Yoast SEO Review 2025: Is It Still the Best WordPress SEO Plugin?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains the backbone of online visibility, with studies showing that over 90% of online experiences begin with a search engine. For WordPress users, this means choosing the right SEO plugin is critical to driving traffic, boosting rankings, and reaching a wider audience. That’s why this Yoast SEO Review matters—because the plugin has long been considered the gold standard for WordPress SEO.

With over 5 million active installations, Yoast SEO has been a trusted tool for bloggers, businesses, and agencies for more than a decade. It simplifies complex SEO tasks such as optimizing titles, meta descriptions, XML sitemaps, and schema markup, making them accessible to beginners while still offering advanced options for professionals.

In this Yoast SEO Review, we’ll explore its key features, setup process, pricing, pros and cons, and compare it with other SEO plugins like Rank Math, All in One SEO, and SEOPress. By the end, you’ll know if Yoast SEO still holds its crown as the best WordPress SEO plugin in 2025—or if it’s time to consider an alternative.

What is Yoast SEO?

Yoast SEO is one of the most widely used WordPress SEO plugins, designed to help website owners optimize their content for better visibility in search engines. Launched in 2010 by Joost de Valk, it quickly became the go-to tool for both beginners and professionals, thanks to its balance of simplicity and powerful features.

At its core, Yoast SEO provides tools for on-page SEO optimization, including keyword analysis, meta title and description editing, readability checks, and XML sitemap generation. It also supports advanced features such as schema markup, canonical URLs, and social media previews, making it a comprehensive SEO solution.

With over 5 million active installations, Yoast SEO is trusted by bloggers, businesses, e-commerce stores, and agencies alike. Its popularity stems from regular updates, strong community support, and a proven track record of improving website performance in search results.

Why Choose Yoast SEO?

With so many SEO plugins available for WordPress, it’s natural to ask—why choose Yoast SEO? The answer lies in its reputation, ease of use, and comprehensive features that cater to both beginners and advanced users.

First, Yoast SEO is known for its user-friendly interface. Its real-time analysis helps you optimize content as you write, checking keyword usage, readability, headings, and meta details. This ensures even non-technical users can make SEO improvements without deep expertise.

Second, Yoast SEO is built with best practices in mind. From generating XML sitemaps to adding schema markup and canonical URLs, the plugin handles technical SEO tasks automatically. This reduces the risk of errors that could harm your site’s search performance.

Third, Yoast SEO offers flexibility. Whether you’re a blogger optimizing posts, an e-commerce owner running WooCommerce, or an agency managing multiple sites, Yoast adapts to your workflow with both free and premium options.

In short, Yoast SEO combines accessibility, technical power, and proven reliability, making it one of the most trusted SEO plugins for WordPress in 2025.

How to Set Up Yoast SEO (Step-by-Step Guide)

Getting started with Yoast SEO is simple, even if you’re new to WordPress or SEO. The plugin includes a setup wizard that walks you through the essential configuration steps. Here’s how to do it:

1. Install and Activate Yoast SEO

• Go to your WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New.
• Search for Yoast SEO.
• Click Install Now and then Activate.
  Once activated, a new SEO menu will appear in your WordPress dashboard.

2. Use the Configuration Wizard

• Navigate to SEO → General → First-time configuration.
• Yoast will guide you through:

• • Setting your site type (blog, e-commerce, business, etc.).

  • Choosing whether your site is live or under construction.

  • Connecting your site to Google Search Console.

3. Optimize Titles and Meta Settings

• Under SEO → Search Appearance, you can set default templates for:

  • Titles and meta descriptions for posts, pages, and archives.

  • Whether to show or hide certain content types in search results.

4. Enable XML Sitemaps

Yoast automatically generates an XML sitemap for your website. You can view it under SEO → General → Features. Submit this sitemap to Google Search Console for better indexing.

5. Configure Social Media Settings

• Go to SEO → Social.
• Add your social profiles and configure how posts look when shared on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

6. Optimize a Blog Post with Yoast

When editing a post or page, scroll down to the Yoast SEO meta box. Here you can:

• Enter a focus keyword.
• Edit the meta title and description.
• Check readability and SEO analysis indicators.

By following these steps, you’ll have a well-configured Yoast SEO setup that ensures your website is optimized for search engines while keeping content user-friendly.

Key Features of Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO has earned its reputation as one of the most powerful and user-friendly SEO plugins for WordPress. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, the plugin offers a wide range of tools to help optimize your site for search engines while maintaining a smooth experience for visitors. Below are the standout features that make Yoast SEO a top choice in 2025.

