Need Advice: Considering switching our WordPress SEO plugin
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Hi,
We are thinking of switching our SEO plugin to get more features and I am not sure which way to go AND I am wondering what the consequences might be of making a change. I am wary of getting into a messy situation that I don't have time for...
We currently use All in One SEO Pack.
Should we switch to Pro version
OR
WordPress SEO Plugin by Yoast?
Does anyone have experience with switching like this? What happens to all the current settings and meta tags when you switch?
Thanks!
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I use the free version of All-in-One SEO on all the Wordpress sites I manage, and have never had any problems with it, although other SEOs will swear by Yoast.
What SEO features do you need from AIO pro/Yoast that you're currently missing? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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Thanks, Takeshi. I know what you mean about if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And that's my general approach as often as possible. That's why I haven't changed previously. I'm actually quite reassured learning that All in One is what you use- I'd been thinking most seasoned SEOs were using Yoast or something else.
Don't know how helpful extra stuff would be AND more importantly probably, I am not convinced I am using All in One as deeply as I could be. Maybe I'm missing out on some of the features through my lack of experience...
Features I'm curious about: search results preview, controling no-index, no-follow, being able to exclude pages from XML sitemap.
I'd thought these were only in Yoast but found that they are also included in the All in One Pro version.
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Anytime you change tech it usually comes with some form of cost. This can be money but more than likely it will always include time and labor.
It would be pertinent to ask your self if the features gained will outweigh the cost in the long run. Be sure to take into account that web gremlins strike and sometimes things don't go according to plan.
Site size and pages that will need configuring should be taken into consideration as well as if there is sufficient staff to handle that amount of work.
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This is weird- when I posted my reply to Takeshi, another response that I'd received disappeared.
The question was "how many pages are we talking about?"
SEOMoz is showing that we have 103 pages currently being indexed. I keep wondering if I should no index some of them as they are blog paginations, archives etc.
We have 16 pages and 25 posts. Tiny, really.
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Thanks, Perase. You hit the nail on the head and this is why I felt it was a worthwhile question to request support for.
I am the staff for this. I am very busy and already doing almost more that I can easily handle without working constantly.
If there is no import feature for a switch, it would be too much labor and seems like a potentially big mess.
But I also want to make sure I am doing the best job possible for our company. AND wonder too, if I should be learning another system for our clients' sites. I do the initial, basic on-page SEO for the sites we develop and design.
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What plugin are you using for sitemaps? I use Google XML Sitemaps, and it allows me to exclude specific pages.
For no-index, no-follow I use the Robots Meta plugin.
Not sure what you mean by search results preview.
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Google XML Sitemaps also. Excluding pages is different than having control over noindex, nofollow, though, yes?
Thanks for the tip on Robots Meta plugin.
Pro version and Yoast have a feature where you can view what your search results listing will look like. Pro description: Search results preview – see how Google will display your entry in search results.
Here are the PRO features:
- NEW Social Meta module – control how social media sites view your site
- NEW Search results preview – see how Google will display your entry in search results
- NEW No Index on pages and posts – control the No Index meta tag for individual pages and posts
- NEW No Follow on pages and posts – control the No Follow meta tag for individual pages and posts
- NEW Exclude individual pages and posts from your XML Sitemap
- NEW Google, Bing and Pinterest webmaster tools verification
- NEW Import / Export module – export and import your All in One SEO Pack settings
- NEW All in One SEO Pack in now on the Admin Bar for easy access
These are basic Yoast features:
- Post titles and meta descriptions
- Robots Meta configuration
- Canonical
- Breadcrumbs
- Permalink clean up
- XML Sitemaps
- RSS enhancements
- Edit your robots.txt and .htaccess
- Clean up head section
- API Docs
And also the SERPs preview feature.
But frankly, if I am going to have to manually re-do all the optimization on the site, there's really no way.
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For the search preview, try using Google's rich snippet tool. Probably more accurate than a plugin:
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I've never used all-in-one long term. Big deal sites that really know what they're doing with content strategy use Yoast. Mashable off the top of my head.
Not sure if you've seen this: http://yoast.com/all-in-one-seo-pack-migration/ There's a comment midway down the comments on this where someone had issues migrating from all-in-one to Yoast, but looks like they just didn't work the settings properly. And it was a huge site.
Seeing how small the site is... 16 pages/25 posts from another one of your comments, I'd just go for it. I _learned _more about SEO and Wordpress just from figuring out what all the settings were about with Yoast and reading his guide.
And I couldn't really find any other comments where people had trouble making the switch following Joost's instructions.
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Hey thanks for the great tip, Jimthornton. It's those big deal sites that have been swaying my thinking. Falling prey to smarties and wanting to be one of them. ;o)
I'll take a look at that post regarding migration and then if I want to go for it, I will pick an opportune time.
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Thanks for reminding me of this tool. I forgot to consider it for this once my avatar started showing up.
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