Recently Easy WP SEO 1.6 was released. This new version has some great new features that make it pull even further ahead of other on-page SEO plugins.
What’s New in Easy WP SEO 1.6
URL Analyzer
This super slick new feature gives you the ability to analyze any URL on your site, not just posts and pages. With the URL Analyzer, you can now optimize your home page, category and other archive pages, basically any content anywhere on your site. If it’s accessible through a URL, it can be analyzed.
This image shows the URL Analyzer summary page which displays the URLs set up to be scored. I have my home page, which contains post excerpts, entered in. Its current SEO score, primary keyword and keyword density are displayed.
By clicking on “Edit” ( which appears when mousing over “Home Page” like the standard WordPress mouseover links) the same Easy WP SEO analysis panel that appears for posts and pages is displayed.
Though the site home page can’t be edited through this interface, because it’s a composite of post excerpts and not a separate entity stored in the database, it could be tweaked by adjusting the excerpt lengths and other elements on the page. It’s still great to be able to see where the home page stands in terms of on-page SEO.
For category pages, some WordPress themes provide ways to add content directly, which would make it easier to optimize them.
Configurable SEO Parameters
This would have been my favorite enhancement in the 1.6 update if not for the URL Analyzer. As mentioned in my Easy WP SEO review, the previous version allowed you to configure some of the SEO parameters like keyword density range and choose which density formula to use.
Easy WP SEO 1.6 goes much further in enabling users to tailor the plugin to fit their needs. Every one of the parameters factored into the SEO score are now either configurable, or can be toggled on or off. For someone with good knowledge of on-page SEO, this is an extremely welcome feature.
You can see I’ve turned off the “Keywords meta tag contains keyword” check. It’s pretty much agreed the search engines completely ignore meta keywords nowadays. It doesn’t hurt to have it in there, but it’s very unlikely to have any positive impact on rankings.
If any of the SEO factors are turned off, they won’t have any impact on the overall SEO score, and they will no longer appear in the plugin’s Analysis panel.
Easy WP SEO 1.6 Integrates with Copyscape
Version 1.6 has a new Copyscape integration feature that allows you to check to see if your content has been plagiarized elsewhere on the Web.
The image above shows the Copyscape configuration panel on the Easy WP SEO settings page.
The image on the right is the Copyscape function as it appears when you’re editing post or page content.
As these images indicate, a premium account is required to access Copyscape’s API. You can get 200 searches for $10.
If you hire writers to create content for your sites, you can use this feature to check your posts and pages for uniqueness before you publish them.
Optimization of Protected Content
Also new in 1.6 is the ability to assess and score password-protected posts and pages, as with membership site plugins like DAP or WishList.
Easy WP SEO’s ability to analyze entire HTML pages, as opposed to just post or page content, is implemented by the plugin making GET requests from the web server, exactly like a browser does. Previous versions were unable to access password-protected posts because they didn’t provide a way to enter passwords.
Import/Export Plugin Settings
Easy WP SEO 1.6 gives you the ability to export all the plugin’s settings into a file you can save on your hard drive. The settings file can then be imported into Easy WP SEO installed on other sites to instantly replicate the original installation.
If you run a lot of WordPress sites and are thinking of buying Easy WP SEO, this new feature will save you a ton of time. Even the licensing information is stored in the export file, so it won’t need to be re-entered on each new site.
SEO Summary Reports
Easy WP SEO 1.6 displays summary reports of the SEO status of the post or page you’re currently editing.
At the moment these reports are only displayed onscreen. It would perhaps be more useful if they could be printed, or if there was a central location to view summary reports of all content on a site. Still, it’s a nice way to be able to see a detailed SEO report on your content.
Conclusion – Easy WP SEO 1.6 Raises the Bar
Version 1.5 of this plugin was fantastic, and I was very happy with it. But with the new features of 1.6, Easy WP SEO has really set itself apart from other plugins like SEOPressor, Clickbump SEO and SEO Beast.
None of the other plugins provide a way to analyze the content of home and archive pages. Neither do they allow you to choose what SEO factors you think are important. Instead, they dictate ideal keyword density, content length, and all other SEO factors.
At the moment, Easy WP SEO is selling for $37 for a multi-site license, which is the same cost as Clickbump SEO and SEO Beast. (SEOPressor is $97.) But I have heard recently that in the next few weeks, it will be officially launched on Clickbank at a higher cost.
So if you’re interested in Easy WP SEO 1.6, the best time to buy is right now. (Updates to the plugin are free for life.) If you decide to wait, you may miss out and end up having to pay a higher price for it shortly down the road.