Search engine optimization, or SEO, is one of the most important aspects of most websites, regardless of how they are created, as it provides high-quality visits without the need to invest huge amounts of money in advertising campaigns, but adhering to SEO standards contributes to raising the ranking of the site’s pages in search results. Research can be difficult, especially for beginners.
For this reason, SEO plugins were developed for the WordPress content management system, as they facilitate adherence to search engine optimization standards, but because these plugins are not of the same quality, do not include the same tools and features, and their plans differ in price, we have prepared for you this comprehensive review that will introduce you to the various features of SEO plugins, The best SEO plugin for you.
SEO plugins in WordPress and their importance
SEO , or search engine optimization , is one of the most important factors that must be taken into consideration when creating, managing, and adding content to websites, because it greatly helps in taking advantage of search engines to obtain high-quality visits, as SEO-compatible website pages appear. At the top of search results.
But it is difficult to implement all SEO practices on the site and measure the quality of adherence to them without using auxiliary tools, and from there comes the importance of using SEO plugins in WordPress, as these plugins help improve various aspects of SEO by providing guidance and providing a set of tools and features .
WordPress SEO plugins differ from other SEO tools such as Ubersuggest and ahrefs. While the latter work outside the site, SEO plugins work within the WordPress site and help improve the site to become SEO-friendly by giving you guidance tailored to your site.
The tools and features available in one SEO add-on also differ from others, but they share the main tools and features necessary to improve the site’s SEO, such as keyword analysis and readability, in addition to providing the ability to add an SEO title and Meta description , as well as options related to social media and others.
The most famous and best SEO plugins for WordPress websites
Thanks to the fact that the WordPress content management system is free and open source, there are many SEO plugins that work on it, but not all of these plugins are of the same quality. Some of them provide many useful features and options, are compatible with the Arabic language, and are easy to use, and some of them now do not offer these features. Therefore, it is not recommended for use on site as there are better alternatives.
Based on the number of active installations and user ratings within the official WordPress plugin store, in addition to various lists of the best SEO plugins for WordPress among the best sites interested in explaining WordPress, and also based on our experiences, there are two SEO plugins that are considered the best and most famous, and they are: Yoast SEO – Rank Math SEO.
There are also two other good add-ons, which are: All in One SEO – SEOPress. Here is a quick comparison between these add-ons before we introduce you to what distinguishes each of them in detail in the following paragraphs.
| Yoast SEO | Rank Math SEO | All in One SEO | SEOPress | |
| Keyword targeting analysis | It supports analyzing more than one keyword on a paid basis, its analysis quality is excellent, and it is highly compatible with the Arabic language. | It supports analyzing more than one keyword for free, its analysis quality is excellent, and it provides the analysis result in digital form. | It provides the ability to analyze more than one keyword in paid plans, and provides the analysis result in digital form, and the quality of its analysis is good. | It supports analyzing more than one keyword for free and the quality of its analysis is excellent, but it does not work as expected sometimes. |
| Readability analysis | It supports the measurement of many important criteria in readability analysis excellently. | They are available, but many of the parameters they measure are not really important for readability. | It also analyzes many important criteria, but it is not good at analyzing some criteria for Arabic. | Does not support readability analysis. |
| Meta data | It provides the addition of an SEO title and a meta description, and in the paid version it allows them to be added via artificial intelligence. | It enables you to adjust the meta data itself, and also provides the possibility of using artificial intelligence in paid versions. | You can fill out the same data, and you can also use artificial intelligence in paid plans. | It provides the ability to adjust the same data, and allows the use of artificial intelligence to implement this in paid plans. |
| Internal link suggestions | Supported in paid version. | Supported in the free version. | Supported in paid versions. | Supported in paid versions. |
| Sitemaps | Available. | Available in a wide range of options. | Available in a wide range of options. | Available in a wide range of options. |
| Ease of use | It is very easy to use, because its interface is intuitive and well organized, it supports the Arabic language well, and provides control over the options shown. | It is easy to use, as it provides control over the options shown, and its interface is intuitive as well. | It does not provide control over the options shown, and its interface includes many features, which makes it less easy to use. | It is not difficult to use, but it does not support controlling the number of options shown on pages by deactivating features that you do not need. |
