This is a Yoast SEO premium review. And although I’ve been using the free Yoast SEO plugin ever since it was known as WordPress SEO, I’ve never been a huge fan of its bloated UI. Yet I pondered: is Yoast Premium worth it?
When I recently realized the Yoast Premium upgrade would let me optimize each piece of content for multiple keywords, I was thrilled. That’s a feature I’ve been wanting for years! While doing keyword research, I often find several keywords to target. Typically alternative spellings or long-tail variants of the main keyword.
The thought quickly crossed my mind: “maybe the Yoast premium upgrade is worth it?”
Only one way to find out, so I bought the upgrade, which currently costs 89 USD / 79 EUR (plus VAT if you’re in the EU) per year. Yes, it’s a subscription (isn’t everything, these days?)
Upgrading to Yoast Premium
Upgrading was easy. Or rather: paying for the upgrade, was easy. Installing it wasn’t. Despite reading the documentation, it was far from clear what I had to do.
After completing the payment process, I was sent to the login page… But: I had no login! I didn’t select my own password during checkout, nor had Yoast sent me any login details by email (neither in junk/spam).
So, to log in, I made use of the Forgotten Password feature so I could reset the password I never had. Not a very smooth onboarding process… Still, it was what the help documentation suggested I should do, in order to log in?? Strange!
Anyway, I was now inside the compound. So far so good. Mission still far from accomplished though.
Inside the MyYoast user area, I also had to add my site, and activate the Yoast SEO Premium subscription for it. Sounds a lot easier and more intuitive than it actually was.
Then I had to figure out that I had to download the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, and replace the regular non-premium Yoast SEO plugin with that one. I was looking for a license code in MyYoast, and a place to input it, in WordPress.
There were few directions available. The MyYoast user area is apparently big on selling you their SEO online courses and what not – rather than creating a great, smooth user experience. I do realize that sounds harsh, but I really do think a successful, Dutch company can do a lot better on that front.
Overall, it wasn’t as intuitive and user-friendly as seen with other premium WordPress plugins like Beaver Builder, Elementor, Thrive Architect, Elegant Themes, Social Warfare, et al. All five are miles ahead, UX-wise.
But let’s get on with the review, shall we?
Multiple keywords? A half-assed and half-baked feature
The primary reason for my upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium, was the ability to use multiple focus keywords.
While the plugin did give me that feature, I wasn’t too excited by the its rudimentary implementation.
Can you add multiple focus keywords? Yes.
Does the plugin intelligently take the other focus keywords into account, when optimizing an individual keyword? Nope.
The optimization tips for each focus keyword will ask you to do things you can’t, like use the keyword in your HTML title, preferably at the front – which is clearly not possible, since there’s limited space.
A proper implementation of multiple focus keywords should let us prioritize each keyword, so the plugin knows which one you deem most important, and suggest optimizations accordingly.
In its current incarnation, the multiple keywords feature will help you optimize for multiple keywords, but it fails at simplifying the process.
Simplifying traditionally tedious or complex marketing tasks, should be the highest, most noble goal for ANY marketing tool to solve for (often overwhelmed) marketers.
“Simplifying traditionally tedious or complex marketing tasks, should be the highest, most noble goal for ANY marketing tool to solve for (often overwhelmed) marketers. #digitalmarketing #contentmarketing” quote=”Simplifying traditionally tedious or complex marketing tasks, should be the highest, most noble goal for ANY marketing tool to solve for (often overwhelmed) marketers.”
What you get, is five separate lists of recommendations for optimizing your content. That’s 5 times the work PLUS the overhead from mentally prioritizing the recommendations in relation to each individual keyword.
It’s like a restaurant serving you 3 main courses, when you ordered a 3-course meal. Want a 5-course meal? Yoast will happily serve you 5 main courses. Bon appétit!
What I mean by that analogy, is that the multiple keywords feature in Yoast Premium feels like Yoast & co thought: “Hey! We can offer that feature! Just duplicate the keyword-optimization code 4 times, and voila, the feature’s done!”
A 5-course meal isn’t just 5 main courses, you know?
No multiple keywords overview for posts?
By upgrading to Yoast Premium, I was looking forward to see at-a-glance overview which focus keywords each post is targeting, in WordPress’ All Posts overview.

No luck! The All Posts view displays only ONE focus keyword for each post:

Marketing plugins and services should simplify our work – make it easier. Seeing only one of the keywords a post is targeting somewhat defies the purpose of having multiple keywords to work with.
I wrote the Yoast support team who wrote back affirmatively, yet I couldn’t help feeling it was a standard copy/paste reply:
Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We apologize for the trouble you are experiencing with our plugin. A bug report is currently open with our development team for this issue. We do not have an estimated time for a solution, but we’ll inform you once it’s solved. If you have further information regarding this issue, please let us know.