1. Real-Time SEO Analysis

Yoast SEO’s signature feature is its traffic-light analysis system. As you write content, the plugin evaluates factors like keyword placement, headings, meta tags, and internal links. Each element is marked red, orange, or green—helping you instantly identify areas for improvement. This hands-on feedback makes SEO accessible even for non-experts.

2. Readability Checker

In addition to SEO analysis, Yoast checks your content for readability. It evaluates sentence length, paragraph structure, transition words, passive voice, and subheadings. With these insights, you can ensure your content appeals not just to search engines, but also to human readers.

3. Title and Meta Description Optimization

Yoast lets you customize the title tag and meta description for every post, page, and taxonomy. It also provides a snippet preview, showing how your content will appear in Google search results. This feature is vital for improving click-through rates (CTR).

4. XML Sitemap Generator

Yoast automatically creates an XML sitemap for your site, which helps search engines index your content more efficiently. The sitemap updates dynamically whenever you add or remove content, ensuring search engines always have the latest version of your site structure.

5. Schema Markup Integration

Structured data (schema markup) helps search engines understand your content better, improving the chances of rich results like featured snippets or star ratings. Yoast adds schema automatically, while still allowing advanced users to customize schema output for specific content types.

6. Social Media Previews

Yoast integrates with Open Graph (Facebook) and Twitter Cards, allowing you to set custom titles, descriptions, and images for social media shares. This ensures your content looks professional when shared across platforms.

7. Canonical URLs

Duplicate content can hurt your SEO rankings. Yoast automatically sets canonical URLs to guide search engines toward the correct version of your content, preventing indexing issues.

8. Internal Linking Suggestions (Premium)

In the premium version, Yoast provides internal link suggestions while you write. This helps improve site structure by connecting related content, boosting SEO value across your site.

9. Redirect Manager (Premium)

Broken links can damage user experience and SEO. Yoast Premium includes a redirect manager that lets you create 301 redirects directly from your dashboard, ensuring visitors and search engines are directed to the right content.

10. WooCommerce SEO Integration (Premium)

For online stores, Yoast offers a WooCommerce SEO add-on. It optimizes product pages, adds rich snippets, and ensures your e-commerce site is indexed correctly—helping you attract more organic traffic and sales.

11. Multisite and Multilingual Support

Yoast works across multisite WordPress setups and integrates with multilingual plugins like WPML and Polylang, making it suitable for global websites.

12. Regular Updates and Community Support

Yoast is consistently updated to align with Google’s algorithm changes. It also boasts a massive user base, extensive documentation, and responsive support, making it one of the most reliable SEO tools in the WordPress ecosystem.

Yoast SEO Pricing (2025 Update)

One of the reasons Yoast SEO is so popular is that it offers both a free version and a premium version, giving users the flexibility to choose based on their needs. Whether you’re running a small personal blog or managing multiple client sites, Yoast has pricing options to fit different budgets.

1. Free Version

The free plugin includes many essential SEO tools, such as:

• Real-time SEO analysis.
• Readability checker.
• Title and meta description customization.
• Automatic XML sitemap generation.
• Schema markup integration.
• Canonical URLs to prevent duplicate content issues.

For beginners, the free version of Yoast SEO is often enough to cover basic optimization tasks.

2. Premium Version

• Price: Around $99/year per site.

• Includes all free features, plus:

• Internal linking suggestions.
• Content insights (shows which keywords you use most often).
• Redirect manager for fixing broken links.
• Multiple focus keyword optimization.
• Social media previews for Facebook and Twitter.
• 24/7 premium support.

This plan is ideal for businesses, bloggers, and agencies who want advanced tools and better workflow efficiency.

3. Yoast SEO Add-Ons

Yoast also offers specialized add-ons for more targeted SEO needs:

• Yoast Local SEO – Optimize for local search results.
• Yoast Video SEO – Enhance video content visibility.
• Yoast News SEO – Designed for publishers to appear in Google News.
• Yoast WooCommerce SEO – For e-commerce stores, ensuring product pages rank better.

Each add-on is priced separately (around $79–$99/year) and can be combined with the premium version.

4. Renewal Discounts

Yoast offers renewal discounts on premium plans, usually around 30%, making long-term use more affordable.

5. Comparing Value

• Rank Math offers many premium-like features for free, making it a strong competitor.
• All in One SEO has similar pricing but is slightly more affordable in multi-site setups.
• SEOPress provides unlimited site licenses at a lower price, appealing to agencies.

