In this Squirrly SEO plugin review, I’ll take you through its capabilities.
With an SEO WordPress plugin, you will do yourself a significant favour, as you’ll automatically achieve a lot of SEO optimisation.
Squirrly SEO helps with automatic schematic, keyword research, blog post formatting, and more.
So, let’s dive in and see what Squirrly SEO is capable of.
Key Takeaways
- Perform keyword research inside the plugin with a decent depth.
- Set your focus pages and get actionable to-dos to make your focus page rank better.
- Optimise your website for E-E-A-T, which is a significant ranking factor.
Pros And Cons Using Squirrly SEO
Squirrly SEO is one of the more interesting SEO plugins for WordPress, it’s definitely interesting, and they take a lot of unique approaches.
Let me share my pros and cons.
Pros of Squirrly SEO
- A lot of SEO optimisation is happening automatically in the background.
- You can use the keyword research tool within the plugin being able to collect multiple things in one place..
- The live assistant helps you ensure the page or blog post you're working on is fully optimised.
Cons of Squirrly SEO
- The keyword research is very high level and doesn't show many long tail keywords.
- You can experience a steep learning curve with this SEO tool.
Squirrly SEO
My Quick Take
Squirrly SEO surprised me. With the analysis on focus pages, you really get an in-depth analysis of your content.
On top of this, they’ve collected many SEO features in one plugin, making it possible to optimise your WordPress SEO fully.
What Is Squirrly SEO?
Squirrly SEO is an advanced AI WordPress SEO plugin, who claims to be the #1 ai WordPress SEO plugin made to help you optimise your website for search engine optimisation.
WordPress is already very optimised, but you can optimise it further to improve your search engine rankings.
Squirrly SEO offers a ton of functionality, from schemas to increase your visibility in the SERP to integrations to Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
It also has. a keyword research tool built-in, so as you can probably feel now, it’s a huge plugin with a ton of functionality, so don’t get overwhelmed when you start.
Squirrly SEO’s strategy is to become a super useful SEO plugin for you, to replace the functionality from Yoast SEO and even Rank Math SEO.
So whatever your SEO strategy is, then having a WordPress plugin like Squirrly SEO on your website is mandatory to improve your chances for SEO success.
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Squirrly SEO Review Features
Now, let’s dive into the exciting part, the actual features. I’ve used Squirrly SEO on one of my websites, and in the past used it a lot as well, so I have the experience to give my opinion.
So let’s start with the keyword research.
Keyword Research: Find Keywords For Your Niche
The keyword research tool is super basic and doesn’t allow for much wiggle room.
You enter your keyword, whether it’s your seed keyword or a keyword for one of your focus pages, and then Squirrly SEO shows you related keywords.
You can then choose up to 3 related keywords and run an analysis to get either 20 or 50 keywords back.
The thing is that you don’t get necessary long tail keywords easy to rank for, and you can’t filter your keywords in any way.
This is a very basic keyword research tool which sometimes shows some surprising results, but you really have to work with it.
I’ve had better results working with Google Search Console to find my keywords, but sometimes I take those keywords and keywords from my focus pages and run through the keyword research tool.
It’s clear Squirrly SEO has added this as a secondary module because the primary focus is on optimising the WordPress SEO for your WordPress website.
If you want to see a dedicated keyword research tool, then here is a low-competition keyword finder.
Recommended reading
Live Assistant: Optimise Your Posts To Increase Search Volume
The live assistant is with you every time you’re writing a blog post, and it’s basically telling you what you need to do to optimise your blog post.
As you can see on the right side, it checks on 14 simple SEO points. And these points are super generics, but of course, they help to write a better blog post.
But if you want a more in-depth analysis of your page, then you have to add it to the other focus pages to get the 20-measurement point analysis.
The live assistant is a decent module, and I wish it gave more insights, but you can always use focus pages for that.
It does tell you how to use your keyword and where to put it, which is super basic. But I would love to see in-depth content research, including relevant NLP terms to use in my content from the live assistant, just like with Frase SEO.
But if you’re new to SEO, then you’ll find this to be a great help, but don’t make your blog post worse just by following the guidelines from the live assistant.
See them as suggestions, not something you have to do everything to follow.
You can also use the live assistant to enhance your post with images, quotes or content from your other articles.
Recommended reading
Bulk SEO: SEO Optimise Your Posts In Bulk
There is not much to mention about this module, but it’s a super neat module, and I thought just to bring it up.
Working with WordPress SEO, you often have hundreds, if not thousands, of pages, and you want to keep an overview but still be able to optimise the pages.
With the bulk SEO module, you can ensure your WordPress SEO stays on top, where you can easily change the meta tags, open graphs, including Twitter and whether your posts should be indexable.
Simply click on the circle for what you want to change, and then you change it.
It’s super well optimised, and it shows Squirrly SEO has taken their SEO software seriously to ensure it runs smoothly, and it’s a help and not something that stands in the way.
