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34 Unique Things You Didn’t Know About All in One SEO (Pro Tips)

If you have been reading WPBeginner for a while, then you know that we believe All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market.

It is our #1 recommendation as the must-have SEO toolkit, and this is the exact tool that we use on our website. For beginners, All in One SEO provides the most comprehensive SEO features in one plugin.

In this article, we’ll share some of the AIOSEO power hacks that will help you take your WordPress SEO to the next level.

Things you didn't know about All in One SEO for WordPress

What Makes All in One SEO The Best SEO Toolkit for WordPress Users?

All in One SEO for WordPress is the original WordPress SEO plugin on the market.

Currently, over 3 million websites use AIOSEO, including WPBeginner, and it is one of the top 20 most installed WordPress plugins of all time.

There’s also a free version of AIOSEO available that you can use if you’re just getting started.

All in One SEO was first released in 2007, just a few years after WordPress introduced the ability to install plugins to extend WordPress functionality.

All in One SEO plugin

In 2020, AIOSEO was acquired by Awesome Motive (the management company of WPBeginner). Since then, it has evolved into the most powerful and modern WordPress SEO plugin.

We use it on all our websites to improve our WordPress SEO rankings, including WPBeginner. That’s because the features are unmatched by any other SEO plugin on the market.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the coolest things that you can do with All in One SEO.

Here is a list of topics we’ll cover in this guide.

  1. Ability to Add Dynamic SEO Title and Descriptions
  2. Helps You Write Good Headlines and SEO Titles
  3. Comes with a Dynamic and Customizable Table of Contents Block
  4. Easily Add NoFollow Attribute to External and Referral Links
  5. Generate Keyword Ideas while Writing Posts
  6. Get a Practical SEO Score for Your Content
  7. Comes with The Most Comprehensive Schema Mark up Support
  8. Easier and Extensive Social Media Integration
  9. Add New Links or Cleanup Bad Links with LinkAssistant
  10. Comes with Extensive XML Sitemaps with Powerful Customization Options
  11. Appear in Google News with News XML Sitemaps
  12. Easily Create Customizable HTML Sitemaps
  13. Appear in Video Results with Video Sitemaps
  14. Get Indexed Faster with RSS Sitemaps
  15. 15. Easily Add Your Site to Webmaster Tools & Google Search Console
  16. Get New Content Indexed Quickly with IndexNow
  17. Hack Your WordPress RSS Feeds
  18. Helps You Fix Search Crawl Budget Issues
  19. Easily Setup 301 Redirects
  20. Detect 404 Errors and Fix Them
  21. Easy Full Site Redirects when Moving Site to Different Domains
  22. Faster Redirects Using Server Instead of PHP
  23. Track Your Keyword Rankings with Powerful Search Statistics
  24. Advanced Yet Easiest Breadcrumb Navigation
  25. Turn On REST API for Headless WordPress
  26. Control Which Users Have Access to SEO Features and Settings
  27. Seamless E-commerce Integration
  28. Powerful Image SEO Features
  29. Safely Edit Robots. txt and . htaccess Files From WordPress Admin
  30. Perform a Quick SEO Audit for Your Site
  31. Compare Competition with Built-in Competitor Analysis
  32. Easily Add No Index to Content You Want to Exclude from Search Engines
  33. Monitor and Undo SEO Changes with SEO Revisions
  34. Easily Import SEO Data from Other SEO Plugins

    1. Ability to Add Dynamic SEO Title and Descriptions

    SEO titles and descriptions are highly important when optimizing your content for SEO. Search engines assign them slightly more weight than other parts of your content.

    The SEO title also appears in search results and can help you get more clicks and bring more traffic to your site.

    SEO title appearing in search results

    Many site owners often go back to old posts and edit their SEO titles to help optimize them. For instance, you may have mentioned the Current Year or pricing in the title which may become outdated.

    All in One SEO allows you to use smart tags in SEO title and description fields. These tags dynamically update to match the conditions they are used for.

    For instance, you can add the ‘Post Title’ tag, and it will automatically use your post or page’s title as the SEO Title.

    Dynamic SEO title and descriptiion

    Similarly, you can use the ‘Current Year’ or ‘Current Month’ tags, and it will automatically display the current year or month in your post title.

    AIOSEO comes with the following smart tags that you can select by clicking on ‘View all tags’.

    • Author First Name: The first name of the post author.
    • Author Last Name: The last name of the post author.
    • Author Name: The display name of the post author.
    • Categories: All categories that are assigned to the current post, comma-separated.
    • Category Title: Current or first category title.
    • Current Date: The current date.
    • Current Day: The current day of the month.
    • Current Month: The current month.
    • Current Year: The current year.
    • Custom Field: A custom field from the current post.
    • Permalink: The permalink for the current post.
    • Post Content: The content of your post.
    • Post Date: The date when the post was published, localized.
    • Post Day: The day of the month when the post was published, localized.
    • Post Excerpt: The excerpt defined in your post settings.
    • Post Excerpt Only: The excerpt defined in your post.
    • Post Month: The month when the post was published, localized.
    • Post Title: The original title of the current post.
    • Post Year: The year when the post was published.
    • Separator: The separator is defined in the search appearance settings.
    • Site Title: Your site title.
    • Tagline: The tagline for your site, set in the general settings.
    • Taxonomy Name: The name of the first term of a given taxonomy that is assigned to the current post.

    Want to make your SEO title even more attention-grabbing?