| Schema charts | Allows you to choose a ready-made Schema template from a set of available templates. | It provides the ability to use many Schema templates for free, and also provides more templates and custom Schema building in the paid versions. | It provides the ability to use many ready-made Schema templates, and also allows creating custom Schema, but all this in the paid versions only. | It offers the use of Schema templates, and enables you to add custom Schema, but all on the paid plans. |
| Adjust sharing features on social media | It enables you to set the post image, title, and description, but the post preview is only available in the paid version. | It allows you to adjust the same features, and the free version supports share preview. | It provides the ability to adjust the sharing properties itself, and offers a free preview as well. | It enables you to adjust the properties of the post itself, and offers a free preview. |
| Catch 404 errors | Not supported. | Supported. | Supported on the two most expensive plans. | Paid support. |
| Redirection Manager | Available, but on the paid plan. | Available with limited options in the free plan, and wide options in paid plans. | Available, but only on some paid plans. | Limited availability for free, and more widely on paid plans. |
| Instant indexing | Supports sending indexing request to Microsoft and Yandex in the paid version. | Supports sending indexing request to Microsoft and Yandex for free. | Supports sending indexing request to Microsoft and Yandex on a paid basis. | Supports sending indexing request to Microsoft, Yandex and Google in the free version. |
| View Google Webmaster Tools statistics in your WordPress dashboard | It does not provide this feature. | Available. | Available, but only in the highest priced version. | Available, but on paid plans. |
| Advantages of Artificial Intelligence (AI) | It allows the use of artificial intelligence to fill the meta data of the site’s articles and pages in the paid version. | It provides more than 40 tools powered by AI, where you can fill out meta data, write content, analyze keyword targeting, get link suggestions by artificial intelligence, and much more, but in a paid manner. | AI can be used to populate meta data for posts and pages in paid versions. | It also allows the use of artificial intelligence to fill the meta data of articles and pages in paid versions. |
| the cost | It offers a free plan, and paid plans start at $99 per year. | It offers a free plan, and paid plans start at $69 per year. | It offers a free plan, and paid plans start at $49.6 per year. | It offers a free plan, and paid plans start at $49 per year. |
1. Add Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is an SEO plugin that works on the WordPress system. It is characterized by ease of use, great compatibility with the Arabic language, in addition to the quality of its various tools through which it helps millions of users improve their sites for search engines.
Analyze the quality of keyword targeting in the content
The Yoast SEO add-on allows analyzing one keyword in the blog post in the free version, but it allows analyzing more than one word in the paid version. The analysis section, options, and results can be accessed while preparing the content in the component editor through the side section, or through a section located below the editing section. .
The content is analyzed by the plugin based on a set of important factors to improve SEO, which are related to the percentage of mention of the keyword, its distribution and length, its presence in the title and the pleasant name that forms part of the page link, as well as internal and external links, its images and alternative texts, in addition to the number of words. Content, other factors, and uses color representation to make it easier to let you know whether you adhere to a particular factor or not.
Depending on your commitment to the factors that the add-on takes into account, an overall analysis result is reached that expresses the extent to which the content of the article or page is compatible with SEO. The result is shown in the form of a color, not in the form of a numerical percentage, as 3 colors are used, each of which represents a result. Certain.
The addition also allows, through the SEO analysis section, the article or page to set the SEO title that appears on the search results pages, in addition to the nice name, as well as the meta description that can appear below the search result title on the results pages, and a preview of the article appears. Or the page within Google search results.
Read also: Explaining Yoast SEO conditions for writing an article that tops search results and achieving full green points
Readability analysis
The Yoast SEO plugin allows readability analysis separately from SEO analysis, and tests passive verbs, in addition to consecutive sentences that begin with the same word, how well subtitles are used, in addition to paragraph lengths, and the use of transitional words, and the plugin displays the analysis based on color representation.
Additional features and tools
In addition to the features, options, and tools that we talked about above, the Yoast SEO plugin provides many additional features within the editing page in the editor, as well as at the site level, and this includes:
- Article indexing options, which allow either the article to be indexed or not, in addition to other options.
- Adding schemas to the content based on templates, as it provides many ready-made diagrams.
- Social media settings (Facebook and Twitter), including the image, title and description when sharing, in addition to a paid preview of the post.
- Insights features, including highlighted words, reading time and word count, but highlighted words are only available in the paid version.
- Sitemaps to help search engines index website pages.
