At some point in your website journey, you are bound to compare Rank Math to Yoast SEO. These two are among the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress sites available on the market.
The September Core and Google Helpful Content updates had a great SEO impact since their inception in September 2022. Any website owner out there needs an SEO plugin to help their sites rank higher especially in Search Engine Results Pages, otherwise known as SERP.
Ultimately, you need an SEO plugin that suit your business needs in terms of publishing. In this article, we’re going to pit Yoast SEO against Rank Math to find out which one has an edge over the other in different categories.
Let’s get right in, shall we?
Rank Math vs Yoast SEO
Rank Math SEO
Rank Math is an incredible SEO plugin for WordPress management system that was developed by MyThemeShop. This plugin was launched in October 2019 so it’s pretty new in the industry.
Rank Math helps make optimizing a website to rank well on search engines a lot easier. You don’t even need to understand advanced SEO concepts. All this is made possible by the plugin’s simple interface along with a wide variety of features in both premium and free versions.
Features of Rank Math Free Version
Rank Math has a free plan with many different features that will help you optimize the structure and content on your website to rank better in SERPs. However, the free version is usually not as featured packed as its paid premium version but still has the ability to improve your on-page SEO significantly. Here’s a highlight of some features available in Rank Math’s free plan:
- Keyword Suggestions
There’s a field where you can enter the main keyword that you are targeting in your post. You can also add other related keywords that you want your article to rank for. Rank Math usually pulls the keyword suggestions from the data on Google Search Engine Result Pages. It’s quite resourceful especially when it comes to brainstorming topic ideas.
Keyword research is time consuming but Rank Math offers keyword suggestions which makes it a lot easier. You only need to enter the seed keyword in the provided field and it’ll generate dozens of related keywords that you can incorporate in your blog posts.
- Comprehensive SEO Analysis
Rank Math has a comprehensive SEO analysis feature that takes things a notch higher by analyzing the entire site for SEO. It helps scrutinize different factors including:
- Backlinks
- Internal linking
- Social media use
- The speed of the website
Rank Math will analyze your site and give you the results along with suggestions of how to increase your ranking basing on the score.
- Google Search Console Integration
Google Search Console integration is quite handy as it allows users to see the performance of the website in SERPs right from the WordPress dashboard. This integration gets data from Google Search Console then displays it in a format that’s easy to understand. You’ll get to see a number of things including the number of clicks and impressions of the website and your position in the search result pages.
With the integration, you can keep track of the SEO performance of your website without necessarily leaving your dashboard. It also helps to:
- Make any changes to the website
- Monitor the progress of your SEO performance and spot potential issues
- Free Content Al Credits
Content Al credits tool is a machine that helps analyze your content and gives you feedback on areas you need to improve on to rank better in search engines. This tool also scrutinizes different publishing factors including:
- Keywords use
- How long your blog post is
- Overall structure of the content
Depending on the analysis it makes, Content Al gives you a score for the article and a list of other actionable items that will help you rank better. Suggestions usually include moderating headings, links and images.
Here’s a highlight of some of the other things that Content Al always looks at:
- Conclusion
- Post Title
- Subheadings
- Meta description and title
- Introductory sentence
Rank Math offers free credits when you subscribe to their free plan, which you can use to analyze your content as many times as you wish. Those looking to purchase more credits can do so on Rank Math’s Content Al interface.
- Easy Import from Yoast SEO
Rank Math can help import different settings with a click of a button especially if you’ve been using a different SEO plugin like Yoast SEO. You can switch to and fro different SEO plugins with ease without having to start from scratch.
- Divi Integration
Divi is a WordPress theme and Rank Math fully integrates with it. You can easily set up different features available on Rank Math thanks to this integration. This saves you the hassle of going through numerous settings pages. You can also make use the custom fields when working with Divi and add some extra metadata to both your pages and posts.
The metadata is meant to help improve the SEO performance of your website. This will in turn, make search engines find and also index your content a lot faster.
