Yoast SEO

by Yoast
Tested with WP 7.1.3 Updated 10 days ago Free, GPLv2

Our take

Yoast is the safe pick if you are new to SEO. It walks you through every post with a traffic-light check and sets up sitemaps and schema without you touching a setting. The free version tracks one focus keyphrase per post; if you want several, or built-in redirects, Rank Math gives you more for free.

Good

  • Clear, beginner-friendly checks while you write
  • Sitemaps and schema work out of the box
  • Huge user base, so answers to any question are easy to find

Watch out

  • One focus keyphrase per post in the free version
  • Redirect manager is only in Premium
  • Upgrade prompts in the dashboard

Yoast SEO handles the technical side of search engine optimization and helps you write content that is easier to rank. Once activated, it adds a meta title and description to every page, creates an XML sitemap, and outputs structured data (schema) that describes your site, your pages and your articles to search engines.

While you edit a post, the Yoast panel checks the text against the focus keyphrase you set: is it in the title, the first paragraph, the URL and the meta description? A second check looks at readability, flagging long sentences, passive voice and missing subheadings. Both show up as simple red, orange and green lights.

What you get for free

  • Editable SEO title and meta description for every page
  • XML sitemaps that update on their own
  • Schema for your site, pages and articles
  • Open Graph and X (Twitter) tags for sharing
  • Canonical URLs and breadcrumbs
  • SEO and readability analysis for one keyphrase per post