    How about adding emojis into your post title or description? All in One SEO makes it super easy to use Emojis in your SEO title and descriptions.

    Simply click on the emoji button to search and add an emoji.

    Adding Emojis to your post title and description

    2. Helps You Write Good Headlines and SEO Titles

    Now you might already know that CTR (click through rate) plays an important role in SEO rankings.

    This means that you have to write good headlines and SEO titles that encourage users to click when your site appears in search results.

    All in One SEO comes with a built-in headline analyzer tool. It will automatically show you a score for your post title or headline.

    Analyze and improve your headlines

    Plus, it will also show you practical tips to improve the effectiveness of your title. For instance, it may recommend using power words or removing stop words from your SEO title.

    For more details, see our tutorial on how to use the headline analyzer in WordPress to improve SEO titles.

    All in One SEO also recently released a ChatGPT AI Title / Description Generator to help you quickly craft high-quality SEO titles and descriptions.

    Simply click on the robot icon next to the ‘Post Title’ or ‘Meta Description’ fields.

    Use title and description AI Generator in AIOSEO

    Then, the AI Generator will automatically suggest 5 titles or descriptions based on your content.

    AI-generated SEO titles from AIOSEO ChatGPT integration

    With the click of a button, you can add your preferred suggestion directly to the SEO meta fields.

    3. Comes with a Dynamic and Customizable Table of Contents Block

    Reading longer articles can be difficult for your users, and they may lose interest in scrolling down while looking for the information they need.

    This is where the Table of Contents block comes in.

    It creates a list of topics covered in an article, and you may have seen them in articles here at WPBeginner. In fact, this post has an AIOSEO table of contents at the top!

    Clicking on an item in the list takes you to that section in the article.

    Table of content example

    Not only does a table of content help users, but it also improves SEO.

    Search engines like Google may display your table of content items as ‘Jump to section’ links in search results.

    Table of Content in SERPs

    A table of contents can also make your website appear as the featured snippet for a search keyword.

    Google may display it above all results with a much larger excerpt.

    Table of content as featured snippet

    Previously, WordPress users had to use a separate plugin to generate tables of contents or manually create them.

    All in One SEO comes with a dynamic Table of Contents block. Simply add the Table of Contents block to your post or page, and it will automatically generate a table of content based on the headings present in your article.

    Add table of content block

    You can edit any item in the table by simply clicking on it or hide an item by clicking on the hide button.

    You can also reorder items by clicking on the Reorder button. This only adjust the order of the list, not the placement of content in your article.

    Rearrange TOC items

    Optionally, you can choose a list style for your table of contents.

    Currently, it allows you to choose from a plain bulleted list or a numbered list style.

    Table of Content list styles

    For more information, see our tutorial on how to easily add table of contents in WordPress.

    Links or backlinks are an important search engine ranking factor.

    When you link to an external website, search engines consider that as a ranking signal. They will pass a small portion of your domain authority (link juice) to the other website.

    Many SEO experts believe that they can rank higher in search results by adding the nofollow attribute to external and referral/affiliate links.

    All in One SEO makes it super easy to add the nofollow attribute to links in your posts and pages.

    Simply select the text that you want to link to and then click on the link button in the block toolbar.

    You’ll see the option to add the link URL and a check box to add the nofollow attribute.

    Add nofollow to a link using All in One SEO

    You can learn more about nofollow by viewing our article on how to easily add nofollow links in WordPress.

    5. Generate Keyword Ideas while Writing Posts

    Keywords are the focus keyphrases that your users may type in a search engine to find your content.

    You can set a focus keyword or keyphrase for an article in All in One SEO settings and then optimize your content around it.

    The plugin will show you an SEO score for your focus keyphrase with practical tips to improve it.

    Set focus keyphrase and generate additional keywords

    The best part is that it also helps you generate additional keyword ideas with Semrush.

    Simply click on the get additional keyphrases button and a popup will take you to the Semrush website.

    login to Semrush

    You can login with your existing account or create a free Semrush account.

    After that, you will be asked to give Semrush permission to access your WordPress website. Click on the Approve button to continue.

    Approve Semrush

    You’ll now see a list of keyword ideas that match your original focus keyphrase.

    The list is sorted with high search volume keywords appearing on top.

    Keyword suggestions

    You can click on the Add Keyphrase button next to a keyword and add it to the additional focus keyphrases for your post or page.

    You will now see scores for these additional focus keyphrases with recommendations to improve their score.

    Optimize for additional keyphrases

    This helps you make your content more comprehensive and useful for your users while making it more authoritative for search engines as well.

    To learn more, check out our article on how to do proper keyword research for your WordPress blog.

    6. Get a Practical SEO Score for Your Content

    All in One SEO gives the most comprehensive and practical SEO score to your content.

    It appears as a button on the top right corner of the post editor, clicking on it will bring up the TruSEO panel.

    TruSEO score panel

    You will see a snippet preview and below that, you’ll find tips divided into the following areas:

    • Focus Keyphrase and Additional Keyphrases
    • Basic SEO
    • Title
    • Readability

    You can click on any of them to expand and view the suggestions.

    SEO score suggestions

    Errors will be highlighted in red with helpful descriptions to fix them.

    SEO score is just a recommendation tool and does not guarantee search rankings. Any score above 70 is good for most types of content.

    7. Comes with The Most Comprehensive Schema Markup Support

    Schema markup is a special type of HTML code that you can add to your WordPress website to tell search engines more about your content.

