Yoast or Rank Math? The internet is full of articles explaining the benefits of one or another, and you can easily find technical arguments and explanations that can help you choose one. In this post, I will give you my angler and try to explain my view. Many articles about these topics are written just as promotional texts for one or another product. It is not the case here.
Let’s start from the beginning. More and more people or small businesses need their web site. The easiest way to build one is by using the WordPress platform. WordPress is an open-source website creation platform, and it is probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today.
But, as all free stuff, it has its limitations. Every site needs to be optimized for search engines to achieve any decent online visibility. In the WordPress platform, that job is reserved for program additions, Plugins as they are called. Plugins are a piece of software produced by different software companies or individuals that will take care of that problem. There are free and paid versions of plugins, and of course, almost always whit you pay, you get.
Yoast or Rank Math
Yoast SEO is a ubiquitous WordPress plugin for SEO and has over 5 million active installations. The very statistic is proof that it is a reliable option trusted by a lot of people. It was for a long absolute leader in SEO optimization for WordPress sites. Some features are free, and for some, you need to subscribe. Recently, a new player entered the field, with entirely free features that encompassed all the Yoast free and paid features as well. Rank Math’s popularity is low in comparison to Yoast SEO, but it has excellent reviews and a vast number of features.
It brings the question which one you should choose. It is the popular and well-tested one with a massive user base, or the one that’s promising and made using the latest technologies?
Finding the best free WordPress SEO plugin for your website needs is an important part. Here is my view and why I decided (for now) to stick to the oast, which I started to use a few years ago when Math Rank did not exist. If it were, maybe the story would be different.
My take
I currently use the Free version of Yoast SEO, but I have used Paid, premium, version for some sites that I managed. If you have a simple blog site, a free version is all you need. If you are running a webshop or some complex structure, then you will need additional features. Also, paid features can be found for free in other plugins or sites, Google Analytics, Page Search, etc., so if you have the time, you can save yourself some money.
Rank Math has all the features that the paid version of Yoast has, but it is free. If you need those features, then this is a big plus for Rank Math. On the other hand, if you are not using most of the Premium features, then the other thing should decide, apart from the price.
In short:
- They both have more or less the same functionality
- Rank Math has much more user-controllable features, which means it is more complicated to set up but offers much more management options. It is possible to import all the settings from existing Yoast SEO. It makes setup a bit less complicated in our case.
- Rank Math includes premium Yoast features, as well as Page search and Google analytics.
- This newer plugin has better features for Local sites and Webshops and more control over products, job searches, etc.
- Rank Math takes fewer resources, and it should make the site a little bit faster
- As a new player Rank Math has not that many testimonials. Yoast is here for a long time.
- On the other hand, Rank Math is more modern, so it has more advanced technology for some features.
Moving from Yoast to Rank Math – pros and cons:
Pros:
- Rank MathIt is new, and I like the challenge, I can “play” with controlling some features, learn new things (and sell them later)
- It is possible to import settings from Yoast SEO and get back to Yoast any time
Cons:
- Every change brings uncertainty and Rank Math is a relatively new product, with way less experience than Yoast
- In the part that they claim is better for SEO and Google, we don’t have real external proof, just their word and articles on the web that are clearly written as advertising by others. Yoast has a proven record.
In the end, the decision is yours. I choose not to change from Yoast to Rank Math. You can choose otherwise. In any case, it will not be a mistake. Go with your guts. Happy SEO-ing.
Finally, there is one misconception that I must try to break. Any of these plugins will not do the work by themselves. As tools, they are just a guide on how to improve your posts. The improvement you must do yourself, or hire someone to do it for you, using this tool.
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