The add-on also provides other tools and options, including a search engine optimization performance tracking tool that allows tracking a page’s position in search results over time, in addition to artificial intelligence tools to fill various meta fields for search engines and social media sites, as well as the orphan articles (or content) feature. isolated) that enables you to see which articles are not linked to by other pages of the site, but these features are only available in the paid version.
Ease of use
In terms of ease of use, we can consider the Yoast SEO plugin to be excellent, because it is almost entirely available in , which makes its use more intuitive and easy. It is also very easy to define keywords, enter and modify meta data, and understand and apply SEO and readability guidelines. Availability.
It’s also easy to navigate between the options tabs and access the options you need. In addition, the add-on does not include many unnecessary features, and any features you do not need can be disabled in order to simplify the various user interfaces of the add-on.
the cost
In addition to the free plan that includes most of the basic features you could need to optimize your site for search engines, Yoast SEO offers a paid plan that contains more advanced features, such as targeting multiple keywords in a single post, internal linking suggestions, a redirection manager, and AI features. The price of this plan is $99 per year when using the add-on on one site.
The add-on also provides a more advanced professional plan, priced at $229 per year, and includes the features of improving video SEO, e-commerce, and local SEO, in addition to news SEO, and 24-hour technical support for a full year. A discount can be obtained when purchasing any of the paid plans for a large number of websites.
2. Add Rank Math SEO
The Rank Math SEO plugin is distinguished by offering a large number of free tools that have earned it wide popularity and positive reviews, in addition to an easy-to-use interface and professional control over the features and options it provides.
Analyze the quality of keyword targeting in the content
The Rank Math plugin provides the ability to insert up to 5 keywords to analyze their targeting in the article or page in the free version, and the analysis options appear in the sidebar in the component editor only, as the options do not appear under the editing section as well as the Yoast SEO plugin.
The way the Rank Math add-on works is similar in this aspect to the way the Yoast SEO add-on works, as standards and guidelines appear that show the extent to which the content is compatible with SEO based on the word or keywords that have been included, and color representation is used to inform you whether your content has met the standard or not.
What distinguishes the Rank Math add-on is that it shows the overall analysis result of the post in the form of a number out of 100 (a numerical percentage out of 100). This is better than limiting the overall result to only 3 options, because it gives you a more accurate perception of the extent of the content’s compatibility with search engines. Color representation is also used in the overall score.
Rank Math also provides a preview of the article in the search results, and the ability to set metadata for the article or page, such as the SEO title, meta description, in addition to the nice name, similar to the Yoast SEO add-on, that is, through a set of fields that can be shown from the Options section. Analysis.
But it is worth noting that the Rank Math add-on does not display instructions and advice in Arabic, but rather in English, unlike the Yoast SEO add-on, which has extremely excellent compatibility with Arabic. However, this is not considered a defect with a major impact, as the instructions can be translated using add-ons for translating add-ons and templates in WordPress easily.
Readability analysis
The Rank Math plugin provides readability analysis, but the factors it analyzes are different from the factors that Yoast SEO analyzes, as it tests the presence of a table of contents, paragraph lengths, and the presence of images or videos. It also tests the readability of the title, as it tests whether it contains the keyword and the presence of a number. in it.
Rank Math does not test the quality of use of subtitles, first word sequences, passive voice, or sentence lengths, and the title readability factors it analyzes are not closely related to readability, but are more related to SEO, which is why this aspect is good in it. Not the same as it is with Yoast SEO plugin.
Additional features and tools
The Rank Math add-on allows its users to benefit from many additional tools and features within the article editing page, or within its settings on the various pages of the site, including:
- Determine how search engines deal with the page, as well as adding Yoast SEO.
- Schema layouts for content , as it provides many ready-made layouts and allows building custom layouts, but not all options related to Schema are available in the free version.
- Options for sharing the article on social media (Facebook and Twitter), which allow specifying the sharing data and displaying a preview of it.
- Sitemaps: Map files can be created and customized based on extensive options.
- Artificial Intelligence tools, which allow you to benefit from more than 40 paid tools for content writing, artificial intelligence keyword targeting analysis, in addition to keyword suggestions, questions, and links.
The plugin also provides other additional features such as tracking SEO performance, capturing 404 errors , the ability to view Google Webmaster Tools statistics in the WordPress control panel, and others.