    For instance, you can tell the search engines that a particular page is a blog post, a recipe, a FAQ page, a news article, or a product page. Search engines can then use this data to display rich results.

    Rich snippets in search results

    Other WordPress SEO plugins only ship with limited schema markup support. Users had to install separate plugins to add proper schema markup for different content types.

    All in One SEO solves this problem by adding the most comprehensive Schema markup support available.

    It allows you to easily add schema markup in WordPress and WooCommerce. You can set the default Schema markup for different content types from plugin settings.

    Schema type

    You can also change schema markup for individual posts and pages.

    This comes in handy if you want to use your blog posts for different types of content such as recipes, product reviews, articles, and more.

    Schema generator

    Apart from content, All in One SEO also adds structured data required to be listed in Google My Business and Google Maps searches.

    This allows your business to appear in Google Maps and business searches. Your listing gets an extended information panel with directions, phone numbers, business hours, and more.

    Local SEO example

    Simply switch to the All in One SEO » Local SEO page and provide your business information.

    If your business has multiple locations, then you can turn on the Multiple Locations option.

    Local SEO settings

    After that, the plugin will add a new Locations menu item to your WordPress admin sidebar.

    You can now go to the Locations » Add New page to add a business location.

    Add new location

    This will bring you to the Location editor page. First, you need to provide a title for your location and then add a little description.

    You can also review options in the left column to set the location category and featured image.

    Location title and basic settings

    After that scroll down to the AIOSEO Local Business section.

    From here, you can add structured data for your location such as business name, logo, address, phone number, opening hours, and map.

    Business information

    Once you are finished, go ahead and click on the Publish button to save your location settings.

    You can now repeat the process to add more business locations as needed.

    For more details, please take a look at our article about adding multiple locations schema markup in WordPress.

    8. Easy and Extensive Social Media Integration

    Social media platforms are a big source of traffic for many website owners.

    All in One SEO comes with super easy and extensive social media integration.

    1. Easily Add Social Network Profiles and Default Settings

    First, you can go to the All in One SEO » Social Networks page. From here, you can provide social media profile URLs.

    Add social media profile URLs

    If you use the same handle in all your social media profiles then you can simply check the ‘Use the same username for multiple social networks’ option.

    After that, provide your username and All in One SEO will fill in the URLs for you.

    The plugin also allows you to easily configure your website for popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

    Setup different social networks

    These options allow you to enable Open Graph metadata and provide default information that social media platforms can use when someone shares your content.

    For instance, you can choose which image to use when someone shares a post. All in One SEO provides a bunch of options to automatically pick an image for Facebook and Twitter.

    Set default image for social media

    You can choose the featured image, the first image in the content, any attached image, the author image, any first available image, and more.

    After configuring Facebook and Twitter, you can switch to the Pinterest tab. From here, you can also easily add the Pinterest verification code to verify your website on Pinterest.

    Pinterest verification code

    2. Social Settings for Individual Posts and Pages

    Once you have finished the default social networks setup, All in One SEO also provides you options to override these settings for individual posts and pages.

    Simply edit a post or page and switch to the Social tab under the AIOSEO Settings section.

    Post social settings

    From here, you’ll see a preview of how your post will look on Facebook and Twitter.

    Below that, you can override the default settings and change the post title, description, and social image.

    Override social settings

    If you change the data for Facebook, then you can use it for Twitter as well.

    Simply switch to the Twitter tab and toggle the ‘Use Data from Facebook Tab’ option.

    Use data from Facebook tab

    3. Add Social Profiles for Authors

    You can also let search engines know which profiles are associated with an author or user on your website.

    This allows search engines to discover and display social media profiles when someone searches for a specific person.

    User's social media profiles in search results

    To add this, administrators can go to the Users » Profile page and other users can simply click on the Profile menu from the WordPress admin sidebar.

    From here, switch to the social profiles tab and enter your social media profile URLs.

    Author social profiles

    Links play a significant role in a website’s SEO rankings. However, as your website grows, you may add more internal links to some older posts than newer posts.

    Going back to individual posts and adding links can become a tedious task. Particularly, if you have hundreds of articles.

    All in One SEO solves this problem with the Link Assistant. It allows you to easily add links or clean up bad links with one click.

    Here is how it works.

    First, it automatically crawls your website and shows you a comprehensive link report.

    Link assistant overview

    From here, you can see an overview of the links with total counts for orphaned posts (posts that are not linked from any other post or page), external links, internal links, and affiliate links.

    You can switch to the Links Report tab for detailed information on all your links.

    You’ll see a list of all your posts and pages with columns for internal, external, and affiliate links.

    Links report

    It will also show a number of suggestions where you can add links.

    For more details, you can click on the right arrow button next to a post or page.

    View links details

    This will show all links organized in different tabs. From the suggestions tab, you can quickly view link suggestions and add links without directly editing a post or page.

    Want to discover more internal linking opportunities?

    Switch to the ‘Linking Opportunities’ tab for more internal linking suggestions or check out the orphaned posts and add links to them.

    Linking opportunities

    Clean up Bad Links with 1-Click

    You can view all external links that your website links to by clicking on the Domains Report tab.

    From here, you can select a domain and delete all links to it with a single click.

    Easily remove bad or spam links with one click

    This makes it super easy to clean up your website if it has been affected by malware that has added links to spam websites.

    It also comes in handy when you no longer wish to link to a third-party website and immediately want to remove all links pointing to it.

    Note: Additionally, AIOSEO offers a Broken Link Checker plugin. It automatically scans all of your internal and external links to ensure they’re working correctly.

