Which Is the Best: SEO Yoast, Rank Math, or SEO Framework?

u/digilogic

SEO Yoast, Rank Math or SEO framework?

Hello guys I've been using SEO Yoast for the past year to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for companies through my agency. I am talking only about WordPress. What have you been using? Why you chose to use it? What are the cons and the pros of your option? I would like to know because I want to know if I am doing SEO optimally. Thank you guys!
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doomsday
I've recently switched from Yoast to rankmath a couple of weeks ago. Much better interface unlike Yoast that has bloats of ad images. Performance wise it is much more intuitive.

digilogic ✍️
Okay nice, are there any disadvantages you can see , I mean I am in the same place so I think I will be able to understand

doomsday
One disadvantage I could think of is their table of contents scoring. more info here
digilogic ✍️
Okay thanks

stonaar
Yup, rankmath is awesome for what it gives you as a free plugin. We also made the switch a month ago. It has more features for us (WooCommerce) for which you have to pay when using Yoast (ie. product identifiers), the support is great and almost every week they're releasing updates. I'd also check out SEOPress, which is like Rank Math in terms of features but cleaner and you pay for it. TSF is very lean and probably the best if you have a regular website, but I wouldn't use it when using WooCommerce.

LeBaux
There are quite a few users with heavy woo sites using TSF, from what I have been told it is because of the speed when you have sizeable inventory. Why wouldnt you use it for woo, is there something missing? Thanks.
stonaar
β€’ The paid version of TSF gives you Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel but it doesn't give you ecommerce features.
β€’ It also gives you additional schema data for articles, but not for products (ie. ean/gtin product identifier)
β€’ Something I also miss with TSF is a standard title/meta template for products which most SEO plugins have: you can easily generate a page title for all your products based on the product name, category, tags and/or attributes instead of having to write a custom title for each and every product (example: %product% – Order %category% from %brand% online)

It's like their mindset is not really set on ecommerce.
LeBaux
Oh, just to clarify, I am "them". I wonder what SEO benefit has ean/gtin identifier? We are generally open to adding features that clearly help ranking products. Product schema is handled by woo, no
stonaar
Awesome to find you here… I played around with it and as I said it's probably the best plugin for a regular website or blog. However, you have to admit nowhere on your website ecommerce or WooCommerce is mentioned (unless you dig deep in the changelog). It's a stark contrast from competing SEO plugins like rank math and seopress that not only mention it on the features/pricing page but each have an in-depth article on how to set it up. So we don't know whether WooCommerce is a focal point for TSF and whether it's fully compatible. It'll make you wonder whether basic things like a product sitemap are properly integrated.

I wonder what SEO benefit has ean/gtin identifier?

Maybe nothing as we don't really know what's going on in Google's algorithms. At the same time it might give your product page an edge over the competing product page that doesn't have it specified. It's not handled by woo at the moment and Google's rich test results gives a warning when it's not set. Other benefits: https://searchengineland.com/five-reasons-gtin-new-favorite-google-shopping-acronym-247471
The most important thing that is lacking for us is a standard title/meta template for products in case a custom title has not been set. We have over 1000 products and it'd take us time to create a custom title for all of them. A default template for the product title using the product's properties would enable us to set those correct in an instant.
sybrew
I'm just going to hook into one issue you mentioned:

However, you have to admit nowhere on your website ecommerce or WooCommerce is mentioned (unless you dig deep in the changelog). It's a stark contrast from competing SEO plugins like rank math and seopress that not only mention it on the features/pricing page but each have an in-depth article on how to set it up.

That's because we don't want our users to read manuals. We want them to use the plugin instantly and forget about it. Long gone are the days game manuals: we want to throw out that manual too. Either by doing things for the user (automatically pick up items / generate metatags), or leaving them onto a path of experience (introduction levels / visual cues and inline documentation). In the case of using WooCommerce in combination with TSF: Nothing changes from expected usage–we already did all the work for the users behind the scenes.

I agree with everything else in your reply, though :) We don't control all the use-cases, and that's why it's great there is more than one solution to the SEO problem of WordPress.
But it doesn't give you ecommerce features.
That's because WooCommerce gives all the e-commerce features you need. An SEO plugin is not an e-commerce plugin, it shouldn't try to do their job.
It also gives you additional schema data for articles, but not for products […]That's because WooCommerce already gives that structured data.
EAN/GTIN identifiers are features currently under consideration by the team behind WooCommerce (they're looking for upvotes). When they implement it, they'll handle it correctly, so you won't later have to migrate all those tags from an SEO plugin.
There's no vendor lock-in you get with TSF, which you do get with other SEO plugins thanks to the crosstalking.
Something I also miss with TSF is a standard title/meta template for products.
We don't focus solely on one plugin, but on WordPress–your whole site–integrally. We're not there yet with implementing templates for your whole site. This feature will come, but then in a manner that will stand the test of time (and e-commerce plugins).
Think of us like Apple: "We didn't implement the calculator app on the iPad because we couldn't find the correct way to do it." All I see in the other plugins are users forgetting to rectify mistakes and leave broken tags.
Nevertheless, feel free to use another SEO plugin if it suits your needs. But I believe you'll stumble upon issues thanks to some features down the line.
stonaar
With ecommerce features I meant specifically for Google analytics and FB pixel, think of conversion tracking and order value – these are not included in WooCommerce. As Google Analytics is a paid extension of TSF I think you should consider making that part of the extension, just like seopress pro.

