I don’t often recommend specific WordPress plugins but I rather like Slim SEO for it’s simplicity. SEO plugins is a hotly contested category in the WordPress space and Slim SEO brings something new to the table.
The go to plugins these days are Yoast SEO and All in One SEO, but they are increasingly large and, frankly, overwhelming in their complexity. For people who are experts at SEO I’m sure they’re great but for the average blogger I’d argue they are too much. Recently there have been a bunch of new, simpler, SEO plugins. I’m a fan of the SEO Framework: it has a simpler interface and fewer options making it much easier to optimize your site. In fact it’s what I use here on Binary Moon.
But then in comes Slim SEO. Slim SEO does away with options entirely, and this is something I can get behind! I’ve long been an advocate of WordPress “Decisions not options” mantra, and this couldn’t be more applicable here. Anh, the plugins developer, goes into more detail in his blog post announcing the Slim SEO, and to be honest I agree with all his points.
How many people install Yoast SEO and then don’t actually fill out any of the properties? I’d be willing to guess a lot of developers install the plugin for their clients and it never gets looked at again. So why not use something that keeps out of the way and does 90% of the work for you? That’s better than one that clutters the interface with notifications and input boxes, and everyone ignores surely?
I had an email conversation with Anh where we discussed the development, and he said that he plans to continue improving the plugin. In the future he may add some options for tweaking certain settings but he wants to focus on simplicity. He also made a few small tweaks based on suggestions I made; which is nice ?.
For future sites I make, I will definitely look at Slim SEO, at least until I get to a stage where I need more features. And then I’ll use the SEO Framework. Simple is always better!
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