Recommended Keywords: These are semantically related keywords that you should include in your content to improve its SEO value. The suggested keywords are based on top-ranked pages for your target keyword. You can hover over these keywords to see their difficulty score and monthly search volume.
Recommended keywords
A good example of this feature comes from
Nourish Move Love, a fitness website. The owner uses the SEO Writing Assistant in WordPress to find missing keywords that can make her content more SEO-friendly. Optimizing her content with this plugin helped her see a 150% monthly organic traffic growth and a six-figure revenue in just six months.
Since SEO and generative engine optimization (GEO) now go hand in hand, the SEO Writing Assistant also has features for it. For example, it checks your content for keyword stuffing. If you use a keyword too often, the tool will alert you and suggest using a different variation of it or synonyms instead.
In addition to keywords, the tool also shows you link issues. If a link is broken or leads to a non-existing page, the tool will detect it and notify you. It also identifies alt attribute issues, reminding you to add alt text to your images for better accessibility and SEO.
Link issues in SWA
Besides SEO, the tool provides tone recommendations to keep your content sounding consistent throughout. Plus, it gives a readability score and suggests improvements to make your content more easily digestible for readers.
AI Features in Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
The SEO Writing Assistant also has the following AI features:
SWA AI features
- Rephraser: The feature helps rephrase, expand, summarize, or simplify any part of your text.
- Compose: You can use this feature to generate content, such as an intro paragraph.
- Ask AI: The Ask AI button allows you to ask the AI assistant to ask any question. For example, you can use it to conduct quick research for your articles.
2. Semrush Content Shake
Best For: Best for content marketers and copywriters who want to create high-quality, engaging content.
Semrush Content Shake AI is an AI content generation tool that you can use to develop on any topic. After you enter your target location and niche details, the tool provides you with topic ideas that are relevant to your audience.
Content Shake AI also analyzes trending topics and competitors to come up with unique ideas for your content. Plus, it provides you with a brief to follow while creating your content. The tool currently supports 7 languages and can generate AI-powered content in each of them. It also gives your content a score based on how well it is optimized so that you can make tweaks accordingly.
Its Compose with AI feature helps you generate content where you need help. Or, you can rewrite existing content to repurpose it while maintaining your original brand voice. With its one-click WordPress publishing, the tool makes it easy to publish your content directly on your website.
Content Shake AI
Another AI feature in Content Shake is its AI chat. Like the Ask AI feature mentioned above, you can use this assistant to add more content to your article. The tool also lets you generate images for your content with a simple text-based prompt.
Since content creation must be in line with the customer journey to hit the right audience, Content Shake AI lets you generate content for a certain target persona or voice. You can also feed it your writing samples to keep its output consistent with your brand voice.
Unlike most other AI writing tools, Content Shake AI also generates social media posts based on your articles. You can create posts for X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, which you can then share to get more eyes on your website content. The tool also lets you select a tone of voice based on your audience segments on each platform.
3. Rank Math
Best For: Bloggers and website owners who need a free SEO plugin for WordPress with advanced capabilities.
Rank Math has an SEO plugin for WordPress that comes with a ton of features within its free version. Integrating it into WordPress is a breeze since Rank Math verifies your website and shows the most suitable settings for best performance.
Once you start writing, Rank Math will show you important information about your content alongside it. You can also preview how this content will appear in rich snippets or the SERPs.
Rank Math's AI provides content improvement suggestions based on your targeted keywords. The suggestions are divided into different categories, which you can act upon to improve your content and make it search engine-friendly.
If you integrate Google Search Console within WordPress, Rank Math will also show you your sitemap status and the keywords you rank for. You can also see indexing issues if there are any. It also has a built-in schema generator that you can use to include structured data in your posts in a click.
Rank Math not only keeps an eye on your current SEO performance but also analyzes it over time. Its Position History feature shows you the outcome of your SEO strategy over time.
With Rank Math, you can also audit your SEO by assessing 40 factors, including but not limited to website speed, mobile usability, and content quality. The plugin also provides recommendations for improving these issues. On the whole, Rank Math is an all-in-one solution for managing your website's SEO in WordPress.
4. Yoast SEO
Best For: Small business owners and bloggers looking for a user-friendly SEO plugin.
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress, with over 13 million active installations. It is well-known for its user-friendly interface and extensive features, such as technical SEO improvements, canonical URLs, schema integration, and more.
With Yoast, you can also get advanced XML sitemaps, which allow you to control which pages are included and how often they're updated. It also helps you manage site breadcrumbs for better navigation and user experience.
The integrated readability and inclusive language analysis keep your content accessible and easy for all readers to understand. You can also integrate Semrush within Yoast to get SEO keywords for your content. Similarly, Wincher integration lets you track your content's ranking in Google.
Yoast has also introduced AI features, including AI Generate and AI Optimize. The former creates meta titles and descriptions for your content. If you integrate Yoast with WooCommerce, you can even get product title and description suggestions. AI Optimize analyzes your content for SEO issues, such as keyword density, keyword distribution, and keyword usage in the introduction.
