Whether you’re starting a blog as a beginner or managing a site as an expert, focusing on SEO is essential for better Google rankings. On WordPress, two popular plugins — Rank Math and Yoast SEO — offer powerful tools to help you with that. As a beginner, picking an SEO plugin from Rank Math and Yoast SEO can feel like an overwhelming task. Both WordPress plugins come with efficient features to help people optimize their websites for higher Google rankings.
However, it is important to understand the Rank Math Vs Yoast SEO comparison to pick the perfect option for beginner SEO experts. This detailed guide will compare both plugins to help you make an informed decision as a newbie.
Rank Math vs. Yoast at a Glance
| Rank Math | Yoast SEO | |
| Ease of use | Clear, instructive, simplified experience. | Simple to navigate with clear instructions. |
| Set up | Easy setup process with the setup wizard. | Simple process with Basic and Advanced Modes |
| On-page SEO | Relatively more tools for on-page content optimization. | Fewer yet efficient on-page SEO optimization tools. |
| Customer support | Decent with multiple contact methods. | Decent with only one contact method. |
| Speed | Much faster and smoother. | Less fast due to tons of features. |
| Unique features | Google Trends Integration, Content AI | Slack sharing |
| Price | Starts at $6.99/month | Starts at $66/year |
Rank Math vs Yoast SEO — Introductions
First, I’ll introduce both of these SEO plugins for you.
Rank Math:
Rank Math is a relatively new Search Engine Optimization platform developed by a popular WordPress development team known as “MyThemeShop.” Since its introduction in 2018, the plugin has secured over 3 million users.
Efficient features like easy setup process, integration with Google Trends, and detailed pricing plans have made it a popular choice among beginner SEO experts. Since it comes from a talented team of developers, the plugin is expected to become more user-friendly and efficient.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast SEO is a much more established WordPress plugin for SEO. Founded by Joost de Valk back in 2010, Yoast has been helping beginners and professionals with website optimization.
As a beginner, this plugin might interest you with its beginner-friendly content optimization and readability enhancement. Not only that, but Yoast also streamlines site optimization by automatically creating XML sitemaps. With these facilities, it’s no wonder Yoast is being used by over 13 million users.
Rank Math vs Yoast SEO — Detailed Feature Comparison:
As a beginner, you need a detailed comparison of the main features of both Rank Math and Yoast SEO.
Setup Process:
Both plugins do a great job when it comes to helping beginners set up the plugin on their website.
Rank Math:
Rank Math is very easy to set up. As a beginner, you’re going to love its Setup Wizard feature that walks you through both basic and advanced settings to complete the setup.
You get to set up:
- Basic schema information
- Integrating Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
- XML Sitemap.
Aside from basic settings, you can set up more advanced features such as:
- Redirection
- Role management
- Monitoring 404 errors
Yoast SEO:
Yoast SEO has also made setting up the plugin a lot easier for newbies. It offers a similar setup wizard that guides you to arrange settings like schema data and SEO titles templates.
While using this plugin during the setup phase, it will flag potential issues on your website so that you can deal with them.
As a beginner, having all of these features right in front of you will do nothing but create confusion. Fortunately, Yoast lets you toggle off any feature that you’re not interested in.
Winner: Both
User Interface:
The user interfaces of Rank Math and Yoast SEO are clean and user-friendly. However, Yoast’s two different approaches for UI make it a bit more complex for beginners.
Rank Math:
The user interface of this plugin is pretty clean and user-friendly. It seamlessly integrates with Gutenberg, the default block editor of WordPress. It makes it easier for users to see all the SEO-relevant options on the sidebar.
You just have to click on the sidebar, and a bunch of useful options will pop out. These options are categorized into four categories that are:
- General
- Advanced
- Schema
- Social
Yoast SEO:
Yoast SEO also doesn’t fall short in offering a smooth user interface. In fact, it offers two different approaches to set up the plugin while working on the editor.
- The first approach is to set the meta box on the right side of both the classic editor and block editor.
- The second approach, however, shows the meta box underneath the editor, and it is only usable for Gutenberg.
Winner: Rank Math, since the two UI approaches of Yoast make it cluttered for newbies.
On-Page SEO Analysis Tools:
In the Rank Math Vs Yoast SEO debate, on-page SEO analysis tools are important to understand. Both tools offer useful tools, but Rank Math takes the lead because it provides some extra tools.
Rank Math:
It offers different tools for on-page SEO analysis, and all of them are pretty user-friendly. This plugin usually analyzes the content using a specific content scoring system. The total content score is 100, and you have to aim to achieve the highest score possible to fully optimize the content for SEO.
The good thing is that the plugin provides multiple suggestions in its content analysis that help with scoring higher. Its on-page SEO analysis tools include:
- Content Analysis
- Keyword Analysis
- Readability analysis
Yoast SEO:
Yoast SEO also uses a content scoring method to help with on-page optimization. It uses a traffic light system to analyze content in real time.
- Green Light = You’re good to go!
