Building your WordPress site is just half the battle. You must drive organic traffic to it through search engine optimization (SEO).
WordPress provides many resources to boost SEO performance. Two of its most popular SEO plugins are Yoast and All in One SEO.
Which would come out on top in a Yoast vs. All-in-One SEO contest?
First, let’s explore what WordPress plugins are and how they can take your website to the next level. Then, we take a deep dive into a comparison between Yoast and All in One SEO.
We break down all the ways these two plugins are different and similar in their features and pricing and which one is the best choice for your SEO strategy.
What Does a WordPress SEO Plugin Do?
As you must be already aware, there are tons of amazing and useful WordPress plugins that enable you to do everything from processing transactions on your website to helping you improve the SEO of your website. For instance, Yoast and All in One SEO are both popular and powerful SEO plugins.
The purpose of these tools is simple – to help your website rise up in the SERP rankings for your target keywords. To make that happen, these tools empower you with analytics, automated improvements, and recommendations across all aspects of SEO from the structure of the content (titles, meta descriptions, etc.) to technical aspects such as canonical URLs, meta tags, XML sitemaps, and so on.
But you should not go for the overkill when it comes to WordPress SEO plugins. Going for multiple tools may end up confusing you instead of helping you improve your SERP rankings. Hence, you need to compare tools like Yoast and All in One SEO to choose the one that best suits your needs.
Comparing Yoast and All-in-One SEO
This comparison of the two most popular WordPress plugins breaks down the difference between Yoast and All-in-One SEO across multiple categories. This should help you decide which one will best suit your needs.
Yoast vs. All in One (AIO) SEO: Setup and Installation
Plugins with lots of features can take a bit of time to set up. Let’s look at the installation process for each of our selected tools.
Once you install AIOSEO, a setup wizard will guide you through the initial setup steps. It will help you set up the plugin correctly and optimize your website’s SEO performance.
1. Choose a Website Category
The first step is choosing a category for your website. You will see several options: blog, online store, news channel, or portfolio. There is the “Other” category if none of the choices describe the purpose of your website.
Below this, you will find the SEO title and meta description boxes. Fill them out with the title of your website and a description that uses the main keyword phrase you want to target.
You can go back and edit these fields later. Click “Save” and go on to the next step.
2. Select a Person or Organization
The next step is to select whether the website is for a person or an organization.
Choosing “Organization” gives you more space to add contact information, but both options require a business logo as a default social media sharing image. You can link your social media accounts later on.
3. Choose SEO Features
Next, choose the SEO features you need for your website. You can select the default setting and get your site indexed immediately.
By default, basic features such as “Optimized Search Appearance” and “Sitemaps” are included. You can leave these options for now or add other features you know you will use.
4. Select Advanced Settings
You can choose whether you are ready to go live or remain under construction. You can also set your website up so that it can have multiple authors.
5. Set Up SEO Recommendations
Finally, you can choose to receive SEO recommendations by email. If you purchased the PRO version of AIOSEO, you must enter the license key when prompted.
Once you’ve completed these steps, the plugin is ready for use, and you can begin optimizing your pages and posts.
Once you install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin on WordPress, you can access the Configuration workout link from the plugin dashboard.
1. Optimize SEO Data
Once you begin data optimization, Yoast will crawl your website the way Google’s search algorithms will. After evaluation, Yoast will provide SEO tips to resolve detected technical issues.
2. Choose Site Representation
Select “Organization” if you have a business website or “Person” if you have a personal blog or portfolio. You will be asked to set the name, logo, and tagline that will appear on search results.
3. Link Social Profiles
Next, enter details of all the social media accounts related to your website: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
4. Data Collection and Updates
Yoast will ask for permission to track your website data to improve your plugin experience. And finally, you can sign up for the Yoast newsletter to regularly receive helpful content on how to boost SEO performance.
Once you finish the initial Yoast SEO workout, you can further configure your user profile, social sharing settings, SEO pages, and more.
Who Wins: AIOSEO
Both plugins have simple installation and setup processes. However, AIOSEO’s categorization and page-by-page breakdown make it easier for users to understand the importance of each step.
Ease of Use
SEO is a continuous process that requires regular check-ins and recalibration. Do Yoast and AIOSEO make it easy for users to perform daily tasks on WordPress? Let’s compare.
All-in-One SEO
The plugin has clearly labeled navigation tabs. You can check and change your posts, social media, images, links, and other website elements.
AIOSEO also scores your content and helps you optimize it. You can edit your posts and pages by clicking the AIO button on your page. Their content analysis will guide you through the necessary edits.
Your keywords will also be scored, so you can easily review which keywords are helping you rank and which ones can help you rank. The plugin will provide suggestions to help you improve the score.
AIOSEO will also help you create dynamic tags in your titles and descriptions, such as location, month, and year. These minor details will help your pages rank higher.
AIO SEO also has a site analysis feature that gives your website a score that you can compare with similar sites. You can find out where you stand with the competition and take steps to improve your ranking.
