Wordpress SEO Plugin Still Needed?

[That Guy]

Just wondering what the latest opinion is on Wordpress SEO Plugins?

I have always used All-In-One SEO Pack along with XML Sitemaps and a Custom URL Structure.

So my questions are:

• Do we still need to use an SEO Plugin with Wordpress?
• Which SEO Plugins are people using?
• Does anyone have Wordpress sites running with and without SEO Plugins? If so have you noticed much difference?

Thanks in Advance

 

[simon field]

All I can say is my half baked site has no seo, and we have never been busier - work is stacking up for next year (which is pretty much unheard of for us).

Most new enquiries are coming from the website, they are solid, varied, and plentiful whereas for a good few years it was strictly referrals, so whatever any seo genii may tell you here, it's working, and it's working very well.

To the point where I'm seeing all the squabbly cat-fighting on here about it and wondering if its a big pointless myth

So I've downloaded yoast, haven't activated it as yet, nor even looked into it - I need to work on the site first.

 

[fisicx]

SEO plugins are useful in that you can customise the info that people see in the SERPs. And they can help your ranking if used properly.

XML sitemaps are pretty much pointless as is the custom URL thing.

 

[JonathanSEO]

So I've downloaded yoast, haven't activated it as yet, nor even looked into it - I need to work on the site first.

:| You have Yoast activated on your site, so you already use it.

I think Yoast is a plugin that should come installed as standard on WP. It does a lot of beneficial things so it's worthwhile having.

Fisixc has a phobia of XML sitemaps for some reason. Not exactly essential but for largish sites they are worth having.

 

[Alan]

The most critical thing to do is be able to edit the title tag and meta description, because these are what makes up the 'advert' in the google listing (in the majority of cases there are exceptions)

For some reason, WordPress 'out of the box' doesn't give you this capability, but ALL seo plugins do, so you should use an seo plugin, which one isn't that critical in my opinion.

 

[adamo]

Whilst I think WordPress is relatively search-engine friendly anyway, I think SEO plugins such as SEO Yoast (my preference) can improve SERPs further if used properly.

 

[That Guy]

I am seeing Yoast mentioned allot, has it become more popular than All-In-One SEO Pack?

I seem to remember All-In-One SEO Pack being the number 1 go to plugin a couple years back.

I guess I'm asking is there much difference between the two?

 

[MASSEY]

Yoast is popular because it gives people loads of information, or useless information as i consider it.

Best to just keep it simple with title an meta as mentioned.

 

[Alan]

An SEO plugin needs to allow you to edit and set per page or post, custom values for

• Meta description
• Meta keywords
• Meta Robots - meta robots index/follow or noindex/follow
• title tag

As mentioned they all do this, everything else is window dressing.

I would say Yoast has made the most money out of creating his plugin => long term it is the one that is likely to be supported / extended the most.

(you may well ask how I can say that, especially as the plugin is free! )

 

[JonathanSEO]

An SEO plugin needs to allow you to edit and set per page or post, custom values for

• Meta description
• Meta keywords
• Meta Robots - meta robots index/follow or noindex/follow
• title tag

As mentioned they all do this, everything else is window dressing.

I would say Yoast has made the most money out of creating his plugin => long term it is the one that is likely to be supported / extended the most.

(you may well ask how I can say that, especially as the plugin is free! )

It's going premium is Yoast SEO.

 

[Alan]

The power of a brand

 

[JMaddox]

I personally think Yoast is the finest SEO plugin out there. I genuinely can't knock it!

 

[fisicx]

I personally think Yoast is the finest SEO plugin out there. I genuinely can't knock it!

How many of the others have you tried?

They all have the same basic features so at a fundamental level there is little to choose btween them.

 

[That Guy]

OK giving YOAST a try but have run into a problem.

The sites Meta Titles now display both the Yoast Page Tile I have set along with the original Wordpress Title Description like this:

[PAGE NAME SET IN YOAST] [WORDPRESS BLOG NAME] | [WORDPRESS BLOG DESCRIPTION]

I have tried changing in the "Titles and Metas" section of Yoast I have even tried enabling "Force Rewrite Titles" which makes no difference either.

Anyone know what could be going wrong?

 

[Faevilangel]

in your header.php file, what is in your <title> tag?

It should be the following ONLY:

<?php wp_title(); ?>

 

[That Guy]

in your header.php file, what is in your <title> tag?

It should be the following ONLY:

<?php wp_title(); ?>

Ah yes this may be the problem, this is what I have:

<title>
<?php 
	/*
	 * Print the <title> tag based on what is being viewed.
	 */
	global $page, $paged;

	wp_title( '|', true, 'right' );

	// Add the blog name.
	bloginfo( 'name' );

	// Add the blog description for the home/front page.
	$site_description = get_bloginfo( 'description', 'display' );
	if ( $site_description && ( is_home() || is_front_page() ) )
		echo " | $site_description";

	// Add a page number if necessary:
	if ( $paged >= 2 || $page >= 2 )
		echo ' | ' . sprintf( __( 'Page %s', 'ellipsis' ), max( $paged, $page ) );

	?>
</title>

I guess I can just change this in the Child Theme without any problems?

 

[Faevilangel]

Ah yes this may be the problem, this is what I have:

<title>
<?php 
    /*
     * Print the <title> tag based on what is being viewed.
     */
    global $page, $paged;

    wp_title( '|', true, 'right' );

    // Add the blog name.
    bloginfo( 'name' );

    // Add the blog description for the home/front page.
    $site_description = get_bloginfo( 'description', 'display' );
    if ( $site_description && ( is_home() || is_front_page() ) )
        echo " | $site_description";

    // Add a page number if necessary:
    if ( $paged >= 2 || $page >= 2 )
        echo ' | ' . sprintf( __( 'Page %s', 'ellipsis' ), max( $paged, $page ) );

    ?>
</title>

I guess I can just change this in the Child Theme without any problems?

Yup, just remove all that rubbish

 

[That Guy]

Yup, just remove all that rubbish

Thank You!

That worked perfect

 

[Websitehandyman]

I've tried them all, the are few few better then the rest but don't get carried away as today they tend not to do much that will make your content be ranked high then if you didn't use them.

If you hosting and content can take the resource hit then fine use one and the one I would recommend is http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/#utm_source=wpadmin&utm_medium=plugin&utm_campaign=wpseoplugin

 

[Bruce Allinson]

SEO and everything else is still good and helpful with WordPress or any other website build - but your right to think things have moved on since SEO alone will get you ranked and today well written fresh updates and quality one way back links can and will put your site on page one without an SEO plugin - do all you can including SEO without loosing your life to driving traffic. It's easy to lose valuable time in this when other aspects of your business need your attention.

 

[jamesosix]

Yoast is great at telling you what to improve in your pages and posts and its built by somebody has a very strong global reputation.

If you are writing posts in wordpress, before you publish it, set a keyword in the yoast section on the page/post, click save draft and it will give you a colour like yellow (ok, but improvements can be made) to green (good to go). Doing all the things it says will give you a small edge over somebody not using it.

All the best

 

[rsalemseo]

All in One SEO Pack still works for me and I have been using it since 2011. My secret is to always fill in the needed fields such as title, tags and description in each post. Also, it pays to be able to do some keyword research especially for the tags portion.