Optimizing your WordPress site is crucial to improving its ranking in search results. A higher rank boosts the chance of people discovering your site, bringing in more web traffic and, potentially, more revenue.
However, search engine optimization (SEO) may be daunting for beginners as there are various concepts and tools to consider.
If you own a WordPress website, using a plugin like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) makes the process swift and easy.
Without needing to be an SEO professional, you’ll be able to follow SEO best practices and improve your site’s visibility on search engines.
In this article, we’ll provide a complete AIOSEO tutorial – from an installation guide and the plugin’s key features to the best configuration to boost your website’s SEO rankings.
AIOSEO Plugin Video Tutorial
Check out our video tutorial below if you prefer a different format to learn about the All in One SEO plugin.
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Why Use the AIOSEO Plugin?
Although optimizing your site to be SEO-friendly might be challenging, using a WordPress plugin gives you the necessary starting tools to boost its performance.
One of the best WordPress plugins for SEO is All in One SEO. It allows you to improve your site’s SEO without any expertise. Additionally, it comes with an easy setup wizard to configure the basic settings in no time.
All in One SEO for WordPress offers a wide range of website optimization features that will improve your site’s SEO rankings, such as:
- Automatically generated SEO sitemaps. Includes sitemaps in XML and HTML format, in addition to news and RSS sitemaps.
- On-page optimization. Evaluates your content quality and provides suggestions to improve it.
- Built-in support for WordPress schema markup. Helps to create eye-catching rich snippets to generate clicks.
- Local SEO support. Optimizes search visibility for local businesses.
- Google Search Console integration. Provides access to traffic insights and other website performance analytics.
- Complete site audit. Evaluates your site’s SEO performance and provides actionable suggestions.
- Competitor site analysis. Provides in-depth analysis of the SEO efforts of other websites.
All you need to get started is to install the plugin.
How to Install the AIOSEO WordPress Plugin
Installing the All in One SEO plugin takes less than ten minutes. Furthermore, if you host your WordPress website at Hostinger, you can skip the process altogether, as the plugin comes pre-installed with all WordPress hosting accounts.
However, if you use a different web host, simply follow these steps:
- Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard and go to the Plugins section.
- Click on Add New and search for All in One SEO.
- Once you find the plugin, select Install Now and Activate.
For more advanced SEO features, you can purchase the plugin’s premium version. Here’s how to install it:
- After completing the purchase, log in to your AIOSEO account.
- On the dashboard, click on Downloads -> Download AIOSEO.
- Copy the license key. You will need it for the initial setup.
- Head back to the WordPress admin dashboard. Select Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugins -> Choose File.
- Upload the plugin’s .zip file. Click Install Now.
- Once it has been installed, click Activate Plugin.
How to Set Up the AIOSEO WordPress Plugin
The setup wizard will launch upon the plugin’s activation to help you with the basic configurations. Click on Let’s Get Started to proceed.
On the next page, choose the site’s category – whether it’s a blog, a portfolio site, an online store, and so on.
Then, enter the homepage title and meta description. We recommend using your main keywords here to indicate what your site is about. Alternatively, use the smart tags to generate your SEO meta title and description.
Once you’re done, save the changes and proceed to the next step.
Choose whether the site represents a person or organization. The former is a good option if you’re running a simple personal blog.
You can also upload a featured image to display whenever people share the site’s URL on social media platforms.
If you don’t have all information, leave the fields blank and complete them later.
Below, you can add social media profiles to enhance your brand’s reach, as it tells search engines which profiles correspond to your website.
The next step is activating the plugin’s SEO features. Essential tools such as Optimized Search Appearance and Sitemaps are turned on by default.
If you’re unsure about the other settings, leave them on default as well.
Next, the Search Appearance screen will display a snippet preview of your site on Google search results, so you can re-adjust the homepage title and meta description accordingly.
In the Advanced settings, you can set your site as Live or Under Construction – choosing the latter will prevent search engines from indexing it.
Next is the option to include all post types in search results. Leave this on default if you’re unsure.
Finally, leave the Redirect Attachment Pages settings on. These pages are created when you upload media to your WordPress website, so there’s no need to display them on search results.
If you purchased a premium plan, enter your license key or skip this step if you’re using the free version of All in One SEO.
Lastly, click on the Finish Setup and Go to the Dashboard button to wrap up the initial configuration and exit the setup wizard.
Whenever you want to add missing information or tweak some of the settings, simply go to General Settings -> Relaunch Setup Wizard.
