Rank Math vs Yoast SEO Comparison: Which One is Better?

Are you trying to decide between Rank Math vs Yoast SEO to optimize your WordPress site?

When it comes to WordPress SEO plugins, Yoast SEO is undoubtedly the most popular one. But this doesn’t mean that it is your only option for doing WordPress SEO. There are many other popular plugins available, like Rank Math SEO, which we will compare to the Yoast SEO plugin.

Rank Math is a relative newbie (when compared to Yoast SEO). However, it’s rapidly grown in popularity and has millions of downloads.

So, which one should you choose in the Rank Math vs Yoast SEO comparison? That is the topic of this post.

We’re not going to choose a “winner” and a “loser”. Instead, we’ll showcase what each plugin does well and how they compare so you can choose the option that best matches your needs, expertise level, and budget.

Let’s start by introducing each option in a little more detail.

Rank Math vs Yoast SEO — Overview

Let’s see a quick overview of Yoast SEO and Rank Math before we start our hands-on comparison of both plugins.

Yoast SEO

Originally launched in 2010, Yoast SEO is by far the most popular WordPress SEO plugin. It was founded by Joost de Valk.

It’s become synonymous with “WordPress SEO” in many people’s minds. It is by far the most popular SEO plugin, as well as one of the most popular WordPress plugins ever. It is downloaded by 13 million happy users.

Rank Math

Rank Math, which was launched a few years ago in 2018, is a relative newcomer in the WordPress SEO field. However, it comes from a well-known WordPress firm, MyThemeShop, so the Rank Math team has plenty of knowledge to draw on.

Since its launch, it has quickly grown to become the third most popular WordPress SEO plugin (second All in One SEO). It is downloaded by 1.7 million happy users.

Rank Math vs Yoast SEO — Features

With the overview out of the way, let’s compare Yoast vs Rank Math in terms of their features.

However, when comparing the free version, Rank Math offers more features than Yoast SEO. It doesn’t mean it’s “better” because the important factor here is whether or not you’ll use those extra features.

However, if you will use those extra features, that’s an advantage to Rank Math.

Rank Math Features

Free Version:

• Set SEO titles and meta descriptions.
• Create a powerful XML sitemap.
• Set focus keywords (upto five keywords) for posts, pages, and CPT.
• Connect your site to Google Search Console and see data inside your WordPress dashboard.
• Adding Google Analytics tracking code.
• Interlinking suggestions on your current & past published posts.
• Advanced redirection manager for 301, 302, 307, 410, and 451 redirects.
• Automated image SEO to add alt and title text.
• Set up sitewide schema markup and control schema markup for particular pieces of content.
• Optimize your site for local SEO.
• Add breadcrumbs to your site.
• Complete Elementor and Divi integration.
• SEO analysis score to optimize your site.
• And many more.

Premium Version:

• Advanced Google Analytics 4 integration to see data inside your WordPress dashboard.
• Keyword rank tracker to track keyword ranking and performance over the past 12 months.
• Google Trends integration.
• Google Video and News SEO sitemap.
• Track the top 5 winning and losing keywords.
• Monitor position history of keywords and posts for up to 12 months.
• Automatically watermark social media images.
• Google AdSense earning history.
• And many more.

Yoast SEO Features

Free Version:

• Set SEO titles and meta descriptions.
• Create a powerful XML sitemap.
• Set focus keywords (only one keyword) for posts, pages, and CPT.
• Verify your site with Search Console.
• Add breadcrumbs to your site.
• Count the number of internal and external links in your content.
• And many more.

Premium Version:

• Automatic internal linking suggestions while you’re writing.
• Social previews show you how your content appears on social media.
• A redirect manager that helps you prevent “404: page not found” errors.
• Optimize your content for related keyphrases.
• Content insights feature to show you what your text focuses on.
• An orphaned content filter to detect posts that have no links connecting to them.
• Internal linking blocks to structure your site easily.
• And many more.

Yoast SEO also provides premium add-ons for various types of SEO.

• Local SEO to optimize your website for a local audience.
• Video SEO to ensure that Google knows what your video is about, improving your chances of ranking in the video results.
• News SEO for news websites looking to boost their visibility and performance in Google News.
• WooCommerce SEO for all online stores that want to rank higher in search results and on social media.

Rank Math vs Yoast SEO — Setup Wizard

When it comes to the setup wizard, both these plugins do a good job. Both are just generally pretty user-friendly, as well.

Overall, this category is a toss-up, and it comes down to personal opinion in terms of which one you like.

Rank Math Setup

Once you have installed and activated a Rank Math plugin, it first launches a setup wizard to help you configure the important basic features. You may also link your free Rank Math account to unlock more features. However, this is optional. If you want, you can connect it for more features.