That can be replied to pretty much any issue, right? And unless it has previously worked the way I expected – it can’t be considered a bug, but rather a half-baked, half-assed implementation. Get to work, Yoasters!
With the above mentioned disappointing shortcomings in mind, I don’t feel the multiple focus keywords feature is worth the upgrade cost of Yoast Premium.
Any other features making Yoast Premium worth it?
Yoast Premium has various other features, such as:
- Google, Facebook and Twitter previews.
- Internal linking suggestions. Get suggestions for links to other content on your website, as you write.
- Content insights. Yoast Premium shows you the 5 words or phrases most used on your page, so you can make sure they match your content’s intended focus.
- Redirect manager. Redirect old URLs to new ones, so you don’t lose visitors because of 404 Not Found error pages.
- CSV Export of your focus keywords and SEO scores.
Whether some of those features are attractive, is up to you. Personally I don’t find them must-have features, only nice to have features.
One other feature of Yoast SEO Premium that did pique my interest, is the Orphaned Content Filter, which shows you the posts and pages to which no links are pointing.
At first, I was excited about the feature and wrote myself a reminder to work my way through those lists, linking to orphaned posts and pages.
Alas, when I sat down to do so, I realized the uselessness of the feature. Most of the posts ARE linked to – from my main blog index. And even more importantly: some of them are my highest ranking posts – receiving lots of traffic. Clearly there’s zero problem. It’s just yet another case of Yoast SEO trying its best to seem indispensable, while in reality it just puts more work on your already heavily burdened marketer-shoulders.
The UI of Yoast SEO is a mess
Frankly speaking, Yoast SEO, the non-premium version of the plugin, already does way too much for its own (and your own) good. It’s bloated and confusing, and the Premium version adds even more features on top of what’s already a bloated and confusing plugin.
New features are constantly added, which doesn’t help its cluttered UI find a warmer corner of my heart.
Do we really need all those features? In my opinion, most users don’t.
Everyone thinks they need an XML Sitemap. Yet, I’ve experimented with having one, and not having one, back and forth, throughout 10+ years, and never found it to make any difference at all – as to how fast or how much Google indexes my site’s content.
XML Sitemaps are mostly useful to huge sites with thousands upon thousands of pages, which aren’t all linked properly to. That is when a sitemap can come in handy.
If I recall correctly, Yoast SEO even activates the XML Sitemaps by default, upon activation of the plugin. Many Yoast SEO users aren’t even aware they have a sitemap, and if they do: they may not know what it does – and more importantly: how to maintain it.
In my experience, a poorly maintained XML Sitemap brings more trouble than gains. Suddenly Google knows about all your categories or tags, secretly published test pages, etc – even though you’ve never linked to them on your site, etc etc.
Sitemaps are just a tiny part of what Yoast SEO does. And just one example of a “must-have” SEO feature that everyone think they should be using – but really don’t have to bother with.
Do we really need such complexity, when there’s SO much on our marketing-plates, already?
And who knows what Google does with all your efforts, anyway. Their algorithm is always changing, and the changes are guarded as fiercely as Fort Knox. It’s a black box, and only Google knows what currently affects your rankings.
Am I saying you shouldn’t write meta descriptions? No, but maybe that’s all you need to be doing, more or less.
Other people may need various features, for their site’s individual needs. And that’s fine. I’m just not sure 5+ million users of Yoast SEO need the equivalent of the world’s most advanced Swiss Army knife?

Scroll scroll scroll your browser…
For its purpose of helping you optimize your posts and pages, I find Yoast SEO’s placement below the content area a cumbersome spot for content optimization advice. Especially if it’s a long post.
It’s a problem because it’s cognitively taxing. You scroll down to see what you can do to improve your post. The Yoast SEO plugin lists multiple improvements. You decide to take its advice of “using the focus keyword in a subheading”.
After you’ve applied that advice, you can rarely remember what the remaining listed suggestions were. Hence you have to scroll back, all the way down there below your post, to see what else you can do.
It’s like working at a large office where the to-do list is mounted on the wall, next to the boss’ desk. That’s ineffective, if you have to walk 30 meters to go there, 20 times every day. Only good thing about that, is the exercise you’ll get.
When using Yoast SEO to optimize your pages and posts, you don’t get exercise: you’re just wasting time. Why not spend it horizontally on the couch then? At least that’s relaxing.
Granted, it’s normal for WordPress plugins to place their meta-boxes as they are called, down there. It’s common practice, I get get that. The thing is: I have used on-page optimization / SEO plugins in the past, that sat neatly to the right of my text, always in plain view, while writing. Scribe SEO (and a two others I can’t remember the names of) spring to mind.
