Whenever we talk about the best SEO WordPress plugin, most of those present usually opt for Yoast SEO.
It is the SEO tool that has dominated the scene for so long that it seemed no other tool would take the number one spot from it.
But guess what?
In smaller circles, there appears to be a relatively newcomer that is steadily growing in popularity. The WordPress tool also comes equipped with the needed SEO features to improve your site’s visibility and possibly web traffic.
I’m talking about Rank Math SEO and this review will reveal to you all you need to know about this WordPress SEO plugin.
After you have gone through this review, I’m certain that you’ll be in a better position to decide which SEO plugin is better for you.
We will begin by covering the main features of the Rank Math SEO plugin plus the exciting benefits to expect. After which we will do a comparison to find out the strengths and weaknesses of Yoast and Rank Math.
Without further ado, let’s set the ball rolling with a brief intro of Rank Math SEO.
Rank Math SEO
The Rank Math SEO plugin is a free WordPress tool that offers an all-in-one solution for optimizing your content. This is the primary reason the Rank Math SEO is often referred to as the “Swiss Army Knife of WordPress SEO”.
At the moment, the Rank Math SEO plugin has been downloaded and installed by more than 500,000 WordPress users. There is a premium version in the works which is being expected in the fall of this year.
The beauty of the Rank Math SEO is loads of positive reviews that it has garnered from current users.
Let’s focus our spotlight on some of those features that users find so amazing about the Rank Math SEO plugin.
Features
1 – User Interface
One of the most important features to look out for when shopping for a new app or WordPress plugin is ease of use. No matter how powerful a software tool is, if it isn’t easy to use, then you’re unlikely to harness the full power of that tool.
The way to determine if a tool is easy to use is to consider the user interface – design, organization, and ease of navigation.
Rank Math scores quite highly in terms of ease of use judging by the well-organized design of its user interface. It is designed in such a way that both new and advanced WordPress users will be able to use the SEO tool without much fuss.
If you choose the “Easy” mode, then Rank Math will work for you as well without the need to fiddle with its settings.
As an advanced user, you can edit the Rank Math settings to suit your particular need or preference. The advanced mode is designed for professional users who want more control over the SEO settings of their sites or blogs.
If you’re a Yoast user, you should already know that Yoast does not present different modes for users. In terms of look and feel, Rank Math offers an elegant and attractive interface that enhances user experience.
Even if you’re a new user, you will be able to find your way around the tool after using it for a couple of minutes.
2 – Content Optimization
If there’s anything you should know about content optimization, it’s that the rules are constantly changing. As users’ needs continue to change, Google also makes constant updates to its algorithm in order to serve better search results.
At the end of the day, content creators have to tweak their content in order to remain relevant to users and search engines.
And so, any content optimization tool is expected to factor in these constant changes in order to provide the right value for users.
Well, Rank Math has promised that it will always make use of the most updated and efficient content optimization techniques on its platform.
3 – XML Sitemap Integration
A sitemap is an essential file that should be found on any websites that require proper search engine indexing. Google, or any other search engine for that matter, will crawl your website by following the links found on it.
In some cases, the search engine crawler may not have crawled through all the pages of a site before leaving that site. This isn’t very good for the site owner since it means that the pages that were “missed” may not be indexed by the search engine.
However, a sitemap helps to prevent that by offering a snapshot of your site’s structure to the crawler. That way, none of the pages on your website will be left out of the crawling or indexing.
Rank Math SEO plugin automatically generates a sitemap for your website each time you make an update or publish a new post. If you would like to, you can generate custom sitemaps which may only include some types of posts or categories of posts.
4 – The Focus Keyword Feature
When we talk about keyword density, the emphasis is on how frequently a particular keyword or phrase appears in your content. It is usually expressed in percentage to show the number of times the keyword or phrase occurred in a piece of content.
A keyword density of 4 means that for every 100 words article, the keyword appeared 4 times. This could also mean that the keyword density for a 1,000 words long article is 40.
There’s actually no set rule for an appropriate keyword density, though content creators are advised to feature their main keywords as much as possible.
SEO tools are usually designed to help content creators manage their keyword density with the Focus Keyword feature. Initially, Rank Math allowed users to assign a maximum of 5 keywords for their content optimization. But in a recent update, the limit has been increased but users need to add a filter to their page editor in order to access it.
5 – Content Optimization Scoring
For content optimization scoring, Rank Math SEO will rank your content from the range of 0 to 100. It displays a green color if your content optimization exceeds 80. That means your target should be getting to the green color and staying there.
The Yoast SEO plugin also displays colors for its content score using green, orange, and red circles.
Unique Features
Most SEO tools contain lots of similar features, although each of these tools also has some unique features.
In this section, we will highlight some of those unique features in the Rank Math SEO plugin.
