I'm Ready To Throw Yoast SEO Under The Bus !
I Admit It - Once Upon A Time...
I Fell In Love With Yoast SEO
Early in my WA training - almost 2 years ago - as I was merrily cruising along through the Entrepreneur Certification lessons, I was blinded by the additional bells and whistles of Yoast SEO.
So, I bit the bullet and decided to foresaken All-in-One SEO for the "greener grass on the other side of the fence." After all, Yoast SEO made it oh - so - easy to import all my All-in-One plugin settings.
The advantages of increased scrutiny of my posts and ease of enhancing my SEO to achieve higher Google rankings made partnering with Yoast SEO a match made in heaven.
Pretty Soon - Though,
The Honeymoon Was Over
One day, Yoast SEO kicked me where the sun don't shine - just when I least expected it - before the holidays in 2017. That durn plugin was submitting my media images as URLs in my sitemap - which made Google go absolutely nutso crazy.
Believe me, when I say I have an exhorbitant number of images on my website. And, I was gettings hundreds upon hundreds of 404's because of it. My website stats began dropping like a rock!
I contacted Yoast SEO support - and they said they "were sorry - but, never fear - they had a plugin to fix just that - called, Yoast SEO: Search index purge." I just had to keep it activated for at least 6 months to give it time to force Google to purge all those nasty 404's.
As they promised, all of the 404's were being turned into 410's - slowly - while "the purge" was taking place. I guess 410's were okey dokey but, they still left a bad taste in my mouth.
That was almost a year ago. Here it is - 2019 - and guess what? I still get a few straggler 404's now and then - as well as a few 410's.
Time To Raise The White Flag
I SURRENDER
Now, I'm on the verge of going back home to All-in-One SEO. But, first, I would like to hear your thoughts - before I take this bull by the horns.
Questions
- What would you do? Would you make the switch back?
- Will it be just as easy to import all my Yoast SEO settings back into All-in-One SEO?
- If I do go back, will it cause any issues - especially with Google? (As you can see, I'm a bit antsy about it...)
I will be waiting with baited breath for all the wisdom I can glean from my WA compatriots!
Jim, the Lifelong Gardener
Recent Comments
19
Argh! Nightmare. Sorry you've had these probs.
I tried Yoast back in the day with it's falshing lights :-) and tips on this and that but I found I didn't need them or disageed with them :-).
Glad I stuck with All in One...
Hope you get it sorteed, though.
Ian
Good afternoon Jim,
I cannot say much on this, only pull out the weed. Wishing you all the best.
Greetings from the south of Spain, Taetske
Well, it has to be your decision Bob ...
I don't know what are the causes for all those 404s, but obviously, isn't a plugin-related issue ... YOAST or AIO SEO won't alter your link structure ...
I also know that YOAST has 5 million active installs with more than 23,000 5-star ratings while AIO SEO has 2 million active installs with 300 5-star ratings ...
Personally I'm a YOAST fan ... I think that is more user friendly ...
And I'm pretty sure that those reasons/problems will exist with AIO SEO too ...
One thing I noticed with the "free" Yoast SEO" is that I can not dictate whether or not to include "media attachments" in the sitemap.
But, with All-in-One, that option is available.
Jim
Bob,
I have only been here 6 months and looked at Yoast
when people were talking it up at the beginning of
me starting my websites - at that time I checked it out
but found it not to my liking much - I stuck with the
All In One - and since that time starting about 2 months
ago all I have heard is complaints on it - Glad I stayed
with the All In One!
Thanks for sharing,
Susan
The only thing I liked about Yoast was the content analysis feature. But, that was only relevant when I was still learning how to make my posts SEO and reader friendly.
Now that I don't need this extra crutch - I don't think I want to suffer the thorns on this rose, anymore.
Jim
Sorry to hear about the issues you've been having with Yoast, Jim. You have incredible patience, this would drive me crazy!
I have always used All-In-One SEO for my websites, but now that I have started using Thrive Themes (where they recommend Yoast SEO as their default SEO plugin), I am beginning to become very leery.
In light of what you are experiencing, perhaps I should do an "about face" and defy the default recommendation, and use my previously dependable All-In-One SEO with Thrive Themes, (instead of their default recommendation!)
Kaju
I used to use Yoast and thought it was all the rage but it slowly seemed to decline in quality. Now that I am here and have learned about All-In-One SEO, I am very happy with that and have no plans on changing.
So to answer your first question, yes, I would switch back. As for the other two, I have no idea because I am starting a new site from scratch here with WA and plan on just following along with what they recommend because I can feel confident that it works.
Sorry I couldn't be more help but thanks for sharing. Leaving Yoast was like going from the popular lunch table to the misfits when I was in the blogging world. How could you not like Yoast? Well, I didn't, lol.
I hear ya, Chevelle.
I was born a misfit - and I'll probably die a misfit. So, All-in-One is looking better and better!
Jim
Thanks, for this Jim!
We learn from everyone here, at WA, through their successes, and failures. ...No, I don't think, I'll deviate, from WA, suggestions, at least for now, while verrry green, as yet!
Hope this works out, for you.
Barb
I totally understand your position, Barb.
I haven't quite reached the ranting stage - but, I'm very, very close!
:-)
Jim
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I tried Yoast. Couldn’t get a thing to work right. This surprised me with all of the raving reviews. So my Yoast is under the bus and All-In-One SEO is in play.
All the best to you.
Laura
I hear ya, Laura!
I'm headin' in that direction - soon!
Jim