Should you install a SEO plugin or should you stay away from them?
In the past I held the view that you shouldn’t use an SEO plugin and sometimes I thought that it didn’t hurt to have one.
My better safe than sorry approach made me check once in a while what SEO Plugins were trending.
I used several of them.
Yoast, Rank Math, Slim SEO, SEOPress, Smart Crawl were the ones that I used for longer period of time.
SEO Plugins just add code to the head or footer of your site and that’s what search engines bots and crawlers can see.
You can see what they are adding and compare it to what the alternatives are adding.
These types of plugins are convenient since you don’t need to worry about custom fields, schema, meta boxes, etc.
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Premium SEO Plugins
In most cases, Developers keep the “good sh*t” behind a paywall, you are forced to but their premium version.
I paid for SEOPress Pro twice and I think I bought Rank Math. Why?
Because I felt that sites using premium version probably had an advantage over mine.
I mean, sites with SEOPress Pro probably added Schema to all posts and breadcrumbs and sites with the free version of such plugin couldn’t do that .
So spending $39 or more a year felt like the right thing to do. It gave you peace of mind even when the only thing you added was BlogPosting schema to every page.
Alternatives to SEO Plugins: Free or Premium
When ChatGTP was released, I analyzed what I felt were the most important features and created a few plugins to remove the need from using a SEO Plugin whether it is free or premium..
I just need to see what a SEO Plugins was outputting to the header or footer and figured out how to output the same.
If the output is the same, no search engine crawler will give a shit if you are spending $60 a year for Rank Math or you just get the same code added to your pages with a mu-plugin.
Using mu-plugins to take care of your SEO needs is not for everyone and probably not worth it.
But you know what else it is not worth it.
- Spending money to get a feature that probably won’t move the needle.
- Getting a Pro version for something other plugins for free.
- Installing SEO Plugins without knowing what they actually do
- Dealing with price hikes.
- Debating what Plugin is better.
But once again, doing this via mu-plugins could be a headache if you do SEO for a living and if you are not gonna pay for the subscription.
Yoast SEO
We know Yoast is the king of SEO plugins or at least the plugin with more active installations right now.
I remember the days when every affiliate marketer and YouTuber recommended installing Yoast SEO.
If you are new to WordPress and Blogging, you probably install Yoast SEO since it is the one that seems to be getting much loved by the community.
The problem with the free version of Yoast is that it has so many ads trying to sell you Yoast Premium or other third-party services.
I haven’t used Yoast in a while and it is not being recommended as it used to be because other SEO Plugins are trying to take over.
Note: Yoast SEO had 5+ Million Active Installations when I wrote the first version of this article and now it has 10+ million active installations
All in One SEO
I have never installed All in One SEO and kept it active for more than two hours on any of my sites.
All in One SEO is also an expensive plugin if you think that unlocking its premium features is a great idea.
Note: All in One SEO has 3+ Million Active Installations and it still stuck in that number.
Rank Math SEO
I started using Rank Math SEO from the very beginning and I kinda fell in love with it because it was giving you for free a bunch of features that Yoast and All in One SEO charged for.
Rank Math SEO is cheaper than its two main competitors.
They have three plans but their personal plan is enough if you don’t have an agency or something like that.
I stopped using it because it crashed two of my sites so I thought it wasn’t a good idea to keep it.
Personally, I hope Rank Math beats Yoast and All in One SEO in the coming years.
If you check the downloads per day, you will find that Rank Math has the potential to beat the crap out of the other SEO Plugins.
Note: Rank Math SEO had more than 2 million active installations when I wrote the first version of this post, and now it has 3 million active installations.
SEOPress
I have used SEOPress, it is a great SEO Plugin with a cleaner interface and code snippets if you don’t want to see some features that you know you won’t use.
I used SEOPress Pro for a year and I canceled my subscription because I realized that I wasn’t using most of the Premium features.
SEOPress has similar pricing plans as Rank Math SEO does.
I hope the plugin keeps getting the love of more WordPress users
Note: SEOPress had more than 200 K active installations. It added 100 K more.
The SEO Framework
If you hang around Facebook groups that attract speed freaks, you will find the SEO Framework among their recommendations for SEO plugins.
I have installed the plugin a few times for testing purposes only.
I am not a big fan of it.
Note: The SEO Framework had more than 100 K active installations, it added 100k more.
Smart Crawl
If you don’t know what SEO plugin to give a chance, consider using Smart Crawl since it is offering so many features for free, features that other plugins mentioned in this list are charging for.
Smart Crawl is part of a suite of plugins so their pricing plans include speed, security, and other helpful plugins for WordPress.
I am using Smart Crawl on some sites and I totally recommend it.
Note: Smart Crawl has more than 20 K active installations. stuck at that number.
Slim SEO
Slim SEO is another SEO plugin that is popular among WordPress speed freaks and users who love simplicity.
I have used the plugin in the past, but I stopped using it because you need to pay extra if you want advanced schema features and a link manager.
Rank Math and SEOPress are way cheaper than Slim SEO.
Note: SLIM SEO had more than 20 K active installations, it added 20k more.