The counterargument would likely be “there’s not enough room for Yoast SEO there.”
My counter-counterargument back would be: case in point! Yoast SEO is indeed bloated and “could lose some weight”.
Concluding my Yoast SEO Premium review
Now, from reading the above, you may think I’m “totally NOT recommending Yoast Premium. To anyone. Ever. At all. Peeeeriod.”
But you’d be mistaken:)
If you’re happily using the free Yoast SEO plugin, and don’t mind paying its annual cost, you should upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium. The added features do add some extra value. If that’s your scenario: go for it.
Me personally? No, I don’t feel the Yoast premium plugin was worth it – for me. In fact: I returned it for a refund. I’m even considering finding an alternative to the free version. Its just not worth it.
What about you? I hope you found this Yoast SEO Premium review useful? Any questions? Feel free to ask or voice your opinion in the comments below!
Angel says
Hello, is your opinion the same in 2022? 🙂
Oliver Nielsen says
Hi Angel
Yes, more than ever.
=)
Oliver
Ian says
Completely agree – This is an excellent article and should be read by anyone considering Yoast – I used it for a year or so (premium) and could see no difference in traffic or page position. My stats have not changed since the deactivation of the plug-in. Many thanks for this superb article – Ian Timothy
Oliver Nielsen says
Thanks for chiming in with your experiences, Ian!
Have a great summer 🙂
Oliver
Brian says
I’ve had the words “Yoast Premium” on my desk notepad for some time now thinking “shall I/shan’t I” and wondering if it’s worth it, when Yoast came up with a special offer. Pay $89 and we’ll throw in for free $400 worth of our courses. That offer is so good it makes you wonder how desperate they must be to sell their product.
What I did find appealing was that Yoast Premium it is said analyses keyword synonyms and plurals but then doesn’t Google do that anyway?
So I decide before I do anything I’ll search “Is Yoast Premium worth the money” and like your article here the overwhelming response on Google is “No”.
Many thanks, I’m delighted I decided to retain my money.
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Brian
I’m glad you found the review helpful.
Regarding content analysis, I recommend having a look at Surfer SEO (aff. link) – I’ve been using it for half a year or so, and overall it’s a very helpful SEO on-page optimization editor (and more) – and their customer support is good, too.
Its analysis technology is at the forefront of Google’s NLP stuff. So there’s little risk overoptimizing (keyword-stuffing) content.
I have a Surfer SEO review coming up, hopefully soon:)
=)
Oliver
Semtelligence says
Wouldn’t optimise on Word Press without Yoast – miles ahead of the rest in my opinion.
Oliver Nielsen says
What makes it so? Care to elaborate?
Carlos Perez says
Dude, I’m a newbie and still was able to understand everything you wrote. This is a great article with extremely precise, useful, and simply presented material. You’re a beast (a good beast). Thanks.
Outrank Steve says
Oliver having spent many years as an advocate for Yoast I have started to look elsewhere as my appetite has grown for something a bit more comprehensive. I have only ever paid for the premium version of Yoast once as a client specifically requested it. I’m currently playing with Rank Math with great success but I suppose the plugin is as good as the user. I totally understand your swiss army knife analogy though!
Great informative article
John Stringfellow says
Oliver,
Thank you so much for your review. I know that this is a very old post, but it is still very true. I just upgraded to Yoast premium after using his free plugin for years. It is one of the biggest mistakes that I have ever made. The premium user dashboard is the most useless and anti-intuitive interface that I have ever used. I use these things all the time and I have never been stuck in such a meaningless frustrating loop as I have been dealing with for the last two days.
Also, their “premium support” was totally missing. I know that support departments get slammed and sometimes it is hard to get back to people, but there is no excuse for what I have encountered. I guess that I should have waited for a few more hours but this promise to: “get back to you within one working day” and the smiling faces on the support modal window made me expect a lot more from such a well-known company.
Thanks again for the great tip. It made me realize that I wasn’t alone in my frustrations.
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey John:)
Thanks for sharing your experiences using Yoast Premium. While it may be the best known WordPress SEO plugin, there are several more user-friendly and better featured options available.
=)
Oliver
Kay Keene says
Thank you for your article, I am adding a store to my website and I have been looking at getting the Premium for Yoast, I think I will wait abit longer on deciding.
Jorge tasse says
I bought yoast premium a couple months ago and defintly worth it . It bring some more cool features and you can target more keywords per page
I am a starting seing the seo works on google ranking
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Jorge
Thanks for sharing your take – I appreciate differing opinions.
“One man’s trash is another man’s cup of tea” … or ain’t that how the saying goes? Hehe 😀
Nah, seriously, thanks for chiming in!
=)
Oliver
Lewis says
I have ben using Yoast SEO premium for a long time but I cancelled last year. They increased their price almost 1000 % recently. It is just TOO EXPENSIVE!!