    Edit URL in Broken Link Checker

    If broken links are found, you can quickly edit the URLs right inside of the plugin, instead of having to edit individual posts and pages.

    10. Comes with Extensive XML Sitemaps with Powerful Customization Options

    An XML sitemap is a file that lists all your website content in an XML format, so search engines like Google can easily discover and index your content.

    WordPress comes with built-in XML sitemaps, but these are too basic and you don’t have any tools to customize them.

    All in One SEO comes with extremely powerful XML sitemaps.

    Sitemaps in All in One SEO

    These custom XML sitemaps are highly customizable. For instance, you can easily include or exclude individual post types or taxonomies.

    Plus, you can disable sitemaps for date and author archives.

    Sitemap settings

    Below that, you can add any standalone page to your sitemap under the Additional Pages option.

    For example, you can add your Shopify store or custom landing page hosted on the same domain.

    Want to remove some content from your sitemaps? Turn on the Advanced Settings option and you can exclude posts, pages, categories, tags, and more

    Advanced sitemap settings

    From here, you can also adjust the priority score for your homepage, posts, or taxonomies.

    Lastly, you can even exclude images from your XML sitemaps if needed.

    11. Appear in Google News with News XML Sitemaps

    Do you run a news website or want your blog to appear in Google News?

    News results may not only appear prominently on the main search page but can also appear on the News tab or in Google Discover on mobile devices.

    News search results

    All in One SEO allows you to easily create a News Sitemap which is a requirement for Google News results.

    Simply switch to the News Sitemap tab and turn it on.

    News sitemap

    After that, you can provide a title for your news publication.

    Next, you need to choose which post types you want to include in your news sitemap.

    News sitemap settings

    Need even more control over your news sitemap?

    All in One SEO allows you to easily exclude specific items from your news sitemap.

    Simply toggle the Advanced Settings switch to show more options. From here, you can search for the post or page you want to exclude and click on the + button to add it.

    Exclude post or pages from news sitemap

    12. Easily Create Customizable HTML Sitemaps

    HTML Sitemaps are sitemaps for your users and can be added anywhere on your website.

    HTML sitemap example

    They help users easily navigate a website and find the information they need. Many organizations, government websites, and small businesses find them quite helpful.

    All in One SEO lets you easily create HTML sitemaps.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page and switch to the HTML Sitemap tab.

    HTML sitemap

    From here, you can switch to the toggle next to Enable Sitemap to turn on HTML sitemap.

    Below that, you can choose how you want to display the sitemap by choosing one of the following options.

    • Dedicated Page
    • Gutenberg Block
    • Shortcode
    • Widget
    • PHP Code

    Click to select your option and it will tell you how to use it.

    For instance, choosing the Dedicated Page option, you will be asked to provide URL for a page where you want to display the Sitemap.

    Below that, you can choose which post types and taxonomies to include, sorting options, and enable compact archives.

    Select post types to include in HTML sitemap

    Want to exclude some posts or pages from your HTML sitemap?

    No worries, you can simply click on the Advanced Settings section to exclude any content from your HTML sitemap.

    Exclude from HTML sitemap

    13. Appear in Video Results with Video Sitemaps

    Videos are the most engaging type of content and for some search keywords, Google may automatically include video results at the top.

    Now, if you regularly publish video content or add video embeds to your posts, then this gives you a huge opportunity to rank higher.

    Video search results

    Research shows, that users are more likely to click on a result with a video thumbnail than just plain text.

    All in One SEO’s Video Sitemaps help you get ready to appear in video search results.

    Simply go to All in One SEO » Sitemaps page and switch to the Video Sitemap tab.

    Enable video sitemaps

    From here you can turn on Video Sitemap and choose which post types or taxonomies to include.

    By default, the plugin will divide your sitemap into indexes. These are smaller files containing a limited number of links.

    You can also adjust how many links you want to include in a sitemap.

    Video sitemap settings

    Just like any other sitemap, you can click on the Advanced Settings section to exclude any content that you don’t want to appear in video sitemaps.

    14. Get Indexed Faster with RSS Sitemaps

    Unlike regular XML sitemaps which have a complete set of links to your content, RSS sitemaps provide search engines links to recent changes on a website.

    This helps search engines more easily discover recent changes on a website. Google recommends using both XML sitemaps and RSS sitemap for optimal crawling.

    All in One SEO allows you to easily generate an RSS sitemap for your website.

    Simply go to the AIOSEO » Sitemaps settings page and switch to the RSS Sitemap tab.

    Add RSS sitemap

    From here, toggle the Enable Sitemap switch to turn on the RSS sitemap.

    Below that you can choose the number of posts and which post types to include.

    For more information, take a look at our guide on how to easily add RSS sitemap in WordPress.

    15. Easily Add Your Site to Webmaster Tools & Google Search Console

    All top search engines provide website owners with easier tools to see how their website is performing in search and get alerts if something goes wrong.

    Google calls it Google Search Console. Bing and other search engines call their programs webmaster tools.

    Once you sign up for them, you will be asked to verify your ownership by adding a code snippet to your website.

    All in One SEO makes it super easy to add the verification code for all webmaster tools under one place.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » General Settings and switch to the Webmaster Tools tab.

    Webmaster tools

    Now simply click on a search engine, and then add the verification code.

    Below that you will also find a text field called Miscellaneous verification. This allows you to add verification codes from any other third-party platforms to your website.

