There are many SEO plugins for WordPress, but the most effective and popular ones are considered to be All in One SEO Pack and Yoast SEO. It’s time to find out which one is better and more efficient. In this review, you will see the advantages and disadvantages of each plugin.
Update from 29.05.2024: Dear readers, it is better to abandon both plugins and switch to a more interesting option — Rank Math SEO. It has excellent functionality, and features that are only available in the PRO versions of the titans are completely free. However, to get the full functionality, you will still have to pay.
All in One SEO
Plugin page in the WordPress repository: https://ru.wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/.
With over 3 million active installations, it is quite popular, has numerous manuals, and there are plenty of discussions on forums, so you can always find help for this plugin. Let’s look at its functionality:
- Support for Google Analytics;
- Ability to create an XML sitemap, including for images;
- Support for Google AMP pages;
- SEO customization for custom post types like templates and layouts;
- Ability to create custom canonical URLs or assign them automatically;
- Excellent compatibility with WooCommerce, although it’s claimed to be the only free one, which is not true;
- Can automatically set page titles;
- Allows generating meta tags automatically;
- Data import from other SEO plugins available;
- Support for 57 languages and full support for WPML.
In general, visit the plugin page and see for yourself—there are a lot of features. Let’s focus on the main and truly important ones:
Extensive Meta Tag Settings: Specifying titles and descriptions is easy. If needed, you can even specify keywords, although this feature is long outdated and considered useless.
Dynamically Generates an XML Sitemap, which is also important. It’s quite easy to set up.
Third-Party Plugins: They allow you to extend the functionality.
Easy to Prohibit Indexing of individual post types and pages. For example, you can completely prohibit the indexing of paginations, assign nofollow to certain links, or prohibit the indexing of categories or date and author archives, which many SEO specialists like to do.
All in One SEO provides extensive options for comprehensive SEO configuration, and it is quite easy to do so. Moreover, there are many other features that might not seem necessary at first glance but can be useful at times. I wouldn’t call this plugin an outsider. Now, let’s move on to the competitor.
At the very least, you can configure everything you need for SEO with this plugin. It offers capabilities that are almost on par with other SEO plugins. For example, you can connect analytics and webmaster tools using the plugin, even from less popular systems.
It also provides its own tools for adding “breadcrumbs,” which are special navigation chains that show the full path to the target post. These are very useful for search engines.
Additionally, there is the possibility to load custom RSS feeds, allowing you to use RSS feeds different from the standard ones provided by WordPress. There are also tools for content SEO analysis.
It has all the standard functions for SEO:
- Meta tag settings (Title, Description);
- Support for working with images (Alt, Titles);
- Support for social networks, generating titles and descriptions for them;
- Indexing and sitemap settings.
Of course, many functions are limited; for example, you can’t set up redirects without purchasing the Pro version of the plugin, there’s no Schema support without the Pro version, and many other functions are unavailable without purchasing it.
You can also edit “robots.txt” and “.htaccess” directly from the plugin, but I prefer to edit them physically rather than through plugins.
WooCommerce support is also unavailable without the paid version of the plugin, so you will be able to use a minimum of SEO functions.
The minimum price for the plugin without a discount: 124 USD per year. It follows a subscription model, requiring annual renewal.
But in reality, I always see a discount offer that supposedly expires soon, but this discount has never disappeared. It’s an old marketing trick.
Whether you need it or not is up to you, but if you choose between AIOSEO and Yoast, the latter plugin, in my opinion, has richer features.
Yoast SEO
Plugin page in the WordPress repository: https://ru.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/.
The plugin already has over 10 million active installations. In terms of the number of users, it is the leader today. It is also one of the most feature-rich plugins.
All the functions mentioned earlier are supported by it. However, there are a few nuances that have made this plugin so popular:
- More extensive title and description settings;
- Display of how the page will look in the search results;
- More convenient integration with social networks, especially foreign ones;
- Schema settings available in the free version;
- Support for 56 languages;
- Basic WooCommerce settings available in the free version.
The availability of Schema and Structured Data support in the free version is, of course, not very extensive, but the fact that it exists is already good. However, Rank Math SEO handles this functionality much better.
Of course, for full WooCommerce support, you will need to pay for the Premium version of the plugin. But this is understandable, as e-commerce is the main source of income for such plugins.
Here’s the translation: As you can see, the functionality is more or less on par. Yoast also has breadcrumbs, the ability to load custom RSS feeds, and an editor for “.htaccess” and “robots.txt” in the “Tools” section.
You can also integrate non-standard analytics systems:
- SEMRush;
- Wincher.
For those who use these tools, this can be a real advantage.
In terms of standard SEO settings, there is practically no difference between AIOSEO and Yoast; they offer the same tools, with differences only in interface design.
In terms of integrating analytics and administration systems, Yoast provides fewer options than All in One SEO, but this will be sufficient for most users. And if you prefer Yoast, these systems can always be connected manually.
Of course, for social media display, full WooCommerce functionality, and broader SEO settings, you will need to pay.
The Premium version will cost either $8.25 per month or $99 per year.
It operates on a subscription format, requiring renewal either monthly or annually.
So which is better?
Of course, I would prefer to use Rank Math SEO, but between these two, Yoast SEO currently offers more functionality. This is my personal opinion, but in the contest between All in One SEO and Yoast SEO, the winner is clear: Yoast SEO.
But there is also the question of price: Yoast is more expensive, so if you don’t have extra money, you can use All in One SEO. But regarding money, the free version of Yoast SEO offers more features than the free version of All In One SEO, which means that even in terms of savings, it makes more sense to use Yoast.
With that, I bid you farewell, wish you success, and quality SEO. All the best!
