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When it comes to the whole website world, one of the topics that without a doubt causes the most confusion is SEO (search engine optimization).
Some months ago I wrote an article on SEO and rarely a day goes by without someone asking me about it. This is hardly surprising with some of the myths, hype and claims made by many so-called SEO experts.
As explained in the article, ranking your website pages in a search engine such as Google, requires a mix of ‘on-page’ and ‘off-page’ factors.
Why Use a SEO For WordPress Plugin?
When it comes to the ‘on-page’ side of things, an excellent way to get help is by using a WordPress SEO plugin.
These plugins will help guide your on-page SEO when putting together content for your website in a number of ways.
Whilst the use of such a plugin is not a ‘magic pill’ that will propel your rankings to number 1 in the search engines effortlessly, they can help a lot when you follow their tips.
Search engines such as Google are regularly updating their algorithms and preferred practices and these SEO plugins are also updated to ensure they continue to be current and relevant. This gives you peace of mind with your ‘on’page’ SEO, leaving you with the time to focus on adding content to your website.
The Yoast SEO For WordPress Plugin
You may already be familiar with Yoast SEO, the most well known of these SEO plugins for WordPress. Yoast has been around for around 10 years and like most WordPress plugins, offers a freemium model.
You can use a free version with a limited feature set or pay an annual fee for the full version. The paid version will set you back in excess of AU$100 per year for each website. This can be in excess of AU$250 annually if you purchase their range of plugins.
Introducing Rank Math, the New Kid on the Block
Several months ago I came across Rank Math, a WordPress SEO plugin that has existed since November, 2018. At the time of writing this article (October, 2020) Rank Math is a completely free plugin which has far more features than Yoast’s paid versions, making it somewhat of a ‘no-brainer’.
I highly recommend checking out Rank Math, whether you are looking to use an SEO for WordPress plugin for the first time or currently using Yoast (free or paid).
As you will see below, Rank Math has many more features and at no cost. Rank Math has anticipated website owners wanting to migrate from Yoast, so they have included an easy to use setup wizard that will cleanly migrate a website over that is already using the Yoast plugin.
Rank Math Vs Yoast
Rank Math has put together this Rank Math vs Yoast page on their website which certainly builds a strong case to use it for reasons other than the zero price tag! They have also included a side by side comparison table which is worth checking out.
I’ve highlighted some of the features below which I feel are the most compelling to use Rank Math as your SEO plugin for WordPress.
- Simple Setup Wizard - for those who find the topic of SEO all too confusing and just want something that is easy to set up and use, then Rank Math's setup wizard will be ideal. This will guide you in setting up Rank Math SEO to do your website's SEO correctly.
- Google Search Console Integration - Rank Math SEO integrates with your Google Search Console to help you view vital Google data within your website interface.
- 70+ Detailed SEO Tests - Rank Math SEO can perform more than 70 tests on your website to find the ideal SEO optimisation.
- Google Keyword Suggestions - Get keyword suggestions from Google whilst entering your focus keyword(s).
- Keyword tracking - Rank Math SEO will advise whether you have used a focus keyword elsewhere on your website.
- Local business support - Rank Math SEO supports 193 types of local business with rich snippet support.
I highly recommend reading Digital Next’s excellent ‘Yoast SEO Vs Rank Math – Dethroning The King‘ article for a detailed comparison and opinion.
I hope you found this article of interest and you got some good insights on why Rank Math is such an excellent SEO for WordPress plugin. Are you a current Yoast customer or have you already shifted to using Rank Math? Please let me know in the comments.
2 Responses
Thanks, Jonathan, I’d hadn’t heard of Rank Math, I use to love Yoast but it doesn’t really work with the page builder I use. So I’d been using All in One SEO Pack. I’ll be sure to check it out@
Becky, thanks for pointing this out. I noticed in the Rank Math support/knowledgebase that the issue with Divi was raised in 2019 and there was a comment that they were making corrections to their API to work with it. I couldn’t find any further updates on checking so I might run this by the folks at Rank Math to see what the current situation is with divi support.