Yoast, the company behind the popular SEO plugin for WordPress, has announced the introduction of ‘Yoast AI Optimize’ feature which is designed to simplify SEO tasks by providing AI-powered optimisation suggestions for content at the click of a button. 

Helps With Essential SEO Factors 

Specifically, ‘Yoast AI Optimize’, which is only available to Yoast SEO Premium customers, focuses on enhancing ‘Keyphrase in Introduction’, ‘Keyphrase Density’, and ‘Keyphrase Distribution’, which are essential SEO factors.  

How It Works 

To use the new feature within the WordPress editor, users open their post or page and go to the Yoast SEO sidebar. For assessments like ‘Keyphrase in Introduction’, ‘Keyphrase Density’, and ‘Keyphrase Distribution’, there’s a sparkly icon next to them in the SEO analysis section. Clicking this icon triggers the AI to generate optimisation suggestions for the selected content. Users can then choose to either apply the AI’s suggestions to the content or dismiss them.  

The Benefits 

Whereas the popular (regular) Yoast plugin, which currently has more than 13 million active installations, requires the user (who may not be knowledgeable about SEO) to manually make SEO adjustments, the new feature does it all with just a few clicks, and the changes are made automatically throughout the text. This saves time, streamlines the SEO process, removes complexity, and democratises effective SEO – i.e. making it accessible for all content creators, freelancers, and marketers. 

Kimberley Cole, General Manager Europe at Newfold Digital, parent company of Yoast, said of the new feature: “With Yoast AI Optimize, users can save time and energy by tapping into SEO powered by AI and unlocking the full potential of their website, blog, online store and more.” 

In terms of how the new feature may improve Yoast’s market position, Kimberly Cole said: “As AI-infused technology evolves, Yoast, the world’s largest SEO plugin, remains at the forefront by combining our in-house SEO expertise with the technology of today to provide the highest quality SEO tools that simplify and elevate the user experience for all website owners. By improving search rankings, SEO drives targeted traffic, boosts credibility and helps businesses market their products and services more effectively in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.”   

Drawbacks 

With something that sounds this good, there must some drawbacks! Some of these include : 

– It is currently only available for texts up to 1000 words, thereby restricting its usability, especially for users with longer content or those using different editors.

– Users cannot accept just part of a suggestion but must accept ‘all … or none’. This reduces flexibility and customisation options and may force users to accept changes they don’t fully agree with. 

– The feature is only available for the Block editor and users can only optimise content in the Paragraph, Heading, List, and Table blocks. Content from other blocks can’t be optimised. 

– ‘Yoast AI Optimize’ is currently only available for the following SEO checks: Keyphrase in Introduction, Keyphrase Density, and Keyphrase Distribution. For Keyphrase Density, it can only support the case in which the key phrase is underused. If the key phrase is overused, the ‘Yoast AI Optimize’ feature can’t be provided. 

Currently in Beta 

‘Yoast AI Optimize’ is currently in Beta and to access it, (Yoast SEO Premium) customers must have updated to the most recent version, 23.2, and granted consent to use AI.   

What About Yoast’s Competitors? 

Yoast faces several strong competitors in the SEO plugin market, many of which have AI-powered features similar to (or even more advanced than) Yoast’s AI offerings. For example: 

– Rank Math is a highly recommended alternative with robust automation, allowing users to optimise content for multiple keywords and perform full SEO audits. It integrates AI to assist with schema markups and offers a content analysis tool that automates SEO tasks like generating meta titles and descriptions. 

– All in One SEO (AIOSEO), another major competitor, provides AI-powered keyword ranking and content decay analysis, helping users track and optimise older posts. Its AI features also extend to automated link suggestions and meta generation, making it highly efficient for content creators. 

– SEOPress includes AI capabilities for generating SEO metadata (like meta descriptions) based on the content. It also offers white-label options, making it popular among agencies. SEOPress provides a clean, user-friendly interface while handling complex tasks like generating sitemaps and managing structured data. 

– SEMRush, although broader in scope, includes AI-powered tools like its SEO Writing Assistant that helps optimise content for readability and search engine performance. It offers AI-driven content suggestions and meta generation, making it a comprehensive tool for both SEO and content creation. 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The introduction of ‘Yoast AI Optimize’ could prove to become very helpful to businesses aiming to improve their website’s SEO, particularly those that lack technical expertise in this area. With AI taking over many of the manual and time-consuming SEO tasks, businesses can now streamline their optimisation processes. This means that even small businesses and individual content creators may now be able to implement sophisticated SEO practices without having to invest heavily in SEO expertise or tools. This AI feature could enable them to optimise content quickly and more effectively, which could result in better search rankings, increased traffic, and ultimately, higher conversions and sales. 

For existing Yoast SEO Premium users, this new feature could enhance the value of their subscription. It simplifies SEO further by automating tasks like keyphrase management, allowing users to focus more on content creation rather than manual optimisation. However, while the feature is currently limited in terms of functionality and word count, its potential is clear. As the AI develops, users can perhaps expect greater flexibility and wider applications, which would only enhance its appeal. 

For Yoast, this innovation strengthens its competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market. By incorporating AI, Yoast is hoping to position itself as a forward-thinking leader in SEO, and ensure it adds value and retains users by staying at the forefront of search engine optimisation trends. However, the competition is fierce. Competitors like Rank Math and AIOSEO are also leveraging AI to offer advanced features, and the race to provide the most user-friendly, efficient, and powerful SEO tools is heating up. 

More broadly, this is just another example of how AI is transforming the digital landscape. From content generation to SEO optimisation, the integration of AI across digital tools is changing how businesses manage their online presence. The growing influence of AI within SEO can now empower businesses to hopefully achieve better results faster, and it raises the bar for SEO tools in general. That said, ultimately, search engine algorithms (especially Google’s), control how effective SEO efforts are, and if all users started using effective AI-powered SEO tools, this would perhaps require another algorithm change. Therefore, how well Yoast (and other SEO tools) keep up with changes made by search engines (which use AI themselves) will have a bearing on how effective they are.  

That said, with AI SEO tools like Yoast offering a good chance to improve ranking, for businesses, this means staying informed about the latest AI-powered tools may now be essential to maintaining a competitive edge in their digital marketing efforts.