Oliver Nielsen says
Hi Lewis
In my opinion, it’s always bad business practice, when a SaaS company raise prices for existing customers. That’s just **wrong**.
Oliver
Scout (Let's Go Scoutside) says
I’ve been googling around about Yoast for about 20 minutes now, and the more I read about it the more outdated I feel it is (although I do enjoy the free version, I must admit).
SEO is one of the most changable, complex things in running a website for me; every piece of advice I read is different (often due to outdated/misinformed info being at the top of Google rankings), and I’ve even heard that you won’t get to #1 unless you’re making AdSense a lot of money (which wouldn’t surprise me).
Appreciate the post!
Oliver Nielsen says
Thanks for the comment Mr. Scoutside:)
sakina says
thanks for the review-made it so much easier for me to decide to get or not to get 🙂
Oliver Nielsen says
I’m glad it’s been helpful, Sakina!
=)
Oliver
Greg Currie says
Hi Oliver. Thanks for the great article. Do you know if Yoast has addressed any of your concerns since the article was written?
Oliver Nielsen says
Hi Greg
Nope, ’cause I stopped using Yoast altogether 😀
Coded a lil’ custom solution that automatically generates a meta description from the first paragraph of each post’s and page’s text. In essence, that’s all I want/need from an SEO plugin. XML sitemaps are an overrated waste of time as long as one’s content is linked to, from one’s site structure.
=)
Oliver
Euan McMillan says
Ops sorry Oliver this post was intended for your Divi post! Can you move it or shall I repost?
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Euan
Thanks for the long, interesting comment. I’ve now moved it to to the Divi review post. No worries:)
=)
Oliver
Kiring says
awesome blog post. I was debating if I should upgrade because the multi key words seemed really appealing to me, but after reading your post, I no longer think it’s worth it. Thank you so much!
Oliver Nielsen says
You’re welcome Kiring!
Stephen Hamill says
Great post Oliver. Kinda swayed me from purchasing the premium version!
Oliver Nielsen says
You’re welcome Stephen!
=)
Oliver
Chris says
Thanks for the unbiased review, it’s rare to find these nowadays 🙂
I was looking to use this for the automated redirects mostly since we’re about to do a content audit and don’t want to manually place redirects each time we remove or redirect a post.
Any suggestions for plugins that can do this, or you reckon best to do it manually?
Thank you!
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Chris
You’re welcome – thanks for the kind words on my work:)
Automated redirects can be finicky, so I prefer to do redirects manually in the .htaccess file. It gives you a nice, simple overview. But if one prefers a plugin there are plenty plugins that do the same job.
Oliver
Richard Crothers says
Is there an alternative that you would recommend? And any of the SEO tools on Envato any good?
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Richard
I’d never go with the Envato stuff. What I’ve done is “keep it simple” and in my theme do what I need. SEO is much more about accessible, high-quality, engaging content than technical features.
=)
Oliver
Vinod says
Great Review. Did you find the interlinking feature to be worth having? I’m thinking of buying it to have my posts interlinked with each other, but not sure if it’ll work as advertised.
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Vinod
I didn’t find it particularly useful. Not implemented as well as it could be.
Interlinking is best done manually – and WordPress’ own search (in the admin) is fairly good at turning up relevant results for whatever makes sense linking to.
=)
Oliver
Lindsey says
Thank you for the unbiased review, I was looking into Premium for the multiple keywords. I am so glad I found your post– your SEO is working fine. 😉 I totally agree about the UI, by the way!
Oliver Nielsen says
Thanks for letting me know you found it useful, Lindsey:)
Oliver
Kathy Roots says
Very interesting. I’ve been considering upgrading but have hesitated for various reasons. I think you sum up a few of them. And running with a page builder like Elementor I find it doesn’t recognise half my content and actuall does strange things on the back end!
Thank for the article
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Kathy
Thank your for sharing your experience. You’re right: page builder content can be less accessible to plugins like Yoast.
=)
Oliver
Justin says
Great review Oliver! Your review confirms what others are saying – if you have the free version there’s probably no point in upgrading to the paid version.
Oliver Nielsen says
Thanks Justin, I’m glad to know you agree. I prefer writing positive, happy reviews – but had to share my thoughts on this one:)
Oliver
Gaman says
Hi,
I love your work, so much so I even linked out to your blog in my
latest blog post.
https://www.sabahan.com/best-wordpress-plugins/
Feel free to check it out. Cheers.
Oliver Nielsen says
Thanks for the mention, Gaman! Well-written post, by the way.
Govind Rai says
I was planning to purchase the Yoast SEO plugin and check if its worth for my website crazymediadesign.com but thanks to your review I saved the money. lol. Seems free is just fine