Are WordPress SEO Plugins obsolete?

I am researching whether I would use Yoast or RankMath on my Wordpress blog...
( a search here shows both have their supporters with a RankMath having more features than the free Yoast option...)
But this is not what I am asking myself....

The question is related to the following:
I just ran into a few bloggers stating they have removed these plugins...
Claiming the Google AI does a better job now creating the meta crawling the article than what they could do themselves...
They also claim removing the plugins from their blog (and re-uploading the sitemap) did not impact their traffic negatively...
I'm calling out to the SEO experts here, what is your opinion on this?

Wordpress SEO plugin or not?

I've been using multiple plugins during last years. your question really depends on your needs. for example some options like snippets need plugins to be implemented on the site. other than that plugins speedup the process for the Google bots. a simple example is sitemap,you can create sitemap using these plugins and submit it in google but if you don't ,your site will still be indexed but in a slower speed.
Another aspect is your site's history.if it's an aged website with great rank it'll get more attention from the bots so in this case you might be right and there'll be no need for using plugin but if it's a new website I'd recommend using a plugin

I only use the lightweight "all in one seo" plugin on my sites, and only to noindex and nofollow certain aspects easily. All these other plugins like Yoast are using at best making your content equal to your competitors, and at worse slowing down your site, constant bugs that adversly affect the site and make you write in a robotic manner, which leaves a footprint.

I going to try to unpack this a bit.

First and foremost, you should not fully ever trust anyone who tells you what Google is doing behind the scenes. I've never found anyone who actually knows besides Google. But let's assume that it crawls well. But remember SEO and SEO plugins aren't just about Google SERPs.

BeneFits said:

Claiming the Google AI does a better job now creating the meta crawling the article than what they could do themselves...

Click to expand...

Okay, so what if it does? Does that mean you no longer have to do any SEO? So, does SEO no longer matter? Believing that will not end up well. SEO is partially about SERPs but is all about maximizing the details of your site to pull in traffic and to look professional on SERP pages. SEO benefits the user experience just as much as it does Crawlers. Here is another thought. What if Google's bot is amazing right now? Will it be tomorrow? Next month? Who knows.

BeneFits said:

They also claim removing the plugins from their blog (and re-uploading the sitemap) did not impact their traffic negatively...

Click to expand...

Okay, but you don't know if they are telling the truth and don't know if it will stay consistent over time. But let's assume they are right. It is a flawed statement because the are saying the "removed" the plugins. This means that they had them, used them, finished the site, and stopped using them. So, basically, the site is probably already SEO optimized. In that sense I would agree, you could get rid of the plugin. However, what they didn't say was that they won't be using the Plugin on new sites.

Conclusion:
I will always use an SEO plugin and always focus on SEO strategies with all websites. WHY? One, Google bots are guaranteed to be able to do anything, regardless of what they can do now. Two, SEO isn't just about Google, but about the user. I always want my sites to focus on making a great user experience. If an SEO plugin will help that then I don't care what Google does in their spare time.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

Google cannot even fix the SERP manipulation, you think they gonna care how ur site looks or its SEO?

payam1380 said:

I've been using multiple plugins during last years. your question really depends on your needs. for example some options like snippets need plugins to be implemented on the site. other than that plugins speedup the process for the Google bots. a simple example is sitemap,you can create sitemap using these plugins and submit it in google but if you don't ,your site will still be indexed but in a slower speed.
Another aspect is your site's history.if it's an aged website with great rank it'll get more attention from the bots so in this case you might be right and there'll be no need for using plugin but if it's a new website I'd recommend using a plugin

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input Yes the sitemap seems a must-have but if the plugins accelerate the site indexing the question should not even be asked, plugins should be used.... You want your site indexed as fast as possible!

dandan594594 said:

I only use the lightweight "all in one seo" plugin on my sites, and only to noindex and nofollow certain aspects easily. All these other plugins like Yoast are using at best making your content equal to your competitors, and at worse slowing down your site, constant bugs that adversly affect the site and make you write in a robotic manner, which leaves a footprint.

Click to expand...

