Using SEO plugins can simplify your work, but choosing between popular options like All In One SEO and Yoast SEO can be challenging.
To help you decide, I’ve created this hands-on comparison guide. I’ve tested both plugins to show you how they work, how user-friendly they are, and what features they offer.
In this post, you’ll learn what sets the two plugins apart and what makes them similar in terms of keyword and content optimization, as well as the unique SEO tools they provide.
An overview of All In One SEO vs Yoast SEO
If you’re in a hurry, check out this summary of how these top plugins compare:
| Feature | All In One SEO | Yoast SEO |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword optimization scores | ✅ | ✅ |
| Readability optimization | ✅ | ✅ |
| Site search appearance customization | ✅ | ✅ |
| Sitemaps | ✅ | ✅ |
| Schema markup | Paid only | ✅ |
| Cornerstone content | Paid only | ✅ |
| Integration with webmaster tools | ✅ | ✅ |
| Link optimization | Broken link checker (200 free links / month) | Internal link counter |
| Breadcrumbs | ✅ | ✅ |
| Advantage over the other plugin | SEO analysis: site audit + headline and competitor analyzer | All the essential features are free |
| Get All In One SEO | Get Yoast SEO |
All In One SEO and Yoast SEO in detail
All In One SEO and Yoast SEO are two of the most popular plugins in the WordPress market. The goal of these tools is to make SEO easier by guiding users through best practices, like using keywords in content.
Yoast SEO has over ten million active installations, making it the most widely used SEO plugin:
One of the reasons why it’s so popular is that it provides user-friendly suggestions for optimizing content within the WordPress editor. It also gives recommendations for improving readability.
Beyond that, it’s just generally one of the oldest WordPress SEO plugins out there.
All In One SEO works in a very similar way. Like Yoast SEO, it provides keyword and content optimization guidelines to help users rank higher in search results:
However, it also comes with beginner-friendly features, such as a setup wizard that helps you implement the SEO basics for your site.
All In One SEO used to be named All In One SEO Pack. However, it was acquired by Awesome Motive in 2020 and rebranded to just All In One SEO. Awesome Motive is one of the largest WordPress companies and the same team behind a number of other popular plugins.
This comparison of All In One SEO vs Yoast SEO will focus mostly on the free versions of the plugins. If you’re new to WordPress, you likely won’t need a premium tool to get started with SEO.
Top features of both plugins compared
In this section, we’ll compare All In One SEO and Yoast SEO in terms of keyword optimization, ease of use, and other aspects.
1. Keyword optimization 🔠
Keyword optimization is perhaps the most important SEO feature for most users. Both Yoast SEO and All In One SEO provide you with tips for using your primary search term in your content.
The plugins will tell you if you’re using keywords too much (or too little), or if you forgot to add them to your meta description, URL, and title. They also remind you to use the primary keyword in your image alt text.
All In One SEO scores your content on a scale from 0 to 100, based on the SEO practices implemented within the post. You can check your score at any point while editing a page or a post:
Both All In One SEO and Yoast SEO enable you to optimize content around a specific keyword or phrase. The premium versions of the plugins give you the option of adding more search terms.
Yoast SEO doesn’t provide a keyword optimization score – instead, it uses green, orange, or red lights. A green light means your content is optimized for search engines. Meanwhile, an orange light suggests that your content needs improvement, and red means you’re not following the plugin’s SEO guidelines:
It’s important to note that higher All In One SEO scores don’t mean that your content will rank first in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The same applies to a Yoast SEO green light.
These scores are simply there to let you know if you’re following basic best practices. There are other factors that can affect your rankings, such as keyword competition and your niche.
2. Content optimization 📝
Yoast SEO and All In One SEO also offer readability scores, including a calculation of the Flesch reading ease score of your text. These scores reflect the reading level of a post and help make your content easier to read.
All In One SEO analyzes your content in terms of sentence and paragraph length, use of passive voice, how well you use subheadings, and other factors:
If you compare this with Yoast SEO’s readability analysis, you’ll notice it’s almost identical. Both plugins use the same criteria to assess your content. They also include tools that highlight readability errors, so you can fix them:
It’s essential to understand that having a higher level of readability is not necessarily a good thing. Some visitors might prefer more advanced content, and a low readability score doesn’t mean your posts and pages won’t rank well.
In terms of functionality, All In One SEO and Yoast SEO offer the same level of readability analysis. If this feature is important to you, you can pick whichever plugin you prefer from a usability standpoint.
