Yoast SEO

The Gold Standard for WordPress SEO

Yoast SEO remains the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress, active on over 5 million websites. It is designed to make Search Engine Optimization accessible to everyone, from complete beginners to advanced technical SEOs.

Key Features

• On-Page Analysis: The famous "traffic light" system analyzes your content for keyword usage, readability, and internal linking structure.
• Technical SEO: Automatically handles XML sitemaps, canonical URLs, and meta tags without requiring code.
• Schema Markup: robust implementation of structured data to help Google understand your content (Article, FAQ, How-To blocks).
• Social Previews: Control exactly how your content looks when shared on Facebook and Twitter (X).

Free vs. Premium

The Free version is incredibly capable and sufficient for most blogs and small business sites. It includes full keyword analysis (for one keyword per post) and all technical SEO foundations.

Yoast SEO Premium adds:

• Redirect Manager: Automatically creates redirects when you delete or move content (essential for site health).
• Multiple Keyphrases: Optimize a single post for synonyms and related keywords.
• Internal Linking Suggestions: Suggests relevant posts to link to while you are writing.
• Social Previews: Visual preview of your social shares directly in the editor.

The Verdict

While competitors like RankMath have added pressure with more free features, Yoast SEO remains the most stable, reliable, and "WordPress-native" feeling option. Its integration with the block editor is seamless, and the educational value of its analysis tool is unmatched for beginners learning to write for the web.