This question has been asked by many of the ShoutMeLoud readers, and today you will learn which one is better.
Yoast SEO has been dominating in the SEO realm for years. But recently a new competitor has emerged who quite successfully built up a huge community within a very short time: “Rank Math“.
This plugin is gaining positive reviews from the users and its popularity is growing at an unbelievable rate.
This is what made us create this article. We are here to find out which one is the SEO King, we can have only one King, either Yoast or Rank Math.
In this article we will review Rank Math SEO by checking its main functions as an SEO plugin, and also comparing it to Yoast SEO in these functions:
- User Interface: How easily and effectively can you use the plugin? What is the difference between Rank Math UI and Yoast UI?
- Keyword Assigning: How many keywords can you assign in each Rank Math and Yoast? Will these keywords benefit your rankings?
- Content Optimization: How well can you optimize your content using Rank Math SEO plugin? Does Rank Math uses different optimization techniques than Yoast?
- Features: Which of the plugins offer more useful features?
- Indexing: Which SEO plugin offers an instant indexing service?
- Performance: How does Rank Math affect your website’s speed? How well-coded is the plugin? What about Yoast?
- XML Sitemap Integration: Does Rank Math generate a sitemap for your website? What is the difference between Rank Math’s generated sitemap and Yoast’s?
I know you can’t wait to find the answers to all these questions. So, let’s just dive into it.
What is Rank Math SEO?
Rank Math SEO plugin aka “The Swiss Army Knife of WordPress SEO” is a free search engine optimization plugin that guides you on how to optimize your content for higher rankings.
As of now, it has 500,000+ active installation and 4.9 stars rating in WordPress. A pro version will come this fall but all of the features now present in Rank Math will remain free.
User Interface of Rank Math
The cleaner the interface the better.
When a plugin developers understand all of their users and consequently design it for all of them, they are going to win.
Rank Math developers knew this so they have designed two Modes for it:
- Easy: For those who want Rank Math to do all the work. If you choose this one you won’t need to do anything with Rank Math settings.
- Advanced: For those who want to have complete control over their website SEO. Professionals, time to show up!
However, there is no such thing as “Modes” in Yoast SEO. They have designed one for everyone.
Maybe they wanted us all to learn SEO. Who knows…
Look and Style
Rank Math implements a visually attractive interface that not only looks and feels modern but also enhances the user experience.
Check out the dashboard.
Not only is the dashboard appealing, it actually makes SEO fun. When you consider that SEO is primarily filling blanks, writing numbers, processes, and checklist ticking, you will find yourself an SEO expert. Yeah, you are the real Brian Dean.
I am sure they have worked a lot on the User Interface because everything is placed in it’s the best possible location. Within the first minutes of working with Rank Math, you will be able to find everything you are looking for.
Yoast SEO does have a little old-looking interface, but they too have built a successful interface. You can use Yoast SEO efficiently too. After all, they have 12 years of experience it is the least they can do.
Focus Keyword Feature
Rank Math normally lets you assign a maximum of 5 keywords for optimization, but in an update, it added the option to increase the Focus Keyword Limit. To do so, you will need to add a filter to your page editor.
On the other hand, Yoast will let you add just one keyword for the free version and up to 5 in the Pro version.
But, does adding many keywords in Rank Math benefit your SEO?
Not directly. However, Rank Math does help you to optimize your content for your added keywords. These optimizations include “increasing the density of the keyword, using it in subheadings and more…”.
The title, meta, and permalink setup works exactly the same for both SEO plugins. They both also show the preview of snippets for mobile and desktop.
Content Optimization
If you have used Yoast SEO you would have seen things like this.
These are the optimization guides to help your post rank better in Google.
But, since SEO changes every day we can’t say all these optimization techniques work or at least are useful.
However, Rank Math promises to use the most updated and efficient techniques to optimize your content.
For example; Yoast SEO asks you to place the target keyword within the first sentence, however, Rank Math requires you to put your keyword within the first paragraph and not the first sentence.
Now, it is known that keyword is not required in the first sentence to obtain position 1 in rankings or featured snippets and therefore this is a clear indication that Rank Math is using updated benchmarks.
Content Optimization Scoring
Rank Math scores your optimization in the number from 0-100. Generally, if your score is above 80, it turns into a green color. So, you need to optimize your content until your score turns green color.
Yoast SEO in this case represents the optimization level of content as green, orange, and red circles.