    Now if you are wondering how to take advantage of webmaster tools, then you may want to see our expert tips on using Google Search Console like a pro.

    16. Get New Content Indexed Quickly with IndexNow

    IndexNow is an automatic ping that lets search engines know when a post or page (URL) on your website has been added, deleted, or updated.

    This allows search engines to quickly update their search results speeding up overall SEO results.

    Simply put, it’s instant indexing!

    Currently, it is supported by Bing, but Google has indicated they will be testing it too.

    All in One SEO allows you to implement IndexNow on your website with a few clicks.

    First, you need to visit All in one SEO » Feature Manager page and toggle the Acivate switch under IndexNow box.

    Turn on IndexNow in All in One SEO

    That’s all, the plugin will now automatically set up IndexNow for your website by generating an API key.

    You can verify it by visiting the All in One SEO » General Settings page and switching to the Webmaster Tools tab.

    IndexNow enabled

    From here, click on the IndexNow box and you’ll see the API key in place.

    To learn more, you may want to see our guide on how to add IndexNow in WordPress for faster SEO results.

    17. Customize Your WordPress RSS Feeds to Boost SEO

    RSS feeds provide an easier way for users to subscribe to your content using feed readers like Feedly.

    WordPress comes with built-in support for RSS feeds and generates separate feeds for your recent posts, categories, tags, archives, authors, and more.

    All in One SEO allows you to customize your WordPress RSS feeds and make them more useful for your website.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » General Settings page and switch to the RSS Content tab.

    Customize RSS feeds

    From here you can add any content you want to display before and after content in RSS feed.

    You can even use emojis and smart tags to automatically add elements like post, category, author link, and more.

    After content RSS

    For instance, All in One SEO automatically adds links back to your original post and website after each post in the RSS feed.

    Now if someone uses your RSS feed to steal content from your website, they will be forced to display a link back to your website.

    For more information, see our guide on how to optimize WordPress RSS feeds for your website.

    18. Helps You Fix Search Crawl Budget Issues

    SEO crawl budget is the number of times search engines like Google will crawl pages on your website.

    Google sets a crawl budget for different domains based on its own algorithms. However, sometimes this budget is wasted if search bots spend most of the budget crawling less important pages on your site.

    All in One SEO helps you fix that problem with the Crawl Cleanup feature. Simply go to the All in One SEO » Search Appearance page and switch to the Advanced tab.

    Search appearance advanced

    From here, you need to scroll down to the bottom and switch the toggle next to the Crawl Cleanup option.

    This will expand the section and will show you a bunch of options that you can exclude from crawling.

    Crawl cleanup

    For instance, each WordPress category, tag, comments, archive, and author pages has its own RSS feeds. These get crawled, too, but are not highly important.

    You can Disable them so that they are excluded from the crawl budget.

    Exclude from crawl

    For more information, see our article on how to easily fix the SEO crawl budget issues in WordPress.

    19. Easily Setup 301 Redirects

    The 301 redirect is when a post or page on your site has been moved, and you want to point the user to the new location instead.

    All in One SEO comes with a powerful Redirects Manager tool, which allows you to create and manage all sorts of redirects including 301 redirects.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » Redirects page to add a new redirect.

    Add 301 Redirect

    Enter the old URL in the source field and the new URL in the target field. After that, choose 301 Moved Permanently under the Redirect type option.

    Click on the Add Redirect button to save your settings.

    The best part is All in One SEO will show all redirects you set up and you can edit or disable a redirect any time you want.

    Manage redirects

    For more information, see our tutorial on how to create 301 redirects in WordPress.

    20. Detect 404 Errors and Fix Them

    A 404 error occurs when a user visits a page on your website which is not there anymore. Perhaps it was deleted, the user entered an incorrect URL, or followed an incorrect link.

    These errors create a bad user experience and can negatively impact SEO rankings.

    Often, they go unnoticed by website owners until a user reports them.

    All in One SEO fixes this problem by keeping a log of 404 errors on your website.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » Redirects page and switch to the 404 logs page to view them.

    404 error logs in AIOSEO

    Now some of these links may be misspelled URLs with few hits, you can safely ignore those. Others would be links to posts that you may have deleted or changed their URLs.

    In that case, you can simply click on the Add Redirect button and point that URL to the new location or any other relevant page.

    For more details, see our article on how to easily fix 404 errors in WordPress.

    21. Easy Full Site Redirects when Moving Site to Different Domains

    Are you moving your WordPress website to a new domain name and worried about the SEO consequences?

    All in One SEO’s redirect manager comes with super easy Full Site Redirects.

    Basically, you can just paste the URL of your new domain name and it will redirect all users coming to your old domain to the exact pages on your new domain name.

    Full site redirect in All in One SEO

    This helps your new domain to rank quickly in search engines and also reduces the negative SEO consequences of moving to a new domain name.

    For more on this topic, check out our guide on moving WordPress to a new domain name.

    22. Faster Redirects Using Server Instead of PHP

    WordPress comes with a built-in redirects system written in PHP. Many redirect plugins take advantage of it, including All in One SEO.

    WordPress is used on many different types of servers and they can have different configurations that may affect redirects. Using PHP avoids dependency on server settings and makes sure that redirects work.

    However, these PHP redirects are a bit slower. It is a small compromise and for most users, it is not even noticeable.

    Still, some users may want to use the server to set up redirects for improved performance and speed.

    All in One SEO gives those users an option to use faster redirects using the web server instead of PHP.

