Squirrly SEO vs Yoast: Which is Best?
Search engines are one of the most important reasons for the continued success and development of the internet. Visibility in search results is, therefore, a basic requirement for success on the internet.
A large part of online activities – be it online shopping or simply searching for information – begins with research on one of the major search engines. If your content does not appear there for the appropriate keywords, you are practically invisible to users, and (potential) customers and online success does not materialise.
No doubt, effective SEO that will impact your blog significantly is no child’s play. The good news is that there are various plugins that can take care of all the complicated parts. After reading this Squirrly SEO vs Yoast review, you’ll be able to decipher which plugin is best for you.
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What Is Squirrly?
Squirrly is a WordPress SEO plugin that optimises your website to become more search engine friendly. In other words, it helps to rank your site well so that web users can easily see your page when they throw a phrase into a search engine such as Google.
But how does Squirrly help you achieve good rankings?
The answer is by simply analysing the hundreds of features that impact your SEO search result, including over fifty yardsticks which Google adopts while ranking sites/blogs over the web.
Squirrly SEO is widely known as the SEO for newbies and novices. Websites and blog owners love Squirrly because of its easy-to-use features.
It’ll lead you every step of the way by enabling you to write SEO-friendly content that your page users will find easy to read. The developers of Squirrly promise that with this plugin, ‘‘You’ll move from “Never Found” to “Always Found” on Google’s first page‘‘.
Squirrly Overview
Florin Muresan, the founder of Squirrly, started the company back in 2012. But before then, Squirrly was only an idea when Florin was 19. While working in a tech development agency, Florin Muresan noticed that his web design clients often returned complaining of infrequent visitors.
So Florin decided to develop his solution that would give clients the chance to become more visible online. Florin believes that the tech part of a business, i.e., the machines and software, must help its user get more wins in the online marketing world.
Squirrly started with a small investment and made over 25 times the investment capital. However, the cost of creating the software was high, which led to the start of an agency in 2014. That’s how Squirrly survived and became what we know of it know today.
Squirrly Features
If you’re a novice to search engine optimisation, then Squirrly is an excellent tool. The software/plugin guides you into making unique, readable, SEO-optimised content.
The thing is, a website shouldn’t just be optimised on the technical side but must be user-engaging to keep the flow of visitors steady. Here are some of the things that Squirrly will look at as you build your page content.
- Title optimisation.
- Content optimisation.
- Keyword density.
- Image optimisation
- Performance analytics.
Why Is It Useful?
Many prominent marketing experts describe Squirrly as ‘more than just a search optimisation tool.’ They also refer to it as a robust marketing suite, especially if you are new to digital marketing.
The fact that it efficiently retrieves long-tailed keywords is just impressive. The implication of this action is, your chances of getting the most suitable local keywords for your webpages become higher.
That’s not all; you’ll also know about your local competitors – their top ranking keywords, as well as their backlinks and more.
All of the above will translate to more traffic and income from conversions. Altogether, Squirrly will no doubt improve and help your website grow. The fact that you’ll save time for manual SEO is another advantage for you.
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What Is Yoast?
Like Squirrly, Yoast is an all-in-one search engine optimisation plugin. If you are working with is a self-hosted WordPress site, Yoast is one of the best SEO tools you can have on your side.
If you’re familiar with WordPress plugins, you might have also heard of the WоrdPrеѕѕ All іn Onе SEO Pасk is your best bet. Yoast is a more comprehensive SEO plugin compared to the all-in-one SEO pack. Despite being amazingly detailed and robust, you can get Yoast SEO for free and use as long as you want.
However, if you desire extra functions, there’s a paid version of Yoast. Still, it’ll interest you to know that many essential features are available on the free SEO plugin. With Yoast, optimisation of your site is a breeze.
Yoast Overview
Joost de Valk, the founder of Yoast, started off as a coder and website developer, then later becoming an SEO consultant.
Initially, Joost was writing SEO reviews before diving into the world of WordPress plugin development. In was in October, he developed WordPress SEO now known as Yoast.
Over the years, the company has experienced growth, adding to its major players, such as Michiel Heijmans, his wife, Marieke and Omar Reiss.
Yoast Features
Yoast presents one of the easiest to use SEO plugins in the market. The software filters every word you use for your page content and lets you know how well you are faring. If you have errors, you’ll receive advice on how to fix them.
The SEO plugin is excellent for content writers who are just new to the game but fairly understand SEO. More so, Yoast will also help you in structuring your page content.
