Duke men’s basketball is back in the Elite Eight after outlasting a physical Houston with a 54-51 win in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on Friday night.
Houston’s top-ranked defense kept Duke at bay in the first half, but the Cougars suffered a tough blow when All-American guard Jamal Shead went down with an apparent foot injury while driving towards the basket with just a little over six minutes left in the half.
After remaining on the ground visibly in pain, Shead was helped up and eventually walked back to the locker room.
According to reports, his X-rays came back negative, and he was diagnosed with a severely sprained right ankle. He would remain on the sidelines for the rest of the game.
But without Shead, Duke managed to pull away in the second half.
Kyle Filipowski had 16 points and nine rebounds to lead the charge, but Jeremy Roach’s 14 second-half points kept the momentum going.
“I’m really proud of these guys and really proud of the game tonight – that was a big time college basketball game,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said after the game.
Scheyer went on to compliment Houston’s fortitude despite the loss of Shead, and made a point to silence any criticisms about Duke’s own toughness after a loss to Tennessee in the second round last year.
“Look, we started four freshmen last year,” he began, “I think for us, some of the criticism about toughness or whatever – try being at Duke as a freshman or sophomore and battling your ass off in the tournament, and then talk to me about being tough.”
Duke now moves on to face Atlantic Coast Conference rival North Carolina State for a spot in the Final Four.
Formula One drivers must not use the platform provided by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to make statements for their own “personal agenda”, the sport’s governing body president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said on Tuesday.
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We’re looking for thoughtful people who strive to be kind in their words and actions. As product designers, we are always looking for ways to simplify complex things and we take security very seriously. As a financial institution, we believe that our customers’ trust is our single most valuable asset and we will go above and beyond to earn and keep it.
Our backend stack is Clojure, FoundationDB, Kubernetes and AWS
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We have an office in London but our team are distributed throughout the UK, Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Portugal.
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be complicated or overwhelming for the average business owner, but it doesn’t have to be.
With a decent SEO plugin for your WordPress website, the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic will be a breeze.
An SEO plugin offers you tools and powerful features like audit checklists, sitemaps, and content insights to optimize your website.
I’ve compiled a list of the best SEO plugins for WordPress options, making it easier for you to find the best tool to suit your company’s needs.
#1 – 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 powerfuland 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.
#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 – 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.
#4 – 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.
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.
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.
#6 – Schema Pro Review — The Best for Getting More Clicks With the Rankings You Already Have
How do some sites wind up with a way more appealing piece of real estate on search engine results pages?
You know what I’m talking about. These sites have images, videos, map screenshots, and other attention-getting features. Here’s an example of what happened when I searched “best grilled cheese”.
I don’t have the metrics on it, but I’d bet you a dollar that these top three results are absolutely killing it compared to the grilled cheese pages near the bottom of page one.
So how do you get your pages to show up like this?
You need to use schemas, which tell Google how to interpret your content. It used to be really challenging, but if you use a plugin like Schema Pro, you can get these killer search results for all of your pages with a couple of clicks.
That’s why I love Schema Pro. Instead of trying to learn and navigate the rules of the road for schema markup, you just select the type of content you’re working on, and the plugin takes it from there.
The content types that Schema Pro supports include:
Articles
Books
Courses
Events
FAQs
How-To’s
Job Postings
Local Business
People
Products
Recipes
Reviews
Services
Software Applications
Video Objects
If you are consistently publishing any of these types of content, you absolutely need to check out Schema Pro.
There’s just no way that plain text search results can compete. For local businesses, wouldn’t it be nice for your store to show up automatically located on Google Maps? Boom, there’s a picture of your storefront, it’s location, and the drive time’s already calculated.
Or say you are a food blogger. Wouldn’t it be better if your pages showed up as rich results with a perfect image, cook times, and star-rated reviews?
There is zero coding required. Schema Pro handles all the backend legwork.
You already work so hard to get your pages to rank. Whether you’re on page one or page three, you want to put your best foot forward. Schema Pro lets you optimize your pages to ensure that Google gives you the best chance of getting those rich results.
Schema Pro is a paid plugin. Brainstorm Force, the company that makes it, also offers a free plugin called All-in-one Schema.org Rich Snippet.
The free version might be interesting to check out, but it’s a little dated at this point. It doesn’t use the latest JSON LD code, which is what Google favors. Schema Pro does use this code (although you don’t have to worry about writing it yourself) and you don’t have to do any manual entry at all. With the free version, there’s a lot more work for you.
And the paid version is not very expensive at all, especially considering how big an impact it can have on SEO.
