Yoast Premium: Is It Worth Upgrading? — 9 powerful features

Over time, technology has become more advanced, leading to increased use of online platforms for business purposes. It doesn’t matter if you are a blogger using WordPress, a webshop owner or a website owner, Yoast SEO has always been a popular choice when it comes to ranking your website, as Yoast SEO plugin is available for free with amazing features that you can’t resist to get your hands on, and so far it has proved to be the best choice for beginners.

However, this free SEO plugin is not limited to beginners only, but because of its advanced set of features, even pro users would like to use this plugin unconditionally. You can say this is a plugin of your choice and helps you in various different ways to improve your website’s SEO and highly compatible with WordPress.

If you are not a beginner and have been blogging for a long time and now want to take your blog/website to the next level, you need to try out the Yoast SEO Premium version. This is a paid version, and it offers you some advanced features which are not available in the free version.

How will Yoast premium help you to grow?

As already mentioned, Yoast SEO Premium offers some additional features (I will discuss these features later in this article). Because of these extras, Yoast SEO premium has become a popular SEO plugin. Moreover, it is multifunctional and ensures that you are on the right track by providing you with the right infrastructure to increase your website traffic. Before you start using Yoast SEO premium, you need to configure it the same way you configure the free version.

Before I go into the valuable features of Yoast SEO premium, let me tell you which user groups need Yoast SEO premium the most:

• Marketers who manage many 301 redirects: “Redirect Manager” This tool helps your former visitors to stay in touch with you even after they click on the dead URL of your website. This tool redirects your past visitors to the valuable content of your new website. This way, visitors don’t end up on a broken page and appreciate your efforts and continue to visit your website.
• Website managers compete for highly targeted keywords: Being on top is a dream for all, and Yoast SEO Premium offers “organic keywords” from your competitors’ high ranking websites. Yoast SEO Premium can incorporate many focus keywords in your posts at once, increasing the chances of your specific page or post, ranking high on multiple keywords.
• New SEO users who can afford the Premium version: Many new users are unaware that every time they update the plugin, they may encounter some bugs or errors that directly affect their WordPress web. If they use Yoast SEO Premium, the Yoast team will take care of the malfunctioning and either fix the problems or show you the ways to implement it more effectively.

So once you’ve chosen the category you fall into, let’s move on, because now I’m going to explain the detailed features of the Yoast premium. Let’s get a quick overview of what Yoast Premium is offering. In general, you will get all the features available in the free version, along with some extras.

Core features of Yoast premium

Offering more focus keywords

As we all know, keywords are the building blocks in SEO. Unlike the free version, Yoast premium offers multiple focused keywords per page and post, which increases the chances for a high individual ranking of your posts/page. I have used both the free version and the premium version of Yoast, and the posts I created with Yoast premium were ranked in general higher compared to the post I created with the free version. This happened because I used 2–4 focus keywords with the premium version, and the free version was limited to only 1 focus word.

Is it worth it? As mentioned above, the keywords are the backbone of your content, so it can in some cases be better to add multiple keywords. I have found this feature to be beneficial to me. So, yes, this feature is worth it.

Advanced keyword optimisation

If you have used Yoast, either free or Premium, you must be familiar with this panel. However, this panel is not from the free version but the Premium version. Both look similar and offer the same, but you get some advanced options in the Focus Keywords section in the Premium version.

In this section, Yoast premium will highlight your errors; if you use your focus keyword/keyphrase in a different order or use a singular, plural, or another verb form of your focus keyword, this premium feature will detect this.

I have found this option to be the best because we are so fast when writing that we sometimes use the wrong keywords/keyphrases, and this is not visible to us when proofreading our content. But thanks to this advanced feature, I am now able to detect my mistakes within seconds.

Yoast Premium offers another feature in this section, i.e., the possibility to optimise your content more carefully by using synonyms and related terms. You might be wondering what this feature is for? To your knowledge, Google is the most intelligent search engine of all. It easily recognises word repetitions and prefers content that is naturally written with unique words and related expressions.

The repetition of words and phrases can cause your content to be downgraded in the ranking, and I’m sure nobody wants that. So this feature will help you write naturally and also save you time because you don’t have to search for synonyms separately.

Is it worth it? This feature is useful for optimising your content in a balanced way. Yoast Premium ensures that you do not use your keywords too much, or your test is not written unnaturally. All in all, you will receive suggestions to improve your text as much as possible.

Redirect manager

Before I get into the in-depth discussion, let me tell you what a Redirect Manager is.

It is a plugin that allows your visitor to jump to your new website even after clicking on a dead URL. This feature is useful for those who frequently delete or rename their older posts/pages/tags/categories. This way, your old visitors stay connected to your new posts.

The Redirect Manager is one of the most convenient tools in Yoast Premium, and you can easily set up a redirect of your choice in the Redirect Manager.

Here you can see how easy setting up the redirection is. All you need to do is enter your old URL and the new URL. This way, you are simply allowing your visitors to follow you on the new page(s).

This tool is so efficient that when you create a new post or rename a tag/category, this tool automatically creates a redirect from the old URL to the new one. Just a single check mark in the box activates this feature, and you don’t need to do anything else. However, if you don’t want redirections, simply uncheck the box. See how easy it is?