Here, Rank Math divides your score into 100 pieces, however, Yoast divides it into 3 pieces. So, clearly, Rank Math gives you a better idea of your content optimization.
Features
Both of the plugins offer a wide range of features. But to be critical, Rank Math offers more features than Yoast SEO.
Even some have considered the many features Rank Math offer as a Con since they are a lot and can be time-consuming.
Let’s just go with “features that Rank Math has but other SEO plugins don’t have “:
- Advanced Custom Fields & AMP support
- 404 error monitor
- Redirects (301, 302, 307, 410, etc.)
- Role manager
- Modular Framework
- Add missing Alt attributes
- SEO Analysis tool
- Incorporates with Local SEO
I’m particularly excited about the “Missing Alt attributes” feature, as there was lack of one reliable SEO plugin for the same. More over, just by using RankMath, you could lower down the usage of plugins.
Performance of Rank Math Vs. Yoast SEO
We can analyze the Performance better by dividing it into two categories: SEO Performance, Plugin Performance.
SEO Performance:
Neither tool will deliver stronger SEO results than the other. So, don’t assume that by switching to Rank Math you’re going to see immediate growth.
However, Rank Math delivers a greater set of features than Yoast SEO which theoretically means it delivers greater SEO performance.
But, in general, it is hard to say which SEO plugin has a better SEO Performance because it will need close monitoring of two similar websites with the same content using two different SEO plugins.
Plugin performance:
Rank Math is 3x smaller than Yoast SEO which means there are 3x fewer lines of code. This means that your website will benefit from fewer PHP requests and subsequently will be faster.
However, as a user, you most likely won’t notice the difference but every millisecond you can save is precious on the web.
XML Sitemap Integration
A Sitemap file is an important part of any website when it comes to indexing. Without a sitemap, there is a great chance that google will forget some of your content and do not index them.
Rank Math SEO plugin generates the sitemap for your website automatically. You can also generate custom sitemap once respective post types are available on your site, such as news sitemap, image sitemap, etc.
There is no obvious difference between sitemap’s generated by any of the SEO plugins, however, I think it is much easier to customize your sitemap using Rank Math than other SEO plugins.
Rank Math vs Yoast: The Verdict
- Rank Math has a more modern user interface than Yoast. But, both plugins are well designed and you can use both of them effectively and easily.
- You can assign unlimited focus keywords by Rank Math, however, Yoast premium will allow you to add a maximum amount of 5 keywords.
- Both Rank Math and Yoast have proven optimization techniques but Rank Math is more updated with SEO benchmarks.
- Rank Math offers instant indexing service which typically will benefit you. This service is not provided by Yoast SEO.
- Rank Math is 3x lighter than Yoast SEO which means you will have a 3x faster website using Rank Math.
- Both SEO plugins will generate a sitemap for your site and there is no obvious difference between their sitemaps. However, Rank Math has a better UI and consequently is easier to work with.
- Rank Math offers all of its features for free while Yoast Premium will charge you $89 per year.
Dear friends and family, we are gathered here today to announce the King, and it is …
Rank Math SEO vs. Yoast SEO Summary
Rank Math is a revolutionary SEO plugin that comes with a modern and easy to use interface. It uses the most updated optimization techniques and lets you assign unlimited focus keywords and optimize your content for all of them.
Undoubtedly Rank Math is able to get great traction in couple of years, and looking at its roadmap, it is definitely looking like a clear winner. However, we can’t undermine the Yoast SEO, which has been around for too many years, and it would be interesting to see how they amp up their development cycle.
More over, RankMath is planned to release a pro version, and how the community react to the paid part of the plugin, will be something interesting to see. I have a hunch that it might have on demand advanced keyword optimisation feature, and might try to become a SEO suite for WordPress.
For me, I have moved one of my WordPress site from Yoast SEO to RankMath, and the migration was smooth. I would be sharing a few videos on how to use Rank Math, and how to migrate from Yoast SEO to Rank Math in the days to come.
For a new blog, I would recommend using Rank Math, as it offers many features which Yoast SEO (free) version does not offer. The strong community, and a growing features make it sought after WordPress plugin.
For now,
What do you think, which one is better, Rank Math or Yoast SEO? Which one are you using right now? Are you planning to switch to Rank Math?
If you have used Rank Math, tell us about your experience with it.
And don’t forget to share this article with your friends.
Keep reading the article at ShoutMeLoud. The article was originally written by Harsh Agrawal on 2020-10-02 01:15:03.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.