Most wounds are self-inflicted, at least in local SEO. A weak site makes it much harder to get visible in the organic results and in the Google Maps results, and to stay there. But you won’t grow the site to be big and strong if simple tasks are a PITA, or if you spend too much time and energy and money on features that stop working, or if your site gets hacked and you can’t get it out of sickbay fast. Too many plugins, or the wrong plugins, can cause all of those problems and more.
My advice is simple: install as few plugins as possible. If you pack too heavy, in general you will find it much harder to create and improve pages long-term, more plugins will conflict or stop working, and a vulnerable plugin will result in a hack sooner or later. All of those things directly affect your ability to do local SEO that’s effective and yields more $$.
Of course, there are hundreds or thousands of excellent WordPress plugins out there. You’ll probably need at least a few of them to keep your site standing, manageable, and presentable. So I’m not knocking them at all. If you’re going on a trip, half of your duffel bag is taken up by clothes, and those are non-negotiable. So what you need to determine now is (1) what else you should bring and (2) how much extra room you should leave for easy rummaging and for souvenirs.
What plugins are the most useful to your local SEO? Here is my shortest of short lists:
1. Yoast, or Rankmath, or All-in-One SEO. Any of these is an extremely handy way to specify and customize a title tag on each page, and to create an XML sitemap. I don’t find the other features useful, but those two are plenty. By the way, if you don’t use Yoast or a similar plugin, XML Sitemap Generator for Google is a simple and hassle-free standalone plugin that only takes care of your XML sitemap.
2. Max Mega Menu. This is the best way to get all of the pages you care about – i.e. service pages and spin-off pages – onto the main menu. That is important because the internal links to those pages are critical.
3. Redirection. If you rename a URL, retire a page, or kill off or add a subdirectory, you need to be able to 301-redirect one page to another easily, quickly, and reliably, or else you’ll lose any backlinks, or an already-ranking page will drop out of the index, or both. Other plugins can do redirects well, but this one is my favorite, because it’s simple and never seems to have problems.
4. Duplicate page. Many of your pages will wind up similar to each other, in their layout if not also in their content. If you need to spend time building every single page from scratch, you’re less likely to create new pages at all, or you’re less likely to spend your time on making them informative and well-optimized. This plugin, or whatever duplication or cloning plugin you like, will allow you to create the page you want once and use that as the starting point for subsequent pages.
5. Link Whisper. I’m constantly on your case about going heavy on the internal links, and part of that involves continually patrolling your pages (and photos) for places where you can add links to relevant other pages (or posts or videos). The trouble is the sitemaps in our heads tend to be fuzzy. It’s easy to forget that you’ve got a page on this topic, or a post on that topic, or exactly which one it was. Link Whisper can suggest specific internal links for you to add.
Honorable mention goes to Site Kit, which often is the least-troublesome way to install Google Search Console. And install it you must, so you can camp out in it and come to understand how your local SEO is really doing.
If a plugin is not on that super-short list, that’s because (a) it’s useful more broadly, (b) I don’t find it useful, or (c) I simply haven’t run across it yet.
What about plugins I do not recommend? At the top of the list are caching plugins. Also, I had a serious problem with MonsterInsights once, and will leave it at that for now.
Local SEO is a matter of doing basic things very well, over a long period. Don’t let your choice of plugins complicate that. Pack light, go far.
You are fabulous, thank you for this info!
Your Favicon is iconic in it’s representation/s 🙂
Thanks, Linda!
If you aren’t using a caching plugin, you are doing it wrong. (Thanks for NOT approving my previous comment- classy move)
I saw a comment that Akismet flagged, and it looked shaky enough that I chucked it. That must’ve been your comment. If so, it was inch-deep and not helpful, much like your comment now.
In my experience, caching plugins conflict with other plugins too often. Usually the end result is just some troubleshooting, but occasionally there’s a SHTF moment. Also, I could argue that if your site is so slow that you must have a caching plugin, you’re doing it wrong.
You’re entitled to your opinion, whether it’s based on experience or just on your feelings. If it’s based on experience, and you can explain it in a little detail, I’m interested to hear it, and I’m sure my readers will be interested, too. If it’s just your opinion, and you don’t want to explain, then either be polite or don’t comment.
Hmm, I agree with having a short list, but no caching plugin??? It’s not for local seo, but definitely for speed. Can’t imagine any reason for not using one, unless you’re on WP Engine, which has their own solution (of course, if you’re on WPE you’ve got other problems now).
Hey Tony. Yeah, I put them in the bucket of general site-upkeep plugins.
The pros of a caching plugin are pretty obvious and significant, but I’ve found that they just conflict with other plugins too often. So I’m not saying anyone should remove caching plugins if they seem to be working fine. Rather, I’m (1) humbly suggesting that people keep them on a short leash and (2) that they don’t install caching plugins just for local SEO considerations.
As always, my advice goes against the grain a little.
I recently changed from WP engine after years.
Yes they have their own cache system. The sites load fast.
The new local hosting company doesn’t and the site is nearly as fast and so much easier to see updates and changes instantly on a live updated page as one benefit.
I doubt I’ll be going back and using a cache system of some some sort, not in the short term at least as they have their own technologies for fast site loading strangely enough without a CDN either. PSI score of 96 vs 90 desktop, is nor here nor there for me. Managing my site got much easier. Just my 2c.
Hey Sydney,
I assume that move was mainly due to the WP Engine vs. Automattic dust-up.
Thanks for the intel / war story. You’ve zeroed in on an important point (IMHO): there are multiple ways to a fast site. (Though I haven’t found that page speed helps or hurts sites in the search results, of course it’s great to have fast pages for all kinds of other reasons.)
Yeah, I also haven’t found that most sites need to go so heavy on photos that they need a CDN.
Personally, I prefer RankMath over Yoast for two reasons:
1) less impact on loading speed
2) easier control of noindex on pages such as cart
I’m interested in your view of the option to include a KML file to the Local Sitemap. “The KML is a file format used for sharing geographic locations. Google uses this KML file to verify your business listing and location.”
Thanks, Gideon. Good intel. Yeah, I also find that RankMath is a little more focused on the things I’m more likely to tinker with.
WAY back in the day I’d upload a KML file for clients. Didn’t find it made any difference either way, though it’s always hard or impossible to pin those sorts of things down. My basic outlook is that (1) Google knows full well where you’re located, with or without the KML file, and (2) if just about nobody uses it, Google is unlikely to count it for much. Overall, it’s one of those “Why not, as long as it’s super easy” tasks.
Great list Phil, as always! Thanks.
Did you see that Graphite also launched an SEO plugin for Webflow? (They also worked on Webflow’s SEO).
Thanks! As someone with 0 experience with Webflow, I was not aware of that.
I completely agree that focusing on essential plugins is key to keeping things streamlined and avoiding unnecessary issues. A question—how do you feel about security plugins like Wordfence? Do you think they add too much overhead, or are they essential for protecting local sites?