Schema Pro is just $63 for a full year. This includes 1-on-1 support from the customer service team. If your license expires, you can still use the plugin, but you won’t get updates or the free customer support.
You can also purchase a lifetime license of Schema Pro for a one-time fee of $249. You’ll continue to get updates and support for as long as you use it.
Alternatively, you can opt for the Growth Bundle, which includes Schema Pro along with other excellent WordPress tools from Brainstorm Force. You get the Astra Pro theme, a bunch of beautiful pre-made websites, WP Portfolio, Convert Pro, and more.
The Growth Bundle is a great deal for agencies and developers who can get a great price on tools they need to help clients.
If you are just handling schema markup on your site, Schema Pro is all you need.
Another thing to be aware of is that Schema Pro is not an SEO plugin, which means you can use it with plugins like Yoast. You’ll have to be a little careful to ensure that there’s no plugin conflicts, but it’s definitely possible to use Schema Pro to complement your other SEO plugins.
There’s no free trial, but there isa 14-day refund policy. If you are not getting the beautiful and attention-grabbing search results your sites deserve, I would go out and get Schema Pro right now.
#7 – Yoast SEO Review — The Best Free SEO Plugin for WordPress
Yoast SEO is the most downloaded SEO plugin on WordPress. The free version has helped people learn and conquer SEO, and the premium versions help businesses take their content to the next level.
This is what I use for my sites. I’m a Yoast guy and have been for years. Because I have a bunch of huge sites, I use the premium version and it’s totally worth it. But if you are wondering which free SEO plugin is the best, I say Yoast.
And I’m not alone by any means. Yoast has more than 25,000 five star reviews on WordPress.
It’s incredibly easy to use. Maybe it’s not quite as effortless for new users as AIOSEO, but it’s not significantly harder.
And the free version includes a few things that AIO and SEOPress do not. Without spending a dime on Yoast, you’ll be able to tackle:
XML sitemaps
Titles and metas
Canonical URLs
Schema markup
Breadcrumbs
Keyword analysis
Readability analysis
Google/mobile preview
If you have a large site and you want to get by with a free plugin, Yoast is what you want. With AIOSEO and SEOPress, you have to upgrade to premium to handle schema markup and breadcrumbs. With Yoast it’s all free.
And it all makes a difference. Breadcrumbs help readers navigate a site, and they show up in search results. Here’s an example using the search “best treadmills”.
You can see the breadcrumbs in the orange boxes. Readers love these because they help them navigate the site. They know exactly where they are. Google loves breadcrumbs because they tell it how your site is organized.
It’s an easy win to help your pages rank higher, and only Yoast includes it for free.
Should you outgrow the free version, premium Yoast is worth every dollar you spend. I couldn’t dream of running my sites without it. You’ll get:
Internal linking suggestions
Content insights
Redirect manager
Elementor integration
Automated publishing
No in-app advertisements
24/7 customer support
You’ll also be able to take advantage of extensions like Local SEO, News SEO, Video SEO, and WooCommerce SEO. Do note that these extensions are paid add-ons, which aren’t included with your premium subscription, whereas AIOSEO and SEOPress include them with paid versions.
Premium Yoast subscriptions start at $89.
As I mentioned, Yoast is what I use, so I fully endorse the premium SEO plugin. There’s a lot my team does to make sure our pages continue to rank highly. With Yoast, it’s easier to consistently implement best practices across all of our sites.
So I love the premium plugin, but it’s not going to be for everyone.
If you are in the market for a free plugin, I highly recommend Yoast SEO. For zero dollars down, you can start addressing SEO right now. What are you waiting for?
#8 – Ahrefs Review — The Best SEO Plugin for Advanced Users
Ahrefs SEO is a WordPress plugin from Ahrefs, one of the best known names in SEO. This is a super lightweight plugin you can install for free, but you’ll have to get an Ahrefs license to really take advantage of everything you can do.
Think about it as a way to audit the content on your site. But instead of getting surface level information that’s free from Google, you get the benefit of Ahrefs deep databases. You’ll be able to dive into your pages’ performance at the most granular level.
Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about:
For each page, you can see where it’s ranking (position), total traffic, what percentage of the traffic is organic, and the number of backlinks. On the right hand side, you’ll see a list of clear suggestions based on the page’s performance.
If a page is under-performing, it may make sense to update it with fresher content. Or maybe you should merge several low-performing pages with one that’s doing better.
But let’s not lose sight of how amazing this is. Tracking backlinks and rankings on your own is incredibly time-consuming. With Ahrefs, everything you could possibly need is right at hand.