The truth is that having a good ranking with Google requires more than just having good content. Your site has to have a structure Google can understand. Therefore, Yoast will help determine which content most relevant and create a proper stricter, in addition to optimised linking.
Why Yoast Is Useful?
If you are going to run a website/blog, then you need SEO. Because most visitors link the website they access through Google; as search engine optimisation is key to your website’s growth. If you avoid SEO, your site will likely underperform.
So what makes Yoast SEO plugin very beneficial? First, without any intervention from your end, Yoast takes care of the technical issues your site can potentially develop.
Furthermore, Yoast will suggest everything you need to adopt to be visible online. Even better, as Google makes new developments, be it changing or adding ranking factors, Yoast ensures you are updated as long as your site needs it for growth.
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Squirrly SEO vs Yoast – A Comparison
To understand which plugin fares better, here is a detailed Squirrly SEO vs Yoast review. We’ll first list the main features of Yoast, before those of Squirly before making a final decision.
Yoast SEO Plugin – Main Features
1. Social Integration
We can’t overstate the importance of social media and the role it plays in our daily lives. If you own a blog/website, then your page content needs an audience from social media platforms.
Yoast makes that possible by allowing a link between your website and social channels. The tool allows you to state your preferred Facebook and Google+ page title/description. Yoast then sends your posts to the Facebook and Google+ pages.
2. Keyword Density
Keyword density can affect your ranking if there’s no way to monitor it effectively. It measures the number of times a keyword phrase has been used in a given content. Yoast SEO plugin notifies you if the keyword is used too many or few. Keyword density is one of Google’s ranking factors so Yoast keeps a close tab on it and other Google’s SEO factors.
3. Rеаl-Tіmе Oрtіmіsаtіоn
Yoast features a traffic light-type of notification that turns real-time when you are writing on WordPress. The red indicates that your written content is poor, whilst orange indicates that the content requires some adjustments. Lastly, green means the content is good to go.
4. Breadcrumbs
Remember, optimisation isn’t just for search engines but also for visitors on your page. Therefore, the breadcrumbs feature comes in handy if your blog is complexly structured. With it, Yoast lets users have a useful browsing experience. They will be fully aware of which part of your site they are on.
For example, if a reader clicks on a few links, the breadcrumbs feature allows them to follow a path back to where they were initially. Readers need not click again or use the home button to start over.
5. XML Sitemap Gеnеrаtіоn
Yoast’s XML site map feature will generate a map with links to the subdomains pages. This feature is useful as Google uses your Sitemap to understand the structure of your website to also locate various pages.
The good thing is, you don’t have to design the map, you only enable it by a single click while Yoast handles the rest. However, you might have to regularly audit your Sitemap to ensure your website is fully covered.
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Features of Squirrly SEO Plugin
1. Keyword Research
The keyword research feature is one of the bragging rights for Squirrly SEO. It will allow you to find keywords that Google users are using to search for info that is equally related to your content topic.
Once you enter a keyword, Squirrly will generate tons of similar words. You will also know the exact search the words are coming from, the volume, whether it’s natural ranking or not, and your competitors (other blog posts with the same keywords).
Furthermore, you’ll know just how well the keyword is trending which eliminates manual optimization, where you have to guess the competition’s data.
2. Squirrly SEO Live Assistant
Squirrely’s live assistant makes writing your blog content easy. Your blog content is assisted with the Live Assistant in real-time so that your content is both accessible to search engines and humans.
You’ll get instant feedback as you write, saving the time to go back and check your content. The feature helps you in the following ways;
- Ensures you use keywords correctly as you type.
- Will prompt you for over-optimisation.
- Will ensure your content is human-friendly and not just jam-packed with keywords.
- The live assistant will check your titles & meta-data for Google-friendliness.
- Will ensure images are correctly used.
It’ll also interest you to know that Squirrly offers this feature in the unpaid version. You can also optimise many keywords in the free version, which is only available for only one word with the Yoast SEO plugin.
3. SEO Weekly Audits
The audit feature from Squirrly is a fantastic feature that puts all your blog operation under and easy to view report-mode. The report comes in sections, with steps to take for each step. The report sections include;
- Blogging.
- SEO.
- Links.
- Authority.
- Traffic.
- Social.
You can enjoy the Squirrly SEO audit in both the free and pro version, where audit reports are released as often as every hour (premium version) or weekly (free version).
4. URL Optimisation
This feature is equally unique to Squirrly. Every URL of your site is optimised by this feature, thereby helping you to rank much quicker.
