Quick story about why you should NEVER, EVER, EVER use the All In One SEO Plugin for WordPress.
The chart below is from a new client’s Google Search Console, – says Joe Youngblood.
Since August they’ve lost between 98 and 100% of all Google traffic and it’s at least partially All in One SEO’s fault.
Before I get into it.
I need to say: I have never had a good experience with AIOSEO.
While I enjoy Yoast having competition it feels like most of them are far more worried about themselves than the sites they are installed on.
AIOSEO is one of the worst in this regard IMHO.
Of course, this sets off instant alarm bells in my head and I start to theorize what could have caused this.
Before we take action, we send an alert to the client, who told us they had lost some traffic but wasn’t sure what was going on and had no idea how to find out.
In that email, we even give the client a few potential causes before diving in.
My gut was pointing the finger at a past SEO or designer for doing something or forgetting to do something.
Once the client was notified, I got to work.
Now, I am what they call “seasoned” in these situations because they are frustratingly common.
So, the very first place I look is the WordPress Admin -> Settings -> Reading and scroll to the bottom.
Here’s what I saw:
Alright.
Well, that was easy, a quick fix and the client is back to doing awesome things and scoring rankings.
But, the question kept nagging at me.
Why didn’t they or their site manager notice this?
Didn’t their site put up a big ol’ warning?
Let’s look!
Instead of fixing the issue ASAP, I left it and poked around their WordPress Admin.
First thing I notice is that instead of Yoast or RankMath or any other SEO plugin they are using Syed Balkhi’s All in One SEO Plugin (i.e.
the WP Beginner guy).
This had a warning right?
Here’s the main WP Admin Dashboard.
All in One SEO had a message here for the admins, but it was nothing about the mass noindex.
Ok but maybe it’s better elsewhere in the admin, what about the Reading settings?
Nope, same.
What if the admin goes to the All in One SEO Plugin Dashboard?
Surely, here it is a big glaring warning right?
Wrong.
So far all of AIOSEO’s admin messages have been incredibly self-serving.
However, the plugin has a notifications section that is in the Admin toolbar.
Maybe that is big and obvious?
Well…
at least it’s there as Notification #4…
Look, the designer who did this and launched the site is at fault here.
We can all agree on that.
The client not having an SEO ready to do a post-launch eval is a little at fault too.
But AIOSEO failed this business owner, HARD.
Also note that the All in One SEO notification is from 2 months ago.
The site was launched in August of 2023 with that box checked.
AIOSEO was added 2 months ago by the owner as an attempt at doing their own SEO.
It utterly and completely failed.
I completely forgot to add that the 3 notifications before the single most important one were basically about upgrading to Pro for a feature.
