PageSpeeds For All in One SEO vs Yoast vs Rank Math vs No SEO Plugin
I have received a few PM's lately from members, to do with Page Speed, and whether to choose the All in One SEO WordPress plugin, the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin, the Rank Math SEO WordPress plugin, or to install No SEO plugin at all for their WordPress website.
This post will look purely at the Page Speed as per Google's PageSpeed Insights tool, to help dismiss any myths out there, as to which plugin is the fastest, or whether a particular SEO plugin will slow your website down.
The Baseline
To make these tests as fair as possible, I created four (4) brand new websites, using the Wealthy Affiliate SiteRubix Hosting Platform.
All of the websites are running WordPress version 5.5.3.
I then installed the GeneratePress free WordPress Theme, and deleted all of the pre-installed themes, except for the default TwentyTwenty WordPress Theme.
I also deactivated and deleted all of the pre-installed plugins, including the Classic Editor WordPress Plugin, and the Kraken WordPress Plugin.
Once the themes and plugins had been deleted, I then proceeded to install and activate the appropriate WordPress SEO Plugin for each of the test websites.
After the WordPress websites were configured with their themes and plugins, I then created a New WordPress Post with identical Titles and Content. The content used is the typical Lorem Ipsum text, and I created a post containing 1000 words over 11 paragraphs.
There was no further configuration done of the core WordPress settings, the theme customisation settings, the plugin settings, and no images were added to the website or post.
I logged out of all four (4) websites, then headed to the Wealthy Affiliate SiteManager, and to the SitePlus+ settings, so that I could clear the server cache.
Once the server cache was cleared, I visited each of the websites home pages, followed by pressing the Ctrl + F5 keys to force a refresh of the page. I then did the same process for the test posts that were created.
The Testing
Now that the websites are created, I visited the Google PageSpeed Insights website, and performed a test on the new post containing the 1000 words.
I took a screenshot of the results, then proceeded to perform the test for a second time, where I also took a screenshot.
The four (4) websites being tested, should you want to perform your own tests on them, are as follows:
- Test Site Using No SEO - noseotestsite.siterubix.com
- Test Site Using All in One SEO - aioseotestsite.siterubix.com
- Test Site Using Rank Math - rankmathtestsite.siterubix.com
- Test Site Using Yoast - yoasttestsite.siterubix.com
I'm well aware of the SPAM is a NO NO Rules, and this is NOT Self Promotion, and is provided to you for testing purposes ONLY. There is no other content or links on these brand new websites, and no reference back to myself at all.
The Results
Test Site Using No SEO - Test 1
Test Site Using No SEO - Test 2
Test Site Using All in One SEO - Test 1
Test Site Using All in One SEO - Test 2
Test Site Using Rank Math - Test 1
Test Site Using Rank Math - Test 2
Test Site Using Yoast - Test 1
Test Site Using Yoast - Test 2
Test Summary
If the images are hard to see the results, here is a text breakdown of the results.
No SEO Plugin - Test 1
- Mobile Score - 92
- First Contentful Paint - 2.5s
- Speed Index - 2.6s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 2.5s
- Time to Interactive - 2.5s
- Total Blocking Time - 310ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
No SEO Plugin - Test 2
- Mobile Score - 99
- First Contentful Paint - 1.7s
- Speed Index - 2.2s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 1.9s
- Time to Interactive - 1.7s
- Total Blocking Time - 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
All in One SEO Plugin - Test 1
- Mobile Score - 75
- First Contentful Paint - 1.5s
- Speed Index - 2.1s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 1.6s
- Time to Interactive - 3.3s
- Total Blocking Time - 1550ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
All in One SEO Plugin - Test 2
- Mobile Score - 99
- First Contentful Paint - 1.7s
- Speed Index - 2.3s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 1.9s
- Time to Interactive - 1.7s
- Total Blocking Time - 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
Rank Math SEO Plugin - Test 1
- Mobile Score - 96
- First Contentful Paint - 2.0s
- Speed Index - 4.0s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 2.0s
- Time to Interactive - 2.0s
- Total Blocking Time - 120ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
Rank Math SEO Plugin - Test 2
- Mobile Score - 99
- First Contentful Paint - 1.7s
- Speed Index - 2.2s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 1.7s
- Time to Interactive - 1.7s
- Total Blocking Time - 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
Yoast SEO Plugin - Test 1
- Mobile Score - 99
- First Contentful Paint - 1.5s
- Speed Index - 2.5s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 1.6s
- Time to Interactive - 2.1s
- Total Blocking Time - 180ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
Yoast SEO Plugin - Test 2
- Mobile Score - 99
- First Contentful Paint - 1.7s
- Speed Index - 2.2s
- Largest Contentful Paint - 1.9s
- Time to Interactive - 1.7s
- Total Blocking Time - 0ms
- Cumulative Layout Shift - 0
Test Conclusion
If you base the results purely on the Page Speed results that you see above, and only looking at the second test of each website, it is very clear that none of these three most popular WordPress SEO Plugins will slow your website down.
However, looking at the first test for each website, the Yoast plugin performs better, and the All in One SEO plugin is rather slow, in comparison, due to the blocking time.
It's obviously not advisable to have no SEO plugin at all, and this was only included so that you could clearly see the differences.
The No SEO Plugin test contains no plugins at all, and only the two WordPress themes, but it does contain an average sized post of 1000 words. This is a good baseline test to show that even with no additional plugins etc, that the results still differ between test 1 and test 2.