If you go with the free plugin, you’ll be limited to auditing the content on your own site. This is really useful if you are just starting off, but for advanced users, I highly recommend paying for an Ahrefs license and taking advantage of your ability to backlink research, content gap analysis, and getting a complete picture of how your competitors’ sites are ranking.
Say you want to dive deeper into the backlinks you have to figure out what’s helping and what you might want to drop. Simply pull up it up in Site Explorer:
You can see each link, along with its domain rank (DR), URL rank (UR), the number of referring domains, total traffic, as well as the anchor text to the backlink.
Don’t know what those are? Don’t worry, just go with one of the other SEO plugins and think about Ahrefs down the line.
But if you are trying to go the extra mile with SEO, your link building team will love all of this information. And you could get just as detailed analysis of your competitors’ sites. Figure out what they are doing well and adjust your strategy as needed.
Paid Ahrefs subscriptions start at $99 for a single user.
You’ll note that additional users only $30 each, which is definitely a plus. That said, Ahrefs is not an all-in-one price. You may have to pay for additional features, and there are limits on the number of sites, keywords, and other factors you can track.
For the most part, the various plans all come with the same set of tools. You get higher limits with the more expensive plans.
It can definitely get pricey, which is why I really recommend it for advanced users. They’re going to get a ton out of it.
People who are newer to the space might not be able to get the bang for their buck. And if you don’t want to pony up for an Ahrefs subscription, you’ll probably find the free version limited. Especially when you consider everything that comes with the free version of Yoast or AIOSEO.
But if you are trying to compete in a lucrative space, you need the detailed information Ahrefs provides.
Check out the free plugin today, or test drive a premium Ahrefs subscription for $7. That will give you one week to try out every amazing tool the company offers.
What I Looked At To Find the Best SEO Plugin for WordPress
Now that you know my top seven best SEO plugins for WordPress, it’s time for you to make a decision that aligns with your company’s needs.
Identifying these criteria is the most critical part of your decision-making process because it will dictate whether it will improve your website traffic and engagement and inform your strategies.
Consider the following factors and whether prospective tools align with your personal preferences to make the right decision for your business.
You Can Handle All Aspects From a Single SEO Plugin
Getting the best SEO plugin for your site is the key. You really don’t want to try and cobble together a few different SEO plugins to handle various areas.
The reason is that having multiple plugins with overlapping functions is going to cause problems. So-called plugin conflicts can slow your site down, if not crash it altogether.
Plus, all plugins take up resources. The fewer you use, the less strain put on your site.
Everyone loves plugins because they do amazing things for your site. But you have to be thoughtful about what you use—especially with SEO plugins.
Some plugins will explicitly call out that they’re compatible with others. That can work. But unless you really know what you’re doing, I’d stick to a single SEO plugin to reap the benefits and avoid the issues.
So head into your search with a list of all the aspects of SEO that you’re looking to address. There’s a lot out there, and you may find capabilities you didn’t know existed. Here are some (not all) of the different areas that WordPress SEO plugins can help you tackle:
Keyword SEO: Discover which keywords matter and work them into your content.
Backlinking: Check, evaluate, and build backlinks to your site to increase domain authority.
On-Page SEO: Make your page easier to read and find for Google bots and human readers.
Google AMP SEO: Optimize your content for mobile users.
SERP SEO: Use schemas to claim a coveted spot on the first search engine results page (SERP) with a featured snippet or spot in the carousel.
Local SEO: Get found by people searching in a specific area and rank higher on Google Maps.
Video SEO: Give your videos the best chance to rank highly and show up even if people aren’t using the video search.
Social Media SEO: Integrate your plugin with social media channels to preview how posts will look or see how they are performing
Now, since you know that you can’t use multiple SEO plugins, it should come as no surprise that some of the most popular options can handle everything. The three I recommended are SEOPress, Yoast, and the aptly-named All in One SEO.
If you have a big site, lots of sites, or you are really trying to get after SEO, I’d choose one of these options and not look back.
Maybe you’re not pursuing every avenue right now, but you probably will be. And that option will be open to you without having to jump ship to a new plugin later. SEOPress actually lets you deactivate the aspects you’re not using, which is more efficient for your site.
Plus, SEO is always changing. These “one-stop-shop” SEO plugins have to change with the times in order to keep their reputation as a complete solution. Again, switching plugins is a pain, but you probably won’t have to by going with the multipurpose SEO plugins.
Not everyone is going to need the full arsenal. If you are just starting off, you can probably get by with a leaner plugin that targets the specific areas of SEO that really matter to you.