- Elementor Integration
For the most part, WordPress sites use page builders to come up with custom pages and different types of posts. The trend has seen the rise of a number of WordPress plugins offering full integrations with relevant page builders and Rank Math is no exception.
Rank Math fully integrates with Elementor. The integration allows you to use Rank Math features with ease. You can make use of the custom fields and add metadata to some of your pages and posts when working with Elementor. The speed optimization website feature helps improve the time it takes to load a page which is one of the core factors SERP puts into consideration when ranking.
Features of Rank Math Paid Plan
Rank Math Pro has more perks as compared to the free version which is expected. If you want to invest in an SEO plugin, then some of these features are worth every penny. Here’s a highlight of the best features available on Rank Math:
- Advanced Automated SEO Image Options
Rath Math allows its users to optimize their images automatically for SEO. This feature will not only save you time since you don’t have to optimize the images manually. This SEO plugin also lets you set rules that apply to all images when it comes to optimization.
Some of these rules include adding title tags and ALT text to the images. In addition, it helps compress the images automatically to improve the time your website page takes to load.
- Self-Hosted Google Analytics JS File
Rank Math Pro can host Google analytics JS file on its own. The file helps track the traffic of your website and it can be relatively large. Self-hosting the JS file will significantly reduce your website’s loading time since the file tends to load from your hosting server as opposed to Google’s server. Ultimately, it helps improve your website ranking on Search engines.
- Google Analytics without Tracking Cookies
You can use Google Analytics without tracking cookies when working with Rank Math Pro. Most people use ad blockers to prevent people from tracking their data since privacy is a serious concern when running a business. You can also use Google analytics to track the traffic of your website without worrying about cookies.
You can track the performance of your website and respect the visitors’ privacy when using Google analytics without tracking cookies.
- Track SEO Performance of Individual Posts
All the posts published on your WordPress site have a chance to rank better on search engines. Plus, you can keep track of their performance on your website with Rank Math Pro.
The track SEO performance of individual posts enables you to keep tabs on the ranking of different keywords and ways to improve the rankings. If you are looking for something to help you fine tune your SEO strategy along with monitoring your competition, then this tool would be your best bet.
- Find Orphan (Unliked) Pages
Orphan pages are pages on the website that you’ve not linked to other pages on the site. Technically, they are hidden from the search engines since you cannot find them through internal linking.
However, Rank Math Pro can easily detect any orphan pages on your site and interlink them from posts on your site. It’s one of the easiest ways of improving internal linking in your website to ensure every page is indexed.
- Bulk Edit Options
Editing is bulk is an effective way to make any changes to different pages and posts simultaneously. Rank Math Pro allows its users to edit SEO titles, focus keywords and descriptions in bulk. What’s more, you can bulk edit permalinks and post slugs especially if you plan on changing the entire URL structure of the site.
This feature helps save time as well. Plus, it allows you to make changes to the website quickly and effectively. This makes it quite valuable especially if you have large websites.
Pros and Cons of Using Rank Math
All SEO plugins come with a fair share of pros and cons and Rank Math is no exception. However, in this case, the benefits outweigh the limitations. Still, it’s good to know the both the pros and cons before investing in the plugin. Let’s start with the cons:
Cons
- It’s relatively new in the scene compared to other SEO plugins, and has a few customer reviews which means it might have hidden glitches.
- It tends to decrease the speed of the website after installation. It’s something to factor in even though this might be due to other things.
Pros
- It has excellent customer support and documentation
- There is a free version that even commercial websites can use
- Its developers are WordPress professionals and they keep improving and updating the plugin
- It’s easy to use and navigate even for newbies
- The interface is not only user-friendly but also easy to navigate
- It comes with tons of Schema support that helps its users get rich snippets in search engines
- The paid plan is relatively cheap and guarantees value for money
- It’s compatible with several WordPress plugins like WooCommerce
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is Joost de Valk’s brainchild and is one of the best WordPress plugins in the industry. It provides all-in-one solutions for WordPress sites and offers a variety of features that include editing robots.txt. and .htaccess files, generating XML sitemaps and ability to optimize websites for specific keywords.