Automation: Save Time On Your On-Page SEO
This is not a module I used a lot, I just let it sit from when I set up Squirrly SEO, but here you can really save some time.
This is automating your variables and SEO set-up for your pages, posts and so on.
If you want to change the titles or meta description for your categories, tags or maybe even custom post formats, then you do it here.
Whatever you write here is the default text for those post types. You can always change it individually on the posts/pages when you edit them.
It’s an awesome module, and it has all the necessary features, from the title and description to open graph settings for social media.
IndexNow: Index Your Website Content Immediately
This is a module for requesting the search engines to crawl your focus pages or normal pages as well.
It’s perfect for when you create new pages, posts or even update an old blog post.
Getting the search engines to recrawl the pages will ensure some jumps in the rankings if your updates have a positive effect, of course.
It’s super simple to use, you just have to paste in the URLs, and then in bulk, you can request recrawls.
Your posts will automatically be submitted when you make changes, but if you want to ensure they’re being recrawled, then enter them here and submit the URLs.
SEO Configuration: Set Up Your WordPress Website
This is one of those set-and-leave modules, and this is where you set up your entire SEO setup with Squirrly SEO and your WordPress website.
When you sign up for Squirrly SEO and install it on your WordPress website, you’re taken through a setup process, and in this process, a lot of this is covered already.
But if you want to make changes or you want to ensure everything is set up to your standards, then it happens here.
You can make changes to 5 categories of SEO settings:
- Tweaks & Sitemaps
- SEO Meta
- Social Media
- Rich Snippets
- Connect Tools
For tweaks & sitemaps is where you set up your sitemaps and how often you want it to update. Remember to add your sitemap to Google Search Console or update the URL if you’ve used another SEO plugin previously.
You can also, in this module, optimise Squirrly by removing front-end CSS from Squirrly SEO, minifying some code and more.
In SEO meta, you choose your meta tags’ settings, including meta titles, descriptions and more. These settings are used by the live assistant to understand whether you want to optimise your titles or not.
I’ll not recommend you change anything here unless you’re certain about what you want.
The social media step helps with your E-E-A-T, and here you want to make changes.
Here you can enter your Twitter profile, Facebook profile and set up a default image for when your posts are shared on social media.
Rich Snippets is another E-E-A-T module where you want to fill out all the information possible.
This is where you describe who you are, your business, name, logo and more. And Squirrly SEO will then ensure to publish this as schema on your website.
Lastly, we have the module connect tools, and this is purely for Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and if you want to enable AMP.
Just promise me you’ll integrate at least Google Search Console. There is so much data for you to utilise.
Focus Pages: Your Most Important SEO Pages
Focus pages are a module for the most important pages you want to give some extra attention to.
Focus pages include pages that bring the most traffic, maybe even the most revenue, whether you earn your income on ads, affiliates or even as a SaaS.
Your focused pages are regularly measured on 20 parameters to ensure they’re up to date and have the best chances for ranking.
The 20 parameters are as follows:
- Chance to Rank
- Visibility
- Keyword
- Strategy
- SEO Content
- Words / Page
- Platform SEO
- Snippet
- SEO Image
- Traffic Health
- Platform Health
- Page Authority
- Social Signals
- Backlinks
- Inner Links
- Outbound Links
- Accuracy
- CTR
- Impressions
- Clicks
Each of these checks is marked as green/red or a number depending on your efforts, and you of course, want all of them to be green.
Squirrly SEO even helps you with tips on what you can do to improve the chances for your focus pages to rank better.
You can click on each measurement point to get some actionable tips on what to do for your focus pages, and it’s quite interesting.
For each point, you can either do research within Squirrly SEO, or you can optimise your content for the keyword where you can use the live assistant to improve your focus pages.
Pro-tip
A lot of the numbers are pulled from both Google Analytics and Google Search Console, so remember to integrate with these services as early as possible when you start using Squirrly SEO.
SEO Audit: 34 SEO Checks
Normally I would recommend the free Ahrefs site audit, but this site audit is completely different.
Here you run an SEO audit on individual pages and get a plan for that specific page.
The SEO audit done by Squirrly SEO checks on 34 different points, yes, it’s a lot, and it’s not only stuff such as duplicate descriptions or duplicate titles.
The SEO audit checks on everything from backlinks and authority to your social media setup and on-page analysis.
Overall then, it checks on 6 categories:
- Blogging
- Traffic
- SEO
- Social
- Links
- Authority
Blogging is all about your content optimisation, how well your content is written, and does it need to be optimised more for a specific keyword.
Traffic pulls data from Google Analytics to see if the page is a top 10 page and if you get enough traffic.
The SEO category checks on all the on-page stuff. Are your meta tags in order, including meta descriptions and meta titles? Do you have a sitemap, robots.txt file and more?
The social category checks whether your URL is shareable, if you have shared social buttons on your page and how much your post is shared.
The links category pulls data from Moz to see if you’ve built any backlinks to the specific page.
And the authority category is where you get to create a content strategy to ensure your focus pages rank and your marketing strategy aligns. Overall it’s how good you are at covering a topic from multiple angles.
