5 Best Yoast Alternatives for WordPress (Other Than AIOSEO)

Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress. No one can deny this fact. It comes with a bunch of handy features to ease your job in optimizing your website for search engines. But sometimes, a simple plugin with fewer features is enough. We have compiled the list of the best Yoast alternatives in case you want to switch away from it or plan to use another plugin for your next website project.

SEO itself is the main pilar to get organic traffic to a website. Since the traffic is organic, the conversion rate is higher. With SEO, you can boost sales, downloads, or membership subscriptions. The best part about SEO is that you can save your marketing budget, although the process can take time.

An SEO plugin like Yoast usually comes with features like the ability to add custom SEO title, custom meta description, sitemap, to content analysis. But again, more features are not necessarily needed. Here is the list of the best Yoast alternatives for WordPress.

Best Yoast Alternatives

1. Slim SEO

If you really prioritize more on functionality over feature, Slim SEO is the plugin that matches your idealism. It doesn’t offer features as many as Yoast does, but all the basic features you need for site optimization are already available. For instance, Slim SEO allows you to set a custom SEO title — as well as description — for your site homepage. The feature is also available for blog posts. Every time you write a new blog post, you can set a custom title and description dedicated to SEO.

There are also options to easily add link attributes just like Yoast. Slim SEO also has a feature to insert header code and footer code, which is quite useful to insert tracking code of Google Analytics. A sitemap generator is also available in case you need it.

The best part about Slim SEO is that it doesn’t make your WordPress dashboard looks cluttered as it doesn’t add a new menu item on the main panel. Instead, the Slim SEO menu is placed under the Settings menu. Also, all the settings are placed on the same page so that you don’t need to back and forth between pages to make the SEO settings.

Slim SEO itself is developed by eLightUp, the company that also develops Meta Box, a custom fields plugin alternative to ACF.

2. The SEO Framework

The SEO Framework is another better suited option if you are looking for an SEO plugin with minimal features. It doesn’t offer too many features like Yoast, but basic SEO features like sitemap generator and the ability to add custom title and description are available.

You can use The SEO Framework to optimize your site homepage and content. After installing and activating the plugin, you will see new setting blocks beneath the post editor of Gutenberg, just like Yoast and other SEO plugins.

Unfortunately, The SEO Framework offers no feature to add link attributes like Slim SEO and Yoast. This feature is quite important for blogging. Without the feature, adding a link attribute can take time.

3. WP Meta SEO

If you need an SEO plugin that has a content analysis feature, WP Meta SEO may is the one you are looking for. The plugin automatically displays the SEO score as you type on the Gutenberg editor, just like Yoast. If you don’t need this feature, you can disable it from the settings page. Same as The SEO Framework above, there is no option to easily add a link attribute available on WP Meta SEO.

What about other features?

WP Meta SEO also has basic features like XML sitemap generator and the ability to add custom title and description. You can add custom title and description on both the homepage and blog posts. No need to edit the homepage to add custom title and description. You can do so from the settings page of WP Meta SEO. Furthermore, WP Meta SEO allows you to install Google Analytics more easily by simply pasting the tracking ID.

4. SEOPress

If you are looking for an SEO plugin that has many features like Yoast, SEOPress is one of the alternatives you can try. In addition to basic features like the ability to add custom title and meta description, SEOPress also comes with a feature whereby you can add a dynamic element to your post title. From year, month, post taxonomy, and so on.

Content analysis feature is also available to make sure every content you write is SEO friendly before you publish it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a feature to allow you to instantly add a link attribute like Yoast and Slim SEO.

Other features offered by SEOPress include XML sitemap and Google Analytics integration. SEOPress also supports integration with popular page builder plugins like Elementor and Divi Builder.

5. Rank Math

Rank Math is the third most popular SEO plugin for WordPress, behind Yoast and AIOSEO. The adoption of this plugin is massive enough like Yoast and AIOSEO as it also offers plenty of handy features. Including content analysis, which is crucial enough for blogging. On Rank Math, you can also add dynamic element to your content title. Such as current year, current month, post taxonomy, and so on.

Another useful Rank Math feature for blogging is the ability to add link attribute instantly. Also, there is a link suggestion feature as well.

Of course, basic features like XML sitemap, the ability to add custom title and custom description are available. If you use ACF, Rank Math automatically reads and analyzes your content written in ACF. Furthermore, Rank Math supports integration with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and other similar tools.

The Bottom Line

Yoast is the most popular SEO plugin in the WordPress ecosystem. Many bloggers and website owners rely on it to optimize their website’s content. It has plenty of handy features to ease your job in doing SEO. But again, more features don’t always better. For a certain website project, you may need an SEO plugin with fewer features instead.

Or if you just need to optimize the homepage title and meta description, you don’t even need to install a plugin. Some WordPress themes like Divi already have a built-in SEO plugin feature to add custom title and description for homepage. If you still more convinced with an SEO plugin and want to use an SEO plugin other than Yoast, you can try one of the options on the above list.

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Picture of Aliko Sunawang

Aliko Sunawang

Aliko is a WordPress expert and lead blogger at WPPagebuilders. He has been blogging with WordPress since 2013. He is responsible of all content published on this website. Learn more
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