Still, Yoast SEO stands out for its reputation, reliability, and constant updates, making it a safe investment for WordPress site owners.

Pros and Cons of Yoast SEO

As one of the most widely used SEO plugins for WordPress, Yoast SEO brings a lot to the table—but it also has some limitations. Here’s a balanced breakdown of its strengths and weaknesses to help you decide if it’s the right fit for your website in 2025.

Pros of Yoast SEO

1. Beginner-Friendly Interface: With its intuitive traffic-light system (red, orange, green), Yoast makes SEO understandable even for non-technical users.

2. Comprehensive Free Version: Unlike many plugins, Yoast offers a strong free version covering essential SEO tasks such as meta optimization, XML sitemaps, and readability checks.

3. On-Page SEO Guidance: Real-time analysis helps you optimize titles, meta descriptions, keyword usage, and internal links while writing content.

4. Readability Checker: Ensures your content is easy to read and accessible to both search engines and human readers.

5. Schema & Technical SEO Built-In: Automatically handles canonical URLs, schema markup, and other technical SEO elements, reducing the risk of errors.

6. WooCommerce and Add-On Support: With dedicated extensions, Yoast can be customized for e-commerce, local SEO, video, and news publishers.

7. Regular Updates & Strong Community: With millions of active users and frequent updates, Yoast remains aligned with Google’s algorithm changes.

Cons of Yoast SEO

1. Premium Price Per Site: At ~$99/year per site, Yoast Premium can become expensive for users managing multiple websites.

2. Some Features Locked Behind Premium: Features like internal linking suggestions, redirect manager, and multiple focus keywords are only available in the paid version.

3. Overwhelming for Beginners: While user-friendly, the sheer number of settings and alerts may confuse absolute beginners.

4. Competitors Offer More for Free: Plugins like Rank Math provide advanced features such as multiple focus keywords and redirection management at no cost, making Yoast seem less competitive.

5. Performance Concerns on Large Sites: On very content-heavy sites, Yoast can sometimes affect performance if not optimized correctly.

Yoast SEO vs Other SEO Plugins

The WordPress ecosystem offers several SEO plugins, and while Yoast SEO has long been the market leader, alternatives like Rank Math, All in One SEO, and SEOPress are strong competitors. Each has its strengths, pricing models, and workflows. Let’s see how Yoast stacks up in 2025.

Yoast SEO vs Rank Math

Rank Math has quickly become Yoast’s biggest competitor thanks to its generous free plan. Unlike Yoast, Rank Math’s free version includes features like:

• Multiple focus keywords.
• Built-in redirect manager.
• Advanced schema generator.
• 404 monitoring.

Yoast SEO requires its premium version (~$99/year per site) for similar features. However, Yoast still has the edge in stability, reputation, and proven long-term results. Rank Math is ideal for power users who want advanced tools for free, while Yoast is better for users who value simplicity and reliability.

Yoast SEO vs All in One SEO (AIOSEO)

All in One SEO has been around nearly as long as Yoast and offers a similarly comprehensive toolset. Its interface is modern and intuitive, and it includes features like:

• Smart XML sitemaps.
• Schema support.
• WooCommerce integration.
• Local SEO modules.

Pricing starts at around $49.50/year for a single site, making it more affordable than Yoast. However, Yoast has a larger user base, stronger documentation, and better third-party integrations. For budget-conscious users, AIOSEO is a great alternative, but Yoast remains the safer choice for those seeking a widely tested and community-backed plugin.

Yoast SEO vs SEOPress

SEOPress is a rising star in the SEO plugin world, known for its affordability and simplicity. One of its biggest advantages is its pricing model: for about $49/year, you get access to all premium features for unlimited sites—something Yoast and Rank Math don’t offer.

SEOPress includes:

• White-label options (great for agencies).
• Google Analytics integration.
• Structured data support.
• Broken link checker.

While SEOPress offers incredible value, it lacks the polish, widespread adoption, and support ecosystem that Yoast provides. Agencies managing multiple sites may prefer SEOPress, while individual site owners may feel more comfortable with Yoast’s established platform.

Which SEO Plugin Should You Choose?

• Yoast SEO – Best for users who want a trusted, stable, and beginner-friendly SEO plugin with strong support and documentation.
• Rank Math – Best for advanced users who want feature-rich tools for free or those optimizing multiple sites.
• All in One SEO – Best for budget-conscious users who want a balance of features and ease of use.
• SEOPress – Best for agencies or developers who need an affordable solution for unlimited sites.

