SpyFu vs. Yoast

If you have a Google ads PPC campaign and then I would say this is more or less essential if you want to know what your competitors are doing. You can get very useful data out of it even if you subscribe for one month. And the pricing is very reasonable. Even if you don't use Google ads, I would say this is still useful for your SEO/SMO team since it gives you a great idea of what keywords and traffic your competitors are working on.

Incentivized

For quick WordPress installations and configurations, Yoast is fast to set up and helps guide you through the common configuration options. It tries to be helpful whether you are coming at things from a technical or non-technical background. The emphasis on white hat SEO topics like improved content, keywords, descriptions, and titles is really appreciated by someone like me who doesn't utilize gray and black hat SEO tactics.

If you are an SEO expert, and you want finite control of each individual aspect of your site, Yoast, like most plugins, engines, tools, etc, hides a lot from you or gives you limited options. It really is meant for someone who wants to apply a general strategy to a whole site. That being said, you can manage Yoast per page on a WordPress site, but even then, I know some SEO experts prefer other tools that are meant for very specific purposes.

Overall, Yoast is the best plugin for SEO in WordPress when applied as a whole.

Incentivized

• Keeping a tab on competitors organic and inorganic activities
• Helps identify where the competitor is getting the backlinks from.
• Identify competitors top content and the keywords that's bringing them traffic
• Get proper information of their current and past ADS run on Google.

Incentivized

• Readability - makes it easy for you to assess the reading level of your piece to ensure it is correct for your intended audience.
• SEO tips - red/orange/green traffic light system to provide tips on what aspects need improving to be SEO-focussed.
• Redirect tool - easy, automated detection and setup.

Incentivized

• As with any database, their keyword database has limits, so the data returned is relative to their database, not necessarily the full picture.
• When SpyFu database or scoring chances, the data provided can spike, thus causing confusion among stakeholders, we're reporting to.

Incentivized

• Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugin is really good at copy and link scanning and optimizing, however, I have not been able to find any assistance on image optimization on our pages and posts. That would be a good update!
• Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugin is good at ranking pages and posts individually. I would like to see an overall dashboard of your entire website/blog's SEO health according to the software.
• N/A

Incentivized

Love this tool but would like insights from all 3 major search engines not just Google. I would also like deeper understanding of the placement for local businesses on Google Places/Maps. Insight into mobile search rankings and best landing pages per industry would also help :) Overall, SpyFu is a necessity for serious search marketers.

I see no reason to discontinue using Yoast as it has been very beneficial for my website and my business.

Incentivized

SpyFu is an easy to use tool, and has a self -explanatroy dashborad to generate the data needed to provide insights into any B2B SEO and PPC campaign. It is not comprehensive, but it certainly provides good enough insight to make it a valuable part of any agency tool stack

Incentivized

It's super easy to use. Really, it requires little-to-know tutorials or walkthroughs at all — it explains everything you need to know in the description and tooltips built straight into the tool. I've never had to google a how-to or tutorial to use Yoast — it just works, and it works well

Incentivized

SpyFu comes with a link to tutorial videos. I recommend you watch them. The software is capable of so much you really need to watch the videos and learn how to get the most out of it. When I have a question 90% of the time it's there. When it isn't, and I reach out to them, support is always quick and concise.

Incentivized

I gave it a 4 just because it is helpful if you are just getting started with SEO, it guides you and shows you what you need to do in order for your website to be up and running properly. As a seasoned SEO analyst I wouldn't recommend it just because I can do things better my way.

Incentivized

I was surprised to find I preferred Semrush when it comes to keyword research. SpyFu is great (and less expensive than Semrush), but I felt the data Semrush provided was vaster than SpyFu. I was able to get more competitors spending insights in Semrush than SpyFu. Overall, I liked the ability to use both in our keyword research for both paid and organic marketing.

Incentivized

Yoast Wordpress SEO Plugins was a little easier to understand and offered a real-time guided plugin that helped me write throughout my drafting process. Semrush was much more helpful as a reporting tool, not so much in content creation. Both tools are useful in different ways, it is just a matter of knowing each one's strengths and weaknesses.

Incentivized

• Helping us track our ranking.
• It helps solve the problem of ambiguity when it comes to Google Ads. It makes the strategy more clear.
• You can sift through lots of different online analytics to find the information, but it takes way too long. SpyFu has it all in one place!

Incentivized

• Findability: I love few things more than hearing, "I just found you on Google!" and knowing that they found us on Google because our SEO is on point.
• Using the Yoast SEO Plugin over time has taught me to create better, more optimized content from the start, rather than having to edit that content after I realize it's not very SEO friendly. This saves a lot of time and lets me put my energy into other things.
• The plugin has helped us make our sometimes-dense content more readable and sharable, which absolutely improves stakeholder engagement.

Incentivized