14 Reasons Why We Switched From Yoast to All in One SEO

We switched WPBeginner from Yoast SEO to All in One SEO in November 2021. Five years later, we reviewed both plugins again to make sure these reasons still hold as AI search becomes more common.

If you’re still deciding between Yoast SEO and All in One SEO, here are the reasons our team still chooses AIOSEO in 2026.

Why Use All in One SEO for WordPress?

When we launched WPBeginner in 2009, we used All in One SEO because it was the original WordPress SEO plugin. A few years later, we switched to Yoast SEO after it introduced several innovative features.

As our site grew, we needed more control over XML sitemaps, schema markup, and other advanced SEO features that Yoast didn’t offer at the time.

In 2020, our founder, Syed Balkhi, acquired All in One SEO. The development team rebuilt the plugin from the ground up and added many powerful SEO features.

After extensive testing, we switched WPBeginner back to All in One SEO in November 2021. You can get all the details in our complete AIOSEO review.

Since then, both plugins have continued to improve. Yoast has added AI-generated SEO titles and descriptions, llms.txt support, and crawl optimization settings.

So, before updating this guide, we re-checked every reason on this list, removed the ones where Yoast had caught up, and updated the rest based on our latest testing.

Here are the reasons our team continues to choose All in One SEO for our WordPress websites.

1. AIOSEO Gets Your Site Ready for AI Search (llms.txt & llms-full.txt)

People are increasingly turning to tools like ChatGPT and Claude to find answers, so they don’t have to browse through multiple pages on Google.

As a website owner, you want to make it easier for AI tools to discover, understand, and cite your content in their answers. That’s where llms.txt comes in.

It gives AI tools a curated list of your site’s most important pages.

Both AIOSEO and Yoast can create an llms.txt file, but AIOSEO goes a step further.

Rather than pointing to your pages, llms-full.txt provides their full content in clean Markdown that these platforms can process directly.

This gives them a complete picture of your site without working through each page individually.

If you want more than an llms.txt file and greater control over the content you share with AI tools, AIOSEO is the better option.

2. See Which Brands Win in AI Search With AI Insights

These days, people use ChatGPT and Gemini for brand recommendations, so they don’t have to compare every option themselves.

As a brand owner, you want to know if these platforms recommend you or a competitor when someone asks. That’s where checking your AI search visibility comes in.

Type in a keyword, and you’ll see which brands AI platforms mention for it, along with how each one ranks.

Both AIOSEO and Yoast let you check this, but AIOSEO’s AI Keyword Report is free right now and built right into your WordPress dashboard.

Yoast’s AI Brand Insights does something similar, but it sits behind the separate Yoast SEO AI+ plan, which starts at $358.80 a year.

Each report includes the full AI response and the sources it cited, so you can see exactly why a competitor got picked over you.

AIOSEO has also announced a Brand Tracker feature, so you’ll soon be able to watch this over time instead of checking one keyword at a time.

For checking your brand’s AI visibility without paying anything, AIOSEO is the ideal choice.

3. Search Statistics in Your WordPress Dashboard

As a site owner, you want to see how your site performed in Google Search without logging into Google Search Console. That’s where built-in search reporting comes in.

Once you connect your Search Console account, it pulls your impressions, clicks, average position, and top keywords straight into your WordPress dashboard.

AIOSEO’s Search Statistics, available on the Elite plan, does this. It also includes a Keyword Rank Tracker, so you can watch your rankings change over time, not just see a single snapshot.

Yoast doesn’t have this built in. You’d need to connect Google’s Site Kit plugin separately to see Search Console and Analytics data inside WordPress.

Between the two, only AIOSEO puts this directly inside your WordPress dashboard.

4. Better On-Page SEO Tools

Optimizing a post while you write it usually means switching between your content and a handful of separate SEO tools.

On keyphrase optimization, AIOSEO and Yoast already match. Both let you target multiple keyphrases and pull related keyword suggestions from Semrush without leaving the editor. AIOSEO pulls ahead with a broader set of on-page SEO tools.

As you write, the built-in Headline Analyzer scores your title and suggests ways to make it stronger. AIOSEO can also generate SEO titles and descriptions with AI, alongside the Headline Analyzer’s suggestions.

Dynamic tags let you insert values like the current year or post title, and emojis in your titles help them stand out in results.

For social sharing, built-in Open Graph controls let you customize how a page’s title, description, and thumbnail appear on Facebook and X.