So this SEO audit really surprised me, and it shows how important it is that you integrate with both Google Analytics and Google Search Console to utilise your data.
Google Rankings: Track Your Rankings
This module is super simple, and it works just like a rank tracker. You can manually add keywords, but you can also sync keywords from Google Search Console, which I recommend.
You then get an overview of all your keywords and pages and see how well you rank on the different keywords.
It’s a super simple tool, but at the same time, such a powerful tool as it helps you monitor your SEO efforts to ensure you stay in the top 10 in the rankings.
I’ve tested it, and it works well. You can get ranking details which are impressions and clicks pulled directly from Google Search Console.
Alternatives To Squirrly SEO
There are hundreds of different WordPress SEO plugins released, but in my opinion, there are only 2 that come close to Squirrly SEO, and one of them is my favourite to use.
As you’ve hopefully seen now in my WordPress SEO Plugin Review of Squirrly, it has some unique features, but here are 2 other great SEO WordPress plugins.
Rank Math SEO
Rank Math SEO is my go-to WordPress SEO plugin because of their powerful schema editor.
It’s the best SEO plugin if you focus on the schema to take more space in the SERP.
It’s not as good as Squirrly SEO when it comes to research. The focus pages module from Squirrly SEO delivers the most in-depth analysis from any WordPress SEO plugin.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the other WordPress SEO plugin, and up until a year ago, this was the best SEO plugin.
It’s still the widely most used WordPress SEO plugin when you look at active installations, but they’ve been overtaken by both Rank Math SEO and Squirrly SEO, in my opinion.
That said, Yoast SEO is still a solid WordPress SEO plugin, and if you’re all for simplicity, then Yoast SEO is the best option for you.
How To Use Squirrly SEO
To Use Squirrly SEO, install it in your website, and let it settle in. From there I’ll recommend you to set your focus pages and let Squirrly SEO analyse these pages.
When they’re analysed, then you have a long to-do to go through to optimise your focus pages.
From there I’ll recommend you start using the scheme functionality and the keyword research on a daily basis to improve your overall SEO efforts.
Be aware when you start to use Squirrly SEO, it has a learning curve, but just stay patient because in the long run, it’ll benefit you.
Squirrly SEO Pricing
Squirrly SEO offers simple pricing where you can sign up for either monthly or yearly plans. They don’t offer any free plans.
The PRO 2023 plan is the sweet spot, and it will cover all your SEO needs, where you get full access to the SEO plugin. You will most likely fit this plan unless you’re an agency.
The Agency 2023 plan gives you access to install Squirrly on more domains, but you lose access to the deep keyword research, top-ranking pages leaderboard and advanced analytics.
Every plan includes over 650 features, and some of them are really unique compared to other SEO tools like Yoast and Rank Math SEO
Who Is Squirrly SEO Made For?
Squirrly SEO is made for anyone with a WordPress website who cares about content and your rankings in search engines.
Squirrly SEO is one of many SEO plugins, but in my opinion, there are only 2 great WordPress SEO plugins:
- Rank Math SEO
- Squirrly SEO
Yoast SEO could be mentioned, but I feel they’ve fallen too far behind.
You get so much help from the Squirrly SEO plugin, whether it’s to set up the schema, help you with E-E-A-T, or even to write better content.
On top of this, then, you can run keyword research in the SEO tool and integrate with various applications like Google Analytics to fully use your data.
I will go so far as to say that even though you’re not focused on your rankings in the search engines, or producing a lot of content, then install a WordPress SEO plugin like Squirrly SEO, and it’ll help you so much in the long run.
Wrap-Up: Is Squirrly SEO Worth It?
Yes, Squirrly SEO is worth it with all the functionality you get.
Some might say it’s a bit pricey, but I believe at $30 for 5 websites is entirely fair. We also have to think about how much functionality we get.
And Squirrly SEO’s plugin is outstanding at providing functionality from keyword research to SEO audit and much more.
So if you’re on the lookout for an SEO WordPress plugin to boost your rankings in the search engines, then I’ll strongly recommend you to look into Squirrly SEO.
You can always start with the free plan and then upgrade to the paid plan if you like to use it.
Squirrly SEO
My Last Thoughts
If you’re all for innovation and want to stay on the beat with what’s happening with SEO, then Squirrly SEO matches you.
My favourite feature is using the focus pages, and I’ve never seen so much data and analysis for my pages in a WordPress SEO plugin. It’s simply incredible.
Squirrly SEO
Squirrly SEO is a WordPress plugin that combines AI into a WordPress plugin to deliver the best output possible for your WordPress SEO website.
4.5
Pros
- A lot of SEO optimisation is happening automatically in the background.
- You can use the keyword research tool within the plugin being able to collect multiple things in one place.
- The live assistant helps you ensure the page or blog post you're working on is fully optimised.
Cons
- The keyword research is very high level and doesn't show many long tail keywords.
- You can experience a steep learning curve with this SEO tool.
