“What’s the best WordPress SEO plugin?”
I’m asked that question all the time, and recently took part in a debate discussing which plugin is best. I decided to draft a features list comparing the top three most downloaded SEO plugins to get a better picture of what each plugin has to offer, et voilà!
I’ll be comparing and contrasting features of the All in one SEO Pack, vs WordPress SEO by Yoast, vs Platinum SEO. To be fair, there is no loser among the three because each plugin is impressive and will make your WordPress site much more search engine friendly. I’ll talk about which plugin is my favorite in the conclusion, so you can review the features bias-free, and implement whichever plugin matches your specific set of needs.
If you know a developer – or anyone that would like their WordPress site to rank well in search engines – please help them out by sharing this review so that these plugins don’t go unused.
The plugins:
All in One SEO Pack
Downloads: 9,570,544
Author: Michael Torbert
Plugin page
WordPress SEO by Yoast
Downloads: 761,035
Author: Joost de Valk
Plugin Page
Author Page
Platinum SEO Pack
Downloads: 656,205
Author: Techblissonline Dot Com (Rajesh)
Plugin Page
Honorable mention plugin: I can’t leave out the oldie-but-still-goodie, SEO Ultimate.
Table of Contents
- Setup and First Appearances
- Plugin Features
- Migration/Import/Export
- Page-Level SEO Controls
- XML Sitemaps
- Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, and Open Graph Schema
1. Setup and First Appearances
| All in one SEO Pack | WordPress SEO by Yoast | Platinum SEO | |
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| Warns if WordPress is blocking search engines |
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| Requires a second click to enable plugin |
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| Has its own navigation section |
Found under general settings |
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| Developer ads and news |
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| 3rd party ads |
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| Pro (paid) version |
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2. Plugin Features
| All in one SEO Pack | WordPress SEO by Yoast | Platinum SEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handy tips and help section |
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| Configure title tag templates |
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| Configure meta description templates |
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| Automatically generates meta descriptions |
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| Configure meta keyword templates (or disable) |
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| Disallow search engines from specific sections of WordPress |
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| Canonical tag support |
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| noodp Support |
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| noydir Support |
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| Permalinks Optimization (search-engine-friendly URLs) |
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| Redirect attachment URLs to parent post |
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| 301 redirect edits to permalinks |
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| 404 page optimization |
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Breadcrumbs & title tags |
Title tags |
| Add custom HTML to the head tag |
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| Use nofollow on category & archive pages |
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| Breadcrumb & internal link optimization |
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| Controls to limit clutter in the head tag |
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| Hide RSS feeds/links |
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| RSS Feed Optimization |
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| Edit access to .htaccess file |
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3. Migration/Import/Export
| All in one SEO Pack | WordPress SEO by Yoast | Platinum SEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plugin data migration support |
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From All in one SEO, Headspace2, & other Yoast plugins |
From All in One SEO |
| Ability to export data for backups and migration |
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4. Page-Level SEO Controls
| All in one SEO Pack | WordPress SEO by Yoast | Platinum SEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit title, meta description, and meta keywords tags |
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| SERPs snippet preview while you type (see screenshot below) |
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| Page analysis (based on target phrase) with feedback and tips |
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| Set 301 redirects |
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5. XML Sitemaps
| All in one SEO Pack | WordPress SEO by Yoast | Platinum SEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| XML Sitemap Support |
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| Pings search engines |
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| Include/Exclude content types |
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6. Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, and Open Graph Schema
| All in one SEO Pack | WordPress SEO by Yoast | Platinum SEO | |
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| Google Analytics Support |
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| Google Webmaster Tools verification |
With custom header settings |
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With custom header settings |
| Bing Webmaster Tools verification |
With custom header settings |
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With custom header settings |
| Alexa verification |
With custom header settings |
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With custom header settings |
| Open Graph Support |
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There you have it! I’ll repeat myself in saying that all three plugins are fantastic and one of these three plugins should be active on every WordPress installation (that is intended to appear in search engines). With that being said, I’m a huge fan of Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin. It is by far the most complete and has the best looking user interface. I’m certain that it’s only in second place in terms of downloads because it hasn’t been around as long — but just give it some time.
