WordPress SEO

Plugin comparisons and the parts of WordPress SEO that plugins cannot fix for you.

10 articles

Rank Math vs Yoast: the WordPress SEO plugin question, answered properly
Rank Math and Yoast SEO compared on free-tier features, Premium pricing, schema support and the migration risk nobody mentions — with a clear recommendation for each type of site.
6 min read
Rank Math vs All in One SEO: feature depth against site-count licensing
Rank Math and All in One SEO compared on free tiers, licence models, local SEO and agency economics — including why AIOSEO’s headline prices are anchored against a higher number.
5 min read
Yoast vs All in One SEO: two old rivals, honestly compared
Yoast SEO and All in One SEO compared on price, bundled features, local SEO and support — with a straight answer on which suits a single business site versus an agency portfolio.
5 min read
Rank Math vs Yoast vs AIOSEO: the three-way WordPress SEO comparison
All three major WordPress SEO plugins on one table — free tiers, licence models, cost per site and where each one is genuinely the right answer.
5 min read
The best WordPress SEO plugins, and how little the choice matters
The WordPress SEO plugins worth installing, compared on free tiers and real pricing — plus a frank assessment of how much of your SEO outcome the plugin actually controls.
4 min read
Is Yoast Premium worth it? A feature-by-feature answer
What Yoast Premium adds over the free plugin at $118.80/year ex VAT, which features genuinely justify it, and when the free version is all you need.
3 min read
Rank Math free vs PRO: what you actually get for €95.88 a year
What Rank Math PRO adds over the unusually generous free version, who genuinely needs it, and why most single-site owners can stay on free indefinitely.
3 min read
Do you actually need a WordPress SEO plugin?
What an SEO plugin genuinely does that WordPress does not, whether a modern theme covers it, and the honest answer for a small site.
4 min read
WordPress SEO plugin vs hand-coded SEO: convenience against control
When a plugin is the right answer, when hand-coding your SEO tags gives you control worth having, and why the choice is really about who maintains the site.
4 min read
WordPress vs Next.js for SEO: does the platform actually matter?
Whether your platform choice affects SEO outcomes, what each one makes easy or hard, and why the answer is usually about your team rather than the technology.
4 min read

RankBrain AI

Is RankBrain AI a good fit for your workflow?

If you have findings to implement and access to your site’s code, an editor-based workflow may help you turn those findings into changes you can review. If your main need is backlink research, historical rank tracking or client reporting, a dedicated data tool may be a better fit.

RankBrain AI connects SEO guidance to Claude Code, Cursor or Codex in your editor. With the relevant file access and tools configured, your assistant can inspect templates and propose code changes. You review the diff, test it and decide what to ship. This is implementation support, not a guarantee of rankings or a replacement for specialist datasets.

A good fit: you use an AI coding assistant and want SEO guidance alongside the files you maintain. Not a good fit: you need a managed service or a standalone backlink and historical ranking database.

Do it yourself — free

You own the site and the repo, so you already have what you need. Point your AI coding tool at the codebase, work through the fixes in this article, and pay nobody. Most of what is written here is method, and the method is free.

Consider RankBrain AI — $5/month

The hosted corpus gives your assistant a shared reference for SEO implementation. Check its advice against current documentation and your own tests. Flat $5/month, no seats, 3-day trial. Use the trial to see whether it helps with a real task in your workflow.

Check my site free See how it works

We make this, so weigh the comparisons accordingly — and check them against the capability tables, where we sit on the same rubric as everyone else. We have no backlink index and no historical rank data, and we say so there.