SEO cannot be separated from internet marketing. It’s the essential part of it. If your website is based on WordPress, you can install an SEO plugin to assist you in optimizing your site content to make them more SEO friendly. Despite the existence of plugins like SEO Press and Rank Math, Yoast remains the first name to come in mind when it comes to SEO plugin. Yoast is a feature-rich SEO plugin that can be used on any website type. From a blog, e-commerce, listing website, and so on. You can use Yoast to optimize all content types on your WordPress site. From blog posts, pages, WooCommerce products, to custom post types.
Quick question, is there an appropriate alternative to Yoast?
First, you need to understand that WordPress is an open-source software. In the open-source world, you always have multiple choices for specific needs. In the context of SEO plugin, you have options like SEO Press, Rank Math, to The SEO Framework. However, finding a Yoast alternative is a bit challenging since Yoast is by far the best in this area.
Features to Consider
Yoast comes with a bunch of useful features to optimize your site’s content. One of its notable features is SEO analysis, which helps making sure your content is SEO friendly before you publish it. The feature will check elements like meta description, SEO title, keyphrase, outbound links, and internal links. Green lamp means an element has a great SEO score. Orange lamp means it needs an improvement. Red lamp means it needs double improvement since the SEO score is bad.
With Yoast, you can optimize your content by creating a custom meta description and custom SEO title. If you use the pro version, you can even instantly add internal links thanks to its real-time internal suggestions feature. Overall, here are the key features offered by Yoast:
- SEO analysis
- Readability analysis
- XML sitemaps
- Breadcrumbs
- Webmaster integrations
- Social media integrations
- The ability to add custom meta description
- The ability to add focus keyphrase
On top of that, Yoast is supported by popular page builder plugins, especially Elementor. Thus, before switching to another alternative, you need to make sure that your alternative option has all the features above unless, for a certain reason, you don’t need a particular feature.
Best Alternatives to Yoast
1. Rank Math
Do you use a page builder plugin on your WordPress site? If yes, Rank Math is the best option to switch from Yoast. It has a native integration support for Elementor and Divi Builder, two of the most popular page builder plugins for WordPress. Rank Math will analyze aspects like focus keyword, meta description, readability, and so on. No need to go back to the WordPress dashboard to see the analysis results. If you use Divi, you can simply click the Rank Math icon on the bottom side of the editor screen to open the analysis panel.
To optimize blog posts, Rank Math allows you to add custom meta description and focus keyword. You are also provided an SEO analysis feature to make sure your blog posts are SEO optimized. Rank Math provides a score — with the scale of 1-100 — to your articles. If you really want to switch from Yoast, Rank Math allows you to import the SEO settings from your previous SEO plugin. The settings that can be imported include:
- Term meta
- Redirections
- Locations
- Video Sitemap
- Post meta
- Author meta
Rank Math itself is also a popular SEO plugin. According to WordPress.org, over one million users use the plugin. Rank Math has all features offered by Yoast. In addition to SEO analysis and the ability to add custom meta description and focus keyword, the plugin also comes with features like sitemap, social media integrations, and so on.
2. SEOPress
Google Analytics is the most popular traffic analysis tool widely used by webmasters. In WordPress, you have Site Kit to analyze the traffic of your website from the WordPress dashboard. However, it is not an SEO plugin. If you are looking for an SEO plugin with such a functionality, SEOPress is the one for you. However, you need to use the pro version to use this feature.
SEOPress is the best option if you need an SEO plugin with analytics in mind. With the plugin installed, you can connect Google Analytics more easily by simply pasting the tracking code. No need to manually add the tracking to either header or footer. Plus, the plugin comes with download tracker — which will be useful if you use offers free digital products to download –, and affiliate links tracker. SEOPress also has a native integration with Matomo if you use it instead of Google Analytics. Basic features like sitemap and SEO analysis are available as well. If you need more advanced features like real-time link suggestions, breadcrumbs, broken link checker, and so on, you can upgrade to the pro version.
3. WP Meta SEO
WP Meta SEO is another plugin you can consider for replacing Yoast. It also comes with a bunch of features to assist you in optimizing your site and its content for search engines. If you have a blog, WP Meta SEO offers an SEO analysis feature which you can use to make sure every blog post you write is SEO optimized before you publish it. You will also be able to add the keyword you target as well as the meta description. Common features offered by WP Meta SEO include sitemap, breadcrumbs, social media integration, and redirects. If you use Google Analytics, WP Meta SEO also makes it easier for you to connect your website with your Google Analytics account.
Do you use Elementor on your WordPress site? If yes, WP Meta SEO also allows you to optimize your Elementor-powered pages. If you need more advanced features, WP Meta SEO offers add-ons.
4. All-in-one SEO Pack
If we refer to the stat on WordPress.org, All-in-one SEO Pack is on the second place in the most popular SEO plugins list, right below Yoast. The plugin has over three million active users. All-in-one SEO Pack also offers a setup wizard in which on the first step, you can import the SEO data from Yoast. An interesting fact about All-in-one SEO Pack if you are a WordPress enthusiast. The plugin is owned by Awesome Motive, the company behind popular WordPress plugins like WPForms, MonsterInsights, and Easy Digital Downloads.
The overall features offered by All-in-one SEO Pack are not much different from Yoast and other alternatives above. First, it offers SEO analysis and the ability to add custom meta description and focus keyword. The SEO analysis offers scoring with the scale of 1-100. Features like breadcrumbs, sitemap, social media integrations are also available. More advanced features like image SEO, video sitemap, local business SEO, Google News sitemap, and redirection manager are available in the pro version.
5. The SEO Framework
The SEO Framework comes with fewer features compared to the SEO plugins above. It has no analysis feature to audit the blog posts although you can add meta description. The SEO Framework is a better suited option for a one-page website or other type of websites in which the content is not updated on a regular basis like a blog. You can use the SEO Framework to optimize your site homepage by adding custom SEO title and meta description. Despite the absence of the SEO analysis feature, standard features like breadcrumbs, sitemap, and social media integration are available.
The Bottom Line
SEO is the main foundation of website traffic for online businesses. It is the best channel to generate more targeted audience for free. In the WordPress community, it’s a common practice to use an SEO plugin to optimize a website as well as its content to be on the front page of the search results page of search engines. When it comes it SEO plugin for WordPress, Yoast is the first name to come in mind. It is a free, feature-rich SEO plugin that can be used to optimize every single page of your website. Yoast, however, is not the only SEO plugin for WordPress. Rank Math is getting more popular these days. All-in-one SEO Pack is also in a good direction after being acquired by Awesome Motive.
While most SEO plugins offer similar features like SEO analysis, social media integrations, and sitemap — some come with more advanced features to streamline your workflow. SEOPress, for instance, comes with a built-in feature to monitor your traffic right from the WordPress dashboard thanks to its integration with Google Analytics. Rank Math, on the other hand, has a great integration with page builders like Elementor and Divi Builder. Whichever the Yoast alternative you eventually put your choice on, make sure it meets your needs to optimize your website.
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