This is going to be less resource-intensive and way cheaper. Don’t pay for something loaded with powerful features you aren’t going to use.
Key SEO Metrics Available At a Glance
You can’t improve what you can’t measure.
Good SEO plugins give you clear visibility into your site’s performance.
Look at Ahrefs Rank Tracker tool, for instance. You can see how different pages have performed over time with a few clicks:
All the relevant metrics are plain as day: referring domains, referring pages, organic traffic, organic keywords, the value of that traffic, and all your social shares broken down by channel.
Tracking this on your own would be a full-time job. Now, you have tons of intelligible data to make informed decisions about your content and outreach strategy.
What’s working? What’s not? Now you know.
More than just information, the very best SEO WordPress plugins offer concrete steps you can take to improve.
All in One SEO gives you a site score based on an SEO audit checklist. This reflects how well your site is doing score that reflects how well your site is doing:
If something major has happened, you’ll know immediately. You’ll also know why.
At the bottom of that screencap, there’s a Complete SEO Checklist. This shows you why you have the score you do, broken down into Good Results, Recommended Improvements, and Critical issues.
Clicking on any item in the checklist brings up a short explanation of what’s happening and how to fix it:
With the right WordPress plugin, SEO goes from being this mysterious black box to something you can manage at the tactical level.
There’s a lot of metrics and tools to help you. SEOPress* and Yoast both work inside your WordPress editor to make the process of writing SEO-friendly content easier. Everything from making sure your keyword density is on point to crafting meta descriptions that look good in Google.
I could go on for pages, but what’s important for you is finding a plugin that reports performance metrics in a way you can turn into results. Businesses don’t optimize their sites in the same way, they have different audiences and markets to reach.
Which plugin gives you the toolkit to understand performance and make effective decisions?
You Don’t Have to Hire a Specialist to Use It
SEO is its own speciality. There’s a lot to know, and it’s always changing, so “knowing SEO” is an ongoing battle. If this is your first time trying to optimize a site for search engines, I’d pay very close attention to how easy the plugin is to use.
Good options for beginners include AIOSEO and SEOPress. Both of these have install wizards which guide you through a quick setup. Even total rookies will be able to get their site’s fundamentals in order.
Say you’ve never built an XML sitemap. It’s really important, especially for bigger sites with a lot of pages. AISEO creates these for you, and makes sure they are up to date. It’s all clicks on your end—no code required—and now Google’s going to get your readers to the right page automatically. Readers getting what they want quickly is a very good thing.
I really favored options that run SEO audits of your site and give you simple checklists. Sometimes you’ll be able to troubleshoot issues right there, but what happens when you need more help?
I highly recommend using the knowledge base of the different plugins you are considering. Can you find the information you need and make the changes necessary?
This is really important if you are going with a free option, as there’s understandably limited support. With paid options, you can get the one-on-one help, but being able to learn how to solve things on your own is ideal.
Trends in SEO change like the weather. Google and Bing constantly update the algorithms that drive search. You can have everything optimized and running great only to see rankings drop a few weeks later.
If you, your teams, and clients are comfortable with the plugin, it’s going to be easier to recognize and respond to issues faster.
Can You Get By With a Free SEO Plugin?
Most of the WordPress SEO plugins I’ve reviewed have a free and a paid version. And there are a ton more both kinds out there.
If you are just getting started with SEO on your site, I would highly recommend test-driving a free version of the plugin that makes the most sense given your goals.
The free plugins I reviewed don’t all cover the same ground. The free version of Yoast lets you address breadcrumbs, whereas AIOSEO and SEOPress do not. SEOPress, lets you optimize your posts for social media, which is an add-on for Yoast.
In my reviews, I’ve broken out which features come with the free version and which you have to pay for. You may find that a free plugin is all you need for now, and you can cross the upgrade bridge if it makes sense later.
Do be aware that you’re going to get very limited customer service with a free plugin. You can ask questions in forums, but you may be waiting a few days or more on an answer.
So if you are really new to WordPress and SEO, it may make sense to spend the extra money to get priority support and premium knowledge resources included with paid SEO plugins.
For more experienced users, I think it’s best to jump right in with one of the paid versions. This way there won’t be limits on what you can do.
If you’re ready to start executing on SEO, you’ll likely find the freemium versions constraining, and you won’t get a full sense of what the total plugin can do.
Most* of the premium SEO plugins offer a refund if you aren’t happy within the first few weeks, so it’s pretty risk-free. Yes, it’s going to take a lot longer to start seeing results, but at least you’ll know if you like the interface and it’s tackling all the issues you have.