The Redirection Manager is also an efficient tool that allows you to choose between 410 or 301 redirects. To make it easier for you to understand, let me tell you here: “410 refers to permanently removed posts” and “301 refers to content permanently being moved/modified to a different URL”. So it is up to you whether you mark your URL as permanently deleted or moved to a new URL.

Is it worth it? I often A/B test my titles and URLs on my blog posts because I regularly update my blogs according to the latest research, so this feature is simply an amazing way to keep my visitors updated about the latest research.

Previews for social media

Source: www.yoast.com

As I have discussed in my previous articles, social media plays an essential role in your marketing strategy. So if you have the social media plugins installed on your website and want to see what your content will look like when shared on any social media platform, Yoast Premium is the plugin of choice for you, because it gives you the social media preview.

As with the free version, you have the option to select your thumbnail and meta description instead of leaving a random selection to Facebook or Twitter. But the option of how your posts appear on social media will help you choose a better thumbnail or description.

Is it worth it? This feature helps save your time because you can preview your posts on social media by simply sharing it to your account, but this will take time, whereas Yoast premium will show you during the editing that how your post will look like when shared.

Suggestions for internal linking

For those who are not aware of what an internal link is? Let me be a bit clearer. “In simple words, if you link two pages together with a link, it is called internal linking, technically speaking, linking is connecting two different pages on the same domain”.

Based on the definition, you can understand how crucial internal linking is. The more links you place from your website or external sources, the greater the chances for a higher ranking on Google.

As you write a new blog post, Yoast Premium suggests other posts you might want to add on the right side of the bar. From there, you can check the box of the post that relates to your article. Remember, however, select the most appropriate post to keep the reader amused with your article and encourage him or her to read the next post.

Is it worth it? This is an amazing tool as it shows brilliant suggestions, but sometimes the random options can be useless. For example, I once wrote a post and forgot to link an important post, but the suggestions helped me to link it. On the other hand, I wrote a technical blog post, and Yoast Premium started giving me random suggestions from a fashion blog. So this option may be worthy sometimes, but stay awake as the results can vary.

Content tool for insights

If you want a better ranking on Google it is necessary to understand the demands of Google regarding your post or page. This tool is great in reading Google’s thoughts and how Google sees your content.

Yoast premium offers an insight tool at the bottom of the Yoast SEO meta box where it shows the 5 prominent words from your post. Moreover, if these words are any one of your keywords/key phrases this indicates that you are following the right way. In contrast, if these words are totally different from your keywords you need to re-read your post and focus more on the main keywords.

Is it worth it? From my perspective, I don’t find it interesting because I am an SEO writer and know how and when to place keywords. If you are not an SEO writer and have difficulties in writing SEO friendly content, this would be a great help for you.

Orphaned content tool

As the name suggests, the content is orphan, i.e., the content does not contain any internal links. Search engines are efficient in finding content with more internal links and do not consider these orphaned content, so it will be difficult for you to find the index. However, with Yoast Premium, this is not the case as it places all your orphaned content in one place.

All you have to do is select the “Orphan tab” in the left menu bar, and all your orphaned content will be lined up in a single row. This will help you link your orphaned content to any of your posts. Besides, Yoast is smart enough to detect the orphan content and send you notifications immediately.

Is it worth it? This is the most helpful feature of all. I didn’t even know how many orphan posts I had, as I always find it challenging browsing orphan content, but I no longer miss any orphan posts thanks to Yoast Premium.

Exportation of focus keywords

With this tool, you can export your CSV file with keywords along with other details such as the title and URLs of your blog posts. This will help you plan the strategy for your blog post, and you can focus more on improving and optimising your blog content.

This tool will also help you recognise overlaps when you try to optimise two posts with similar keywords. This will be extremely helpful, especially for the newbies.

Is it worth it? I would say it is a “nice-to-have tool”. For me, this tool is not very useful because I am good at keeping my blog records, but if you are new to blogging, it will be beneficial for you.

Round the clock available customer service

As a web developer and writer, I have experienced many customer services, but I must admit that Yoast premium’s customer service is very fast. I have only used it twice, and both times the response was swift. I am a satisfied customer, and their service made me feel like a valued customer.

Is it worth it? In my entire blogging career, I have only used Yoast Premium’s customer service twice. This means that Yoast Premium offers a complete package, and you don’t have to contact the company from time to time. But breakdowns are common, so this can be useful in emergencies, and believe me, you will get a quick response.

Free of advertising

I would say that an ad-free experience is the icing on the cake for me because, unlike any other plugin, Yoast Premium is Ad-free. But thanks to Team Yoast, they have created an ad-free plugin.

What is the pricing plan of Yoast premium?

$89 per year is not a big deal with so many interesting features. Also, you will get additional discounts if you are purchasing more than 1 license. If you want to try out Yoast premium, you can buy it today.

Conclusion

Yoast Premium offers many features that no other plugin offers. Moreover, the interface is user-friendly and easy to use, and the price is affordable. But keep in mind that Yoast premium is an SEO tool that helps you rank your website but does not magically rank your website without your intervention. So if you’re ready to make an effort and want to take your blog to the next level, it’s worth upgrading to Yoast premium. However, no it’s not worth it when you look at the competition out there. Rank Math SEO has really overtaken Yoast SEO lately and are in front, they are running fast and if Yoast SEO doesn’t wake up, it’ll soon be over.

If you want a more in-depth review of Rank Math SEO, I’ve written about their awesome features within SEO using a WordPress website.