Yoast SEO Premium: How to Upgrade from Free Version to Pro

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Yoast SEO is the best free SEO WordPress plugin out there.

But they also have a paid version which has added features like:

  • Redirect manager
  • Multiple focus keywords
  • Social preview
  • Internal linking

For redirects, I used a free redirection plugin.

I usually don’t use the focus keyword option.

I don’t typically need to see the full social preview.

The Yoast internal linking feature available on the premium version shows posts that can be interlinked directly in the post editor section. This was enough reason for me to start using the pro version of Yoast.

It’s not necessary for you to upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium. However, since I blog for a living and it’s always a good idea to lower down the number of plugins, I finally decided to upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to upgrade from the Yoast free version to Yoast Premium.

How To Upgrade From Yoast SEO To Yoast Premium

Once you have purchased the Yoast Premium license, you will get an email with the plugin’s download link and activation key.

Upgrade From Yoast SEO To Yoast Premium
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Download by clicking on Download Yoast SEO Premium.

Now, follow these steps:

Note: Make sure you are using the latest free version of Yoast SEO.

  • Upload the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, but do not activate it.
  • Disable the free version of Yoast SEO.
  • Now, activate Yoast SEO Premium.
Yoast SEO Premium
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All the data from the free version will be automatically used by the premium version.

  • Click on SEO > Go premium > Licenses to add your license key.
Yoast SEO Premium Licence settings
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Once your Yoast SEO Premium license key is activated, you can start using their premium version features.

The whole upgrade process doesn’t take more than 5 minutes.

Using the Internal Linking Feature on Yoast SEO Premium:

To start using the internal linking suggestion feature, you need to first analyze your content. Depending upon your blog size, it could take a few minutes to a few hours.

To analyze, you need to go to Yoast’s SEO settings:

Dashboard > General > Internal linking

Internal linking
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Once the analysis is complete, you will be able to see the internal linking suggestion from the WordPress post editor section.

After using this feature for a while, I believe this one thing alone is worth upgrading the plugin.

Here is how this feature shows suggestions on the WordPress post editor:

Yoast Internal Linking
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The best part is, that you can simply drag and drop any suggestion to quickly add it to the writing section.

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Note: On other blogs, I had no issue using this feature. However, on ShoutMeLoud, the content analysis failed to crawl everything. I believe it’s because we have a huge site here with more than 2500+ posts.

Redirection Module:

Click on SEO > Redirects to start using the redirects feature. If you are using any other redirection plugin, you can migrate the data to Yoast SEO Redirects and deactivate that other plugin.

Redirection Module
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From the settings option, you can configure what kind of redirection you want to use:

  • PHP or Web server
PHP or Web server
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Yoast SEO Premium can generate redirect files that can be included in your website’s web server configuration. If you choose this option, PHP redirects will be disabled. Only check this option if you know what you are doing!

Social Preview:

Social Preview
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The social preview feature shows you how your post will be shown on Facebook and Twitter. This feature is also available on the free version, but there you can’t see the full preview.

For a single person managing a blog, this feature is not so important. However, for blogs with multiple writers, this feature will help improve the content publishing flow.

Multiple Focus Keywords:

This feature is useful for those who take on-page SEO seriously.

One major difference between Yoast free and Yoast Premium is the number of focus keywords you can target in an article. In the free version, you can target only one focus keyword, whereas in the premium version, you can target multiple focus keywords.

Multiple Focus Keywords
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Check out:

Conclusion: Is Yoast SEO Premium Worth the Upgrade?

Yoast is a reputed company in the WordPress community and so are their products.

The SEO premium version costs $69 for one site and offers the above additional features. Some of these features you can definitely get by with using free plugins, however, for those who are blogging to earn money or using WordPress for their full-time business, Yoast SEO Premium is definitely worth it.

If you are starting out with a limited budget, you can upgrade to the premium version later in the future.

Is Yoast SEO Premium Worth the Upgrade?
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I believe these additional features save a lot of headaches and make life much easier. I would also love to see more new features added in the pro version of Yoast SEO in the near future.

Do let me know which version of Yoast SEO you are using. Are you considering an upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium? Let me know in the comments below!

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Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

36 thoughts on “Yoast SEO Premium: How to Upgrade from Free Version to Pro”

  1. Jialin

    Hi, is the fee one time charge or annual subscription?

    1. Hey Jialin,

      Yoast premium plugins for WordPress is a one time purchase. However, after a year, you will have to pay renewable subscription for upgrades and access to their premium support team.

  2. Kechi

    Great post, Harsh.
    I just started blogging fulltime, I was a bit conflicted about getting the Yoast Premium. But with your tips and fantastic review, I think I will get it.
    Hopefully, it can help me to build up more traffic.
    Thanks again!

  3. Jitender

    Do we get life time license for $69 or we are supposed to renew it every year? Can you please clear this doubt?

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Jitender
      You need to renew it every year.

  4. David

    What type of improved traffic has anyone see going from free to the premium? I have about 900 pages on our industry focused blog and we get decent traffic but most is driven by pushing the content vs organic search

  5. Saran

    Hello Harsh,

    Thanks for this article.

    Would you please confirm me there will not be any data or settings removal after upgrading to premium version?

    Is there any impact or lower down my page seo rank when I remove my current free Yoast plugin?

    Also, will it help for more traffic?

    Please reply.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Saran
      1) You will not lose any data.
      2) No negative impact if you remove free one
      3) It just adds new features. How you use those features determine if it increases traffic or not

  6. ledgen

    what i want to say is that if you are a new blogger and you do not fully understand on page seo and the multiple keyword feature found in the premium yoast seo plugin, i will sugest that you use the free yoast seo plugin, overall i think the free version will be more wise to use if you are going for the multiple keyword in feature in the premium version

  7. Pragati kumar sheel

    I have been using free version of yoast SEO and it is working really fine.

    What I think rather than going for premium version, bloggers should work on keyword research and choose the better one (If you are a beginner).

    I am saying this because premium version of yoast SEO is very costly. 🙂

  8. Deep Sikder

    Yoast SEO is great. The on-page SEO results shown by Yoast are very much reliable, in fact, best within the industry. I do recommend to my friends and fellow bloggers.

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