Top 10 Best Free WordPress SEO Tools and Plugins to Rank High on Google
To get high Search Engine rankings, Search Engine Optimization is essential. That’s why it is very important to use right tools and plugins as there are lots of useless tools and plugins available.
In this post, I will share 10 Best Free WordPress SEO Tools and Plugins that will help to improve SEO status of your WordPress website. All these tools and plugins are free so you won’t need to save money for getting top position on Google.
There is a big competition for getting high Search Engine rankings but it is not impossible to achieve that. When I started learning SEO, I thought SEO is very tough and never ending business. I was wrong, SEO is very conceptual and everyone who owns a website or blog should know about Search Engine Optimization.
Before SEO, there is always ( and always will be ) content that matters more than anything. You can get high ranking on Google or other search engines only if your content is pleasant. For dead and boring content you can expect nothing but the thumbs down in return.
Below listed plugins & tools will not only help you to improve SEO and Search Engine Ranking but also will help you in writing engaging and valuable Articles. Let’s get started :
10 Best Free WordPress SEO Tools and Plugins to Rank High on Google
1. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the best plugin to fully optimize your WordPress website. Yoast SEO is one of the most popular plugin and has more than 1 Million active installs. This plugin alone can take care of On-Page SEO.
It allows you to do following things :
- Generate XML sitemaps – Yoast SEO automatically creates XML sitemap once you have enabled XML Sitemap functionality.
- Edit your robots.txt and .htaccess file – You can easily edit two most important files.
- Page analysis – This functionality helps you to optimize your work and also suggests the changes that you should do to make your Article/blog post more Search Engine friendly.
- Edit Snippet – You can write custom titles, meta descriptions and can target any keyword you want for each post and pages.
Actually, I just listed four main features of this amazing plugin. Yoast Plugin has a lot more features about which you can read here : How to Install and Setup Yoast SEO – WordPress Plugin.
If you are a beginner, Yoast SEO is the best solution. The plugin is free and you can download Yoast SEO from WordPress Plugin directory.
2. Google Keyword Planner
There is no other online tool which gives performance insights like Google Keyword Planner. Google Keyword Planner is an extremely valuable free tool and anyone can use it.
Keyword Planner can also help you choose powerful Keywords for your Articles. You can search for keyword and ad group ideas once you have setup Google AdWords account. You can also get search volume for a list of keyword. Google AdWords Keyword Planner shows the average monthly searches ( last 12 Months ) for Keywords.
I use this tool and it works great for me.
3. Google Search Console
With this free service, you can monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google Search results. You can submit sitemaps so that Google can access your content and optimize your site’s performance in search results.
It is very important Service offered by Google for free which takes care of your site’s visibility in search results. Google Search Console (previously Google Webmaster Tools) allows webmasters to check the crawling and indexing status of their website. Using this service you can block your site’s content that you do not want to appear in Search results.
Google Search Console also suggests you how you can improve your site’s presence in Search results. If you are not using this service then you are making a huge mistake.
4. Google Page Speed Insights
Google Page Speed Insights is another free Google tool that helps you test the speed of every single page of a website. Page Speed matters because it is now one of the major Search Engine ranking signal. No one will ever like your website if it is slow thus it is essential for you to increase the loading speed of your pages.
To increase the page speed Google Page Speed insights is an ultimate solution because after analyzing the content of a web page, it generates suggestions to make that page faster.
5. W3 total cache
W3 Total Cache is a free WordPress plugin that improves your site’s performance and user experience by increasing server performance. It also makes the rendering of pages quick.
Main features :
- Transparent content delivery network (CDN) management with Media Library, theme files and WordPress itself
- Caching of (minified and compressed) pages and posts in memory or on disk or on CDN (mirror only)
- Non-blocking JavaScript embedding
- Caching of feeds (site, categories, tags, comments, search results) in memory or on disk or on CDN (mirror only)
W3 Total Cache Reduces page load time and minifies the Javascript. W3 Total Cache is a very popular plugin with more than 1 Million active installs. It is recommended plugin for every owner who has a WordPress website.
6. Broken Link Checker
This plugin informs you about the broken links that need to be fixed. Broken links affect your site’s SEO and they result in bad user experience.
It is very necessary to check the and fix the broken links and for this purpose Broken Link Checker can be a very useful plugin. It is free and very easy to use. Broken link checker helps you find all the External and Internal broken links. Sometimes this plugin may slow down the server. If you are facing this problem then you can use online resources to check the broken links of your blog.
Popular free Online Broken Link Checker Tools :
7. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that helps you track your website’s traffic. It is now one of the most widely used Analytics service by site owners. You can also track sales activity and performance for your eCommerce website. There are many Google Analytics plugins for WordPress users.
Google Analytics is available for Mobile users too, you can download it for free from Google Play Store or Apple App store. It has very advanced and useful features, for example, Real-time traffic analysis, user behavior, identify poorly performing pages, etc.
8. Google Position Checker Tool ( Search Engine Genie )
Google Position Checker Tool is an amazing free online tool that helps users to check the keyword position in google search results. It is an easiest tool which is totally free and generates the accurate result. If you can not afford any paid services for checking the keyword positioning then this tool is the best solution even I use it.
To use this tool open https://www.searchenginegenie.com/google-rank-checker.html and fill the required details then click on Submit button to know your keyword position. ( See the screenshot for reference )
9. BuzzSumo
If you want to know about the trending topics or how many shares a topic has then you need to use BuzzSumo. BuzzSumo is one of the most important tool that you should definitely use. BuzzSumo displays the most shared content on any topic you choose. You can know your competitors and how many shares they have on Social media.
BuzzSumo free has limitations but you can start a free 14 day trial on the Pro Plans and no payment details are required.
When and why I use BuzzSumo ?
Before and After publishing a blog post. I use BuzzSumo just to know the total shares my competitors have and also to know my own shares.
10. OpenLinkProfiler
Backlinks have their own importance in SEO . Where quality links can improve your site’s value, Bad links may down your site’s overall ranking. OpenLinkProfiler is one of the best free SEO tool that helps you analyze backlinks pointing to your website. OpenLinkprofiler is a service of SEOprofiler. You can export up to 1,000 backlinks per website in .csv format.
OpenLinkProfiler gives the accurate information. To use this tool you can create a free account. The free account allows you to check backlinks for as many websites as you want.
Conclusion
Above listed “10 Best Free WordPress SEO Tools and Plugins” can help you improve SEO of your WordPress website. For getting high rankings everything is important for example, SEO is important, Social sharing is important, Site speed is important and so on.
Site speed is a major search engine ranking signal. Make sure your site loads faster. Use less plugins as they can make your site slow. Share your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+. Write easy and write more than 500 words in every Article. Optimize your work properly and use optimized images. Ranking high on Google is not a Rocket Science, with the well optimized content you can top the search engine result pages.
If you liked this post, then please do not forget to share this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. If you think I have not mentioned any other free tool which needs to be added in this list then please suggest in the comments.
