SEO Plugins Are Helpful Tools, But They’re No Substitute for an Expert.
Optimizing your website for search engines can help you rank higher in search results and significantly grow your business (we cover this in depth elsewhere in our site).
For WordPress and other major platforms, there are many popular plugins that will help you perform SEO. But are they enough by themselves to ‘optimize’ your site? We say no.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t use them – many are very good. In fact, Yoast (the first plugin we list below) is a tool we use everyday ourselves.
SEO Plugins
The most popular SEO plugins available right now are the following:
- Yoast: Founded in 2010 and available on WordPress and Shopify, Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin out there for a reasons. Feature rich, Easy to use and well supported by its own help center and community, Yoast SEO is a tool we use and recommend. Both free and premium versions are available, premium is $99 a year.
- All in One SEO (AIOSEO): often referred to as the “most beginner friendly” option available because of its simple setup options. AIOSEO is a comprehensive suit of tools with great support. We don’t currently use it but we’re planning a side by side comparison of Yoast and AIOSEO in the near future. Free and premium versions available, premium starts at $124 per year.
- SEOpress: the cheapest option on this list – premium starts at $49 per year (a free version is also available). We don’t want to fling mud, but there’s a reason it’s cheaper than the others.
All of the above are good options. But – they will only give you the tools to perform SEO. They will not perform SEO for you.
Why You Need an SEO Specialist.
Just because your website is live and indexed, that doesn’t mean it will succeed. It will be competing against every other website that wants to rank for the same search terms you do, and to beat them it needs to be better than them – bigger, more helpful, faster and better optimized. SEO is just one aspect of this but it may well be the biggest one.
To perform SEO correctly takes knowledge and research: the knowledge to know what works, and the research necessary to find out what your competitors are doing so that your site can do it better. There’s no plugin in the world that can give you these things.
SEO plug-ins do a decent job of pointing out best practices and giving suggestions as to how to maintain a good SEO status. However, there are some critical differences between installing a plug-in and using an SEO service like we offer with SuCoWeb:
- We have over 10 years of SEO experience. In a fast moving industry this makes all the difference. We also research and read constantly to make sure we stay ahead of every change of the rules and shift in best practice.
- We have access to multiple sources. That means we have lots of information about how well your site is ranking while comparing it to your competitors.
- SEO plug-ins tend to be biased to their own SEO methodology and technology. We have our favorite tools, but are unbiased. Our goal is to get the most accurate information and use it to benefit you and your website.
- We’re not software, and we’re not robots. We’re able to understand human issues happening in real time and make necessary adjustments.
- SEO work can be a bit dense and confusing at times. Working with a team like SuCoWeb means you’ll have live help and real answers to your questions whenever you need it.
- Many of these SEO plug-ins are one of the following:
- Cheap but do very little for you.
- Cost too much and still do very little.
- They cost too much and leave you feeling overwhelmed.
- We want to take the guesswork out of it while remaining cost effective.
We’re not suggesting that SEO plug-ins have no value, they do.
SEO plugins are tools, not teachers. Using a team who knows you, your site, your goals, and your competition can have a major positive impact on how your website ranks. This way you can focus on what you’re actually doing within your business and we can focus on what’s happening online. Let’s get started!
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