In short, Yoast SEO still leads in terms of reputation, reliability, and ease of use, but its competitors are catching up fast with aggressive pricing and feature sets.

Who Should Use Yoast SEO in 2025?

With over 5 million active installations, Yoast SEO continues to be one of the most trusted plugins for optimizing WordPress sites. But is it right for everyone? Let’s look at who benefits most from using Yoast SEO in 2025.

1. Bloggers and Content Creators

Yoast SEO is ideal for bloggers who want to optimize individual posts and pages without diving into technical SEO. Its real-time analysis, readability checker, and keyword optimization features help ensure content appeals to both search engines and readers.

2. Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

For small business owners running WordPress websites, Yoast provides an easy-to-use toolkit for improving visibility in search results. Features like XML sitemaps, schema markup, and social previews give small sites the same technical SEO advantages as larger competitors.

3. E-Commerce Stores

With the Yoast WooCommerce SEO add-on, online store owners can optimize product descriptions, category pages, and metadata. This is especially valuable for businesses looking to compete in crowded e-commerce markets.

4. Agencies and Freelancers

Agencies managing multiple WordPress sites can rely on Yoast SEO for its stability, frequent updates, and strong documentation. While premium costs add up per site, agencies benefit from consistent results and client-friendly tools.

Who May Not Need Yoast SEO

If you’re running a personal hobby site or want advanced SEO features without paying, alternatives like Rank Math or SEOPress may be better fits. These plugins often provide premium-like features for free or at lower costs.

Why Yoast SEO Still Leads in 2025

In the ever-growing market of SEO plugins for WordPress, competition has become fierce. Tools like Rank Math, All in One SEO, and SEOPress continue to challenge Yoast’s dominance by offering competitive pricing and feature-rich free versions. Yet, as this Yoast SEO Review reveals, Yoast continues to hold its place as a trusted leader in 2025.

The reasons are clear: ease of use, reliability, and consistent updates. Yoast SEO has built a reputation for simplifying complex SEO tasks without sacrificing depth. Its real-time SEO and readability analysis, automatic schema integration, and technical optimizations ensure that both beginners and advanced users can confidently optimize their sites.

While it may not always be the cheapest option, Yoast’s proven track record, strong documentation, and dedicated support team provide a level of assurance few plugins can match. This Yoast SEO Review confirms that Yoast remains the go-to plugin for bloggers, businesses, and agencies who want a balance of simplicity and professional-grade SEO tools.

In short, Yoast SEO still leads in 2025 because it combines trust, functionality, and stability—qualities that keep it at the top of the WordPress SEO market.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is Yoast SEO free to use?

Yes. Yoast SEO offers a free version with essential features like keyword optimization, readability checks, XML sitemaps, and schema markup. For advanced tools such as internal linking suggestions, redirect management, and multiple focus keywords, you’ll need the premium version.

2. What does Yoast SEO Premium include?

Yoast SEO Premium includes everything from the free version plus additional features like:

• Internal linking suggestions.
• Multiple focus keyword optimization.
• Redirect manager.
• Content insights.
• Social media previews.
  It also comes with 24/7 customer support.

3. Does Yoast SEO work with WooCommerce?

Yes. With the Yoast WooCommerce SEO add-on, you can optimize product pages, categories, and metadata. This ensures your e-commerce site ranks better in search results while providing enhanced schema for product-rich snippets.

4. Is Rank Math better than Yoast SEO?

Both plugins are excellent. Rank Math offers more features for free, such as multiple focus keywords and redirection tools, while Yoast SEO stands out for its stability, reputation, and user-friendly approach. The best choice depends on your budget and SEO needs.

5. Does Yoast SEO improve Google rankings automatically?

No plugin can guarantee higher rankings. Yoast SEO provides the tools to optimize your site, but results depend on content quality, backlinks, site speed, and overall SEO strategy. It helps you align your site with SEO best practices.

6. Is Yoast SEO beginner-friendly?

Yes. With its traffic-light system (red, orange, green) and clear recommendations, Yoast SEO is one of the most beginner-friendly SEO plugins for WordPress.

Interesting Reads:

WPML Review 2025: Is It the Best WordPress Multilingual Plugin?

10 Best WordPress SEO Plugins 2025 That You Should Invest In

WooCommerce Review 2025: Is It the Right Choice for Your Store?