On the Rank Math setup wizard page, you can see steps tabs and three modes similar to this:

You can select any of the three modes. However, the Custom mode is currently limited to Rank Math PRO users only. The easy and advanced mode steps are not much different. The advanced mode includes additional steps with more advanced settings to configure.

In the setup wizard, you’ll configure the following:

• Set up basic schema information.
• Connect Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and even AdSense.
• Choose your Sitemap configuration and select which type of posts or pages you want to include in your Sitemaps.
• Other basic settings include whether to noindex empty category and tag archives, nofollow external links, etc.
• And so on.

Once you are ready, click on the Setup Advanced Options button, which will unlock some additional steps for things like:

• Role manager to control which WordPress roles can access Rank Math settings.
• 404 error monitor and redirect manager.
• More detailed schema markup settings.
• And so on.

Once you’re ready, click on the Save and Continue button to return to the dashboard.

Here you will see a list of modules that allows you to enable or disable each module. Plus, configure all the modules that you’ve enabled. However, if you’re in Easy Mode, you won’t see all of the modules.

Yoast SEO Setup

Like Rank Math, Yoast SEO offers a first-time configuration to help you quickly get up and running. You can access it anytime by going to Yoast SEO » General » First-time configuration tab.

The configuration will walk you through the essential settings, such as

• SEO data optimization.
• Your site’s representation.
• Your social media profiles.

After successfully setting up Yoast SEO, you will notice that the Yoast SEO dashboard starts to provide certain suggestions and ideas to better optimize your website for higher ranking. It also offers some tips/suggestions and will flag any potential issues with your site:

Like Rank Math, Yoast SEO also offers a set of feature modules that you can enable or disable whenever you want to. You can view this by going to Yoast SEO » Settings » Site features.

Yoast SEO vs Rank Math — User Interface

Let’s check out what the user interface Yoast vs Rank Math offers to the users.

Rank Math Interface

Rank Math’s options are located in a sidebar panel that may be viewed from the top-right corner. The icon for opening the settings also offers a stunning overview of your content’s optimization:

By clicking it, you can expand the sidebar, which is separated into tabs.

In the General tabs, you can set the focus keyword(s) for your content and view the analysis. You can also get suggestions for keywords just by typing in the box:

When you click the Edit Snippet button, a window with your SEO title/description and social media information appears, along with a live preview:

The Advanced tab allows you to configure the Robot’s meta and canonical URLs.

The Schema tab allows you to configure schema markup for your pages. For example, in the schema tab, you can choose from different types of schema markup:

When you choose the type of schema, you’ll be able to enter the details and validate it.

Lastly, the Social tab lets you set up open graph information for Facebook and Twitter.

Yoast SEO Interface

Yoast SEO gives you two ways to access its settings:

• A meta box below the editor shows how it works in the classic TinyMCE editor.
• A sidebar like Rank Math.

The settings are the same between the two, so it’s really just down to your personal preference.

Personally, we find the metabox to be a bit easier to work with, so we’ll focus on that.

The meta box has four tabs. In the SEO tab, you can set up the title/description and view a live preview. You can also add a focus keyphrase and view SEO analysis tips:

The SEO analysis gives three overall scores – red (bad), yellow (improvements), or green (good). You can also see a list of individual tips and whether your content is optimized for those tips.

The Readability tab gives you suggestions for improving your content with the same scoring as SEO optimization:

The Schema tab lets you set a page type, but the list is more limited, and you can’t add the data like Rank Math allows:

Finally, the Social tab lets you set up open graph information for Facebook and Twitter.

Rank Math vs Yoast SEO — Keyword Analysis

Both Rank Math and Yoast SEO provide keyword analysis while you’re writing content. You can enter the keyword(s) you want to target, and the plugin will analyze your content to show you how well-optimized it is and whether you need to make any changes.

One advantage of Rank Math is that it allows you to analyze multiple keywords for free. The free version of Yoast SEO lets you analyze only one keyword (though the premium version allows multiple keyword analyses).

Rank Math Keyword Analysis

Even in the free version, Rank Math lets you analyze up to five target keywords at once. Simply enter the keyword(s) you want to target, and Rank Math will:

• Give you a score between 0 to 100, along with some color coding. If you score more than 80, you’ll get the “green,” which is good. However, if your score is below 50, you’ll get a “red,” which is bad. If your score is between 51 to 80, you’ll get the “yellow,” which means you need to improve.
• Show specific tips and whether or not you’ve met them. For example, is your focus keyword included in the SEO title and description? How many times did you use it in the content? Is the focus keyword found in the subheading(s)?

You may also switch between different keywords by clicking them in the list. For example, if you select a different focus keyword, the analysis will change to focus on that specific keyword.

Yoast SEO Keyword Analysis

With the free version, Yoast SEO only allows you to analyze a single keyword. However, if you upgrade to the Yoast premium version, you can analyze multiple keywords.