NIce one dandan!
Indeed one of the negatives they also mentioned is the fact that plugins force keywords to be used a certain amounts of time in the article which can work against a natural reading of the article (as you state, robotic)
I guess I need to look at the "all in one seo" plugin as well

JetBlack101 said:

Conclusion:
I will always use an SEO plugin and always focus on SEO strategies with all websites. WHY? One, Google bots are guaranteed to be able to do anything, regardless of what they can do now. Two, SEO isn't just about Google, but about the user. I always want my sites to focus on making a great user experience. If an SEO plugin will help that then I don't care what Google does in their spare time.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the breakdown JetBlack ,
I get your point, indeed when you initially write using your plugin and them remove it, those articles are still articles written using the plugin... This is very different from writing without plugin suggestions...
Yes it certainly helps...

stelios0 said:

Google cannot even fix the SERP manipulation, you think they gonna care how ur site looks or its SEO?

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Thanks Stelios, first vote here against SEO tactics in general... That's further than what I would think, do you believe you can rank well with great articles not taking SEO tactics into account? I would still think SEO tactics are important to get traffic to your site...

BeneFits said:

Thanks Stelios, first vote here against SEO tactics in general... That's further than what I would think, do you believe you can rank well with great articles not taking SEO tactics into account? I would still think SEO tactics are important to get traffic to your site...

Click to expand...

Hmm i never said anything against SEO and i am not against at all. Actually if you had the chance to execute good SEO with bad articles (unique ofc) or bad SEO with good articles probably you would understand the option one is the ideal.

What i meant with its SEO i mean pulling the correct data and feeding it to the algorithm

I always see people claim Yoast lags down your website, but please anyone tell me "how much" it can lag you?

Slim SEO can be good alternative to Yoast and Rank Math. Actually, not an alternative but if you are looking for lightweight plugin then go for Slim SEO

terrycody said:

I always see people claim Yoast lags down your website, but please anyone tell me "how much" it can lag you?

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i hate yoast, but it is what I am using across my 2 primary sites. one of them is ranking #1 for a difficult keyword and the other one is not. same wordpress theme. never heard of yoast slowing down your site specially if you use a cache plugin such as wp fastest optimization pro or wp-rocket.

not using a seo plugin is like going naked to a bar. ask yourself: do you feel lucky?

Only experienced webmasters can use it without seo, not recommended for others

terrycody said:

I always see people claim Yoast lags down your website, but please anyone tell me "how much" it can lag you?

Click to expand...

Run a couple of speed tests... Remove Yoast... Re-run the speed tests... & post the results here...

fb3003 said:

not using a seo plugin is like going naked to a bar. ask yourself: do you feel lucky?

Click to expand...

&

Mr Positive said:

Only experienced webmasters can use it without seo, not recommended for others

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Thanks both... I know as much as John Snow
Convinced an SEO is a must for me

Yoast is the easy and best plug in, well its up to you..

David Willy said:

Yoast is the easy and best plug in, well its up to you..

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Thanks for the suggestion
Saying 'the best' is a bold statement... How would this be measured? Being the most popular plugin does not mean the best. It certainly is possible but people also stick with what they know, even if better options become available...

Anyway, this thread is not about what SEO plugin to use... It is just about using one or not... (and my mind is made up)

There already are threads about which one is 'best', I will engage there if I require assistance deciding as I feel this is best practice on forums...
It's useless starting a new thread about an existing subject matter, it just makes information difficult to find, and people get tired of giving the same advice... You get the same effect as social media posting, useful posts in older threads just get covered up by the many new threads... (but who am I to educate people on forum usage)

I started this thread because I could not find the topic I was curious about, I read something (more than once) online and wanted to check it because we all know a lot of BS gets posted everywhere...

Whoever is looking for threads on 'SEO Plugins' here's two recent ones (or search the forum )
last month : https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/post-best-wordpress-seo-plugin.1245909/
this month: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/best-seo-plugin.1254104/

I wouldn’t say that they are obsolete. They may just be a bit less notable in their effect. However, unless you are 100% certain of what you are doing, I wouldn’t do away with SEO plugins. If yours is helping you even a little bit, then why not keep it? If you’re using a good one, it probably isn’t slowing your site down, so there’s no reason to change anything, is it?