Overview
Yoast SEO is developed by Yoast, which says its plugin has helped site owners get their content found since 2008. It was listed on WordPress.org in October 2010 and reported 10+ million active installations in November 2026, the largest of any SEO plugin.[2]
The free plugin provides real-time SEO and readability guidance in the editor, Schema.org structured data, XML sitemaps, and title and meta-description templates, and the developer positions it as preparing content for both search engines and AI assistants.[2] Yoast SEO Premium adds AI-driven tools that draft titles and descriptions and handle technical tasks, and the Premium plan includes the Local SEO, News SEO and Video SEO plugins, one seat for the Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on, Yoast SEO Academy and 24/7 support.[1]
Release 28.8 on 27 October 2026 added “Yoast abilities” that let AI agents switch site-wide features such as llms.txt, Open Graph data, the Schema Aggregator and XML sitemaps on or off, support for NLWeb’s Schema Feeds specification, and groundwork for AI alt-text generation in Yoast WooCommerce SEO 17.0.[2] Yoast’s main drawback is cost for multi-site owners, since each Premium subscription covers one site, and the AI-driven tools are reserved for Premium.
Yoast SEO features
- Real-time SEO and readability analysis
- Schema.org structured data
- XML sitemaps
- llms.txt support
- AI agent abilities (28.8)
- Local, News and Video SEO in Premium
- Title and meta-description guidance
- Structured data and schema aggregation
Yoast SEO pricing
Free plugin. Yoast SEO Premium $118.80 per year per site (excluding VAT), including Local, News and Video SEO plugins, one Google Docs add-on seat (extra seats $5 per month each), Academy and 24/7 support. Bulk discounts for multiple subscriptions.
Yoast SEO strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Largest user base and documentation
- Premium bundles Local, News and Video SEO
- Early support for llms.txt and AI agents
- Readability analysis for writers
- Structured data and sitemaps work without configuration
- In-editor guidance aimed at non-specialist writers
Limitations
- Each Premium subscription covers one site
- AI tools reserved for Premium
- Content scoring can encourage formulaic writing
- Premium is licensed per site, so multi-site costs scale linearly
- Extra schema types and the AI-crawler bot blocker are Premium-only
- WordPress only
Appears in
Yoast SEO alternatives and competitors
Alternatives to Yoast SEO: companies ranked in the same lists.
Rank Math SEO- Contact Form 7
SEOPress
Surfer- Clearscope
Serpstat
Seobility
All in One SEO (AIOSEO)
The SEO Framework
Screaming Frog
Slim SEO
Squirrly SEO
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