    Note: This is a method for advanced users only, as you will need to edit not only your .htaccess file, but also your server configuration files for Apache or NGINX.

    To use this method, you’ll need access to your server’s configuration files. You’ll also need to know how to safely make changes to those files.

    To set it up, you can go to the All in One SEO » Redirects page and switch to the Settings tab. From here, you can click on the Web Server option under Redirect Method.

    Web server redirects

    The plugin will then detect your web server and will show you an option to export redirect rules files for your web server which you can then manually place in your .htaccess file or your Nginx config file.

    Next, click on the save change button to store your settings.

    After that, the plugin will display a line of code that you need to add to your server’s configuration file.

    Server configuration code

    If you’re using Apache as your web server, then the line should be included in the Apache virtual hosts file. You will then need to restart Apache.

    If you’re using NGINX as your web server, then the line should be included in your nginx.conf file. You will then need to restart NGINX.

    Keep in mind, too, that using server redirects will prevent AIOSEO from keeping logs of all redirects that occur.

    23. Track Your Keyword Rankings with Powerful Search Statistics

    Do you want to know which keywords your website ranks for or where you are losing search rankings?

    You can do this and more in Google Search Console.

    Google Search Console is a treasure trove of data. However, for many beginners, it is harder to find information and figure out what they can do with it inside the search console.

    All in One SEO makes this extremely easy for you with the Search Statistics feature.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » Search Statistics page and connect All in One SEO to your Google Search Console account.

    Connect Google Search Console

    This will open a new window where you will be asked to connect or choose your Google account.

    Afterward, Google will ask your permission to give All in One SEO plugin access to your Google Search Console account.

    Give permissions

    Check all the boxes to give the plugin access to your Google Search Console data, and click Continue.

    If you have connected multiple websites, then Google Search Console will ask you to select your website from the drop-down list.

    After that, you’ll be redirected back to your website.

    All in One SEO will fetch your Google Search Console data and present it under Search Statistics.

    Search statistics dashboard

    First, you’ll see an overview of your website’s performance in Google Search under the Dashboard tab.

    At the top, you will see charts under the SEO statistics box. These charts include the following graphs:

    • Search appearance – How many times your website appears in a search. Remember, this doesn’t mean the first page of the search. This number includes all searches no matter how low or high your website appears in rankings.
    • Total Clicks – How many times a result from your website received a click.
    • Average CTR – What is the average click through rate for your site in search.
    • Average Position – What is the average position of your site. This number is the average of all the keywords.

    You’ll also see a tiny up or down arrow with a number indicating if your site improved or degraded in that category during the selected period.

    The keyword positions chart shows an overlapping graph of your site’s keyword positions.

    Below this, you’ll see Keyword Rankings overview box, which shows your top 10 keywords and how many clicks they received.

    keywords overview

    Next to it, you can see a chart showing TruSEO score of your posts. From here, you can quickly identify posts that ‘Need Improvements’.

    At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the content performance overview. This will show you your top content with their SEO score, clicks, impressions, and difference.

    Content performance oveview

    You can also switch to the Top Losing tab to see which of your top content lost rankings recently.

    Similarly, you can switch to the Top Winning tab to see which content recently gained higher rankings.

    For more detailed reports, you can switch to the SEO Statistics tab.

    SEO statistics tab

    From here, you will see a chart detailing your search performance at the top.

    Below that, you will see all your top content. You can sort your content by clicks, impressions, position, and difference parameters.

    Content performance details

    From here, you can find low hanging SEO wins. For instance, you can see which keywords your site ranks for between 11-20 (second page of Google search results).

    You can then edit those pages to improve their SEO score by adding more content, updating outdated information, adding more images or videos.

    Next, you need to switch to the Keyword Rankings tab to monitor your SERPs.

    Keyword rankings overview

    At the top, you’ll see a graph and bars showing a break down of how many keywords your website ranks for based on their search ranking positions.

    Below that, you’ll find a detailed report of all those keywords with important metrics.

    Keyword performance report

    You can click on the arrow next to a keyword to see which of your article ranks for it and then take appropriate action to improve it.

    All in One SEO also recently added a powerful Content Rankings report that helps you easily identify content decay and significant trends.

    AIOSEO Content Rankings report

    The report shows important metrics including the date a URL was last updated, the rate at which your content is decaying, the percentage drop/gain in content decay points, and more.

    You can click on any page or post in the report to get detailed SEO data about that content. For example, you’ll see the Headline Analysis Score, TruSEO Score, page load speed, internal links report, and suggested SEO changes.

    View SEO data in the Content Rankings report

    With these insights, you can easily optimize your content and move it back up in the rankings.

    All in One SEO brings in Google Search Console data in WordPress, pin points areas where you can improve, and easily gain more free search traffic for your website.

    24. Advanced Yet Easiest Breadcrumb Navigation

    Breadcrumb navigation is a navigational aid that provides users links in relation to where they are on a website’s navigational layout.

    It’s like a path to show them how to get back to earlier parts of the website they may have visited before landing on their current page or post.

    Breadcrumb preview

    This provides users context, helps them discover more sections of your website, and improves user experience.

    Search engines also use this information in the result snippet next to the URL.

    Breadcrumbs in search results snippet

    All in One SEO comes with the easiest and most customizable breadcrumb navigation settings of any WordPress plugin on the market.

    First, it automatically adds markup required by search engines to display breadcrumbs without you having to do anything.

    It also gives you a full set of tools to customize breadcrumbs and display them on your website.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » General Settings page and switch to the Breadcrumbs tab.

