Jono Alderson Explains Why Yoast SEO is better Than RankMath?

“There’s a whole industry dedicated to looking busy, thinking you’re doing SEO.” That’s how Jono Alderson describes plugins with a hundred toggles. 🎛️

At WordCamp Bangkok 2023, I sat down with Jono Alderson, head of SEO at Yoast, one of the most trusted WordPress SEO plugins. I use it on my own niche sites. 🎙️

I asked him why Yoast is better than Rank Math, what’s coming, and what affiliates should do about AI, reviews and links. 💡

📊 In this episode, we unpacked:

• 👨‍💻 Jono’s path to Yoast
• 🚀 What Yoast was building in 2023
• ⚖️ Yoast vs Rank Math
• 🤖 Is SEO dead because of AI?
• 🛒 Advice for affiliate sites
• 🔗 Links, Bing vs Google, and the biggest SEO mistake

🎥 Watch the full episode:

👨‍💻 Jono’s Path to Yoast

Jono started as a “bedroom web developer,” then worked in digital marketing agencies, at SEO tool vendors, on big data, in consultancy and in product marketing. 👨‍💻

He realized he loved SEO and building things. He knew Yoast’s founder Joost well and joined as head of special projects almost five years earlier, working on roadmap, R&D and consultancy. About 18 months before this interview, he became head of SEO. 🚀

🚀 What Yoast Was Building in 2023

• ⚡ Speed: a new CTO and architecture work to make Yoast faster than native WordPress. Jono says Yoast has a lot of code because it does a lot, and WordPress isn’t great for SEO out of the box
• 🗣️ Inclusive language analysis: v1 flags wording that might be accidentally offensive, alongside SEO and readability analysis
• 🌱 Environmental features: a Yoast SEO Premium beta with about 20 toggles to stop WordPress outputting unneeded code, feeds and URLs. Jono says it can roughly halve server resources and reduce crawl waste

⚖️ Yoast vs Rank Math

Jono says the core difference is ideology. SEO used to be about tricking the algorithm. Now it’s about product-market fit, brand strategy and a strong technical foundation. ⚖️

Yoast is deliberately opinionated. For example, you can’t change the sort order of its XML sitemap, because it doesn’t matter. Competitors offer toggles that are confusing and can harm SEO when people think they know better than Google. 🎛️

He also says competitors copy Yoast’s innovations, like its structured data approach, and implement them in ways not in line with Google’s spec. That’s his view as a Yoast employee. 🧩

🤖 Is SEO Dead Because of AI?

No. It changes, evolves, and in some ways gets simpler. When everyone uses ChatGPT to generate a million pages, the web fills with generic, duplicate content, and brands with expertise and opinions stand out. 🤖

Google has doubled down on E-E-A-T. Jono sees AI as a tool: it helps with the blank page, but the hard work is deciding what story to tell and what information to include. ✍️

For more on AI and SEO, read Andrei Builov on what works now. 🔗

🛒 Advice for Affiliate Sites

• 🎯 Be an affiliate for 5 things, not 100
• 🖐️ Write hands-on reviews: handle the product, describe the experience and compare it
• ⚖️ Include balanced pros and cons, not just “click the link”
• 📚 Expect to do more informational content and less pure affiliate content

Ten deep reviews beat a hundred thin ones. Google doesn’t want a middle layer between users and products, so there will always be tension. 🧩

For more on review content, read Cyrus Shepard on ranking in Google. 🔗

🔗 Links, Bing vs Google, and the Biggest SEO Mistake

Jono “hates links” as an SEO. You shouldn’t buy them or build PBNs. Links still work, but less than before. In coupon niches, he admits, thin sites win by hammering links. 🔗

On Bing vs Google: he thought Google was panicking and rushed a poorly executed response, while Bing at least cites its sources. AI is often “confidently wrong,” so Google must get it right before releasing it. 🥊

The biggest mistake: treating SEO as just a marketing channel. It has to be baked into your product and brand, from reputation and pricing to, for a restaurant, training your chef and sourcing better ingredients. 🍽️

For more, read Andrea Abbondanza on restaurant SEO. 🔗

📝 Key Takeaways From the Jono Alderson Interview

• 🎛️ More toggles don’t mean better SEO
• 🗣️ Yoast added inclusive language and crawl-reduction features
• 🤖 AI content floods the web, so expertise stands out
• 🎯 Review fewer products, more deeply, with pros and cons
• 🔗 Links still work, but less than before
• 🏗️ Bake SEO into your product and brand

❓ FAQs About Jono Alderson

Why does Jono Alderson say Yoast is better than Rank Math?

He says Yoast is deliberately opinionated, making the right decisions for users instead of offering many confusing toggles, and that its structured data is implemented in line with Google’s spec.

Is SEO dead because of AI?

Jono says no. It evolves, and as generic AI content floods the web, brands with real expertise and opinions stand out.

What should affiliate sites do according to Jono Alderson?

Promote fewer products, write hands-on reviews with balanced pros and cons, and add more informational content.

🎙️ More Inside A Hustler’s Brain Interviews You’ll Love

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• Kyle Roof SEO Strategies, AI Tests & How To Rank #1 in Google 🚀
• How To Ranked #1 With Surfer SEO By Founder Michal Suski 🚀
• Bill Slawski Veteran SEO Expert On Google Ranking Factors

Yoast or Rank Math: which do you use, and why? Share this with a WordPress SEO. 💬

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