Yoast SEO remains the best choice for most WordPress sites because it's been battle-tested since 2008, has excellent documentation, and receives consistent updates that don't break sites. The free version handles title tags, meta descriptions, XML sitemaps, and basic schema markup. Yoast Premium ($99 USD/year) adds redirect management, internal linking suggestions, and multiple focus keywords. For WooCommerce stores, Yoast WooCommerce SEO ($79 USD/year) adds product schema, breadcrumb optimization, and category metadata controls. Rank Math is the main alternative and has grown fast since 2018. Its free tier includes features Yoast locks behind Premium: redirect manager, 404 monitoring, local SEO fields, and advanced schema types. The interface is more modern but slightly more complex. Rank Math Pro ($59 USD/year) adds content AI, video SEO, and Google Trends integration. For stores running 50+ products, Rank Math's bulk editing is faster than Yoast's. We run Yoast on about 70% of our portfolio and Rank Math on 30%. The decision comes down to three factors: - Team experience: If your developers or content team already know Yoast, switching costs outweigh Rank Math's extra features. - Feature needs: If you need advanced schema types or local SEO on a budget, Rank Math free beats Yoast free. - Site complexity: Yoast handles complex multisite and multilingual setups (WPML, Polylang) more reliably. Avoid All in One SEO Pack unless you're already using it and it works. It's fine but offers no meaningful advantage over the top two. SEOPress is a solid third option at $49 USD/year if you want a middle ground, but its market share is small enough that troubleshooting resources are limited. For e-commerce specifically, whichever plugin you choose, the real SEO work happens in your category structure, product descriptions, and technical speed optimization. The plugin just makes it easier to control the metadata and schema. We've seen well-optimized stores rank with either Yoast or Rank Math, and poorly optimized stores fail with both.