    From here, you’ll see different ways to easily display breadcrumbs on your website.

    You’ll also see a link that will show you how to use these methods to display breadcrumbs.

    Breadcrumbs All in One SEO

    Scroll down a little and you’ll find customization options for your breadcrumbs navigation links.

    For instance, you can choose which separator you want to use, include a home link, set a prefix, and more.

    Customize breadcrumbs

    Want to edit the Breadcrumbs template?

    Scroll down to the Breadcrumbs template section. There you’ll see tabs for content types, taxonomies, and archives sections.

    For instance, under Content Types, you can change templates for posts, pages, products, and attachments.

    To edit the template switch the toggle next to ‘Use a default template’ option to reveal the settings.

    Override default template

    You can then edit the default breadcrumbs template by switching toggles to show or hide the homepage or taxonomy links.

    You can also use smart tags and even some HTML if needed. Simply insert the smart tags inside the HTML code anywhere you would put the same static information.

    Edit and override breadcrumb templates

    For more details, see our guide on how to add breadcrumb navigation in WordPress.

    25. Turn On REST API for Headless WordPress

    Are you building a headless WordPress website and don’t want to compromise on SEO?

    All in One SEO allows you to turn on REST API for headless WordPress development.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » Feature Manager page and activate the REST API feature.

    Activate REST API

    This allows you to use the All in One SEO metadata and output it into the front end of your website.

    See the notes on All in One SEO website on how to fetch SEO data with REST API and output it in your source code.

    26. Control Which Users Have Access to SEO Features and Settings

    Want to hire an SEO expert to work on your website? All in One SEO gives you powerful access control features so that you can control which parts of your website they can access.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » General Settings page and switch to the Access Control tab.

    Access control

    First, you’ll see access control options for default WordPress user roles such as Editor, Author, and Contributor.

    By default, they will have access to SEO settings for the content that they are allowed to edit in WordPress. To learn more see our WordPress user roles and permissions guide.

    Editors also have permission to access SEO settings for General Settings, Search Appearance, Social Networks, and Redirects.

    You can change options for each user role by switching the User Default Settings toggle next to a user role.

    Edit access options

    All in One SEO also adds two new custom user roles that you can use.

    • SEO Manager – By default, they can access SEO settings for General Settings, Sitemaps, Link Assistant, Redirects, Local SEO, and individual pages and posts.
    • SEO Editor – By default, they can access SEO settings for individual pages and posts.
    SEO user roles

    You can also change their access by switching the Use Default Settings toggle.

    To assign a user an SEO role on your website, you will need to add them as a new user in WordPress and set their user role to SEO manager or SEO Editor.

    Assign SEO user role

    All in One SEO will then immediate apply the right permissions for them to do their job and boost your site’s rankings.

    27. Seamless E-commerce Integration

    All in One SEO provides the easiest WooCommerce SEO features. It allows you to add an SEO title, description, and product image which is then used by search engines.

    It automatically applies schema markup which gives search engines more information to display in rich results for your products.

    WooCommerce SEO in All in One SEO

    Plus, it includes product sitemaps, breadcrumbs, image SEO, and local SEO features. This makes All in One SEO the most comprehensive toolkit for eCommerce stores.

    For more information, see our ultimate WooCommerce SEO guide for beginners.

    28. Powerful Image SEO Features

    Google image search can be a major source of traffic for many websites.

    However, many users forget to add image alt and title tags when uploading images. If you have multiple authors then it becomes harder to notice if someone has missed those tags.

    All in One SEO comes with an extensive image SEO addon that allows you to fix this by automatically generating these tags. To keep the software lightweight, it is not enabled by default.

    You’ll need to activate it by visiting the All in One SEO » Feature Manager page.

    Activate image SEO feature

    After that, you need to visit the All in One SEO » Search Appearance page and switch to the Image SEO tab.

    The first option here is to redirect attachment URLs.

    All in One SEO automatically redirects attachment URLs back to the attachment because the attachment page itself only contains an image and does not have any SEO benefit.

    Image SEO settings in All in One SEO for WordPress

    Below that, you will find options to set up Image SEO settings. The two most important options here are the Title and Alt tags.

    Under the Title tab, you can choose a default title scheme using the smart tags. AIOSEO will use your image file name as the title.

    Generate image title for SEO

    You can choose to remove punctuation like dashes or underscores. This allows you to convert your image title from ‘our-family-picnic’ to ‘our family picnic’.

    Below that, you can also choose the casing for the tags. For instance, you can use all lowercase, title case, or sentence case.

    Choose letter case

    Optionally, you can exclude posts, pages, or terms where you don’t want the plugin to automatically generate from image titles.

    Next, you need to switch to the Alt tag tab and repeat the process.

    Set image alternate tags

    Similarly, you can also generate captions and descriptions and modify filenames upon upload in a similar manner.

    For more details, see our complete tutorial on image SEO for beginners.

    29. Safely Edit Robots.txt and .htaccess Files From WordPress Admin

    You may sometimes come across tutorials asking you to edit your robots.txt or .htaccess file.

    Editing these files can be difficult for beginners. Not to mention that a mistake there can break your website or affect its SEO.

    To make this easier and safer for beginners, All in SEO comes with a built-in file editor where you can edit your robots.txt and .htaccess files without using FTP.

    You can do that by visiting the All in One SEO » Tools page. For the robots.txt file, you can click on the button to view your current robots file.

    Robots file editor

    You can also enable a custom robots.txt file and create an all new one.