Since Yoast is continuously improving and the developers are quick to remove bugs, you can expect regular updates. The plugin also has a large community, with active support forums and documentation available to help you with questions or issues.
5. SEOPress
Best For: Intermediate-level users and agencies that manage multiple websites.
SEOPress is a free SEO plugin for WordPress used by over 300,000 websites. It has pretty much every SEO feature that you could possibly need, such as meta title and description generation, canonical URLs, XML sitemap, image sitemap, and schema markup.
SEOPress also offers advanced features like redirections, robots.txt editor, and backlinks monitoring. You can even create custom schemas with its built-in schema generator. With the Pro version (paid), you get access to content analysis, translation into 25 languages, site audit, breadcrumbs, and a ton of integrations.
SEOPress also lets you configure your Google Knowledge Graph, OpenGraph tags, and Twitter card settings for better social sharing. You can also add your organization's phone number, logo, and other information. Since it also comes with local SEO settings, you can easily optimize your website for local searches.
Similar to Yoast, SEOPress also has an active community. So, there's always help available if you run into any issues.
6. All-in-One SEO (AIOSEO)
Best For: eCommerce businesses or marketers who need a well-rounded SEO plugin.
All-in-One SEO (AIOSEO) is a WordPress plugin that serves as your complete SEO toolkit, with features like smart sitemaps, local SEO, and more. Its AI Writing Assistant shows insights and recommendations that you can use to improve your content's SEO, readability, and keyword usage. The tool also comes with a keyword rank tracker that helps you keep track of your website's performance in SERPs.
Plus, its TruSEO Analysis tools help you add meta descriptions, keywords, title tags, and other on-page SEO elements in a few clicks. You can also add schema markup to your website, with over 19 types of schema available, including FAQ, How-to, and Product schemas.
AIOSEO also has WooCommerce integration, which helps eCommerce businesses boost visibility for their product pages. The SEO plugin also makes it easy to create XML sitemaps, Google news sitemaps, and video sitemaps so that search engines can index your content.
As for AI features, the tool has an AI internal link assistant, which helps you create internal links and improve your website's structure. It also has an AI-driven social media preview, which shows you how your content will look when shared on different social media platforms.
7. The SEO Framework
Best For: Users looking for a simple SEO plugin that doesn't require too much configuration.
The SEO Framework is a simple WordPress SEO plugin that doesn't show any ads or upsells to distract you from optimizing your website. Its intelligent algorithm generates SEO meta tags based on your WordPress environment.
In addition, it has more than 70 SEO checks to detect issues like missing title tags, duplicate content, and broken links. You will see these issues in the sidebar as you enter your WordPress content.
The SEO Framework also comes with a ton of extensions, such as:
- Focus: To target focus keywords and their related terms.
- Cord: To connect your website to Meta Pixel and Google Analytics for an overview of your SEO performance.
- Local: To add local business information to your website.
- Monitor: To keep an eye on your site's SEO performance and optimization.
Even when you're not actively using it, The SEO Framework is working in the background. It stops SEO attacks, discourages the indexing of 404 pages, prevents canonical errors, notifies search engines when sitemaps are enabled, and so on. So, it's a handy tool for maintaining your website's SEO health.
8. Squirrly SEO
Best For: Beginners and small businesses doing SEO in house.
Squirrly SEO is a full-force SEO plugin that offers a wide range of features like schema-rich results, automated internal linking, keyword research, keyword portfolio, redirects, and real-time content optimization.
The plugin also allows SEO audits to analyze your website's SEO performance and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to optimize each page for better search engine rankings. You can also conduct backlinks, traffic, and social media audits within the same plugin.
One of the most notable features of Squirrly SEO is competitor analysis. It helps you understand what your competitors are doing in terms of SEO and how you can improve your strategies to outrank them. Plus, you get local SEO support to improve your site's visibility in regional search results.
With over 650 features pre-configured, you're sure to find everything you need for successful SEO with Squirrly. It also has Ranking Vision AI, which increases your chances of ranking high in search results by analyzing top competition and giving you real-time content insights.
9. Slim SEO
Best For: Beginners who want to optimize their WordPress websites with minimal effort.
Slim SEO is a lightweight plugin that focuses primarily on the meta-information of your website. It adds meta titles, descriptions, Open Graph, and Twitter card tags to your pages, making them easily readable for search engines.
You can also auto-generate schema markups using the plugin for different types of pages. It also monitors 404 and other broken links on your website. Plus, the plugin auto-generates an XML sitemap for better indexing.
With Slim SEO, it becomes pretty easy to insert code for Facebook pixels, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager. The RSS feed footer feature lets you add custom text and copyright information to your RSS feed.
Advanced Features That Make a Difference
Most SEO plugins for WordPress already pack a punch when it comes to basic optimization features. However, what sets the best ones apart are their advanced features, especially AI-powered ones.
