WordPress SEO
Yoast SEO: what it does, what it costs
The default WordPress SEO plugin, and the one that set the conventions.
Yoast SEO at a glance
Every row is a verified field or an honest absence. A row is dropped rather than filled with an em dash, so the length of this table says how complete the record is.
| What it is | The default WordPress SEO plugin, and the one that set the conventions. |
|---|---|
| Category | WordPress SEO |
| Best suited for | Writers and editors who need guidance in the editor as they draft |
| Starting price | Free plugin; Premium $118.80/year ex VAT |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | None offered |
| Main strength | The best in-editor content and readability analysis of any WordPress SEO plugin |
| Main limitation | The most expensive of the four major plugins, and priced per site per year |
| Evidence | Primary-source researched |
| Closest alternatives | Rank Math, SEOPress, All in One SEO |
| Pricing checked | 19 August 2026 |
| Record checked | 19 August 2026 |
What Yoast SEO is
Yoast SEO is the plugin most WordPress sites already have. It handles the mechanics — titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, XML sitemaps, schema, breadcrumbs, robots directives — and its lasting contribution is the editor sidebar: the traffic-light content and readability analysis that taught a generation of writers what an SEO check even looks like.
That analysis is still the best reason to choose it. Premium adds real-time content analysis, internal linking suggestions, redirect automation, unlimited AI title and description generation, and an llms.txt feature aimed at AI crawlers. The onboarding is the gentlest in the category, which matters when the person maintaining the site is not an SEO.
Where it costs you is money and scope. In July 2025 Yoast collapsed ten separate plans into two subscriptions, which is simpler but not cheaper — Premium is a per-site annual fee well above every direct competitor, and WooCommerce SEO is a separate, higher-priced product rather than a feature of Premium.
What you can use it for
- Control titles, meta descriptions, canonicals and sitemaps on a WordPress site
- Guide writers with in-editor content and readability analysis as they draft
- Get internal link suggestions and automatic redirects when URLs change
- Publish schema markup without hand-writing JSON-LD
The features that matter for SEO
Each one says what it does and the SEO job it serves. A vendor feature list without that second half tells you nothing you could not read on their own site.
Content and readability analysis
Scores a draft in the editor against a focus keyphrase and flags readability problems as you type.
The best implementation of this in the category, and the reason non-specialists get anything right. It teaches while it checks.
The green light measures adherence to Yoast's checklist, not quality or ranking likelihood. Writers optimising for the light produce worse copy.
Schema and structured data
Builds a connected schema graph for the site — organisation, person, article, breadcrumb — automatically.
Yoast's graph approach connects the nodes rather than emitting disconnected blocks, which is what makes an entity resolvable.
Internal linking suggestions
Suggests relevant internal links while you write, from your own content.
The cheapest ranking gain on an established site, offered at the moment you are able to act on it.
Premium only.
Redirect manager
Creates a redirect automatically when a URL changes or a post is deleted.
Prevents the most common self-inflicted SEO wound on WordPress — a slug edit that silently 404s an indexed page.
Premium only.
llms.txt
Generates an llms.txt file describing the site for AI crawlers.
An early, low-cost bet on assistant discovery. Cheap to publish and harmless if the convention does not stick.
Crawl optimisation settings
Removes WordPress's unnecessary URLs and feeds from what search engines crawl.
On a large site, cutting the low-value URL surface is one of the few crawl-budget levers a plugin can pull.
Premium only.
Pricing and limits
Starting price: Free plugin; Premium $118.80/year ex VAT Checked 19 August 2026 Vendor’s own pricing page
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Yoast SEO (free) | $0 /mo |
|
| Yoast SEO Premium | $118.80 /year | Ex VAT. Per site, renewed annually.
|
| Yoast WooCommerce SEO | $178.80 /year | Ex VAT. Includes everything in Premium and adds product-page SEO — AI product titles and descriptions, and SEO analysis tailored to product pages. |
| AI brand visibility tier | $358.80 /year | Ex VAT. The shop's top tier, adding brand visibility and reputation monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. Its product name was not captured in this check, so it is described here by the contents the shop lists. |
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- The best in-editor content and readability analysis of any WordPress SEO plugin
- A connected schema graph rather than disconnected markup blocks
- The gentlest onboarding in the category, which matters for non-specialists
- Enormous install base, so every theme, host and developer already expects it
- Ten former add-on plugins are now included in Premium rather than sold separately
Limitations
- The most expensive of the four major plugins, and priced per site per year
- WooCommerce SEO is a separate $178.80 product, not a Premium feature
- Internal linking, redirects and crawl settings are all Premium-only
- The readability analysis is opinionated to the point of being wrong for technical writing
- Historically heavy, and it adds admin notices and upsells to the WordPress dashboard
Who it is for, and who should skip it
Worth it if
- Writers and editors who need guidance in the editor as they draft
- Sites where the person maintaining SEO is not an SEO specialist
- Anyone who wants the option every WordPress developer already knows
Skip it if
- You run many sites — the per-site annual fee compounds badly
- You need WooCommerce SEO and do not want to buy a second product
- Cost per feature is the deciding factor
Alternatives to Yoast SEO
Each one answers when it is the better choice, which is the only thing a list of competitors is useful for.
- Rank Math Choose it when you want more features for less money, including schema, redirects and 404 monitoring in the free tier.
- SEOPress Choose it when you run several sites — unlimited sites at $149 a year, white-labelled, is a different order of cost.
- All in One SEO Choose it when technical breadth and multi-site licensing matter more than in-editor writing guidance.
Sources and verification
Last verified 19 August 2026 1 day ago
Pricing 19 August 2026 Plans 19 August 2026 Features 19 August 2026
- Yoast pricing and the July 2025 plan change Pricing page verifies pricing, plans checked 19 August 2026
- Yoast SEO Premium product page Official site verifies pricing, features checked 19 August 2026
- Yoast SEO on WordPress.org Store listing verifies availability, pricing checked 19 August 2026
What changed
- 19 August 2026 — Yoast simplified ten WordPress plans into two — Yoast SEO Premium and Yoast WooCommerce SEO — on 1 July 2025. The shop now also lists a third, higher tier adding AI brand visibility; its product name was not captured in this check and is recorded by its contents.
Questions
Is the free version of Yoast SEO enough?
For a small site, largely yes — titles, meta descriptions, canonicals, sitemaps, schema and basic content analysis are all in the free plugin. What you give up is internal linking suggestions, the redirect manager and crawl optimisation, and the redirect manager is the one that prevents real damage when URLs change.
How much does Yoast SEO Premium cost?
$118.80 a year ex VAT per site, verified on 19 August 2026. Yoast WooCommerce SEO, which includes everything in Premium plus product-page features, is $178.80 a year.
Yoast or Rank Math?
Yoast for in-editor writing guidance and for being the option every developer and host already knows. Rank Math for more features per pound, including schema, redirects and 404 monitoring in its free tier. If you run several sites, SEOPress at $149 a year for unlimited sites undercuts both.