AIOSEO vs. Yoast SEO: Which WordPress SEO Plugin Generates the Most Relevant Organic Rankings with Google?

SEO has evolved since old-school tactics such as keyword stuffing and spammy link building led to search engine domination. Even though the nuanced SEO strategies have, evolved, there remains one underlying constant: Proper on-site optimization is the ironclad foundation on which all of your SEO efforts should be constructed.

Organic traffic remains one of the most important channels for website traffic and consequently SEO one of the most vital tools to grow your site. Luckily, the WordPress core ships with some useful built-in functionalities for optimizing your site, such as meta tags, neat and tidy navigation links, and optimized permalinks.

Organic SEO Tactics

If you’re serious about ranking your website at the top of Google organically, though, you’ll almost certainly want a little more. The best strategy with WordPress is to install a dedicated plugin with purpose-built functionalities — in this case, a search engine optimization plugin.

The two most popular options are the AIOSEO and Yoast SEO Which one should you choose? The decision between the AIOSEO and Yoast SEO and is one that almost every WordPress user must grapple with and the source of many online discussions. To make it easier, I compare AIOSEO to Yoast SEO and to point out their differences, as well as pros and cons.

Benefits of Using SEO Plugins for WordPress

While it’s true that WordPress is a very search engine friendly out of the box. The CMS builds structurally sound websites that are easy for search engines to browse and index. That way, just using WordPress takes care of 80 percent of all technical SEO.

Additionally, the platform has SEO features like pretty permalinks and the ability to change the site title and tag line to help bolster organic SEO efforts.

So, in order to be properly indexed by Google, you don’t necessarily need an SEO plugin. This is especially true if you use an SEO-optimized theme like the Genesis template; however, SEO plugins let your take site optimization a few steps further, specifically for on-page SEO.

They do this by providing you with complete control over how your content will appear not only in search engine results but also via social networks.

Moreover, these plugins can help you greatly in producing optimized content that is much more likely to rank high organically with Google. The benefit of using an SEO plugin is that it takes care of the other 20 percent of search engine optimization and gives your site an extra edge, helping you outrank your competitors.

Comparative Analysis: AIOSEO vs. Yoast SEO

AIOSEO is the older of the two. The plugin was created in 2007 by Michael Torbert and Steve Mortiboy. Over the years, it has accumulated a massive user base and can claim over 27 million downloads.

Yoast SEO, was developed by Joost de Valk in 2010 (back when it was still referred to as WordPress SEO by Yoast). Executing constant improvements, it soon became the major rival of AIOSEO.

Since SEO is a complex field that not everyone knows understands, one of the main goals of a good SEO plugin is to make things simple for its users.

Even beginners need to be able to implement SEO measures without a lot of background knowledge. Let’s first see how our two plugins measure up in this regard.

AIOSEO

In contrast to Yoast SEO, AIOSEO displays all of its standard settings on one single page.

Although this can be slightly daunting at first, many users appreciate that they don’t have to click through several different menus to get where they want.

AIOSEO’s options are also divided into different sections:

• Homepage settings to change title and meta description
• Title settings with title formats and assorted options
• Custom post type settings to activate SEO options for different content types
• Display settings for where the plugin should be visible
• Webmaster verification for different search engines
• Noindex settings for excluding content from being indexed

The plugin also features nice little details like an option to automatically capitalize titles. While this won’t make or break your SEO, it’s nice to have.

For novice users, every option also comes with its own help icon. When you select it, you get a short description of what the setting does and sometimes a link to the help section.

In addition to that, the menu also contains links to the support section with documentation, support forums (premium users only), video tutorials and a beginner’s guide.

Yoast SEO Installation and Configuration

Both Yoast SEO and AIOSEO are installed and activated like any other plugin. First users need to install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin.

Once activated, users can go to SEO » General page and launch the configuration wizard via the Dashboard tab.

This will bring up a set-up wizard that guides you though setup process. This enables beginners to get started quickly without feeling trounced by complicated terminology.

Yoast SEO is a powerful plugin, and it has host of options that you need to go through one by one.

The settings section of Yoast SEO is neatly divided into pages where each page has different tabs for relevant settings.

This makes it easy for users to find specific options via settings.

On-screen help is presented on all pages of Yoast SEO settings. Simply select the purple question mark button at the bottom, and it will expand to show you support documentation.

Yoast SEO balances out various flaws on the WordPress platform; for example, it eliminates a lot of duplicate content by excluding subpages of archives from being indexed. Consequently, most users won’t have to change much and even if they do, the plugin makes it easy for people of any level of knowledge to start optimizing their site.

AIOSEO Installation and Configuration

First, you need to install and activate the AIOSEO WordPress plugin.

Once launched, the plugin will automatically activate the setup wizard. Simply select on the Let’s Get Started button to resume.

The setup wizard has less steps than Yoast SEO. Even though they have similar options, AIOSEO streamlines them for newbies.

After finishing the wizard, you can reach plugin settings by selecting AIOSEO SEO » General Settings page.

The General Settings page is divided into distinct sections. Then there are distinct pages for several features under the General Settings menu in the left column. For example, Search Appearance, Sitemaps, Redirects, etc.

