What’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress? Like all complex questions the answer is: “it depends.” And as always, the best tool is the one you use. In this post I’ll let you know the WordPress SEO plugin I use. It’s RankMath. I pay for the Pro Version which is $59 per year. 

Does Your WordPress Website Need a SEO Plugin?

You need water, air, shelter, and food. Do you need a SEO plugin? No, you don’t need a SEO plugin for WordPress. WordPress has technical architecture (sitemaps, permalink structure, excerpt) that helps with SEO from the technical side. 

Will a SEO plugin replace old-fashioned intuition or a SEO consultant? No. A plugin never replaces a human. But Both Yoast and RankMath help guide you as you write, especially if you write in the WordPress editor. And you’ll want to make the best use of your meta descritpion/summary/snippet.

“For best results, we recommend communicating the page’s main takeaway and including a clear Call To Action (CTA).”

WPCity

If you want to ensure that Open Graph data is available for social sharing, you can use an Open Graph plugin and skip SEO plugins for your WordPress site all together. “Open Graph and Twitter Card Tags” looks like a good choice in the WordPress plugin directory. And, it’s free. So what do you have to lose?

(Don’t go crazy and install a plugin without backing up your site, though.)

What’s the Best SEO Plugin for WordPress?

In the exercise of defining the best, let’s look at the worst SEO plugin for WordPress. The worst SEO plugin is not having one. I mean, we’ve established the fact that you don’t need one, but why wouldn’t you have one? It’s a lot better for your website than a slider. (The best slider for your website is no slider. Yep. Ever. No. Don’t do it. Please. Okay. Read this.)

Decision fatigue is a real problem. Meanwhile, you keep writing and writing and writing and your content meanders and there are so many run-on sentences and wait that bird just hit my window I wonder if I should go walk by the river today? I mean. Stop. Just slow down.

This is what the SEO plugin does. 

RankMath — The WordPress SEO Plugin I Use

The WordPress form plugin I use is It’s RankMath. I pay for the Pro Version which is $59 per year. Why? I used Yoast originally and I liked it fine. I have even produced a tutorial on how to set it up for your social sharing. I’m not a huge fan of their constant notifications on the WordPress admin, but free is free. Right?

I was introduced to RankMath from Jason Tucker. While writing the show notes for The Smart Marketing Show, I get to see the tools that he uses on WPwatercooler.com. 

The downside of RankMath, however, is that it doesn’t auto update in the WordPress dashboard/admin. It’s not the end of the world but it should be noted.

Here’s what I like about RankMath.

• It has a clean interface.
• I like the numerical scoring.
• It has content suggestions in the post.
• It works with the new WordPress editor and Classic Editor Plugin.
• It reminds you to use the keyword in your slug (link), alt text, and headings.
• As you accomplish the tasks, your numbers go up. It’s super helpful.

Here’s what I don’t like about RankMath.

• It wants me to use a table of contents. I literally don’t know how to do that.
• It wants my title to have a number. So clickbait.

Which SEO Plugin Should You Use?

Honestly, it doesn’t matter which SEO plugin you use for your WordPress website. To keep your writing focused and clear, you should use a SEO plugin. Yoast and RankMath are both excellent choices and I’ve used them both.