Looking at free vs. paid SEO plugins, you need to strike a balance. New users don’t want to pay for an overwhelming amount of features they’re not going to use. Experienced users can’t afford to start using a tool that only lets them implement a piecemeal strategy.
If you can afford a paid SEO plugin, I would definitely recommend it. Given how big an impact it can have on boosting traffic to your site, the cost will be a drop in the bucket.
Conclusion
My top recommendations for the best SEO plugin for WordPress are AIOSEO and Yoast SEO. To recap the full list:
AIOSEO is the perfect toolkit for an expert looking for extra help, while Yoast has a unique page analysis functionality and is great for any size business.
WP Rocket makes your site so much faster, helping you pass the crucial first test for ranking well on Google.
Our very own Ubersuggest tool eliminates the need for a true plugin. Just enter keywords or domain names into the web app and see all the data you could need to spot opportunities.
Semrush offers content strategy features and is affordable. SEOPress is an excellent choice for novices and is very straightforward with some customization options.
Ahrefs offers great customer service, and Schema Pro has diverse functionality.
No matter what you decide, any tool in this guide will be on the right path to optimize your website and increase traffic.
Joshua Franco closed the book on his rivalry with Andrew Moloney, rolling to a unanimous decision victory to retain his secondary WBA junior bantamweight title.
If you are thinking about starting a business, there is a lot you need to know. Our business experts can walk you through the entire process to ensure you have the fundability you need to succeed. From how to set up your business as a fundable entity to making sure you have what lenders are looking for when it comes to approving start up business loans, here is what you need to know.
How to Get Start Up Business Loans and Other Funding
If your business isn’t fundable, you will not get startup business loans, plain and simple. Of course, if you are a start up you aren’t going to have a ton or revenue or business credit history. So, what can you do to ensure you have a fundable business that can get the money needed to get up and running?
Fundability starts in the very beginning. How you set your business up can make or break your ability to get business start up loans. Here’s why. Lenders want to see that your business is a stand alone entity, fundable on its own apart from you as the owner. It lends credibility to your business as one that is strong and able to survive on its own merits.
To start this process, you need to make sure your business has its own name and contact information. Do not use your own phone number, address, or email address. You also need to apply for an EIN. It’s free on the IRS website. This is an identifying number for your business that’s similar to an SSN for an individual.
After that, it is vital that you incorporate. Choose whichever options works best for your budget and liability needs, S-corp, LLC, or corporation. But, you must do it. It makes all the difference when applying for business start up loans.
Then, you need to have a separate, dedicated business bank account. It further lends credibility to your business as one that is legit, and there are a number of other benefits that will serve your business well in the future. For now, just know it is preferred by lenders.
Business Plan
If your business is properly set up, you will need a business plan. Most business loan applications have a place where you can just fill in the blanks for this part, but that is not what you want to do. You need a professional, well put together business plan that shows you know what you are doing with the money you are asking for.
You can find templates online, including at SBA.gov. However, it’s even better if you can hire a professional business plan writer. You will also likely have to hire other professionals to help you complete each part of the business plan.
For example, you will need a marketing specialist to help you with the market research and an accountant to help with the forecast and other financial sections. The better your business plan presentation is, the better off you will be.
Business Start Up Loans and Other Funding
Ok, so now for the nuts and bolts. You cannot start a business without money. If your business is properly set up and you have a solid, professional business plan, you have given yourself a great start. It’s time to find the money.
There are a few different options when it comes to business start up loans. Traditional loans are the most common and typically the first on the list with new business owners. It’s just what everyone knows. If you want to start a business you go to the bank and get a loan. That works for a lot of people.
Generally these are all secured loans. That means you put up collateral. However, if you have fabulous personal credit, you might be able to get an unsecured business start up loan. The thing is, you may not want to. You are almost always going to get better rates and terms if you use collateral.
SBA Loans
For most, SBA loans are going to be the way to go. These are business loans that have a government guarantee. Because of this, lenders are able to offer them to business owners with lower credit scores than they would otherwise, and the interest rates tend to be better as well.
Credit Line Hybrid
This is a great option for those needing business start up loans for a number of reasons. First, if security is an issue, this is totally unsecured business financing. You do not put up any collateral, and you can get up to $150,000. It is also no-doc financing, meaning you do not have to provide banks statements or financials of any kind.
All you need is to have a personal credit score of at least 680 and meet a few other requirements. However, if you do not meet those requirements, you can take on a credit partner that does. You can use the credit of a friend or family member to apply for the credit line hybrid, and the payments will still report to your business credit report, thus building your business credit score.