Ease of use
The Rank Math add-on does not support the Arabic language like the Yoast SEO add-on, but it is also easy to use, as it is not difficult to add keywords, and it is easy to enter meta data and adjust various add-on options. It also provides the ability to deactivate options that you do not need to simplify the user interfaces. The different things you provide.
the cost
Rank Math provides a free plan full of basic and additional features. The add-on was previously available only for free, but later 3 paid plans were added that include a greater number of features and options, in addition to 24-hour technical support.
The cheapest plan allows the extension to be used on an unlimited number of personal sites, and its starting price is $69 per year, while the medium plan (229 per year at the starting price) provides the ability to use it on 100 client sites, and the highest plan ($549 per year at the starting price) provides the ability to The extension was used on 500 client websites.
The extension also offers plans for the AI tools it provides, and prices start at $3.99 per month.
Read also: A comparison between Yoast and RankMath, and which is better for you
Other SEO plugins for WordPress
In addition to Rank Math SEO and Yoast SEO, there are other powerful and widely used SEO plugins in WordPress, the most prominent of which are All in One SEO and SEOPress.
3. Add All in One SEO
The All in One SEO add-on is among the most rich in tools and options when talking about paid versions. It is distinguished by its interface that partially supports the Arabic language, in addition to its good quality of keyword analysis.
Analyze the quality of keyword targeting in the content
Analyzing the quality of keyword targeting in content using the AIOSEO plugin works similarly to Rank Math SEO and Yoast SEO. It allows analyzing a single keyword in an article or page in the free version, and analyzing multiple keywords is only available in the paid versions.
Analysis options and results can be accessed from the sidebar or through the plugin settings section located below the editing section in the component editor. The add-on tests many factors related to SEO, and displays the result of the analysis of each factor based on colors in a similar way to the previous two add-ons. The add-on also calculates the overall score for the extent of the page’s compatibility with SEO and displays it in the form of a numerical percentage.
The AIOSEO plugin also allows setting metadata, including the SEO title and meta description, through custom fields, and a preview of the article also appears in the search results in a similar way to Yoast SEO and Rank Math.
The plugin does not display the guidelines and standards in Arabic, but rather in English, but they can also be translated using the template and plugin translation tools in WordPress.
Readability analysis
AIOSEO also measures readability through a range of factors, analyzing whether content contains images or video, paragraph lengths, passive voice, transition words, sentence similarity, as well as the quality of subtitle distribution, and a metric called Flesch reading ease that measures how easy it is to read. Comprehension of text in English, and the results are presented in color in a section on readability criteria.
You can also notice that the add-on theoretically analyzes several important metrics to determine the readability of an article or page, but in reality and from a practical standpoint, the add-on does not work well in this aspect with regard to the Arabic language with respect to some metrics. When we tested it, we noticed that both analyzing the passive voice, Transitional words, as well as Flesch reading ease of course, do not work well at all, and incorrect results are returned for them.
Additional features and tools
The AIOSEO SEO plugin provides many additional tools, options, and benefits during article editing, as well as at the site level, but unfortunately it restricts access to many of them in the free version. The most prominent additional tools and options in the add-on include (the first two are free only):
- Ability to adjust social media settings.
- Customize page indexing options.
- The ability to adjust Schema based on ready-made templates, or by building a custom Schema.
- Internal link suggestions.
- SEO tracking.
- Redirects .
- Filling meta data fields with artificial intelligence.
The plugin also includes many other features that make it one of the most comprehensive SEO plugins with tools and features.
Ease of use
AIOSEO offers an easy-to-use interface, but is generally full of options. Keywords and meta data can be added, and SEO guidelines can be easily accessed and understood. The add-ons partially support the Arabic language, which makes using them easier, but they do not allow you to control the activated options like the previous two add-ons, and this is not good in light of the add-on providing a large number of features. .
the cost
In addition to the free plan, the AIOSEO add-on offers 4 paid plans whose starting prices range between about $50 and $300 per year, and their pricing method is a bit complicated compared to other add-ons. The basic plan provides the ability to use the add-on on one site, the other plans provide its use on 3, 10, and 100 sites, and all paid plans provide technical support.
4. Add SEOPress
SEOPress is a powerful WordPress SEO plugin that provides tools to improve internal and external SEO. It is distinguished by the fact that it provides analysis of an unlimited number of keywords in the article for free, as well as the lower prices of its paid versions, and the large number of tools and features available in it.