Yoast
Yoast has similar dashboard tabs that are easy to navigate.
Yoast’s content analysis tool optimizes every post and page on your website. There is a snippet preview, focus keyword field, linking suggestions, and readability.
On the preview page, you can check how your site will appear in search engines. You can edit your web pages accordingly to ensure that all crucial information appears on the result.
With keyword focus, Yoast will analyze your website content using that specific phrase and provide suggestions for further optimization. You can go to the schema tab to adjust the markup settings of the page where the keyword is used.
There is also a social media tab where you can customize images on Facebook and Twitter.
Who Wins: AIOSEO
Both plugins are easy to use for daily SEO tasks and optimizing web posts and pages. However, AIOSEO offers more than just analysis. Its scoring system and dynamic tags give it an edge over Yoast.
Indexing and Sitemaps
Your SEO plugin should help search engines index your content. Sitemaps and indexing will improve the searchability and ranking of your website.
AIOSEO automatically generates XML sitemaps. They are easy to manage because there is a dedicated settings page on the AIOSEO dashboard.
You’ll find different settings for your maps and choose which post types to include. You can also add a custom page if you need a landing page outside your WordPress site.
You can enable video and news extensions in your sitemap. There is also an RSS feature for site mapping.
Yoast generates XML sitemaps for all posts, but there is no dedicated page to manage and view them.
You can control the sitemaps on the “Features” tab. You can turn the sitemap on or off, but you cannot exclude any post type in your mapping.
Using Yoast, you can also check and verify for webmaster tools, such as Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster.
With Yoast Premium, you can add video and news extensions to your sitemap. This means all of your video content will appear in any search engine’s video and image search results.
Who Wins: AIOSEO
Both plugins provide excellent sitemap features, but AIOSEO gives users more control over what to index and include in XML sitemaps.
Additional Tools and Features
SEO plugins also offer additional tools to make the implementation of your SEO strategy more comprehensive and manageable. Let’s compare what these two offer.
AIO SEO offers the following features in its basic plan:
- Open Graph meta tags
- Import and export SEO data
- Redirects manager
- Breadcrumbs navigation
- Robots.txt and .htaccess editor
AIO SEO PRO features include:
- Local SEO tools
- Link Assistant
- WooCommerce SEO
- Video sitemap
- IndexNow
- Image SEO
Yoast has similar features and tools, with a few additions:
- Open Graph meta tags
- Import and Export SEO data
- Breadcrumbs navigation
- Robots.txt and .htaccess editor
- Importing data from Google Webmaster tools
Yoast PRO features include:
- SEO workouts
- Internal linking tools
- Google and social media sharing previews
- Extra structured data support
- Redirects manager
- Google and social media sharing previews
Who Wins: It’s a Tie
Both plugins offer similar basic features. Different tools are included with their PRO plans, but when it comes to overall functionality and use, it’s a tie.
Pricing and Subscription Rates and Plans
Both plugins offer free, basic, and professional packages. But there are price differences between Yoast and All in One SEO. Here’s a comparison of their subscription rates and plans.
AIOSEO has several plans that suit basic and professional users. The basic plan costs $49 annually and includes all the essential features. It also provides SEO analysis, WooCommerce, and schema markup.
The Plus package is $99 annually and has more advanced features, such as WordPress REST API, local SEO module, and image module. You can manage up to three websites.
The Pro Plan is $199 per year. You can manage ten websites with added news and video sitemaps, 404 error tracking, and Internal Link Assistant.
The Elite package is mainly for agencies and large enterprises. At $299 per year, users can manage 100 websites with all the other packages’ features, client management, and multi-site support.
AIOSEO also has a free version with limited features and only the basic setup and SEO site kit.
Yoast gives subscribers several options in terms of packages. They have a free version you can use to manage technical SEO, plus access to five courses on their website.
Yoast SEO Premium costs $99 per year, which includes all the basic features along with keyword optimization and social media previews. You also get full access to their academy and receive updates on the newest features.
The complete plugin subscription is $299 annually, and it comes with five Yoast plugins, online SEO training courses, and 24/7 support.
Yoast also allows you to add certain features depending on your specific needs. You can install video, local SEO, news SEO, and WooCommerce plugins at $79 each per year.
You do not need to purchase Yoast Premium for these added features. But if you want to include them in your SEO tool kit, you can sign up for Yoast Premium at $145 per year.
Who Wins: AIOSEO
AIOSEO’s packaging plans and rates are more transparent and provide more features and tools. You could also manage and optimize more sites as you opt for more expensive plans, so AIOSEO wins in this category.
Yoast vs All-in-One SEO: The Final Verdict
Yoast and AIO SEO are highly regarded SEO plugins for WordPress sites. Undeniably, they both make optimization easier for beginners and professionals alike.
In a direct Yoast vs. All-in-One SEO comparison, the winner is clear. AIOSEO provides in-depth control and management features, along with reasonably priced package options. It is an especially fantastic choice for small businesses and single users.