5. Copyright-Free Images
In case you are new to blogging, it’ll interest you to know that blog posts are required to have one image, but you are not allowed to use google images. Squirrly SEO takes the bar higher again by digging up copyright-free images from inside the editor anytime you search for a keyword.
However, this feature is available in the pro version. This feature is like a blogging assistant. That’s not all, after helping with images, Squirrly helps with extra content to add to your blogpost, e.g., online references.
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Squirrly SEO vs Yoast – Price Comparison
Squirrly pricing
You can enjoy Squirrly SEO free version, which is valuable but a bit limited in features. Here are some of what comes with pricing:
- You’ll only get three keywords to search every 30 days.
- The fee plugin will only generate your audit report weekly.
- You are limited to five posts per month, which can be a lot if you are an entry-level blogger.
- Supports one website.
- You’ll also have access to the impressive live assistant feature, which is also limited.
- Preview of what your blog post looks like when shared on social media
- Multiple keywords per blogpost available
Also, Squirrly has a premium plan for £22/month, if you want unlimited access to all its features. These are what you’ll enjoy under this Squirrly version;
- You’ll get support for seven websites, which is excellent news if you have more than one.
- As much as 100 keyword searches every month.
- SEO Live Assistant under the pro version will offer many optimisation checks .
- Blogging Assistant included (copyright-free image search).
- Multiple-page optimisation at the same time.
- SEO Audits are available on the hour.
Yoast Pricing
Yoast also has a free version. The free version has the following benefits.
- Focus keyword optimisation is only available for one keyword.
- Analyse your page and ensure your blog is e setup for SEO.
- Available in classic WordPress editor and block as well.
- Prevents duplication of content.
- You’ll have to do some of your SEO manually, e.g., to update your page and watch out for broken links.
Yoast paid version comes for £69 per month, and it offers the following.
- Multiple focus keywords which will help you reach a wider audience.
- Preview your blog post on social media platforms (available of freeSquirrly).
- Gives you insights on the focus of your text that helps in the building of your keyword phrase.
- Internal linking of the structure of your content becomes automated.
- Helps to keep your content updated by getting rid of obsolete pages.
- One year one-on-one support via e-mail.
Both SEO plugins have a lot to offer on both paid and free versions. However, you’ll enjoy Squirrly more if you are on the pro version. Even if you are are a newbie to SEO, the pro version will do you a lot of good. Still, it’s okay if you want to dance around with the free mode.
On the other hand, Yoast’s paid version offers some fantastic benefits that we feel you can do without if you are just getting the hang of SEO. However, paying the £69 a month may be worth it if you are running a bigger marketing setup, and you are seriously trying to outwit your competitors.
We also personally feel the one-on-one e-mail support is enough to lure SEO newbies to sign up for the premium version.
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Squirrly SEO vs Yoast – Final Verdict
Considering the features all together for this Squirrly SEO vs Yoast review, Squirrly SEO is a plugin for both professionals and SEO-newbies. Yoast is also first-timer/non-expert-friendly, but Squirrly breaks SEO optimisation down even to the suggestion and feedback level.
Because the complicated thinking part of the optimisation is off the table. Reports aren’t just a lump estimates that have you guessing what next to do.
At the end of the day, all SEO plugins offer the same function, i.e., to ultimately make your website more visible to search engines and web users. However, the extra features make each standout.
On that front, Squirrly SEO packs additional features; Yoast did not come near. Squirrly also does a better SEO job than Yoast because it highlights suggestions for you to improve your off-page factors, e.g., your back-links.
Unless you are new to blogging, you’ll know that your search engine optimisation results aren’t only dependent on your on-page SEO factors. That is what Yoast highlights with its real-time traffic system. So you’ll know, everything isn’t excellent with optimisation just because you got a green light while writing your page content.
On the downside for Squirrly, the SEO plugin might seem too complex to grasp because it contains many broken-down sections. While these broken-down sections are intended for robustness, some may find it ‘too extra’ and feel Yoast may be more straightforward.
Squirrly SEO vs Yoast: Conclusion
There’s no single doubt that both SEO plugins will do your site some good. However, if you’re looking for more detailed support irrespective of your level of experience with SEO,
Squirrly will bring more to the table. Besides, Squirrly has a couple of features in its free version, which you can only get if you’re on Yoast premium, e.g., optimising for multiple keywords and social media preview of your blog post. If you are going to choose, we suggest Squirrly is more effective. Remember, you have the free version of both plugins to play around with if you’re not ready to commit to anything. If you like this article, please remember to share it.