How to Use AIOSEO to Optimize Pages and Blog Posts
Now that you’ve set up the All in One SEO plugin, you can start optimizing individual pages and blog posts without hiring an SEO expert.
Select the post you want to optimize and open it with the WordPress block editor.
Scroll down to the AIOSEO Settings. The first thing you’ll see is the General tab. Here, you can customize your post’s title and meta description and add dynamic items, such as its current category, year, and month.
In addition, the snippet preview lets you check how search engines will display the post on desktop and mobile search results.
Scrolling down, you will find a field to enter the post’s Focus Keyphrase and Additional Keyphrases.
At the bottom, the Page Analysis section features a detailed content review – which we’ll discuss in the next section.
In the meantime, let’s take a closer look at the other tabs:
- Social. Enables you to optimize the post appearance when shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
- Advanced. Adjust the robots meta settings and overwrite the default canonical URL. You can also customize your content’s priority and updated frequency. If you’re just starting out, we recommend using the default settings.
In addition, upgrading to the premium version allows you to access features in the following tabs:
- Schema. Add a schema type, description, and other information you want to feature on rich snippets.
- Link Assistant. Helps you manage internal and external links.
- Redirects. Set up redirects for individual posts and pages that you deleted or changed the URL, as it prevents visitors from encountering an error page.
How to Improve TruSEO Score With the Content Analyzer
Quality content is crucial to your online presence as it’s how you attract and engage with your audience.
Luckily, All in One SEO for WordPress can help you create optimized and comprehensive content using its content analyzer tool – TruSEO.
TruSEO provides an in-depth analysis of your on-page optimization efforts and an actionable checklist with improvement suggestions.
Once you create a new blog post or page, a score out of 100 will appear on the top right of the page.
The TruSEO analysis score for each post or page is calculated based on three factors: focus keyphrase, additional keyphrase, and page analysis.
Here’s what you can do to improve your TruSEO analysis score:
- Set a focus keyphrase. Based on TruSEO evaluation, adjust the length of your focus keyword, and include it in suggested places such as meta descriptions and headings to boost the site’s SEO rankings.
- Include additional keyphrases. AIOSEO will also recommend how to optimize your secondary keywords. However, you need to upgrade to the premium version to access this feature and add unlimited keywords.
- Fill in the meta description field. It’s recommended to keep your meta description between 120 and 160 characters.
- Add internal and external links. This helps improve your site’s authority and visibility in search results.
- Set an appropriate title length. Meta titles should have a minimum of 40 characters and a maximum of 60 characters.
- Optimize readability. Check sentence length, break long content with subheadings, and add relevant images.
Using TruSEO won’t automatically put your post on the first page of search results. However, it provides the necessary tools to evaluate your content and implement on-page SEO best practices. Thus, improving the chance of getting higher SEO rankings.
How to Create an XML Sitemap With AIOSEO
An XML sitemap eases the crawling and indexing process by providing search engine bots with a list of all your website content. This information helps them understand your site’s structure and alerts them when you make changes to the content.
There are several methods to create an XML sitemap, but the simplest is using a WordPress SEO plugin like All in One SEO for WordPress.
The plugin comes with a default setting that will automatically generate a custom XML sitemap of your site.
To access it, simply go to All in One SEO -> Sitemap. On the General Sitemap tab, click on the Open Sitemap button.
You will be redirected to a separate page displaying your site’s index, which contains all its sitemaps – for pages, posts, categories, and so on.
If your site doesn’t have a lot of content, you can disable the sitemap index feature. However, if it has 1,000+ URLs, it’s better to leave it enabled.
You can also customize how many and which links to include in each sitemap.
In addition, you can add date and author archives. The date archive lists posts and pages categorized by a specific time, such as date, month, or year. The author archive lists content based on particular authors.
There’s also an option to include non-WordPress pages featured on your site. For instance, you may have a landing page, contact form, or an eCommerce store created using another software.
In the Additional Pages section, simply upload your file in CSV format and fill in the details.
Moreover, you can set the frequency of updates and add a priority score for that particular URL.
In addition to the XML sitemap, All in One SEO supports other sitemaps, including:
- HTML Sitemap. Helps web visitors navigate your website, prevents duplicate content, and improves user experience.
- Video Sitemap. Generates a sitemap for video content on your site, helping search engines to display rich snippets in search results.
- Google News Sitemap. Manages content submitted to Google News. Only articles published in the last 48 hours are included.