Investors and Crowdfunding
Even though business start up loans are where most new business owners head first for funding, they are far from being the only way. Of course corporate investors are an option. Similar to a business plan, you need a pitch. Angel investors are an option as well. While debt free and effective, neither of these are particularly easy to come by.
Another option when it comes to looking for investors is Crowdfunding. It’s not a huge success rate, but there are some businesses that are able to get all they need from this form of funding. You’ll never know if you don’t try.
Help Through the Weeds
The biggest issue when it comes to business start up loans, and really any other part of starting a business, is getting through the weeds. It can be overwhelming to try and figure out what you need to do to qualify for the funding you need, and then figure out what funding will actually work best for you. A business credit expert is vital to this process. While it is possible to do it alone, it is well worth any expense to get things done not only faster, but the right way to ensure nothing is missed.
The truth is, fundability matters regardless of the type of start up funding you use. The reason is, you are likely going to need to access funding of some type throughout the life of your business. If your business is not fundable, you will not be able to get it. So, the best option is to work with a business credit expert now, to get you on the path to fundability while helping you find business start up loans and other types of start up funding to get you up and running. Building fundability and business credit takes knowledge and intentionality. Don’t try to do it alone. You don’t have to.
Email beats all other marketing channels and can generate $37 for every $1 you invest.
Even though email marketing can generate a ton of revenue, it’s still not easy.
You need to know which email tools are best, how to use them so you don’t end up in spam folders, and how to create emails that convert.
Even for fully-staffed marketing teams, it can be overwhelming.
Email marketing agencies are perfect for overcoming these challenges.
They know how to use the tools and run fully-scaled email campaigns. They can also distill your brand and offer into great campaigns that generate revenue.
Today, I’ll walk you through how to choose an email marketing agency that’ll help you unlock all the business value email holds.
Good?
Well, let’s start from the basics.
Know Your Goals and Desired Outcomes
Before you jump straight to the top email marketing companies and pick one to work with, it’s a good idea to pause first.
Why?
You’ll get much better results.
Famous email agencies, like the ones I’ll recommend, usually have a track record of overseeing successful email marketing strategies and campaigns.
However, it’s never a one-size-fits-all situation.
Some agencies only excel when working on specific projects or campaigns. Others drive better results when working with specific kinds of businesses.
Knowing your goals and desired outcomes with email marketing gives you the right lens to evaluate different agencies and know which one is best for your needs.
Not to mention, it’ll help your agency get started a lot faster. The clearer the goal, the better the outcome.
Let’s take a look at some examples.
Example #1: Build and grow your email list
Without an email list, you can’t do email marketing.
And if you have a small list of, say, 33 email addresses, you’ll never get the full benefits of email marketing either.
The first step is to build your email list.
You’ll achieve this by choosing an agency with experience executing list-building campaigns to get your first 100, 1,000, or 10,000 email subscribers.
Take yourself, for example.
You won’t give a company your email address for nothing, right?
Absolutely not! We all get enough spam as it is.
Similarly, most people would only subscribe to your email list in exchange for something valuable.
In the digital marketing world, this could be an ebook, a checklist, or other forms of relevant content promoted to the audience whose emails you’re targeting. Consider choosing an email marketing agency with experience creating and promoting amazing content. The better the content, the faster your list will grow.
Example #2: Increase your email open and click-through rates
Low open and click-through rates will destroy your list.
If your open and click-through rates are low, you’ll run into a cascading series of problems:
Your audience isn’t seeing your offers. That’s less revenue.
Email service providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo will notice your low performance. Then they’ll flag you as spam or stop delivering your email altogether.
Now your open and click rates get even worse.
Even if you improve your campaigns later, they won’t deliver nearly the same results.
Improving your email reputation is REALLY hard.
Instead of risking this email cycle of doom, it’s a good idea to partner with an agency that knows what they’re doing.
They can look for early signs that something’s wrong, course-correct early, and keep your email reputation safe.
In this case, look for an email marketing agency that is exceptional at developing strategies and tactics to help increase your open and click-through rates.
The two examples above were to show that your goals and desired outcome with email marketing go a long way in determining what agency to choose.
They were also to demonstrate that no agency is a one-size-fits-all for all email marketing problems.
Set your goals first, then look for an agency that specializes in those goals.
6 Characteristics That Make a Great Email Marketing Agency
There are hundreds of email agencies out there. Maybe thousands.
And if you visit the websites of these agencies, every single one claims to be the best.
But what characteristics make an email marketing company great? And how can you vet and choose an agency to work with?
