If you have been doing SEO on WordPress sites you have probably come across the Yoast SEO plugin.
Teemu Kinos, GetJenny’s CEO:
Is rankshaper similar to Yoast SEO?
Yes and no.
The big differences
Rankshaper finds keywords for you
rankshaper uses actual search data from google, with yoast you have to kind of know which keywords you want to target.
Plugin vs Stand-alone
Rankshaper is (currently) a standalone tool, that can work with any website, not limited to WordPress
Optimize for 100s of keywords
with rankshaper you can optimize pages for 100s of keywords
Similarities
On-page optimization
Both tools are for optimizing on-page. They help you optimize your content
Both are great
If you have a WordPress site, definitely try Yoast.
Yoast SEO Plugin & The Alternative For All Website Types
When it comes to any website, it’s ranking in search engines is the most important factor to how well it does. Websites exist to attract visitors to your products, services and message and you only succeed in this mission to the degree that your website is able to attract visitors. On the hand, potential visitors are using search engines to find solutions to their needs in the form of products or services or general information so being found high in search engines is critical. If you didn’t care about your website’s search ranking I hope this illustration makes it clear.
So how do you get better search ranking? In a nutshell, through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is a set of tools and techniques that allow you to optimize your website so that search engines place you higher than your competitors. In this article we’ll look at one of the popular tools on the WordPress platform that allows you to optimize your website and that is Yoast SEO plugin. If you don’t have a WordPress website, I have an excellent Yoast SEO alternative that I’d like to share with you.
Intoduction To Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO plugin is the most popular SEO plugin on WordPress. WordPress is a website builder, much like Drupal or Joomla and all these builders are usually referred to as Content Management Systems (CMS). In the WordPress world, Yoast has been download and installed on WordPress websites millions of times over and it’s easy to see why. Here are the top 4 reasons why people prefer Yoast SEO plugin to other plugins out there:
Comprehensive SEO Tool
Yoast SEO tool isn’t just a one-feature only plugin. The team behind Yoast plugin has provided a whole toolset to help website owners and digital marketers be able to optimize the various aspects of site optimization. When it comes to SEO, it’s better to stick to fewer tools that provide you more benefits than to use dozens of tools because in using too many tools you may be undoing your efforts without knowing it.
Easy To Use
Many SEO tools that I’ve reviewed may be comprehensive but are also very hard to use. The SEO tools that I’ve tested in the past use a lot of jargon that you have to search for the meaning before you are able to understand how it works. Yoast SEO makes it a breeze to use. First, it’s free (and not a trial period kind of free) and you can install in in any self-hosted WordPress website. When you install it, you’ll have a step-by-step customization wizard that will take you through setting up all the important parts of the plugin to ensure that you’re good to go from that point on.
Fine Control Over Titles & Descriptions
The other great thing about this plugin is that it not only takes care of the general settings as far as websites are concerned but also gives you the controls at the page and post level. You’re able to customize the pages by adding the appropriate titles and descriptions to your pages ad this information will show up on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). At the page level, Yoast SEO will guide you in optimizing content around a keyword which becomes the focus keyword of the page. Lastly, Yoast will scan your page content to make sure that you’ve used your focus keyword enough times in your page’s titles and copy so you can rank for that keyword.
Sitemap Generation
Lastly, Yoast SEO helps you generate a sitemap that is available for search engines to read and can also be submitted manually to search engine consoles such as the Google Search Console. As you know, sitemaps allow you search engines to crawl your website more logically and to better understand the navigation of your website which will result in you being indexed correctly.
Yoast SEO Alternative To All Other Websites
While Yoast SEO does a marvelous job on WordPress websites, it’s limited to only WordPress websites. What about other websites that are not built on WordPress. Well, I have some good news for you! The Yoast SEO plugin alternative for websites built on Drupal, Joomla, Magento or any other custom website is Rankshaper. Rankshaper is an SEO tool that offers the same benefits as Yoast plugin and much more. Here are some key features of Rankshaper that you’ll find very appealing:
Better Keyword Research
Finding the right keywords to reach your potential audience can be a challenge. Rankshaper shows you exactly what keywords to use in order to reach your target audience. While you may know what keywords you want to use, Rankshaper will help you identify keyword opportunities that your target audience is using but you may have missed in your keyword research.
Simpler Analytics
If you’ve ever used Google Analytics, you know how frustrating it is to understand the data being presented. Rankshaper takes away the guesswork by providing you with a simpler dashboard and charts to help you understand the important metrics about your traffic. By understanding these metrics you can make better decisions about your next SEO move.
Quality Improvement Suggestions
The best part about Rankshaper is that it’ll show you opportunities that can greatly improve your search ranking. Sometimes having data isn’t enough. Much of the data collected by SEO analytics tools can only tell you what happened. Having improvement suggestions for the future will help you stand out from your competition which is why you should be using Rankshaper. Rankshaper will dig into your Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) to find you creative ways to use keywords and other elements for higher ranking.
Conclusion
Yoast SEO plugin has proven itself among the millions of WordPress website owners. It is comprehensive, easy to use and gives you much more control over your content optimization efforts. Rankshaper is the Yoast SEO alternative that gives you the same level of control over non-WordPress websites. It is the Yoast SEO of Drupal, The Yoast SEO of Joomla and indeed the Yoast SEO of Magento.