What's crosstalking?

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Heatard
All of them essentially do the same thing, Yoast is just the worst out of the 3 in terms of constant updates to add new ad banners to push new features hidden within the paid version.

I'd recommend trying the other two out and see which you feel works better for you in terms of setting up and using it.

searchcandy
Plus Yoast seems to be the only one of the big few that has lead to hacks/vulnerabilities, mass deindexings etc… they obviously put a lot of love into their product but I don't want to install a bloated swiss army knife plugin.

Heatard
It's to be expected, why waste time hacking a small plugin when you can hack more sites through the most popular plugins
searchcandy
True, but you can't hack a well built plugin with no vulnerabilities…
Heatard
I agree, but I think when you've already chosen to use WordPress which is regularly hacked in all types of ways, you can expect popular plugins which haven't been updated to lead to potential issues
searchcandy
I don't really understand your point tbh. Yoast has lead to 10,000s of sites getting URLs deindexed. They have earned their bad reputation. I know AIOSEO for example have had a vulnerability also, among the others – but their record is much better IMO.
Heatard
WordPress sites are regularly hacked regardless of whether they use Yoast, usually because of an outdated WordPress version or plugin. If a site is taken down or is used to display a different site to googlebot then that's just as big of an issue. It's not like Yoast intentionally caused this issue to hurt people's sites, it was a mistake, which happens.
searchcandy
Houses often get broken into, therefore you shouldn't worry about choosing a secure lock for your doors? Not sure I follow the logic…

IMO Yoast is a huge/bloated plugin with dozens of features most site owners don't need, so the potential attack surface is much bigger than a smaller tighter plugin.

digilogic ✍️
Okay I see the points here. It's so strange for me that I be been using the Yoast plugin when there are better plugins

Heatard
I still use Yoast myself on various sites, I've only recently opted to use other plugins as I was curious what I was missing out on.

It's not that Yoast doesn't work, it works fine, it's just a bit intrusive now compared to what it was a few years ago.

Plus, personally, I hate how they've designed the meta section for pages / posts compared to how it was. I just need a few text boxes and drop down menus, not all this other bullshit.
digilogic ✍️
Yes exactly I also want to see what am I missing on. What do you mean by characterizing it as intrusive
Heatard
I don't know about you, but I'm not too keen on every page pushing different features and new plugins released. This is likely just bloating up the plugin with stuff I'll never use.

I know this is common amongst many plugins nowadays, but if it can be avoided without losing anything by using a different plugin, then that's a better choice for me.
digilogic ✍️
Okay okay thanks

KasaReviews
Rank Math SEO includes all of the features you could need, and it offers them at one rate \- free. Yoast SEO and SEO Framework have premium plans. Yoast SEO paid plan is not worth it but SEO Framework paid plan is.

For many Yoast is bloated, and having cluttered WordPress admin area with up-sells and costs a decent amount amount while premium version doesn't bring anything special to the table that other plugins don't provide for free or cheaper.

The SEO Framework lacks some additional functionality, but it is good as a basic requirement for an SEO plugin.

Rank Math is a great plugin, but I saw a few things that can be improved to make it even better.

The SEO Analysis is a great way to see if your page/post is optimized correctly or not for search engines.

However, I feel this feature is a little over-engineered in Rank Math. Rank Math forces you to follow their guidelines. But, some of these guidelines are not practical and doesn't suit every type of content.

SEO Yoast or Rank Math or SEO Framework – I recommend Rank Math.

digilogic ✍️
Okay interesting , thank you

Lyxx
I can definetly recommend The SEO Framework. It is lightweight, has a clean code and nice User Interface (UI) and is working great without cluttering your UI or code base with unnecessary functions.

I see Rank Math getting recommended alot in here. As I did my switch from Yoast to TSF some time ago I researched and noped out of rank math because of some shady business tactics, obfuscated code and "phoning home" alot. Is this still up to date or did things become better? Do you still need to create an account to use RankMath?

digilogic ✍️
Nice so it is really strange that Yoast gets the most votes but at the same time people in comments are saying negative things about Yoast . I really do not know what I should think of it. And then there is the battle between rank math vs SEO framework and until now Rank math seems better
Vazev
I agree. TSF all the way for me. We value page speed a lot and it is the sleekest and fastest of all SEO plugins because they go out of their way to avoid bloat.

We saw an immediate speed increase when we switched from Yoast to TSF.

I wouldn't touch Rank Math, devs seem really shady.

fuelistdigital
If you are new to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), lack technical abilities, or do not have access to technical resources look into Yoast or Rank Math. We end up writing a lot of functions for SEO Framework, which is fine, but there are time you just want to dump in a robots.txt disallow and you have to write a function to do so. There are also a ton of ecommerce things that you need to write functions for. SEO Framework is definitely more targeted towards pros.

We still have clients that rank well with Yoast and do not want to leave the interface as they are used to it.

I really do not like Rank Math, I felt when I tried it, I was handing over a ton of data. Something about it just did not feel right. That said I spoke to an SEO a couple days back who loved it for their clients.

Lyxx
Yeah, I felt the same trying Rank Math and a little research about Rank Math and the company behind it reveals some shady business tactics. Was wondering if things have changed, as it is recommended in here alot. Do people not get suspicious if you need to create an account after plugin activation and link it to your website first?

After all, if you're not paying for the product, you are the product being sold.

digilogic ✍️
Yeah definitely I do not want my data to be shared.

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