Analyze the quality of keyword targeting in the content
The SEOPress plugin analyzes keywords and how well they are targeted in the content in a similar way to previous plugins, but it provides the ability to analyze an unlimited number of words in the article or page, even in the free version, and displays the analysis options under the editing section in the component editor.
After entering the keyword, the add-on will show the result of the analysis based on the SEO criteria that it takes into consideration, which are considered almost the same as the standards of other add-ons. Color representation is used in the same way as in previous add-ons, and the overall result appears in the form of color, meaning the percentage is not shown. A percentage that expresses the extent to which the content is compatible with SEO.
As with other SEO plugins, SEOPress allows you to adjust the metadata, and displays a preview showing how the article or page will appear in search results.
However, the SEOPress plugin does not support the Arabic language, as any phrase related to it appears in English in the WordPress control panel within the component editor and outside of it. This includes guidelines and standards for improving SEO within the article or page, and it can also be translated into Arabic through the use of translation plugins, WordPress plugins and templates.
Readability analysis
The SEOPress plugin does not provide readability analysis like previous SEO plugins, but following the SEO optimization guidelines it provides can help improve the readability of the content. However, these guidelines cannot replace readability standards, which is why this plugin is considered weak in terms of readability. This side.
Additional features and tools
SEOPress offers additional tools and options similar to other editor-level and site-level plugins, but many of those tools and options are paid and not available in the free version. The most prominent tools and options available in the SEOPress plugin include the following (the first two are completely free):
- Social media options.
- Determine how search engines deal with the page.
- Sitemaps: Various map features can be created and adjusted.
- Enable redirects.
- Possibility of using ready-made Schema templates, as well as custom Schema.
- Filling meta data fields with artificial intelligence.
- Internal link suggestions.
The plugin also provides many additional tools that help improve WordPress SEO.
Ease of use
The SEOPress plugin does not support the Arabic language in the user interface by default, but it is easy to add keywords and meta data, and understand SEO guidelines. Activating and deactivating the features provided by the add-on can be easily controlled through its control panel, but this does not help simplify the user interface, because the options for inactive features remain visible.
the cost
There are two paid plans available to add SEOPress, and their pricing method is simple. The first plan provides internal SEO tools and technical support and is priced at $49 annually, while the other provides both internal and external SEO tools and technical support and is priced at $128 annually. The first plan can be used on an unlimited number of sites, while the second plan can be used on a single site.
Conclusion: What is the best SEO plugin for you?
As you can see, SEO plugins for WordPress differ from each other in some aspects and features, which makes the best ones differ depending on the situation and circumstances of your website.
If your site has a low budget and you are not able to pay for the professional plans that are not free, the Rank Math SEO plugin will be the best for you, because it provides very powerful and sufficient tools in the free plan.
If you want an easy-to-use add-on, whose interface is almost entirely available in Arabic, has very high-quality tools, and does not suffer from any significant deficiency in the paid plan, then the Yoast SEO add-on will be the most suitable.
If you want a paid add-on with many powerful features, tools, and options that provide the ability to benefit from the power of artificial intelligence to a great extent, or you own more than one site that needs an SEO add-on, then Rank Math SEO will be the most appropriate, because it is the most feature-rich SEO add-on, the most powerful with artificial intelligence tools, and its plans allow… Using it on a large number of websites without the need to purchase additional copies.
But it should be noted that the presence of many features in the plugin means a greater possibility of problems and conflicts occurring, so if you do not really need the SEO plugin to provide you with many additional features, it is more appropriate to adopt Yoast SEO because it includes a smaller number of additional features, and thus stability. Better and fewer errors.
As for other SEO plugins (All in One SEO and SEOPress), we generally do not recommend using them because there are better alternatives in almost any situation, and the cases in which they are appropriate are limited to when Rank Math or Yoast SEO does not work on your site for some reason correctly or when there is a need to Tools or features that are not provided by these two plugins, but are provided by All in One SEO or SEOPress.
And here, dear reader, we finish comparing the best and most popular SEO add-ons for the WordPress content management system, and introducing you to their various features and tools, in addition to their prices. We would like to point out in conclusion that determining the add-on and the plan that is most suitable for you is something that you must do, because you are the only one who knows what. Exactly what you need, so learn and compare the features of add-ons based on our article, then choose the add-on and plan that provides you with the options and features you need.