- Orange = Content needs improvement
- Red = Content is poorly optimized and has several issues.
As a beginner, you’ll find it easy to optimize content with this tool since it offers guidelines/suggestions for making improvements.
Some major on-page optimization tools you can find in this plugin are:
- SEO Analysis
- Readability Analysis
- Snippet Preview
- Cornerstone Content Indicator
Winner: Rank Math, since it offers multiple extra on-page SEO tools such as internal linking suggestions.
XML Sitemaps:
Both of these SEO plugins automatically create an XML sitemap after installation. Still, Rank Math takes the lead due to more available options in the free version.
Rank Math:
The plugin automatically creates an XML sitemap of your website when you install it. You don’t have to put in any effort by yourself. However, this doesn’t mean you cannot customize it later. This plugin will allow you to change and customize different options of the site’s XML map, including:
- Posts
- Pages
- Categories
- Tags
- Custom post types
- Taxonomies
Yoast SEO:
Yoast SEO also creates an XML sitemap for your site right after you install this plugin. Although its Lite version comes with limited features, you can still make tweaks in the following options:
- Author archives
- Post types
- Taxonomies
Winner: Rank Math, Yoast’s Lite version offers limited features.
Breadcrumb Navigation:
You can create and customize breadcrumbs easily with both tools.
Rank Math:
Creating and breadcrumb on this SEO plugin is pretty easy. It can be performed within the General Settings option. You can create a decent site hierarchy as a beginner without facing any issues.
Yoast SEO:
Adding breadcrumbs with Yoast SEO is simple as well. It offers an easy way to create and customize breadcrumbs according to your needs and requirements. Newbies of the SEO world might be impressed by knowing that Yoast automatically adds the necessary schema markup for breadcrumbs.
Winner: Rank Math, since Yoast’s breadcrumb feature isn’t free.
Redirect Manager:
The redirect manager features of both plugins offer similar features, but Yoast doesn’t offer it for free.
Rank Math:
The redirect manager on this plugin is completely free. It offers different features that make link redirection management easier. For example, it supports different redirect types such as 301, 302, 307, etc. Also, it enables automatic 404 monitoring, and you can create it quickly with just one click.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast also offers a decent redirect manager tool that supports different types and offers a 404 monitoring feature as well. But there’s a catch! It’s only available in the premium version.
Winner: Rank Math, since it offers a redirect manager for free.
Customer Support:
Customer support for these plugins is pretty decent for beginners.
Rank Math:
As an emerging SEO WordPress plugin, Rank Math has made customer support its priority. It’s fast, cooperative, and can be accessed directly via WordPress.org forums and a ticket system.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast remains behind in this feature. Its customer support is comparatively slower and is only accessible via WordPress.org forums.
Winner: Rank Math, since it offers more contact methods.
Multiple Focus Keywords:
Both of these plugins let you optimize content according to multiple focus keywords.
Winner: Both
Schema:
Schema markups are available on both of these SEO plugins.
Rank Math:
Since you’ve just started your SEO journey, you’re going to love this plugin’s schema feature.
It includes 18 schema types, including FAQs, job postings, and local SEO schema. If your required schema isn’t in the available list, you can create a new one of your own.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast is also packed with some great schema options. However, most of them are available in the premium version, and their number is less than Ran Math’s (around 14).
Winner: Rank Math, because of a larger number of schema types.
Image & Video SEO:
Although not a very beginner-relevant feature, it’s important to understand the image and video SEO tools of these plugins.
Rank Math:
It is pretty beginner-friendly when it comes to image SEO. It is designed to automatically add alt text to the added images so that you don’t have to spend time on manual efforts.
The same goes for video Search Engine Optimization. The tool automatically creates a schema for video and allows you to set different metadata, such as:
- Video Title
- Video Description
- Video URL
Yoast SEO:
Yoast SEO also offers pretty much the same features for image and video SEO. The only difference here is that you have to empty your pockets and purchase its premium version to enjoy these features.
Winner: Rank Math, because of its free features.
Social Media Optimization:
If you’re focusing on social media optimization as well, these plugins can come in pretty handy.
Rank Math:
This plugin offers different social media integration features. For example, you can add relevant content images from Facebook and other sites, and even customize social media descriptions.
However, this can only be done by editing individual posts and webpages.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast’s social platform integration is pretty much similar. What differentiates it from Rank Math is that this feature is available in the free version.
Winner: Yoast SEO, since it offers better social media integration (despite offering it in the paid version).
Global SEO Options with Website Builders:
These tools offer decent features for global SEO with website builders.
Rank Math:
Global SEO with the help of a website builder is easy and efficient with this WordPress plugin, even if you’re using its free version. You have better global SEO control over different factors, such as content type.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast’s global SEO features are pretty much the same, but only the basic ones are available in the free version. The advanced features, including landing pages from Elementor, are available in the paid version only.
Winner: Rank Math because of the free features for global SEO.