For example, the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant provides AI-powered suggestions in real time to optimize your content. The integrated AI keyword search tool further updates keyword recommendations as you change the target keyword. You can also use the tool's AI to rephrase and compose content.
Similarly, Semrush Content Shake AI has image generation features that can help you create royalty-free visual content for your articles. The tool's AI also creates SEO-optimized briefs for you to follow.
In addition to AI features, SEO plugins also offer support for schema markup generation. For example, Rank Math, Slim SEO, and SEOPress auto-generate structured data for a range of content types, including articles, FAQs, events, and more.
Another advanced feature that can improve your optimization efforts is WooCommerce SEO. AIOSEO is among the few SEO plugins for WordPress that offer dedicated support for WooCommerce stores. So, you can optimize your product pages, categories, and tags for better visibility in search results.
Pre-configured settings also make a difference when you're trying to save time. Squirrly SEO comes pre-configured with over 650 SEO features to help you get started quickly.
It also helps if the plugin has automation, such as automatic image optimization, sitemap submissions, and meta descriptions. For example, The SEO Framework automatically notifies Google and Bing upon site map submission.
Make 2025 Your Year of SEO Mastery With These Plugins
Going forward, SEO is likely to be driven by AI, not just for keyword searches but also for content creation and optimization. That's why it's imperative to incorporate an AI SEO tool into your SEO strategy.
The aforementioned SEO plugins for WordPress are just a few examples of the many options available to help you achieve SEO success. Besides making your SEO processes smoother and hassle-free, these plugins also offer insights and recommendations to help you continuously improve your website's SEO performance.
Their advanced features, such as AI integration and automation, further enhance their functionality. A pro tip: combine your human SEO expertise with these plugins for the best results.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free SEO plugin for WordPress?
Yoast SEO is one of the best free SEO plugins for WordPress. It's super beginner-friendly and offers features like keyword optimization, readability analysis, XML sitemaps, and meta-tag management. Some other options include SEOPress and The SEO Framework.
How do SEO plugins help improve website rankings?
SEO plugins help by optimizing your site for search engines. They guide you on keywords, improve meta tags, generate XML sitemaps, and even analyze readability. Some plugins, like Rank Math or Yoast, also offer schema markup and link suggestions. Together, these improvements make your site rank higher.
What features should I look for in an SEO plugin?
Look for SEO features like keyword optimization, meta tag editing, XML sitemap generation, and readability analysis. Bonus points for advanced features like schema markup, AI integration, internal linking suggestions, and integration with analytics tools. A user-friendly interface and compatibility with your WordPress setup are also important for a smooth experience.
How do I integrate SEO plugins with Google Analytics?
Most SEO plugins, like Rank Math or Yoast, make integrating with Google Analytics easy. You'll usually just need to add your Analytics tracking ID in the plugin settings. Some plugins like Semrush SEO Writing Assistant guide you step-by-step or offer direct integration.
Are there any SEO plugins specifically for WooCommerce?
AIOSEO and Yoast SEO have dedicated features for WooCommerce. They help optimize product pages, manage product schema, and improve meta tags for better visibility in search results. Plus, they handle breadcrumbs and category pages, too.
What are the pros and cons of using multiple SEO plugins?
Using multiple SEO plugins might seem helpful, but it can backfire. You might access unique features from different plugins. However, they can slow down your site and create redundant settings. It's better to stick with one comprehensive plugin for a smoother, conflict-free experience.
How do SEO plugins handle structured data and schema?
SEO plugins like SEOPress and Slim SEO handle structured data by automatically adding schema markup to your pages. They support types like articles, products, FAQs, and reviews. Some even let you customize the schema manually.
Which plugins help with keyword tracking in WordPress?
AIOSEO has a keyword rank tracker that shows your current ranking and provides suggestions for improving it. Yoast also has a similar feature for tracking focus keywords. In Semrush SEO Writing Assistant, you can see recommendations for semantic keywords to include in your content.
What advanced SEO tools work well with WordPress plugins?
Tools like Semrush and Google Search Console work seamlessly with WordPress plugins. They provide in-depth keyword tracking, local SEO, technical SEO, backlink analysis, and site audit features. When integrated, these tools offer powerful insights that complement your plugin's on-page SEO features.
How do I choose between free and premium SEO plugins?
If you're a small business or just starting out with a new website, a free SEO plugin like AIOSEO or Yoast can provide enough features to help you optimize your site. However, if you have a larger website with complex SEO needs, invest in a premium plugin to get AI features, automatic content optimization, detailed analytics, and advanced schema markup options.
Can an SEO plugin fix broken links on a website?
It depends on the type of SEO plugins. Some only identify broken links, while others offer the option to automatically fix them. For example, Semrush SEO Writing Assistant has a broken link checker that provides suggestions for fixing them. AIOSEO has an AI internal link assistant that provides suggestions for improving the internal linking structure.