That’s why we lean on AIOSEO. It keeps every one of these tools in one place, not scattered across plugins.

5. Most Comprehensive Schema Markup Support

Schema markup tells search engines and AI platforms exactly what’s on a page, like a recipe, a review, or a product, so they don’t have to guess from the text alone.

Getting this right increases your odds of qualifying for rich results and enhanced search features. Both AIOSEO and Yoast add schema automatically to your content.

Yoast has its interconnected Schema graph, plus a newer Schema Aggregation feature that helps AI platforms understand your site’s structured data more efficiently.

Where AIOSEO stands out is the Custom Schema Generator, which lets you build your own schema from scratch, start from a template, or generate one with AI.

Once it’s ready, you can save it, apply it anywhere on your site, and validate it before publishing.

The real difference is control. Yoast’s schema upgrades help AI understand what’s already on your site. AIOSEO lets you build new schema types from scratch and validate them.

6. The Link Assistant Tool

Finding places to add internal links across a large site usually means customizing old posts one by one.

Yoast Premium suggests relevant links inside the post editor when you’re writing, but AIOSEO’s Link Assistant, available on Pro and higher plans, goes a step further.

It scans your content and shows internal linking opportunities, orphaned posts, and your site’s overall link structure, all from one dashboard.

You can review its suggestions and add links with a single click, without opening each post in the editor. AIOSEO fixes links across your whole site, not just one post at a time.

7. Monitor and Undo SEO Changes With SEO Revisions

A small SEO title change can quietly hurt your rankings, and it’s highly unlikely to notice the reason that causes it.

While WordPress keeps revisions for your content, it doesn’t track SEO settings separately. Yoast doesn’t offer a dedicated tool for tracking these changes either.

AIOSEO’s SEO Revisions lets you track changes to SEO titles, meta descriptions, and other settings. You can compare versions, restore an earlier one, and add notes explaining each change.

Each revision shows who made the change and when. You can keep 15 revisions on the Plus plan, 30 on Pro, or unlimited on Elite.

We use it to test new titles and meta descriptions. If a change doesn’t help, we simply roll back to the earlier version.

8. Redirect Broken Links and Monitor 404 Errors

Moving or renaming a page breaks its old URL, and anyone who clicks that old link hits a 404 error page.

Both Yoast SEO Premium’s and AIOSEO’s Redirection Manager, available on the Basic plan, let you fix these by creating a redirect to the right page.

However, Yoast SEO Premium ($118.80/year) doesn’t log 404 errors or offer full-site redirects.

This is where AIOSEO takes the upper hand. Its 404 Logs track broken URLs, show how often visitors encounter them, and help you redirect visitors to the pages they’re looking for.

If you’re moving to a new domain, Full Site Redirects handle your entire site at once without creating a separate rule for every page.

9. More Flexible XML Sitemap Controls

Search engines rely on your sitemap to find every page on your site, especially ones with no internal links pointing to them.

Both AIOSEO and Yoast can automatically generate XML sitemaps, RSS sitemaps, and specialized News and Video sitemaps, available with AIOSEO Pro and Yoast SEO Premium.

AIOSEO gives you more control over what’s included. You can add or remove individual posts, pages, post types, and taxonomies in a few clicks.

You can add standalone landing pages and other URLs that aren’t part of your regular WordPress content.

AIOSEO also includes Crawl Cleanup tools to cut down on unnecessary crawling of low-value URLs and RSS feeds.

While Yoast SEO now includes crawl optimization settings, AIOSEO offers more granular controls over your crawl behavior.

10. Automate Image SEO

Every image you upload needs a title, alt text, and a caption. Writing all three by hand for a large media library takes a lot of time.

While Yoast SEO only checks for images that are missing alt text, AIOSEO generates image titles, alt text, captions, and descriptions automatically, using formats you can customize.

You can use AI to bulk-generate these same attributes for images already in your Media Library.

11. Run a Sitewide SEO Audit

A site built over several years can accumulate SEO problems.

Yoast SEO’s Dashboard and SEO Workouts help you optimize content and track SEO tasks, but neither audits your whole site at once.

AIOSEO’s built-in SEO Analyzer does, without you ever leaving WordPress.

It scans for common SEO issues and gives you an overall score, with practical recommendations for fixing what it finds.

The audit covers your SEO titles, meta descriptions, headings, images, internal links, canonical URLs, robots.txt file, and schema markup.

Run this same audit on any website you choose to see how your site compares to competitors.