Index Status of Your Posts:
Rank Math:
Rank Math has a specific tool that allows you to identify the index status of your post. With this tool, you can view whether or not Google has indexed your blog post.
Yoast SEO:
Unfortunately, Yoast does not have this feature.
Winner: Rank Math
Speed:
Many users have experienced a clear difference in the speeds of both of these SEO plugins.
Rank Math:
This plugin is clearly ahead in the Rank Math vs Yoast SEO comparison when it comes to speed. There could be a bunch of reasons for this. However, the main one is its simplicity. It’s not a complicated plugin that allows it to work faster.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast’s complexity has made it comparatively slower for users. It’s completely bloated with a lot of features, which causes delays in its performance.
Winner: Rank Math
WooCommerce SEO Tools:
WooCommerce SEO Tools are available for both, but you need a separate extension for them in the case of Yoast.
Rank Math:
This plugin offers WooCommerce SEO tools for anyone running an online store to sell products to customers. With these tools, you can optimize the product pages and make sure they’re good enough to rank on search engines.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast also offers WooCommerce SEO tools. Most of them are pretty much similar to Rank Math, but you’re going to have to install a separate extension for it called Yoast WooCommerce SEO.
Winner: Rank Math.
Google Autocomplete Suggestions:
The Google Autocomplete Suggestions feature is only available in Rank Math.
Rank Math:
The Google Autocomplete Suggestions feature of Rank Math is pretty handy for beginners. When you enter a focus keyword in the plugin, it suggests multiple Google Autocomplete Suggestions relevant to the content.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast doesn’t have the Google Autocomplete Suggestions feature.
Winner: Rank Math
AI Integration:
Artificial Intelligence has been integrated into both plugins in different ways.
Rank Math:
You’ll get several AI-based features in this SEO plugin to optimize different aspects of your website. For example, its Content AI tool offers different keyword suggestions and structure recommendations for optimization.
Yoast SEO:
Yoast is also packed with AI-based tools that mainly help with content improvement. For example, its readability analyzer will allow you to keep the wording and sentences of the content readable. However, the AI-based content features aren’t as deep as Rank Math’s.
Winner: Rank Math
Ads:
Both Rank Math and Yoast SEO show ads. However, they’re related to their premium version, so it won’t be much of an issue for newbies.
Winner: None
Rank Math Vs. Yoast SEO – Pricing Details:
The pricing plans of both plugins are very comprehensive.
Rank Math SEO Plugin Pricing:
- Pro: $6.99/month
- Business: $20.99/month
- Agency: $49.99/month
Yoast SEO Plugin Pricing:
- Free: $0
- Premium: $99/year
- All Yoast Plugins: $299/year
Unique Features You Should Know As a Beginner:
While starting out with an SEO plugin, you have to make sure that it is packed with some unique features that will help you out as you move towards more advanced and technical aspects.
Rank Math’s Google Trends Integration:
The Google Trends feature of this WordPress plugin helps users analyze real-time keyword popularity instantly. It seamlessly integrates with your SEO workflow and you can work on trending topics without having to put much of effort.
Rank Math’s Content AI:
As mentioned earlier, the content AI feature mainly focuses on providing intelligent insights about content improvement. You can analyze keyword density and placement, paragraph lengths, and overall readability with it.
Yoast SEO’s Slack Sharing:
Yoast contains a special feature that optimizes the way your site looks when shared on Slack. It helps generate a visually appealing preview by improving things like title, description, and thumbnail image.
Yoast vs. Rank Math: Which One Is The Best For Beginners?
Rank Math clearly takes the lead in this debate. It is the best choice for beginners since it offers multiple user-friendly features for free. Although Yoast is a well-established SEO plugin, most of its features, like redirect management, are locked behind a paywall.
Even if you pay for its premium version, the slow speed and relatively bad customer support won’t give you a good experience as a beginner.
How Do You Choose the Right SEO Plugin?
Choosing the right SEO plugin for content and website optimization depends on your unique needs and requirements. Since you’ve just started out, I’d recommend following these tips while picking the right plugin:
- Look for a plugin that is easy to set up and offers a feature like Rank Math’s setup wizard.
- The plugin’s dashboard should be easy to comprehend.
- Most of the basic features, like XML sitemaps, should be accessible in the free version.
- Keep good customer support and high speed as your priorities.
Conclusion:
Well, there you have it. Both Rank Math and Yoast SEO are widely used WordPress plugins that offer decent features for website and content optimization. However, as a beginner, it’s wise to go for Rank Math due to some obvious reasons. It offers more optimization features than Yoast, and the most important features are available for free.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Which WordPress Plugin Offers More Features?
Rank Math apparently offers more beginner-friendly features.
Which Plugin Is More Popular?
In regard of popularity, Yoast SEO takes the lead and has more users around the world.
Which Plugin Has Better Reviews?
Rank Math clearly receives better reviews than Yoast, especially for the free version.
Is Rank Math Safe?
Yes. It is completely safe because of its TLS security protocol.
