The alphabetic list of plugins comes to an end today, and which other plugin could be here than Yoast SEO? It is like a “low-hanging fruit” of plugin choices, at least for me.

What does Yoast SEO do?

I don’t know how many of you really don’t know what it does. It is the most actively used SEO plugin and one of only three plugins in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory with 10+ million active installations. You could always argue, that not every website needs an SEO plugin, WordPress itself does many things right without additional plugins, but if you want to use one Yoast SEO offers everything essential you need. There is also a premium version and many clients from the agency I work for use it, but I’m not using it myself, so I can’t really tell you too much about it.

Why do I use Yoast SEO?

It just works best for me. When you get used to one (complex) plugin and you know how to configure it, it’s hard to switch to a different one. On one page, I’ve tried a different popular SEO plugin, but it didn’t work for me. Some people say that Yoast SEO is “bloated” and that it adds too much to the admin interface. I’d say the opposite is true. That other popular SEO plugin was injecting buttons, options, panels, etc. everywhere across the editor and backend. Especially, all these “fancy AI features” and the need for an external account were quite annoying.

I also have to admit that I don’t do too much SEO for my blog posts. I need the basics, and Yoast SEO has me covered there. I don’t try to get “all green lights” in the Block Editor panel. Being able to customize some aspects of a blog post, like using an alternative title, social media image, etc. are all features I have never used. Sure, my blog could probably rank a little (or a lot) better, if I spent more time on SEO, but I enjoy writing content a lot more.

One last, and also major, reason I like about Yoast SEO, are the wonderful people of the Yoast team. It’s always fun to hang out with them at a WordCamp, visiting their booth, or even attending some parties with them. For me, the community part of some companies is also a factor on which plugin I would choose.

Conclusion

For me, Yoast SEO “just works”, and that’s all I need. But how about you? Do you use a different SEO plugin? Have you switched from Yoast SEO to this other plugin? Then what made you switch?