The choice of plugin is, therefore, down to personal preference, and you don't need to worry about the speed or the impact that it will have on your website.
I hope this analysis post was useful and helps you with your decision-making process. But please bear in mind, that these results were only focusing on the speed and performance impact of your WordPress website. I have not covered the usability, features or benefits of each plugin.
If you have been following me for a while now, you will know what my preference is, but I would love to hear from you about your thoughts and findings with these three (3) WordPress SEO Plugins.
Feel free to share these below in the comments section.
Recent Comments
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This is such great work Chrystopher. My heartiest compliments for a great test.
I use Rank Math, obviously from the point of view of SEO, and I think it does it's job well. The findings from your unique test on the Wealthy Affiliate hosting platform further confirms that speed is not too adversely affected by any of these plugins. However, Yoast and RankMath seem to perform better than All in One SEO.
I will wait for a comparison between these plugins from the SEO point of view. It does so happen that the plugin one uses tends to cloud our judgment towards that plugin. So maybe an unbiased comparison is called for. Any takers?
Similarly, we also do need a comparison between Jaaxy, Moz, SEMrush, and GTMetrix. Will someone knowledgeable take it on?
Great PageSpeed test Chrys. You are our Bill Gates, minus all his failings, of course.
Regards,
Aparna
You're welcome Aparna :-) I'll consider and look into the other suggestions you mention, although, it will be a complex test to undertake, as it will involve Google. There are many pros and cons for using the different SEO plugins, there is no right or wrong answer, as it comes down to personal preference, as well as the type of website.
Hi Chrys, that's a great post as usual.
I'm just wondering how All in one SEO can move from 75 to 99!
I'm actually using All in one, and I'm pretty good with it. My speed on mobile is 79, and 92 on Computer.
Maybe if I have Yoast I'll have a 99 on both lol
You're welcome Warren :-) And don't worry too much about the 1st test results, it's the 2nd test that matters. The conclusion proves that it doesn't matter which SEO plugin you install, none of them will slow your site down.
When I heard of Rank math , few months back ,changed from Yoast to it ,due the fact they have features for free while Yoast charge you for it. What I thought your tests confirm, and you simply need an SEO plugin, it gives you some basic understanding of SEO.
Thanks for the share, Chrystopher " Batman with an S" :-)
You're welcome Luc :-) Having an SEO plugin really does help, and this test confirms that none of these plugins will slow your website down :-)
Thank you for your detailed analysis and test breakdowns. I'm not super Techy and I have been curious about the plug-ins and how they affect my site speed. I have a couple of questions though.
1. How do images and links affect the speeds and does one platform do better than the others for posts that have them? I don't know about others, but I don't think I will ever be posting a 1000 word post without images and links.
2. What about the speeds on mobile sites? When I checked my site speeds, they looked good on desktop but not good at all on mobile.
Thanks again for your insight and information Chrystopher! You are always a huge help!
You're welcome Tom :-)
When you mention "platform", what exactly are you referring to here?
If the images are not optimised, and if they are not deferred (lazy loaded), then yes, these will slow your website down.
You need to use the correct dimensions, and file formats, to help with the optimisation.
The results are all for Mobile, and not for Desktop. Using Google's PageSpeed Insights tool, it will let you know where your issues are.
If you want to run a few of your posts through the tests, along with taking screenshots, and creating a community question here, feel free to PM the link if you would like me to take a look and provide some advice.
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Hey Chrystopher,
3 years since your post, but I found it incredibly useful! Thanks for this excellent comparison and for taking the time to put this experiment together for other members to benefit from.
I am currently having issues with AIOSEO and am therefore checking out general preferences with other members.
What is your preferred SEO plugin??
Right now, WA is recommending the SEO framework. I am currently using Rank Math.
Kyle's resource Setting Your Website Up for Search Engines (Using The SEO Framework) This question has been marked as needing community input.
Hi - Chrystopher is no longer a member here, so you won't get a direct response.
I personally use Yoast, but only for the internal linking feature, I don't pay attention to any scores or suggestions.
Hey Diane, thanks for the update/headsup on Chystopher no longer being a member. I gathered it might be a long-shot, being that his post was 3 years ago.
I've been reviewing Rank Math and Yoast, still undetermined which way to go atm.
I'm new to this website malarky, so a lot of this is way over my head, but I'm trying to learn.
I haven't been too bothered about SEO or rankings much, as I've listened to all the advice on live chat and have just gotten my head down and focused on my content. I've got lots of (I think) quality content on, informative, speaking to people, not bots, I've been disciplined about my alt tag information, trying to ensure I have ticked all boxes etc.
Then I checked google search console, which I haven't been doing, as I have read not to be too focused on that and it's telling me 281 of my posts are not indexed. Well, I don't have 281 posts... But looking harder, deeper, it's images that are noindexed.
I've just spent my morning trying to find a 'tick' box on AIOSEO to make my images indexed, but cannot find this.
I'm guessing it must be in the pro version, but I don't like that my hand is being forced to upgrade for something that surely is basic.
Hence trying to find another SEO plugin that doesn't noindex my images nor allow me to have some control over that. Make sense?
Thanks for your input and thoughts on Yoast, much appreciated.
Cherie :o)
Hey Abie,
Thanks for this training resource.
I understood that Kyle/Carson had previously recommended AIOSEO, so I will have a look at The SEO Framework and see how I feel about this one.
Much appreciated.
Cherie :o)
Yeah no problem :)