We compare the two most popular plugins to determine which is the best SEO plugin for WordPress.
We are often asked, what is the best SEO plugin for WordPress and from our experience it comes down to two clear cut contenders. Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. We take a look at these two WordPress heavyweights to determine which one you should be using on your website.
Both Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack have an extensive user base and are without doubt the most popular SEO plugins currently available for WordPress and among the most used plugins of all time. All in One SEO came first, lanched in 2007 by Michael Torbert and Steve Mortiboy, Yoast SEO followed in 2010, made by Joost de Valk and it quickly became a major rival to All in One SEO’s throne. Both plugins are feature packed and come with everything you need to boost the visibility on your WordPress website, but which is better? Let’s compare them both and find out which is the best SEO plugin for WordPress.
Installation and Set Up
Once downloaded, you then have to install and set up your chosen plugin. SEO is a complicated business and getting it right is crucial to boosting your visibility in the search engines, with that in mind, an SEO plugin should make it simple for the novice to set up.
Yoast SEO
The first step is to install and activate the plugin, you do this by navigating to the WordPress Plugins tab, simply select the downloaded zip folder and upload it to install. Once Yoast SEO is activated, setting it up is easy, thanks to an intuitive configuration wizard that guides you through the entire setup process. The wizard is straightforward and allows beginners to get started quickly, without being overwhelmed by technical jargon and complex options. The wizard interface is well designed, with neatly organised options split into tabbed sections, the tabs make it easy to switch back and forth, so you can revisit any options if you need to. If you get stuck or need assistance, there is an onscreen help option available on every page during the setup process, expanding when clicked to reveal help videos or text about the options on the page.
All in One SEO Pack
First you need to install and activate the plugin, you do this by navigating to the WordPress Plugins tab, simply select the downloaded zip folder and upload it to install. Once activated, you can access the setup page by clicking on the menu item just below the Dashboard. Unlike Yoast SEO, the settings for All in One SEO Pack are on a single page, which can look overwhelming at first. The options are divided into sections which deal with a particular area or feature, for example, there is a section for the home page settings, a section for title settings and so on. To aid beginners, each option has it’s own help button should you need it.
Verdict
Both plugins are fairly straightforward to set up, but we feel that Yoast SEO does a better job of organising everything through it’s tabbed interface and helping the beginner with it’s intuitive configuration wizard.
Winner: Yoast SEO.
Tools and Features
The in-depth nature of SEO means a plugin needs to incorporate a comprehensive feature set to be classed as a true all-in-one solution. We look at the contenders to see how they measure up.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO boasts a broad set of optimisation features including:
- XML Sitemaps
- Open Graph Meta Tags
- Canonical and Meta-linking
- Breadcrumb Navigation
- Google Webmaster Tools Integration
- Cleanup Permalink
- Content Analysis
- Robots.txt editor
- .htaccess editor
- Import/Export SEO data
All in One SEO Pack
All in One SEO features an extensive list of features, however some of them will need activating using the Features Manager before they are available.
- XML Sitemap
- Robots.txt
- File Editor
- Bad Bot Blocker
- Open Graph Meta Tags
- Import and Export SEO Data
- Performance Manager
- Built-in API to Extend All in One SEO Pack
- Robots.txt editor
- .htaccess Editor
- Basic WooCommerce Support
Verdict
The feature sets of both plugins are comprehensive and offer almost everything you would need to optimise your site.
Winner: Draw.
On-Page SEO
Performing on-page SEO is crucial to your visibility online, every page you publish is an opportunity to rank for your target keywords, it plays an important role in telling the search engines what your page is about and what search queries the page should be returned for.
Yoast SEO
Featuring a powerful on-page content analysis tool, Yoast SEO makes it easy to optimisie each page or post on your website. Below the post editor, Yoast SEO places the snippet preview, focus keyword and content analysis tools. The snippet shows how your page title and description will look in the SERPs, Yoast SEO fills this in automatically, but we recommend changing it using the edit snippet button for a more targeted approach. Once you have written your page or post, you can use the Focus Keyword tool to analyze your content for your chosen target keyword, after analysing your content, Yoast SEO will make suggestions on how you can improve your on-page SEO and better your page score.
In addition to the above, there is an advanced view for more experienced users, where search engine indexing and follow options can be configured and a section where social media options can be set, including article images for Facebook and Twitter.
All in One SEO Pack
In a similar fashion to Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack also allows you to optimise each page or post individually, albeit, with a few less options. You can edit your page title and decription meta tags, but there are no content analysis options to speak of. There are a number of advanced options, which beginners should steer clear of, these allow you to modify search engine indexing and follow options. Social settings can also be turned on via the Social Media Addon to enable custom images and descriptions for Twitter and Facebook.
Verdict
Both plugins do a good job implementing on-page optimisation, however we find the content analysis in Yoast SEO invaluable, giving it the edge over All in One SEO.
Winner: Yoast SEO.
Support and Pro Versions
Yoast
The free version of Yoast SEO doesn’t come with any form of support, unlike it’s big brother, Yoast SEO Premium, but this will set you back $69 for a single site license. The premium version does however come with a number of additional features to soften the blow, including the ability to choose multiple focus keywords and a redirect manager. You can also pay for specialist addons such as Local SEO, Video SEO and News SEO.
All in One SEO Pack
Just like it’s rival, All in One SEO Pack lacks any kind of support unless you stump up $97 for the Pro version, which comes with 12 months professional support. Unlike Yoast SEO, the premium version of All in One SEO Pack can be used on unlimited sites, which is a real plus point for developers or users with multiple sites. The Pro version includes additional features like support for WooCommerce products, Video XML sitemaps and category SEO options.
Verdict
While the license may be more expensive for the premium version of All in One SEO Pack, the ability to use it on multiple sites makes it the more cost effective option for developers. For single site users, the choice is less clear cut.
Winner: All in One SEO Pack.
Conclusion
Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack are both great feature packed SEO plugins and using either would give your WordPress website a serious SEO boost. If we had to choose one, it would be Yoast SEO, it’s the one we use on all of our websites and believe it to be the best SEO plugin for WordPress. The feature set fits perfectly into our workflow and the content analysis tools, for us, are a must have.
We believe the best SEO plugin for WordPress is: Yoast SEO.
We hope you found this comparison helpful and that it gives you some guidance when choosing an SEO plugin for your website.