3. Other SEO tools 🛠️
Now, let’s take a close look at the additional features offered by each tool.
👉 All In One SEO has a staggering set of configuration options you can use to optimize your site. These include features such as:
- Built-in Robots.txt and .htaccess file editors
- The option to reset all SEO-related settings for your site
- Overviews of your post and page SEO scores
- Options to modify your site’s search appearance and taxonomy
- A sitemap generator and configuration
- Option to connect your site with search engine webmaster tools
- A broken link checker to detect your site’s broken links and fix them
- Automatically installs OptinMonster, a tool meant to boost site conversion (collects subscribers, leads, and sales)
- Provides tools like headline analyzer, SEO audit checklist, and competitor analyzer
- The option to add breadcrumbs to your site
👉 Yoast SEO matches All In One SEO feature for feature. The plugin enables you to further optimize your site by:
- Editing the Robots.txt and .htaccess files
- Configuring SEO-related settings for your site
- Modifying how your site appears in search engines
- Configuring what kind of content your site focuses on, with options for ecommerce sites
- Configuring how search engines crawl your site
- Setting and configuring breadcrumbs
- Connecting your site with search engine webmaster tools
- Adding schema markup for your site (including quick Schema API integrations)
- Displaying internal link counters for each post and page
- Marking “cornerstone” content
Those last three features are probably what set Yoast SEO apart from All In One SEO.
With Yoast SEO, you can see the number of internal links each post or page contains. This offers a quick way to see which articles require more internal links to help boost engagement on your site:
Meanwhile, marking content as “cornerstone” tells Yoast SEO that it’s dealing with a critical page or post on your site. The plugin will be more thorough in its keyword optimization and readability rankings for this content. Adding schema markup to your posts and pages for free is also a plus for Yoast. All In One SEO offers the cornerstone content feature and the schema markup as well, but only in the premium version.
On the other hand, All In One SEO comes bundled with a broken link checker tool that detects and fixes up to 200 free broken links per month, which helps improve SEO.
Moreover, All In One SEO provides some nice free tools for SEO analysis that give you insights about your website, headlines, and competitors from an SEO perspective.
4. Ease of use ⛗
If you’re new to SEO, you’ll want a plugin that’s easy to use. Both All In One SEO and Yoast SEO are designed for beginners, but they also include features for more experienced users.
When you activate All In One SEO, the plugin will guide you through a configuration wizard. This can import data from other SEO plugins (if you’re switching tools) and help optimize your site for specific types of content (using schema markup):
All In One SEO is a modular plugin, so you can choose which features you want to activate. However, some of them require you to install extra plugins and add-ons:
When you activate Yoast SEO, it will automatically optimize existing content for search engines. For example, it will add missing metadata to posts and pages:
Additionally, Yoast SEO will ask for basic information about your site for search engines, including its title, logo, and social media accounts:
Once you’re done with the setup wizard, you can jump right into the Yoast Academy section. This page contains a collection of courses on SEO basics and how to use the plugin:
Some of the more advanced courses are limited to premium users, but the free options are more than enough for SEO beginners.
In terms of settings, Yoast SEO offers a fairly modular approach. One difference is that most features don’t require add-ons (though you might need a premium license for some of them):
As you can see, both plugins offer a simple configuration process. However, Yoast’s SEO courses give it an edge over its competitor, making it more beginner-friendly and valuable for users.
💡 Whether you choose All In One SEO or Yoast for your SEO needs, if you’d like a more in-depth explanation of how to set them up, we have a full tutorial on how to set up Yoast, as well as a guide on how to set up All In One SEO.
Final verdict: which is better? 🧑⚖️
With All In One SEO vs Yoast SEO, we have a clear tie on our hands. The free versions of both plugins are nearly identical in terms of functionality, keyword and content optimization, and ease of use.
Your choice of what SEO plugin to use will probably depend on your preferred interface. For example, you might prefer the All In One SEO numerical scores versus Yoast’s lights system. However, if you want to learn more about SEO and how to use keywords effectively on your site, Yoast SEO might be the better option for you.
When it comes to the premium versions of both plugins, there are more differences between them. But, for how most people use WordPress SEO plugins, Yoast SEO and All In One SEO are functionally identical.
To see some other great options, you can check out our full roundup of the best WordPress SEO plugins, as well as the best free SEO tools for WordPress sites.
Do you have any questions about All In One SEO or Yoast SEO? Let us know in the comments section below!
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