Unlimited Words to Optimize – What you will find with most SEO tools is a limit on the number of keywords that you can optimize. Rank Math allows you to optimize keywords without any limits, 5 by default but you can increase by adding a filter to your page editor
Google Schema Markup – Rank Math makes it so easy for users to configure Google Schema Markup, aka Rich Snippet. After you have been able to configure the 15+ types of Schema that Rank Math supports, you’ll be able to optimize your posts with a few clicks
Google Keyword Ranking – You will be able to track your keyword rankings on Google with ease using the Rank Math SEO plugin
Integration of Google Search Console – If you have the Rank Math SEO plugin installed on your WordPress site, you’ll find it easier to obtain important SEO metrics. That’s because the Rank Math SEO plugin offers you the tools to integrate Google Search Console with your WordPress site
Local business SEO – The Rank Math SEO plugin is suitable for both global and local businesses around the world. Local businesses can take advantage of Rank Math’s features to drive traffic to their physical offices and stores
Add Overlay Icons on Social Images – This is a Rank Math feature that is designed to fetch you higher social engagement. It allows you to turn social thumbnails into click magnets with the option to overlay GiF or video icon on the thumbnail
Module Based System – The design of the Rank Math SEO plugin follows the module-based system. This makes it possible for individual modules to be enabled or disabled based on needs or preferences. This module-based system also enhances the speed of operation and users’ control
Deep Content Analysis Tests – Rank Math makes it so easy for users to carry out on-page SEO on their WordPress sites. Its deep content analysis helps users analyze their contents while offering accurate SEO suggestions
SEO Optimized Breadcrumbs – Rank Math can enable the display of SEO-optimized breadcrumbs site-wide. This feature works on all WordPress sites even for themes that do not have support for Schema.org coding
Role Manager – This is a feature that appeals to users who are working with a marketing team or group of company staff. It allows you, the Role Manager, to control the access level that each member of your team enjoys
Multisite Ready – Rank Math has support for both the WordPress Multi User project (WPMU) and a single WordPress site, whatever you install your site on
404 Monitor – There’s an in-built 404 monitor that helps Rank Math users in finding and resolving 404 errors to improve user experience.
Rank Math SEO Plugin vs. Yoast SEO Plugin
Now that we’ve covered the unique features of Rank Math, let’s highlight their differences in terms of SEO performance and Plugin performance.
I – SEO Performance
In reality, it is impossible to compare these two tools based on SEO performance, or any other tools for that matter. That’s because each tool is created with unique functions and features to address the unique problems that people are facing.
That said, Rank Math does include a whole lot of features that outnumbers that of Yoast SEO. By implication, this means that Rank Math delivers more in terms of SEO performance (or SEO features).
II – Plugin Performance
In terms of plugin performance, we shift our focus to the speed of the two SEO plugins.
The code for the Rank Math SEO plugin is about one-third the size of the Yoast SEO plugin code. This implies that Rank Math fares better than Yoast in terms of plugin performance.
This is simply because there will be fewer HTTP requests on the Rank Mark SEO plugin than that of the Yoast SEO plugin.
My Verdict
Yoast SEO plugin remains the number one choice when it comes to an SEO tool for WordPress sites, and for good reasons.
It is well-designed, allows users to add a maximum of 5 focus keywords, and offers proven content optimization techniques to users. Also, Yoast SEO offers you the tools to auto-generate a sitemap for your WordPress site.
On the other hand, Rank Math allows you to assign unlimited focus keywords, features more updated content optimization techniques, and offers instant indexing service.
Rank Math has the upper edge in terms of performance, due to its plugin size being one-third that of Yoast SEO. It also includes so many features that will help give your SEO a big boost, and the best of all is that it is free.
Conclusion
What exactly do you look out for in an SEO plugin?
Up until this moment, the Yoast SEO plugin seems to be doing well, with a strong grip on the number one spot for SEO plugins.
Yoast SEO comes with all the needed tools that will give your search engine optimization a boost, or does it?
Most SEO features that are present in Yoast SEO can also be found in Rank Math. In fact, it seems to me that the Rank Math SEO plugin did one better by improving on some of the features of Yoast SEO.
Take for instance the content optimization features of Yoast SEO, Rank Math comes with an updated version that reflects the recent Google algorithm updates.
Right now, you can download and use Rank Math for free, though there are plans to introduce a premium version in the coming months.
The objective of this review is to bring you enough details to help you in making a decision on which SEO plugin to settle for. And I am positive that it has been able to do just that with this comprehensive review of the Rank Math SEO plugin and its comparison with Yoast SEO.
Would you like to learn how SEO plugins work for your WordPress website? Do not hesitate to read my honest review of Wealthy Affiliate.