SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and has become an important topic for us web designers in recent years. Of course, we want our web offerings to be found by Google, Bing, and others, and thus by the whole world.
Quick reminder: SEO controls under which keywords you are found in search engines and how you are listed in the results. For example, like this:
WordPress with Plugins
If you use WordPress as your CMS, you’re already well-equipped for SEO in the basic setup. This is because WP structures content by default, and you can create order with categories and tags. It gets even better when you install an SEO plugin. SEOPress and Yoast are popular options.
Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, Yoast in particular has become more complex and confusing with each version. This isn’t necessarily due to the functions but rather the pricing model. Basically, everything is free (and the free version is sufficient in most cases). But since you can’t earn anything with free, there’s also a Pro option, which is frequently and often advertised in the plugin. Many features you want to enable then suddenly cost money.
New Kid in Town: Rank Math
This doesn’t have to be the case, thought some clever developers, and they launched a completely free plugin some time ago that has all the functions of Yoast and many more: Rank Math. The plugin is super easy to use; you just need to activate it, and then everything is basically done. It also has a clean and well-explained user interface that you can quickly navigate. All content is automatically optimized, and for blog posts, various tools are provided to optimize the text. All of this cost absolutely nothing until now.
(Now it’s time for a parenthesis: of course, it didn’t cost nothing, because such an SEO plugin does get quite intensively involved in a site, as it’s linked to analytics. This data flows to the manufacturer. That’s always the case. Think of Google, which provides an entire analytics toolset “for free” and thus gets access to almost every website and app in the world. So: nothing comes from nothing, data is the new currency. End of parenthesis.)
Rank Math Basic and Pro
It was clear from the beginning that the developers of Rank Math couldn’t continue with the free version forever. I dreaded the day when the plugin would suddenly become PRO and thus no longer free. Well, that day has come today. However, there’s nothing to fear so far: all previous free functions remain free. And they are still extensive.
Building on this, many useful functions have now been added to the Pro version. The differences between Basic and Pro are compiled on this website.
The Main Thing: SEO!
SEO is a book with seven seals for many web designers and website owners. With plugins like SEOPress, Yoast, or Rank Math, SEO becomes simple and clear. I can recommend all three plugins, but personally only use Rank Math now (without being sponsored by the developers ;-)).
If you need help with SEO topics, we’d be happy to support you. Me and especially the guys and girls from morntag.com (aka haemeulrich.com) are SEO professionals. They are also happy to share their knowledge.