1. Great Content Creation
Think of all the emails you receive from other companies.
Do you know why you can’t wait to open and engage with some, but would ignore, delete, or unsubscribe from others right off the bat?
In most cases, it’s because you don’t value the content of those emails.
Amazing content keeps people opening and reading. Then when you send an offer, they’re willing to consider it.
Great content is the core of any serious email strategy.
Check to see if they focus on a process for crafting engaging email content. The best ones always do.
2. An Impressive Client Portfolio
Excellent email marketing agencies didn’t achieve that status overnight.
They worked with dozens or hundreds of brands to execute successful email campaigns.
Because of this, they should have plenty of top-tier brands in their portfolio. And case studies that show you exactly what was done.
Not all of this can be shared publicly. But when you’re exploring options with agencies, ask for examples during your initial calls. The agency should have plenty of examples to point to. If they struggle to come up with some, look elsewhere.
It’s a great way to quickly vet agencies of all types.
3. Thought Leadership
Exceptional email marketing agencies are always on top of email trends. It’s constantly evolving and you don’t want to work with someone that’s using tactics from 5 years ago.
An easy way to check for this is the agency’s blog, YouTube channel, or their own email list. Within 20-30 minutes of consuming their content, you should learn a ton. And it should all be cutting edge.
That’s a good sign they’ll be able to apply those same tactics to your email campaigns.
4. Deep Expertise with Email Tools
Great agencies will have used them all.
If you ask them which tools are best, you’ll quickly learn:
Which are most popular
Strengths and weaknesses of each
The handful of tools to avoid
But don’t worry about which tool they recommend. Pay attention to their depth of knowledge when speaking with them. They’ll probably start by recommending a single tool. Then as soon as you ask any follow up questions, they should have plenty of qualifications, nuance, and detail to their answers.
You should get the feeling that the agency knows this stuff cold. If not, find someone that does.
5. Has Specific Rules to Avoid Spam
If you’ve been hit hard by spam flags, you might need an agency that specializes exclusively on reviving domains with negative email reputations.
Most of us don’t need to go that far.
But you absolutely want to work with an agency that knows how to stay out of the spam box.
Also ask new agencies about how they stay out of spam, their processes to keep things clean, and early warnings that they like to look for.
You should be blown away with the thoroughness of their answers.
If not, keep looking.
6. A Great Company Culture
By choosing an email marketing agency to work with, you’re entering a business relationship with another business entity.
So, before you proceed, check that their company culture fits with yours.
Without a good fit on culture, you’re going to get email campaigns that don’t jive with your brand. You could anger your audience and turn them away. Or play things too safe and leave money on the table.
There’s no right answer on culture, just make sure their culture and yours fit well.
Ask for samples of recent campaigns that they’ve done. They’re likely to do similar work for you.
How to Work With an Email Marketing Agency
Working with an exceptional email marketing agency isn’t like dashing into a grocery store, filling your cart, and dashing out in a few minutes.
There are steps you’ll need to take that ensure your partnership with one leads to business growth via email marketing.
1. Align your in-house team
Most email marketing agencies won’t work in isolation but as an extension of your in-house digital marketing team.
Hence, to ensure a smooth partnership between you and them, you should:
Have meetings with stakeholders in your company to align relevant teams on the need to work with an email agency.
Communicate how the agency’s work would impact your business and why it is necessary.
As needed, appoint employees to work directly with the email marketing agency.
Doing this ensures team alignment between the agency and your company. Also, it keeps the agency in sync with your values, company culture, and the goals for choosing to work with them.
2. Discovery session
As you first go out to contact an email marketing agency, they won’t jump straight into sending you a proposal or contract.
The best email marketing agencies act like doctors who only prescribe after they diagnose.
And to start diagnosing your challenges and goals with email marketing, expect to fill an inquiry form, followed by a discovery session.
3. Research & strategic recommendations
Before making a specific proposal, any good email marketing agency will do an extensive round of research on your current campaigns. This will include things like:
Signing up for your lists and looking at your current campaigns
Mapping out your signup flows
Checking landing pages and signup offers
Looking through social profiles and email funnels from other channels
Once they have a complete picture of where you are today, they’ll be able to put a proposal together.
4. A working contract with project deliverables
A typical work duration with an email marketing agency spans several months.
To take on that kind of scope,agencies usually prefer to send a formal proposal and contract for you to sign.
Take your time and this stage and go through the proposal in detail. You should feel great about every piece. If you have any concerns, work through them now. It’s really easy to change scope, budget, or goals now.
