Can a newbie use it?

Hi @charlottebyrd, nice to see someone doing their due diligence! This is going to be bit of a freestyle, so don’t quote me. I first started using WordPress around version 2.x.x, so that would be more than 10 years. I used All-in-One SEO for years, then switched to Yoast and used it for years and just in last year I switched to TSF. I started as a complete noob and I’m still far from an expert so I can relate. Currently I manage close to 50 WordPress installations.

Nowadays there are 3-5 major SEO plugins. Yoast SEO is currently the biggest player, main TSF competitor and has most users. It is a solid highly recommended plugin, beginner friendly and with lots of tutorials around. However, lot of users still decide to switch to TSF. One of the main reasons is that the Yoast become full of up-sell, banners, advertising and lots of features are premium. Also Yoast made a mistake in its plugin that actually worsen the SEO of the website, and that led to a mob mentality lynching. The plugin is all good now, but it goes with a show everyone makes mistakes, even TSF made an oopsie, although much smaller. Then there is AIO, because I don’t use it, but I will mention Squirlly SEO that is targeting beginners. I advise you to check all of them (and more), as I am biased towards TSF. Just google Yoast vs TSF and make your own educated decision. That would be my very honest recommendation.

Now I assume you read some of the reviews and comparisons. Good thing about TSF is that everything works out of the box, it doesn’t need much configuration and every setting has a hint in a form of tooltip. TSF strictly follows google guidelines and provides all the technical SEO you need. It does not contain questionable tools, like “keyword focus” present in Yoast (although keywords are still important). It is just ultra-fast SEO plugin that will take care of all technical aspects of the SEO. Your part is to make great content, because no SEO plugin can help you with shitty content. Unlike older brothers (yoast, aio), TSF is build in latest WordPress capabilities in mind, so it doesn’t carry much legacy code but it turn doesn’t support older wordpress versions. If you look at the source-code of TSF, everything is well documented. If you ever needed to extend the plugin even more… it was build to be easy to be extensible by other coders.

Now the best part? Check out this support forums. Literally any support topic. There is always an premium grade answer. Of course nobody can guarantee you this level of support as the plugin grows, but currently even non-plugin-specific issues are resolved. I don’t think you’ll get this using any other plugin. If by some miracle the free support is not good enough, you can opt-in for premium, that comes not only with support from author himself, but also with a set of premium extensions.

Everything premium is completely separated and optional. You will not see heavy push to buy in your installation. To my knowledge, the premium part is still available free but I’m sure the plugin author will drop by to clarify if I’m mistaken. He will drop by nevertheless… so, you will see what I’m talking about.

Last thing.. I’m biased. I’m a huge fan of TSF. TSF is smaller project, led by one developer. Yet it moves the fastest. The users are currently a minority and it grows slowly yet steadily. So if you want to bet on sure thing, go with Yoast. They are too big to fail. Going with yoast is like buying meat in a supermarket. It is ok, you will get your fill, sometimes it is not so fresh, but you are going to eat decent food. TSF is like going to your butcher you know on first name basis and he always gets you only the best stuff. I got little carried away, I need to go back to work, whatever you chose, remember, you can always switch SEO plugins with SEO transporter, so you know… use TSF!