A Yoast SEO alternative that reads your Yoast data as it is.
Presscomet SEO stores everything under the same _yoast_wpseo_* keys and understands the same %%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%% templates. Move your site and the SEO box under each post shows the title, description and keyphrase you already wrote — in the same WordPress admin, with no PHP plugin to keep updated.
Replaced by the bundled SEO plugin · Included free with Presscomet
Switching from Yoast SEO: the short version.
You get
- Your Yoast titles, meta descriptions, focus keyphrases, canonicals, noindex flags and social fields — read directly
- Search appearance templates, separator, knowledge graph, social profiles and verification codes imported
- Keyphrase and readability analysis with traffic lights in the editor
- XML sitemap, breadcrumbs and a schema graph
Not included
- One focus keyphrase per post (Yoast Premium offers several plus synonyms)
- No internal-linking suggestions, AI features or Yoast’s add-ons (Local, News, Video, WooCommerce)
- Redirects are a separate bundled plugin, not part of the SEO box
Why leave Yoast SEO at all?
Usually it isn’t Yoast — it’s everything around it: a PHP site with a dozen plugins that each need updates, a slow admin on shared hosting, and upsell notices in the dashboard. You can’t remove WordPress’s PHP and MySQL by swapping SEO plugins.
Presscomet replaces the whole stack while keeping the WordPress admin and block editor your team knows. SEO comes built in and keeps Yoast’s data format, so there is nothing to re-enter.
Is Yoast SEO slowing your site down?
Yoast builds an index of your content to power its internal features, and runs PHP on every uncached page to print the head tags. On a busy or under-powered host, that work adds up — mostly in the admin.
Public pages on Presscomet are rendered once and served from a built-in page cache until the content changes, so a plugin's work happens at render time, not on every visit. SEO tags are written once when the page is built, and there is no indexing job to run.
Yoast SEO vulnerabilities and updates
Every PHP plugin is code that runs on your server and has to be kept up to date, and Yoast SEO is no exception: security fixes only protect you once they are installed. To check any plugin's history, search it in a public vulnerability database such as WPScan, Patchstack or the CVE list.
Presscomet doesn't run PHP at all. Its bundled plugins are part of the application, so they are updated together with it — there is no separate plugin to patch, and no plugin upload that can execute PHP.
Yoast SEO vs Presscomet
Feature by feature, including what isn’t there. Rows describe what the bundled plugin’s code does today.
| Feature | Yoast SEO (free) | Yoast SEO Premium | Presscomet |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO title & meta description templates | Included: Yes | Included: Yes | Included: Yes, same %%variables%% |
| Per-post SEO box with Google preview | Included: Yes | Included: Yes | Included: Yes |
| Focus keyphrase analysis | Included: One keyphrase | Included: Several, with synonyms | Partly: One keyphrase |
| Readability analysis | Included: Yes | Included: Yes | Included: Yes |
| Open Graph & X cards | Included: Yes | Included: Yes | Included: Yes |
| Schema graph | Included: Yes | Included: Yes | Included: Yes |
| Breadcrumbs | Included: Yes | Included: Yes | Included: [wpseo_breadcrumb] keeps working |
| XML sitemap | Included: Yes | Included: Yes | Included: Yes |
| Redirect manager | Not included: No | Included: Yes | Partly: Separate bundled Redirection plugin |
| Internal linking suggestions | Not included: No | Included: Yes | Not included: Not included |
| Plugin updates to install | Partly: Yes | Partly: Yes | Not needed: None — part of the application |
- Included
- Partly, or on a paid plan
- Not included
- Not needed, with the reason
Yoast SEO features as publicly documented; plans change. Check yoast.com for current details.
What moves over automatically.
Because the post meta keys are identical, Yoast is the easiest migration there is: post data isn’t converted at all, and settings are read from Yoast’s options.
Imported
- SEO title, meta description, focus keyphrase, canonical, breadcrumb title
_yoast_wpseo_title_yoast_wpseo_metadesc_yoast_wpseo_focuskw_yoast_wpseo_canonical_yoast_wpseo_bctitle - Robots settings per post
_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow - Facebook and X title, description and image per post
_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title - Search appearance: separator, templates per post type and taxonomy, knowledge graph
wpseo_titles - Social profiles and default image
wpseo_social - Webmaster verification codes
wpseo - Term SEO titles and descriptions
wpseo_taxonomy_meta
Not imported
- Yoast Premium redirects (export them to CSV and import under Tools → Redirection)
- Extra keyphrases and synonyms (Premium)
- Yoast’s indexables tables — they’re rebuilt data, not content
- SEO: imported 64 settings.
How switching works.
- 01
Check your site
Run the free site check to see which of your plugins Presscomet replaces and what needs attention.
- 02
Run the migration
Connect your WordPress site. Content, users, media and plugin settings are imported into a new Presscomet site; your live site is only read.
- 03
Review and switch
Open SEO in the admin menu, plus the SEO box under every post and page to check the imported settings, then point your domain at the new site when you’re happy.
Where to find it: SEO in the admin menu, plus the SEO box under every post and page.
Yoast SEO alternative: questions
Will I lose my Yoast SEO titles and meta descriptions?
No. Presscomet SEO reads the same _yoast_wpseo_* post meta that Yoast wrote, so every title, description, keyphrase, canonical and noindex flag comes across with your posts.
Do the %%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%% variables still work?
Yes. Templates use the same variable syntax, and Yoast’s search appearance settings are imported.
Can I keep my Yoast Premium redirects?
Not automatically — Premium keeps redirects in its own storage. Export them as CSV from Yoast and import the file under Tools → Redirection.
Does the [wpseo_breadcrumb] shortcode keep working?
Yes. [wpseo_breadcrumb], [rank_math_breadcrumb] and a breadcrumbs block all render the same trail.
Is this Yoast’s code?
No. It is a separate implementation inside Presscomet that uses the same data format. Presscomet is not affiliated with Yoast.
Can I keep running Yoast SEO instead?
No. Presscomet doesn’t run PHP, so WordPress plugins can’t be installed. The bundled SEO plugin does the job instead, and the migration imports the settings listed above.
Does Presscomet support WooCommerce?
Not today. Presscomet is for content sites — blogs, magazines, business and documentation sites. If your site sells through WooCommerce, it isn’t a fit yet.
Related plugins and next steps
Related
- BundledSEOTitles and descriptions with variables, keyphrase and readability analysis, schema, breadcrumbs and sitemaps. Reads Yoast data as-is.
- AlternativeRank Math alternativeConverts Rank Math titles, descriptions, focus keywords, robots and primary categories; redirects and 404 log bundled separately.
- BundledRedirection301/302/307/308 and 410 rules with regex, hit counts, a 404 log, CSV import/export and automatic redirects on slug changes.
- AlternativeRedirection alternativeTools → Redirection as you know it: rules, regex, hit counts, 404 log — your Redirection rules imported.
Move your WordPress site in one go — content, users, media and plugin settings. Free and open source; your live site is only read.
Managed hosting with backupsAll 19 bundled plugins
Yoast SEO, Yoast are trademarks of their respective owners. Presscomet is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Names are used only to describe compatibility and migration.