There is a help icon next to each option. Selecting the icon reveals a short description of the feature. There is also a help icon on the top to access additional help.

This makes it easy for novices to comprehend what they are doing. Setting up the wizard alone would make most users ready to start working on their website and using AIOSEO for routine tasks.

Both plugins have a plethora of options, and they try their best to streamline the installation process and make it easier for users to get started; however, AIOSEO does a slightly better job than Yoast SEO with their set up wizard.

Daily SEO Maintenance in Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO features a content analysis tool that helps you optimize every single post or page on your website. You can view it by selecting the plugin icon located in the top right corner.

Directly beneath the post editor, you will find Yoast SEO meta box with a snippet preview, focus keyword field, and content analysis.

The Google Preview illustrates how your site’s title and description will look in search engines. Yoast SEO automatically uses your post title as title and excerpt as description, but customization is more beneficial.

Entering the focus keyword in Yoast SEO will allow the plugin to analyze your content for that specific keyword.

The analysis appears in the content analysis area, where Yoast SEO will make suggestions on how you can improve your post’s SEO score.

You can also switch to the Schema tab to adjust the article’s schema markup settings.

The last tab on the menu is for the social tab, where you can configure an article image for Facebook and modify your Twitter card.

Leave the description and title blank, as Yoast SEO will include your main SEO title and description in the open graph meta tags.

Daily SEO Maintenance in AIOSEO

AIOSEO delivers an actual score of your content, TruSEO score, which offers a more hands on approach to optimizing your content.

Simply edit the post or page that you want to optimize. On the edit screen, you’ll see the AIOSEO button at the top right corner with your SEO score for that post or page. Selecting it will expand the content analysis panel.

AIOSEO also displays a score for each of your focus keywords. Selecting the keyword will expand it, and you will be able to see actions you can take to improve that score.

Below the post editor, you will see AIOSEO settings for each content type. This is where you can add your focus keyphrase, title, and description.

One extremely useful feature is the Dynamic Tags. You can use these tags to add dynamic items to your SEO title and descriptions like current category, current year, current month, etc.

For example, if you have an SEO title ‘Best Sushi in NYC (2023)’, you can use the current year tag and it will automatically change to 2024 the following year.

This could boost your click-through rate in search results, which can help you generate more traffic and enhance your SEO rankings.

Via AIOSEO, you can also toggle to the Social tab and set a Facebook or Twitter image.

The plugin also lets you customize an individual post’s Schema type if required.

AIOSEO also includes a Site Analysis feature. It provides an overall score of your site’s SEO settings. You can also use it to compare your site with competitors using the Competitor Analysis tool.

Both plugins make it easy to edit SEO settings on a post-by-post basis; however, AIOSEO delivers a more hands on approach with a TruSEO score and Focus Keyphrase score. Dynamic tags in title and description also set it apart.

AIOSEO vs. Yoast SEO – Indexing and Sitemaps

One of the most vital jobs of an SEO plugin is to help search engines find more of users’ content.

This can be achieved by generating sitemaps, connecting to Google Search Console, and monitoring your site’s SEO.

Yoast SEO automatically creates XML sitemaps for all your post types. For simplicity’s sake, it does not feature a seperate page to view or manage your XML sitemaps.

Yoast SEO – Indexing and Sitemaps

Yoast SEO automatically creates XML sitemaps for all your post types. To keep things simple, it does not have a dedicated page to view or manage your XML sitemaps.

However, you can turn XML sitemaps on or off by visiting SEO » General page and toggling to the ‘Features’ tab.

You’re not able to include or exclude post types to your XML sitemap from plugin’s settings.

Yoast also enables you to easily verify your website for popular webmaster tools like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Baidu, and Yandex.

In addition, Yoast SEO premium subscribers can install and activate the Video and News sitemap extensions. This enables videos and news websites to appear in the video and Google News search results.

AIOSEO – Indexing and Sitemaps

AIOSEO also automatically creates XML sitemaps for your WordPress site. Dissimilar to Yoast SEO, it enables you to effortlessly manage your XML sitemap from a dedicated settings page accessed via AIOSEO » Sitemaps.

Both plugins offer excellent XML sitemap features; however, AIOSEO enables you to customize your XML sitemaps.

AIOSEO and Yoast SEO are both good plugins, so any comparison between the two plugins must be close.

However, AIOSEO wins in terms of ease of use, better user experience, and more control over different features.

Conclusion: Yoast SEO vs. AIOSEO – Which one reigns supreme?

AIOSEO and Yoast SEO are comparable plugins, so any evaluation of the two is almost too close to call.

Notwithstanding, AIOSEO wins based on simplicity, superior user experience, and additional control over numerous features. AIOSEO provides more robust features, which enables your website to generate more relevant, organic rankings with Google.

As a Search Engine Optimization Strategist with over 20 years of experience, I can honestly say that I have taken on WordPress clients who wondered why their websites weren’t ranking well organically with the Yoast SEO Plugin; I ended up uninstalling Yoast SEO in favor of AIOSEO, which in my opinion, delivers far superior results with regards to organic Google Rankings. Contact me today for help with organic SEO.