Looking for a guide to setting up the WordPress All in One SEO plugin?
All in One SEO is one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress. As the name suggests, this plugin has everything you need to meet your SEO needs. It is an all-in-one SEO solution for all types of users. If you need full SEO control of your WordPress website in your hands, the All in One SEO plugin should be your first choice.
Like other SEO plugins, it also offers free and paid versions. AIOSEO offers four paid versions – Basic, Plus, Pro and Elite. The Pro version is their best-selling package which you can purchase for $199.60 per year.
The premium version of AIOSEO offers many advanced features that you might not need as a beginner. So, either the free version or the lite version of the All in One SEO plugin should suffice for your website needs. The lite version is available for free on the WordPress repository. You can easily install it directly from the admin panel of your WordPress site.
The user interface of the AIOSEO plugin is also much improved in the latest versions. Before version 3.0, the user interface was not very good. The AIOSEO plugin developer team did a great job on the UI to make it smooth and modern. All SEO options are organized and well categorized.
All in One SEO is well configured by default, but significant customization is still required for better search engine rankings. So, in this article, we are going to share a detailed guide to set up the All in One SEO WordPress plugin properly.
An Ultimate Guide to Properly Setting Up the All-in-One WordPress SEO Plugin
#1 AIOSEO SETUP WIZARD
After activating the plugin, you will be automatically redirected to the AIOSEO setup wizard for quick configuration of basic SEO settings. To begin, click on the let’s start button.
Note: You can also change these settings later from the AIOSEO plugin interface.
Step 1 – Import data
First, if you are already using an SEO plugin, this wizard will automatically detect the installed SEO plugin and ask you to import data from it to AIOSEO. If you want to import data from a particular plugin, select it and click Import data and continue button. If no SEO plugin is installed on your website, you will be taken directly to the next step.
Step 2 – Website Category Selection
At this step, you will be asked to select an appropriate category for your website. There are several options to choose from, such as Blog, Online Store, Company, News Channel, Portfolio, etc. So select a category describing your website. Our site has primarily focused on creating content for readers, so we’ve selected the “Blog” option.
After choosing the right category for your website scroll down. Below you will have an option to edit the home page metadata. Here you can configure the homepage title and meta description for your website. We recommend that you keep the default home page title settings. And write a short introduction of your website (max. 160 characters) in the blank field available for the homepage meta description. You can also use available tags to display author name, current date, tagline, etc. After you are done, click Save and continue button to go to the next step.
Step 3 – Additional Site Information and Social Profiles
During this step, you will be asked for additional information about your website. The information entered on this page will be used by search engines to find out more about your website.
First, you need to select whether your website represents a person or an organization. If you choose “Person”, you will be asked to enter the person’s name and upload a 112×112 personal avatar image. Similarly, if you choose “Organization”, it will ask you for more Information about your organization, such as organization name, contact number, and logo.
If your website is a blog or personal site, choose “Person” and if your website is a business or agency site, choose the organization option.
Here you can also use the default social sharing image (optional). After filling in all the details here, scroll down to the Your social profiles section.
In your social profiles section, enter the links of any social media profiles of you or your website in their respective boxes. After that click on Save and continue button to move forward.
Step 4 – Enable/Disable SEO Features
On this page you can enable or disable the SEO features provided by the All in One SEO plugin. By default, optimized search appearance, sitemaps, analytics, conversion tools, and some other business features are enabled.
If you have the Pro version of AIOSEO, keep the pro features enabled, otherwise disable them all. Also disable analytics and conversion tools features if you don’t need them. If you keep the Analytics and Conversion Tools feature enabled, two additional plugins – “Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights and OptinMonster” will be automatically installed on your WordPress. If you have no problem with these two additional plugins and really need these features, you can keep them enabled.
Users of the free version of AIOSEO should only keep these two features enabled – Optimized Search Appearance and Sitemaps. After selecting features, click Save and continue button for the next step.
Step 5 – Search Appearance
On this page, you can customize how your website appears in search results. Here at the top, you can see the Google Snippet preview of your website’s homepage. If something is wrong or you just want to change the look of your homepage, just click the Edit title and description button (visible when you hover the mouse cursor over the preview).
A configuration section for the home page will appear just below the preview snippet. It has the same options that we have already filled in the first step of the AIOSEO configuration wizard. Make the changes you want to make and move on.
If your website is still under construction, you can prevent search engines from indexing your website by selecting the Under construction option available just below the snippet preview. When you enable Under Construction mode, all other options available on this page automatically disappear. You must select the live website option to see settings related to the sitemap.
After selecting Live Site, below you will see “Include all post types”, Leave the toggle on to include all posts, pages, and attachments in the sitemap. Also keep the “Enable sitemap” option checked.
If your website has multiple authors, choose “Yes” at the “Do you have multiple authors” option otherwise choose “No”. Next, select the “Yes” option to redirect the attachment pages to the attachment itself.
After configuring all options, click Save and continue button for the next step.
Step 6 – Configure Site Analyzer + Smart Recommendations
On this page, you will be asked to enter your email address to receive notifications from AIOSEO about useful SEO recommendations. If you are interested, enter your email address to register.
The next option on this page asks for permission to collect anonymous data from your website. If you do not wish to share information with AIOSEO, disable the “Yes, count on me” to fall over. After disabling it, click Save and continue for the next step.
Step 7 – Enter License Key
In the last step, the installation wizard will ask you to enter the license key of the All in One SEO Pro version. If you have a license key, enter it to connect your AIOSEO Pro license to your website. If you don’t need to type anything, just click the skip this step button. No license key is needed for AIOSEO Lite version.
That’s it, you have completed all the steps of the All in One SEO WordPress Plugin Setup Wizard process. Your site is now ready for SEO.
Now click on Complete the setup and go to the dashboard button to complete the process.