- RSS sitemap. Includes an RSS feed for the latest updates of your site. This sitemap helps your content appear faster in search results as search engine bots check it more frequently than an XML sitemap.
Lastly, you can also exclude pages or posts from a sitemap. To do so, scroll down to the bottom of each tab. On the Advanced settings, enter the content details you want to exclude and click Save Changes.
Important! Excluding pages or posts from a sitemap doesn’t mean search engines will not crawl and index the content. To hide your content, select All in One SEO -> Search Appearance -> Archive -> Show in Search Results -> switch to No.
How to Use Schema Markup in All in One SEO
Schema markup is a set of microdata added to your WordPress site to boost visibility in search engine results pages.
Using schema markup, you can provide additional information to help search engines understand your content better. For example, whether it is a recipe, a course, an article, or a product page.
Search engines will use the data to display rich snippets in search results.
A snippet that includes a star rating, pictures, prices, and so on will make your content stand out, improving its chances of generating more clicks.
With All in One SEO plugin’s built-in schema support, you can easily create rich snippets for your content without coding.
Here are the steps to do so:
- On your dashboard’s sidebar, select All in One SEO -> Search Appearance.
- Click on Content Types. Here, you will see a dropdown consisting of several tabs.
- Select Schema Markup.
Choose a schema type suitable for your posts and pages based on the site you’re running.
For example, if you have a food blog that features recipes, you might want to choose the recipe schema.
On the other hand, if you’re running a WooCommerce store with many product pages, selecting the product schema is an excellent option.
On the Pages section, you can preview the rich snippet created according to your settings. Moreover, you can also customize the page title and meta description using dynamic tags.
Keep in mind that this will be the default setting for the entire site.
Alternatively, set the schema type for individual posts and pages on the WordPress block editor.
For example, if you’re running a blog with only several products to sell, you can set the default schema to blog posts and add a product schema for specific pages.
- Open the post and scroll down to the AIOSEO Settings.
- Click on Schema.
- Use the dropdown selector to choose a schema type.
- Fill in the details.
If you choose Product schema, you’ll be able to enter product description, price, currency, and availability.
Furthermore, you can feature customer reviews to add extra credibility to your WordPress site.
Whether it’s a simple personal blog, or a medium-sized WooCommerce store, the schema feature eases the process of creating rich snippets.
Important! Note that this feature is not available on the plugin’s free version.
Integrating your site other with other tools brings many benefits to your SEO. Not only do they improve search visibility, but they also provide insights into keyword ranking and generate alerts when there are indexing or crawling errors.
Fortunately, All in One SEO provides an easy way to integrate your site with webmaster tools such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and other search engines such as Bing, Yandex, and Baidu.
If you opt to use Google Search Console, add your site to it before connecting it with All in One SEO. This will grant you access to your verification code – the HTML tag provided by Google.
Copy the code and head back to the WordPress admin dashboard.
Go to General settings -> Webmaster Tools. Then, select Google Search Console and enter the verification code you have copied.
Apply the same steps to verify your site with webmaster tools from other search engines.
In addition, you can track website traffic by connecting your site with Google Analytics using MonsterInsights.
For integration with other unlisted third-party sites, enter their HTML code in the Miscellaneous Verification field and click Save Changes.
How to Set Up Local Business SEO in AIOSEO
Another advantageous feature available on All in One SEO’s premium plans is the Local Business SEO.
Optimizing for local SEO increases your business’s visibility on search engines, helping it get discovered by local audiences.
When people search for “restaurants” within their area, Google will feature a list of relevant results with detailed information about each business.
Having a rich snippet of your business will help generate brand awareness and attract more customers. Thus, making local SEO an essential strategy for a brick-and-mortar store serving a particular area.
With All in One SEO plugin’s local SEO support, adding schema markup to your website is a simple procedure that requires no technical knowledge.
To do so, select All in One SEO -> Local SEO on the WordPress sidebar.
Important! Make sure you have created a Google Business profile before moving on to the next steps.
Then, scroll down to the Business Info section and simply enter your business details, such as name, logo, location, contact information, and payment methods. Use the smart tags to help with the process.
Once you have filled in all the information, head to the Open Hours tab to specify when your business will be available for visitors.
On the Maps tab, you can choose to display a map. This integration with Google Maps allows visitors to get directions directly from your site, helping them locate your business efficiently. Note that this step requires you to enter a Google Maps API Key.
