When Yoast was launched, search engine optimization plugins such as All in One SEO and Platinum SEO pack lost a substantial number of users. It ruled the category of SEO extensions for several years and is currently the most downloaded extension in the category. Yoast has 5+ million active users. It is now facing a threat from Rank Math. Built by MyThemeShop, RM is active on over 1 million websites. The extension is downloaded by at least 20000 WP users every day.
Is Rank Math better than Yoast or vice versa? Which plugin’s free/premium version comes with more features? Below, we’ve compared the two search engine optimization extensions.
Content checker
Yoast can find basic grammar issues in the content, and can also make you aware of excess passive voice usage in the post. It also shows a warning when three or more sentences of the content start with the same word. It displays the content’s Flesch Reading Ease score as well. Rank Math free or Pro edition doesn’t have a grammar checker feature. The two plugins can detect large paragraphs and ask you to break the large paragraph into smaller sections.
Improvement/analysis data
The two SEO extensions show their analysis data on the right of the Gutenberg editor. The analysis data is always in front of you. Some extensions show the data below the post editor.
Broken links detection
Rank Math Pro edition has a broken link checker function built-in. When you enable this function, the plugin will record all 404 URLs users or search bots have encountered on your website and display the same on the “404 Monitor” page. This page shows the URL, the number of times the link was accessed, and the time on which this URL was accessed. Yoast Premium, or the free version, doesn’t have a 404 monitor function.
Redirections
When you find a broken link on your website, you may want to redirect this URL to the page of your choice. The free edition of the two plugins doesn’t let you redirect URLs, but their Pro/Premium edition enables you to do so.
Schema
The free and premium edition of the Yoast search engine optimization plugin doesn’t let you create schemas such as product review schema, book schema, etc, but Rank Math Pro does. RM adds its schema generator function to the sidebar that appears to the right of the Gutenberg editor. If you’re using Yoast and want to add schema to your website, which it does not support, you will have to install a schema generator plugin.
Link suggestions
The Yoast Premium edition recommends links that you can insert in the current blog post to improve the internal linking structure. It generates these links after analyzing your content and the post title. Rank Math also suggests links to the users.
Focus keywords and autocomplete
Yoast lets users enter multiple focus keywords in its focus keywords textbox, but it will show the keyword density of only the 1st keyword. Its premium version supports multiple focus keywords. RM Pro and free versions support 1+ focus keywords. Once you enter the comma-separated keywords, it will show the keyword density in its content analysis section. Rank Math Pro/Business/Agency edition can also autocomplete keywords or keyphrases that you enter in its focus keywords box. Yoast premium/free version doesn’t ship with the keyword autocomplete function yet.
Instant Indexing
No one knows when search bots will read the sitemap and crawl new pages. To get your latest post indexed faster, you can either submit the URL in Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools, resubmit the sitemap, or use a WP plugin that will ping search bots. Rank Math ships with the Instant Indexing feature, which notifies search engines whenever a post is updated, or you publish a new post. Yoast doesn’t have such an option, but the plugin automatically pings search engines according to their support staff.
SEO Analysis
Rank Math can generate detailed SEO reports for your website. It shows the number of URLs that have passed the test and the number of links that have failed the SEO test. You can see the reason why the URLs have failed the test and work on the issues. To use the SEO Analyzer feature of RM, you should connect the plugin with your Rank Math account.
Track keyword rankings
Rank Math’s most interesting feature is its keyword rank tracker. It will track the rankings of your site’s keywords and show the number of impressions, clicks the keyword has got, and their position. It also displays a graph that shows how the rankings of keywords changed over a period of time. The Yoast premium/free plugin doesn’t let users track their website’s keywords in search engines.
Google Search Console data in the WP dashboard
Users of Rank Math can connect their GSC account with the plugin to see the critical SEO data in the WordPress dashboard. Yoast free or paid version doesn’t ship with such a feature, but it supports integration with the popular search engine optimization tool, SEMRush. It also works with Zapier and the popular page builder tool Elementor.
Image SEO
Rank Math Pro has a feature called Image SEO. The plugin will automatically add alt text to images that don’t have alt text when you activate this feature. Yoast free/premium cannot automatically add alt text to blog posts or pages.
Pricing
Yoast premium is priced at 89 dollars. If you want to use it on your other sites, you must buy additional licenses i.e. if you have five sites and want to use this WP extension on all sites, you will have to spend around 400 dollars to get additional licenses. It offers three subscription plans – Pro, Business, and Agency. The Pro plan costs 59 USD + taxes. The plan lets users use the plugin on unlimited personal sites. The Business and Agency subscription plans cost 199 and 499 dollars. They support 100 and 500 client websites and let users track the rankings of 10000 and 50000 keywords. If you buy RM Pro, you can use the same license on as many as you want i.e. if you have five sites, you can use Rank Math Pro on each site without buying additional licenses.
Closing words: RM comes with several interesting features that none of the SEO plugins in the WordPress repository offers, but it doesn’t have the readability analysis feature that is found in Yoast. Yoast Premium version is costlier than Rank Math. Despite costing 29 dollars more, it doesn’t offer a schema generator, 404 monitor, image SEO, or SEO analyzer tools.