Looks like you have done quit a bit of analysis in listing all the verious features here Claye.
Looks to me like Yoasts comes out ahead, however great as this one is I have found that we need to watch the load time, as I understand it reloads every time a site is searched.
Thanks
Nice review Claye, very clear… I chose the right one (actually before reading this post), and I agree with you, it is awesome!!!
Big thumbs up for Yoast here, it does the job of 3 or 4 plugins with XML sitemaps, redirects, etc. My only complaint is the page analysis – I use Easy WP SEO for that because it does more. Still, Yoast is awesome, I have it on all my sites.
That's a great post Claye. I always used All in One SEO but I would like to give Yoast a try…
Claye:
Thank you for the honerable mention for SEO Ultimate. I must admit, we deliberably have not explained all of the functions and features SEO Ultimate has – with the intention of doing that in addition to lauching our new WordPress SEO Theme Framework amply dubbed "WP Ultimate" – which will launch shortly in Jan 2012.
At that time, we will showcase all of the features it contains (as most people only use a fraction of the features).
I highly commend your method (I love a good comparison post like this) where everything is clear, cut and dried. Kudos to you and have a happy and properous new year!
Wonderful post!!!
Thanks Jeffery, I look forward to the new and improved version, it sounds great. I wish I could have reviewed all four plugins but with only 575px of space, I can only fit so many columns. Have a great new year!
Thanks Claye:
New post is live (with feature list PDF at the bottom of the post) here – http://www.seodesignsolutions.com/blog/wordpress-seo/seo-ultimate-7-2-1/
Hat tip again on the post, it's riveting and informative.
All the best!
Impressive comparison, nice to see all the features side-by-side. I personally have been using All in one SEO Pack for a long time, with quite impressive results, and I am not sure I would switch now…
What if I'm using DIYThemes's Thesis theme; do I still need other plugins installed?
The other question I have is… would intalling SEO plugin create any sort of conflict between Thesis and the plugin itself?
Great post by the way!
So wonderful! I'm now using All in one seo pack,easy and solve all basic seo problems, like it ! share with more wp blogger.
WordPress SEO by Yoast is far the better plugin in my opinion.
@Ted – I have not seen any conflict with Thesis using other plugins, but you don't need them.
All in One SEO is my favorite SEO plug-in. I had some issues with it on one of my old themes (Lysa), but it works like a charm on Genesis. Thanks for the tips on the other plugins!
@Ted Yoast's plugin (actually all three) is totally compatible with Thesis and all well-built WordPress themes.
Good review. It seems that I am the only one using Headspace 2 here! I keep using it but I have never tried an other one. Maybe I will try Yoast next time.
@Claye: Do you have any insight/views about Headpace ?
I agree Yoast is definitely the best free SEO plugin, but I do like SEOpressor even though it is not free. Yoast and SEOpressor are quite similar.
Thanks for such a wonderful post. I am planning to use wordpress for my next project and this post definetly helped to know more about wordpress.
Thanks for sharing, good article a great help.
Take Care
Simon
Yes, these are all very useful for wordpress blog. Thanks for Sharing such a nice information with us.
Nice post.
Perhaps a silly questions, but could you use all 3? =D
I would imagine, you would not wan to based on double submissions and page load time, but just putting the question out there for noobs like me. =D
Great post, thanks so much.
I was rather confused by the SEO plugins currently available and based on your review I will use Yoast going forward.
Thanks again for the effort.
San.
Great plugin review! We have used all three and have settled on the Yoast plugin as well. Its always nice to see others that came to the same conclusion we did!
Great Post.
Great information To do On-Page Optimization in WordPress
Keep it up.
Thanks
Very good analysis I like yoast myself
it seems that 2 of them have migration function from AIO SEO pack which means.. everyone need to migrate after done using AIO seo pack..
erm,, i see yoast have more function than others, is that make it more valuable?
Definitely a great post and analysis. I have been using Yoast for a while now and it works great. After reading your post I have just got the confirmation not to change to another one.
Excellent post Claye.
I was hoping to find a review like this.
I did come in a bit biased from some previous research, but I’ll likely be going with Yoast’s Plugin.
The only close second for me right now is SEOPressor.
Thanks.
Very helpful. Thanks!