Finally, make sure to click Save Changes after finishing the setup.
How to Conduct SEO Site Audit Using the All in One SEO Plugin
After tweaking the site’s optimization settings, you can see how well your site SEO is performing with All in One SEO’s built-in analysis feature.
All you need to do is go to All in One SEO -> SEO analysis -> SEO Audit Checklist.
It’ll display the site’s overall SEO analysis score out of 100, with a good score being 70 and above.
A result between 50 to 70 is acceptable, meaning you need to improve your web optimization efforts.
All in One SEO provides suggestions on what to improve and how. Scrolling down the dashboard, you’ll find an SEO audit checklist with actionable items.
Critical issues are marked in red and good results in green. To learn more about the issues and the steps to fix them, click the arrow button on the right of each section.
In addition to the site audit, you can check whether your headlines are SEO-friendly on the Headline Analyzer tab.
For example, we tested the keyword “best WordPress SEO plugin”. The analyzer gave us a score and provided instructions on how to improve the content.
Overall, the analysis feature of All in One SEO provides easy-to-follow suggestions to make your site more SEO-friendly.
How to Use AIOSEO to Conduct SEO Competitor Analysis
To take your SEO strategy a step further, All in One SEO also provides a tool to analyze your competitors’ SEO performance.
Simply head to All in One SEO -> SEO Analysis -> Analyze Competitor Site to see what other sites are doing to boost their SEO.
After entering the URL, All in One SEO will provide an overall SEO score along with an in-depth analysis of your competitor’s site.
From the analysis report, you’ll get insights into their top keywords, SEO efforts, performance, and security. It also evaluates critical issues and good optimization practices.
Based on the data, reflect on your own web optimization initiatives and consider strategies to adopt or enhance.
Apart from the features mentioned above, All in One SEO provides a collection of miscellaneous tools and SEO settings to improve your performance further.
Edit the robots.txt File
WordPress’ robots.txt file informs crawler bots which of your content should be crawled and indexed. Without it, you risk getting all your site crawled by search engines, including irrelevant content such as plugin directories and media attachment pages.
Even though WordPress sets up a robots.txt file by default, All in One SEO plugin enables you to create a new one, overriding the default settings and providing more accurate instructions.
Simply go to All in One SEO -> Tools -> Robots.txt Editor.
Then, click on the Enable Custom Robots.txt toggle to start editing the robots.txt file.
Customize Breadcrumbs
Displaying breadcrumbs on your WordPress website ensures seamless navigation for visitors, improving user experience and search engine optimization.
Using All in One SEO for WordPress, you can control how the breadcrumbs are displayed.
To customize them, click on All in One SEO -> General Settings -> Breadcrumbs -> Enable Breadcrumbs.
In the Breadcrumbs Settings section, you can preview and edit how they are displayed. You can also use the built-in smart tags to ease the process.
For premium users, AIOSEO also offers templates to further customize the site’s breadcrumbs.
Control Access
For sites administered by multiple people, All in One SEO provides an option to control who has access to its SEO settings.
All you need to do is go to All in One SEO -> General Settings -> Access Control.
By default, the access is open for several SEO settings. To fine-tune the options, simply click on the toggle switch and check or uncheck the list of boxes accordingly.
Import/Export Settings
Another helpful feature of the All in One SEO plugin is its user-friendly import/export settings. You can easily import data from other WordPress SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO, SEOPress, and RankMath.
Alternatively, export AIOSEO’s plugin configurations to another site with just a few clicks.
Simply select All in One SEO -> Tools -> Import/Export to get started.
Customizing your RSS feeds with specific content protects your site from content scraping and helps establish your site as an original source.
With All in One SEO, you can do this easily by going to All in One SEO -> General Settings -> RSS Content.
You can also use dynamic smart tags that automatically list your site’s information, such as site link, site title, post date, and author name.
Conclusion
Increasing your site’s visibility in search engine results is key to attracting more visitors and generating more sales.
For this reason, improving your site’s SEO performance is a must. Installing a WordPress SEO plugin such as All in One SEO is the simplest way to do so.
With mostly automated features and an easy setup wizard, you can optimize your site efficiently and without advanced SEO knowledge. Thus, giving you more time to focus on other areas of your business.
In this article, we have explained how to install and best configure the All in One SEO plugin. We also explored its key features, including the built-in support for schema markup, local SEO, webmaster tools integration, and on-page optimization.
We hope this article helps you get the most out of All in One SEO for WordPress. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below.