12. Build Stronger Author Profiles

When an AI tool cites a source, it’s making a quick judgment about who wrote it and how much to trust them.

Search engines make the same judgment, so showing who wrote your content and why they’re qualified matters more than it used to.

While Yoast SEO includes author archive settings, it doesn’t offer a dedicated Author SEO feature for building E-E-A-T profiles or reviewer information.

We have used AIOSEO’s Author SEO feature to create profiles based on Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

We added our job titles, employer, education, areas of expertise, a biography, and social profiles.

AIOSEO also lets you display author bios on your posts, and assigning a reviewer shows readers that another expert checked the content.

This gives you more control over how that credibility shows up on your site.

13. Beginner-Friendly User Experience

Getting an SEO plugin set up correctly can be confusing if you’ve never done it before.

AIOSEO’s setup wizard walks you through the essential settings, including your site type, homepage metadata, XML sitemaps, and search appearance.

After setup, AIOSEO organizes its features into clearly labeled sections. You can find a setting without hunting for it.

The admin area stays focused on SEO tasks, with little to no promotional notices depending on your plan.

Yoast SEO includes a helpful first-time configuration process and a well-organized settings area.

However, some independent reviewers have noted that its interface can feel cluttered with promotional notices, especially on the free version.

14. Control Who Can Access SEO Features

Not every team member needs full access to your settings, only the parts relevant to their role.

Both AIOSEO and Yoast include SEO Manager and SEO Editor roles. However, Yoast’s are fixed, with a set list of permissions you can’t adjust.

AIOSEO gives you much more freedom here.

On the Basic plan and higher, it lets you toggle access to individual features, such as SEO settings, redirects, sitemaps, schema, and Link Assistant, for any role.

This keeps sensitive SEO settings protected while still letting editors, writers, and SEO specialists work on only the parts they need.

If you need that level of control with Yoast, you’ll need an additional role management plugin or custom code.

How to Switch From Any WordPress SEO Plugin to All in One SEO

Switching to All in One SEO is straightforward. First, install and activate the plugin on your WordPress website.

If you need help, you can follow our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After activation, AIOSEO automatically launches its setup wizard. It detects supported SEO plugins, including Yoast SEO and Rank Math, and offers to import your existing SEO data.

AIOSEO imports your SEO titles, meta descriptions, focus keywords, and other supported settings, so you can switch without rebuilding your SEO configuration.

Once the import is complete, you can safely deactivate and delete your previous SEO plugin to avoid conflicts.

If you ever need to import your SEO data again, go to All in One SEO » Tools » Import/Export and run the importer manually.

Frequently Asked Questions About Yoast vs. AIOSEO

Which is better, Yoast SEO or All in One SEO?

Both Yoast SEO and All in One SEO are excellent WordPress SEO plugins. They can help you optimize your website, improve your rankings, and attract more search traffic.

We switched to All in One SEO because it offers a broader set of built-in SEO tools, including AI-powered features, advanced schema markup, Link Assistant, SEO Revisions, Author SEO, and a built-in site audit.

These features reduced our reliance on additional plugins and made it easier to manage SEO from one place.

Will I lose my SEO settings if I switch from Yoast SEO to All in One SEO?

No. All in One SEO can automatically import your existing SEO data during setup, including your SEO titles, meta descriptions, focus keywords, and other supported settings. This makes it easy to switch without rebuilding your SEO configuration.

Is All in One SEO completely free?

Yes. All in One SEO offers a free version that includes the core SEO features needed to optimize a WordPress website.

If you need advanced features like Link Assistant, Redirection Manager, Author SEO, Image SEO, and advanced schema tools, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the pro plans.

Is Yoast SEO still good?

Yes. Yoast SEO is still one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress and remains a great choice for many websites.

However, after comparing both plugins and using them extensively, we found that All in One SEO offers a more complete feature set, especially for users who want advanced SEO tools built into a single plugin.

How much does All in One SEO cost compared to Yoast SEO?

Both plugins offer free versions, while their premium plans unlock more advanced SEO features.

AIOSEO’s premium plans start at $49.50 per year, while Yoast SEO Premium starts at $118.80 per year for a single site.

The right choice depends on the features you need, but we found AIOSEO provides more built-in SEO tools across its plans, making it a better overall value for many WordPress users.

We hope this article helped explain the reasons why we switched from Yoast to All in One SEO for WordPress. If you’d like to learn more, see our comparison guide of Yoast SEO vs. All in One SEO and our Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners.

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