A response to Using Yoast SEO for Search Engine Performance (January 2024)
In January 2024 I wrote a practical guide for creative and marketing agencies on using the Yoast SEO plugin. The point wasn’t to chase rankings. It was to get the basics right on every page so good content could be found. I said:
“The fundamentals of SEO are crucial yet manageable.”
H1 tags for headlines, a unique meta title, a meta description for every page, sensible subheadings. That advice was true then, and it’s still true. Search engines still need to understand what a page is about, and people scanning search results still need a reason to click.
A plugin for every good habit
In 2024, the easiest way to build those habits was a plugin. Yoast gave editors fields for titles and descriptions, a preview of the search result, readability suggestions, and a focus keyphrase check. I liked it, and I still think it taught a lot of people good habits.
But it was also one more layer. Another large plugin, another set of settings screens, another thing to keep updated, more code loading in the admin, and a lot of features most of our clients never touched. I even admitted the free version was enough for most agencies, since:
“the primary goal is to enhance content visibility rather than engaging in intense SEO competition.”
That’s the kind of trade off I accepted everywhere back then. If you wanted a capability, you installed a product that did it, along with everything else that product did.
Here’s what the agentic revolution changes. AI agents now write and revise custom code under experienced direction, so the essentials can be built into the site itself. Clean heading structure, proper titles and descriptions, good schema markup, a sensible sitemap: these can be part of the theme we build on rather than a large add-on. For a site that genuinely needs a full SEO suite, it’s still an option. It’s just no longer the default answer to every question. I’ve asked the same question about plugins in general.
The tool was never the point
The most valuable parts of that article weren’t really about Yoast. They were about writing. I praised its readability suggestions, like reducing passive voice and simplifying sentences, and I made a case for subheadings:
“Subheadings are not only vital for readability but also for SEO.”
None of that depends on a plugin. And honestly, it’s an area where AI helps in a different way. Drafting a meta description, suggesting clearer subheads, or checking whether a page answers the question a visitor came with are all things an assistant can help an editor do well. But someone still has to decide what the page is for, who it’s for, and whether the words are true. That’s content strategy, and it remains human work.
Some details in that old article have dated. Plugin prices change, interfaces change, and claims about exactly what search engines reward should always be held loosely. I’d rather a client spend their energy on clear, useful content than on chasing a green light in a sidebar.
The long tail still rewards patience
I opened that piece by talking about the long-tail effect of content, how each useful page keeps attracting the right visitors over time. That’s still the best reason to care about search. The basics still matter. The content still matters most.
What’s changed is the overhead. You no longer need to accept a heavy plugin to get the fundamentals right. The site can be built to do the right thing from the start, and editors can spend their time on the part that actually earns traffic: writing things worth finding.
¡Viva la Revolución!