Most WordPress users are conversant with this SEO plugin since it comes with many different unique features and its equally easy to use. Plus, it has a free plan for those who want to try out the platform before upgrading to a paid version.
Features of Yoast SEO Free Plan
- Single Post and Page Keyword Optimization
Single post/page optimization allows users to optimize their sites to focus on specific keywords for better results. Yoast SEO analyzes the content on the website to help improve your ranking for the keyword in question. The plugin suggests using the keyword within these areas:
- Introduction
- Anchor text
- Title
- Image alt tags
- Meta descriptions
- Heading 2s and Heading 3s
However, this optimization feature only applies to individual page and post basis as opposed to sitewide.
- XML Sitemap
Yoast SEO helps generate XML sitemaps for the website. The sitemaps usually come in handy when search engines are indexing your site as it makes the process a lot easier. Plus, you can feed the XML sitemap link to your Google Search Console account with ease and Google bots will crawl the website.
- Editing robots.txt and .htaccess files
You can edit your robots.txt and .htaccess files easily right within the WordPress dashboard when using Yoast SEO. This feature is quite useful especially when you are looking to change the files without necessarily logging into the server through FTP.
- Meta Tags
Just as name suggests, this feature allows users to add customized meta tags to the website’s header. The tags help improve the click-through rate of your website from different SERPs. There are different meta tags including:
- Meta description – short descriptions of the site that usually appear on SERPs.
- SEO title – a title that usually appears on search engine results pages on Google
- Readability Analysis
Yoast SEO will give you a score after going through the content on your website. The readability score is usually based on different thing including the famous Flesch-Kincaid Reading ease test. This test will check the length of the sentences along with the number of syllables in each word. In this case, you’ll get a higher score if the contents on there is easy to read.
A lower score, on the other hand, implies that the website’s content is hard to read. In addition, Yoast SEO checks your use of passive tone and transition of words. The best thing about this feature is that at the end of the day, it points out the errors that you can fix.
Paid Version Features of Yoast SEO
Let’s dive right in!
- Different Keyword Phrases
Yoast SEO has a paid premium plan with a wider reach since you can easily target different keyword phrases.
- Internal Linking Suggestions
Google prefers sites with lots of internal links. The paid version always gives its users suggestions for different links to use on other blog posts on your website for ease of adding to your content.
- Social Media Previews
Yoast SEO comes with a social media preview feature that allows users to have a picture of how the posts will look once posted on different social networks. This feature is quite handy since it helps counter check if the website’s content will look good when shared on social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.
- Redirect Manager
This feature helps you set up redirects especially if you plan on changing the URL of a particular page on your site. What’s more, it ensures those using the old URL get redirected to the new one automatically.
- Quick Support
Yoast SEO premium version offers its users priority support from the developers of the plugin. If you get stuck when using the plugin or have questions about anything concerning Yoast SEO, you can reach out to their customer support team for help.
- No Ads
Yoast’s SEO premium plan has no ads.
- SEO Workouts
This feature helps ensure that your website’s SEO is always up to date.
Pros and Cons of Using Yoast SEO
Pros
- It has a large community of developers and users alike
- It supports multiple languages
- It offers a ton of unique features for both free and paid versions
- It’s updated constantly to reflect the most recent changes made in Google algorithm
Cons
- The features are a bit complex especially for those who are not conversant with the plugin
Verdict – Rank Math vs Yoast SEO
It’s always advisable to be scientific when deciding which SEO plugin between Yoast SEO and Rank Math suits your business needs. However, you need to factor in a number of things including ease of use, features, popularity and customer support. Here’s a breakdown:
Rank Math vs Yoast SEO: Which Has Better Features?
Rank Math and Yoast SEO are both popular SEO plugins with rich features. However, the former boasts extra unique features as compared to what its counterpart offers. Rank Math has a 404 monitor, redirect manager, Schema markup generator and an in-built AMP module.