Once you fee good about it, get the contract signed.
5. Onboarding
Expect an onboarding process customized for your team after you sign the contract.
During this step, the agency will usually ask for all your internal document and tool access. Expert to send them invites for your Google Analytics and email tools. Also put together every piece of internal documentation that you have on your email campaigns. The more info they have, the better.
From here, the agency will get started on the work and should have regular check-in calls along the way.
How to Find The Right Email Marketing Agency For You
To choose an email marketing agency that’s right for your needs, the steps I recommend are:
Be sure about your business goals and desired outcomes from email marketing.
Consider agencies with the characteristics above.
Choose an agency with expertise in the area you need help with. And where possible, also prioritize those that have worked with reputable brands.
Finally, know that email is part of your digital, and by extension, content marketing strategy. Hence, it’s best to choose a company with bandwidth for those.
To help, we reviewed hundreds of agencies and found these to be the best.
The 5 Top Email Marketing Agencies
#1 Neil Patel Digital – Best For Email Content
Every time you send an email, people unsubscribe.
That hurts the long-term prospects of your email list.
Since every email has a real cost and makes your list smaller, it’s best to make them count.
The best way to do this is with great content. Your unsubscribes will be lower, your list will be more engaged, and you’ll generate more revenue in the long-run.
Content, including email content, is one of the core areas of expertise at my agency, Neil Patel Digital.
#2. InboxArmy – Best for Full-service Email Management
InboxArmy comes highly recommended, as a full-service email marketing and management company.
This agency’s services include email strategy development, template design, email automation, and other.
InboxArmyserves companies such as Airbnb, LandCentral, and Jockey. If you’re looking for serious email pros for your B2C company, I’d reach out to them.
#3 Fix My Churn – Best for SaaS Onboarding Emails and churn
User onboarding emails are a very unique skill set. The content, CTAs, sending logic and tools are completely different. If you want to improve your SaaS emails, you really need experts in this area.
Fix My Churn applies top-level SaaS copywriting skills to create email onboarding and churn-eliminating sequences to turn free and trial users into happy, long-term customers.
Led by its Founder and SaaS email expert, Val Geisler, Fix My Churn has earned a reputation as an email marketing agency for SaaS companies like Buffer, Aweber, Podia, InVision, and others.
I’d also consider them if your have any type of subscription offer.
#4 Action Rocket – Best for Enterprise Email
Action Rocket needs no introduction as an email marketing agency for enterprise companies.
This agency even works with leading email software companies like Campaign Monitor, MailChimp, Litmus, and others to shape the email marketing space.
Using its vast years of experience, Action Rocket strategizes and develops custom email and CRM programs for enterprise companies, including Marks & Spencer, the BBC, and others.
If you want serious muscle behind your email strategy, reach out to them.
#5 SmartMail – Best for Ecommerce Email
SmarMail is our recommended email marketing agency for ecommerce businesses.
Every business model has its own unique challenges with email and ecommerce is no exception.
You need cart abandonment emails, promotional emails, lifescycle emails for repurchases, and receipts with guaranteed email deliverability.
This agency excels at helping online stores acquire, convert, and retain customers by strategizing and launching email marketing campaigns based on automated triggers across buyers’ lifetime cycle:
SmartMail has an excellent track record, helping ecommerce companies generate about $187 million in revenues. Their clients include French Connection, Skechers, and others.
Get Email Right to Drive Growth
Email marketing isn’t going anytime soon. It is here to stay.
And it generates a ton of cash. Choosing the right agency will get you that growth a lot sooner.
Set your goals, then start looking for the right agency for you.
Even if you plan on doing email inhouse, the right agency can get everything set up correctly from the beginning. That will save your team a ton of time and prevent disastrous mistakes like getting all your emails stuck in the spam folder.
Medikeeper helps millions of employees and health plan members engage in preventative wellness programs and actively close gaps in their health care. You can find out more about our products, here: https://medikeeper.com/products/
We’re looking for proactive, quality-oriented engineers who are excited to work closely with a smart product team. We’re a small company with lots of planned, funded growth, so this is an opportunity to get in early and grow with the company!
Here’s the full-stack engineer posting at Stack Overflow and Women Who Code (the WWC ad outlines our interview process):
We’re also hiring for QA Engineers and a UX Designer.
I’m the hiring manager for our engineering/QA team and I’m assisting with the UX role, so if you’d like to learn more about any of these openings, please do feel free email me directly at the address in my HN profile, or apply for the engineering role via WWC or Stack Overflow. Happy to take questions directly! Please mention that you saw this post on HN.
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