    Below that, you can allow or deny any user agents, and they will be added to robots.txt.

    Allow or block user agents

    The .htaccess Editor tab will display the contents of your current .htaccess file.

    You can simply edit it right there.

    .htaccess file editor

    Note: You need to be very cautious about editing these files. A tiny mistake can break your website or damage its SEO.

    30. Perform a Quick SEO Audit for Your Site

    A lot of businesses hire SEO specialists and pay them to perform SEO audits for their websites.

    All in One SEO helps you save money by allowing you to do a quick SEO audit for your website. This allows you to save money by fixing important SEO issues on your own.

    Simply go to the All in One SEO » SEO Analysis page and the plugin will show you an SEO score of your website.

    SEO analysis

    Below that, it will show you a checklist of SEO recommendations.

    From here, you can see the issues that it found. Clicking on them will display a description of how to fix them.

    SEO checklist

    As you can see in the image above, AIOSEO often has a button directly on the audit screen for you to use and fix the issues immediately.

    31. Compare Competition with Built-in Competitor Analysis

    Want to see how your competition is doing in terms of SEO?

    All in One SEO can perform a quick SEO audit of your competitor’s websites too.

    You can simply go to the All in One SEO » SEO Analysis page and switch to the Analyze Competitor Site tab.

    analyze your competition

    To learn more see our guide on how to do an SEO competitor analysis in WordPress.

    32. Easily Add No Index to Content You Want to Exclude from Search Engines

    Want to exclude some posts or pages from search engine?

    All in One SEO makes it super easy to No Index any content on your website with a click.

    Simply edit the post, page, product, custom post type, or taxonomy that you want to remove or exclude from search engines and scroll down to the AIOSEO settings section.

    From here, you need to switch to the Advance tab and toggle the switch next to the Use Default Settings option. This will reveal a bunch of options.

    No Index content

    You can check No Index and No Follow to make sure that search engines don’t include this item in search results.

    Additionally, you can block any archival of this page, translation, image index, snippet, or no ODP (open directory project). You can also set Max video preview to -1 to ensure that no embedded video preview is displayed.

    33. Monitor and Undo SEO Changes with SEO Revisions

    Ever wondered if your SEO changes to an article gave it a boost or drop in search rankings?

    All in One SEO includes a built-in SEO Revisions feature. It allows you to easily monitor SEO changes made to each article.

    SEO revisions in All in One SEO

    You will be able to see who made the changes and at what time.

    You can then click on the Compare or Preview icon to see the changes.

    Compare SEO changes

    Want to undo a change? No problem. Click on the ‘Restore This Revision’ button to revert changes.

    You can also click click the delete button next to a revision to undo that change.

    Undo an SEO change

    You and your team members can communicate about changes by leaving a note with revisions.

    Click on the ‘Add Note’ link next to a revision, and leave a quick note about the changes you made.

    Adding notes to your SEO revision

    34. Easily Import SEO Data from Other SEO Plugins

    Want to switch from your old WordPress SEO plugin to All in One SEO for WordPress?

    The good news is that All in One SEO comes with a built-in SEO data importer tool that fetches SEO data from your old plugin and imports it into All in One SEO.

    Once you install and activate the All in One SEO plugin it will launch the setup wizard. During this, it will detect your old SEO plugin and give you the option to import SEO data from that plugin.

    Import SEO data from other plugins

    It will automatically detect your old SEO plugin when you run the setup wizard and offers to import your SEO data.

    You can also manually import SEO data by visiting the All in One SEO » Tools page and switching to the ‘Import/Export’ tab.

    Import SEO data manually

    Find the ‘Import Settings From Other Plugins’ section and select your old SEO plugin from the drop-down list and then select the items you wish to import.

    After that, simply click on the ‘Import’ button to fetch the data.

    Import settings

    All in One SEO can fetch the following SEO data.

    • Your plugin’s SEO settings
    • Post meta such as SEO title and description
    • Term meta such as SEO title and descriptions for your categories and tags.

    Bonus: Getting Started with All in One SEO for WordPress

    Did you know that getting started with All in One SEO for WordPress is super easy?

    All you have to do is simply install and activate All in One SEO for WordPress plugin. For more details, see our tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Note: All in One SEO for WordPress is a premium plugin but it also has an incredibly powerful free version called All in One SEO Lite.

    Upon activation, the plugin will launch a step by step set up wizard. Simply answer a few questions to complete the setup wizard.

    After that, you’re ready to go!

    Click let's get started AIOSEO setup wizard

    Need more help? See our tutorial on how to properly install and set up All in One SEO for WordPress.

    We hope this article helped you discover unique things that you probably didn’t know about All in One SEO. You may also want to see our complete WordPress SEO handbook for beginners or take a look at our pick of essential WordPress plugins for all websites.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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    Reader Interactions

    11 CommentsLeave a Reply

    1. Hey WPBeginner readers,
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    2. There are many SEO options out there. The AIOSEO is so well-rounded and user-friendly. Although my agency is not at a point to afford their license, I cannot wait until I can!

      • We hope you find the free version helpful if you are wanting to test it while you plan for the paid version :)

        Admin

    3. Complete guide! You explained it in a simple manner with more understandable pictures. After reading this article, I have learned many new things about All in one SEO tool.
      Thank you for sharing this useful article.

    4. Very good guide never knew about this on seo. I am using toast but It does not have the features mentioned in this blog. I will change my seo plugin to all in one.once again very good guide

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