When it comes to free plans, Rank Math has an edge over Yoast SEO. Both plugins offer XML sitemaps, social media integration along with meta and title optimization. However, Rank Math has more features available in the free version including email notifications, internal link suggestions and multiple keyword phrases support.
Rank Math vs Yoast SEO: Which Offers Better User Experience?
Rank Math and Yoast SEO are equally easy to use. However, Rank Math outshines its counterpart when it comes to user experience since it has a more straightforward interface that allows you to see all the available features. This is not the case with Yoast SEO as it tends to overwhelm newbies.
In addition, Rank Math has simpler sitewide configuration settings. Yoast SEO, on the other hand, makes you go through many different tabs and sub-tabs alike before you can get the right settings.
Rank Math vs Yoast SEO: Which is Better for SEO?
Both Rank Math and Yoast SEO work remarkably well. However, Rank Math has a slight edge over its counterpart when it comes to SEO. This is because Rank Math helps users optimize their websites for multiple keyword phrases while Yoast SEO only helps them optimize their sites for a specific keyword unless you subscribe to the premium plan.
In addition, Rank Math allows you to assess sitewide SEO settings which is not the case with Yoast SEO. This means that the latter only lets you assess individual pages and posts. The difference is quite small but can affect your SEO strategy significantly.
Which is the most popular SEO plugin between Rank Math and Yoast SEO?
Rank Math has more than a million active subscribers while Yoast SEO boasts of over four million active WordPress installations. Most users appreciate both plugins. However, from the look of things, Rank Math is on upward spiral in terms of growth as compared to what Yoast SEO achieved at that particular stage when it was still new in the scene.
As earlier mentioned, Rank Math is still new in the industry but has attracted a huge user base.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I switch from Yoast SEO to Rank Math and vices versa?
You can install the new plugin without uninstalling the old one. However, before you install and active the new plugin you might need to deactivate and delete the old one.
Switching from Rank Math to Yoast SEO
Follow these simple steps if you want to export SEO settings from Rank Math SEO plugin to Yoast SEO:
- First, you need to back up your website in case of site mishaps. The hosting packages along with WordPress plugins usually provide backup solutions for such scenarios.
- Deactivate Rank Math to avoid any conflicting issues with the new plugin. You can do this from your WordPress dashboard on the plugins section.
- Install then activate Yoast SEO. You can also do this with ease right from your WordPress dashboard on the plugins section.
Follow these steps once you’re done:
- Click on the tools section on the WordPress dashboard
- Click on the import/export link
- Select the import settings from other plugin option – In this case, Yoast SEO
- Finish the first Yoast SEO configuration
- Deactivate and delete the old plugin to increase the speed of the website
Switching from Yoast SEO to Rank Math
Switching from Yoast SEO to Rank Math is easier than the other way round. This is because you can easily install Rank Math without uninstalling Yoast SEO. However, it would be best to deactivate the old plugin before you install and activate the new one to avoid any clashes that can result in errors and bugs on your site.
Here’s how to export SEO settings from Rank Math to Yoast SEO:
- Back up your site
- Deactivate Yoast SEO plugin but don’t delete it
- Install then activate Rank Math SEO plugin
- On the WordPress dashboard, you’ll see Rank Math settings that you can select for one-click settings from the old plugin
- Uninstall and delete Yoast SEO to optimize the speed of your website
Do I need to use both Rank Math and Yoast SEO?
No. However, you can use Rank Math if you are a beginner since its relatively new and has more features.
Can I use both Rank Math and Yoast SEO on my site?
Absolutely! However, its not recommended since it can cause unnecessary conflicts and affect the web vitals of your website.
Final Thoughts – Rank Math vs Yoast SEO
Rank Math and Yoast SEO are both incredible plugins. However, Rank Math has an edge over Yoast SEO owing to its more comprehensive features in its free plan and a simple and easy to navigate interface. They are both easy to use and almost have the same features.
In overall, Rank Math is the better plugin since it has extra unique features and offers great user experience.