The analysis works pretty similarly to Rank Math. Just add your keyword(s), and Yoast SEO will give you a score and compare your content to its list of specific suggestions.

However, Yoast SEO’s score is less specific, and it doesn’t show a numeric rating. It also shows three options: Green (good), Yellow (ok), and Red (bad).

Yoast SEO also divides its readability analysis into its own score, using the same scoring mechanism. The readability analysis can be a little odd since the score weighting might feel random at times.

For example, by changing a single letter in your text, you may go from red to green. In general, you should pay more attention to the individual readability advice than to your overall score.

Yoast SEO vs Rank Math — Inbuilt SEO Audit Tool

Sometimes, you have certain aspects of your site that can keep you from being fully optimized for better search engine results. Having a resource that will let you know about potential problems in those instances can be beneficial.

Rank Math

Rank Math includes a detailed SEO analysis tool. Free reports are also available. It identifies the issues and resolves them right away.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO doesn’t offer that kind of feature. It only offers a content analysis tool that can be used to improve your SEO before your posts are published.

Yoast vs Rank Math — Google Search Console

Google Search Console may help you in monitoring activities such as complete website analytics, keyword and page performance, and site indexing.

Rank Math

Rank Math is the best option for providing a unique experience of Google Search Console when connected. The first thing you need to have is your Google Search Console account, connect it with Rank Math and verify. The connection lets Rank Math fetch all the vitals of the website and display them on the dashboard.

Yoast SEO

Yoast Seo allows users to verify their website. However, you won’t be able to see your website’s data directly on the WordPress Dashboard, like Rank Math. Yoast SEO does not offer the functionality/feature that allows users to view their website performances on a single platform.

Rank Math vs Yoast SEO — Pricing

Let’s talk about how much all of the above will cost you.

First and foremost, both plugins are available for free on WordPress.org and will work on most sites. But, as we said in the features section, the free version of Rank Math is much better when compared to the Yoast SEO free version.

For example, the free version of Rank Math has the following features:

• Multiple keyword analysis.
• Focus keyword suggestions.
• Internal link suggestions.

Yoast SEO can do all of that, but only in the premium version.

In terms of premium versions, Rank Math is also significantly less expensive. There are two reasons for this:

• Rank Math only has one core premium plugin (with three different pricing plans). Yoast SEO, on the other hand, offers one premium core plugin as well as pricey add-ons for specific features like local SEO, video SEO, and WooCommerce SEO.
• The premium plan of Rank Math supports unlimited websites, but the paid plans of Yoast SEO have very strict site limits.

Essentially, even if you only have one site, Rank Math will be less expensive. It is also a lot less expensive if you have multiple sites.

Rank Math Pricing

Rank Math offers three plans for its premium version:

• Pro: It costs $59 per year and can be used on unlimited personal websites to track up to 500 keywords.
• Business: It costs $199 per year and can be used on 100 websites to track up to 10,000 keywords.
• Agency: It costs $499 per year and can be used on 500 websites to track up to 50,000 keywords.

Yoast SEO Pricing

As we mentioned, there are two types of premium plans for Yoast SEO:

• The core premium plugin.
• Specialized add-ons for certain use cases, such as WooCommerce SEO, local SEO, news SEO, or video SEO.

For the core plugin, you’ll pay $99 per year, but that only allows use on a single site. For more sites, you only get a tiny discount on additional licenses:

So, if you have five sites, you’d pay $445.50 to Yoast SEO! In comparison, Rank Math would only cost $59 for unlimited sites.

There are also four premium extensions for specific types of SEO:

• Local SEO: $79 per year for a single site.
• News SEO: $79 per year for a single site.
• Video SEO: $79 per year for a single site.
• WooCommerce SEO: $79 per year for a single site.

You can also purchase all five plugins for a total of $229 per year.

Rank Math vs Yoast SEO: Summary

In the end, the decision between Rank Math vs Yoast SEO should be based on what you value and want in an SEO plugin.

Basically, you won’t make a “mistake” by using either plugin. It’s more about picking the plugin that will help you reach your SEO goals.

Generally, the free version of Rank Math offers more features. Yoast SEO, on the other hand, either costs or does not offer.

If you think you will use the free features, Rank Math may be for you. However, if you only use the SEO plugin to create some SEO titles and descriptions and maybe optimize for a single keyword, you won’t receive any more benefits from those features.

Finally, if you’re wondering which one we use here at Pickup WP, we’re currently using Yoast SEO to optimize the post you’re reading right now.

We hope this Rank Math vs Yoast SEO comparison helps you decide which plugin is better for your needs.

For your next steps, check out these helpful resources:

• Yoast SEO vs All in One SEO Comparison
• Best WordPress SEO Plugins
• How to Use Yoast SEO Plugin In WordPress [Beginners Guide]

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