Yes. “Autodescription” is a worthy plugin. It’s benign. We’ve tested it. It’s good for speed. But we don’t advocate SEO plugins. Keep reading to find out why:

★★★★★
Autodescription (aka The SEO Framework)

Load time: 0 milliseconds

Autodescription plugin doesn’t do grotesque slow downs like Yoast SEO (from 150 to 240 milliseconds site drag). All SEO plugins consume ever-growing database resources. The plugin authors don’t tell you about that hidden liability.

To migrate the database from Yoast SEO to Autodescription plugin use this helper plugin:

REFERENCE: https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-data-transporter/

OFFSITE ARTICLE: https://spigotdesign.com/how-to-migrate-from-yoast-seo-to-the-seo-framework/

Do we think SEO tricks alter ranking or increase click thru? We’re unconvinced. It doesn’t move the needle. But site owners desire feeling in control of the uncontrollable page rank and clickthrough.

SEO is as therapeutic as knitting.

We also don’t believe speed affects page ranking more than 1 percent. Yet, we sell information about speed. Speed affects UX. Focusing on user experience and not gaming Google produces a better return on investment. Think about it.

Google used your handcrafted rich snippet?

Big deal. It’s simply not significant compared to a good product offer – or better and more written content that makes people drool. No one can prove  snippets make any difference. There is no quantifiable data or evidence. No expert certification or credible SEO degree. Except from Google, of course.

But if writing *rich* snippets makes you feel good. Do it.

Google chooses – and has the right to accept or reject – your manufactured rich snippet. When they feel it’s worthy or believable, they’ll keep it. But if they don’t, they’ll make their own concoction. You don’t *force* your snippet upon the world with a plugin. Our opinion is Google’s formula-built snippet is better. Why? They claim it’s based on user intent. They predict based on search history, where they just were, and what users hunt for. They use a smart algorithm.

Is that provable? Of course not.

Nothing Google claims or reports is provable with real metrics. They shamelessly imply or even promise site owners empowerment when there is none. It’s a reward (bribe), manipulation, or distraction. Compliance to their proprietary rules is mysterious behavior. Inexplicable. They really don’t want people knowing how they do things. Knowledge of the *real rules* allows site-owner cheating.

Is there “any harm” in writing custom snippets? Yes. Opportunity cost. That simple. It wastes your time. You’ve got bigger fish to fry. The SEO Emperor has no clothes.

MYTH: I’ve installed Yoast, so I’m all set

Sometimes, this statement makes me want to spit out my coffee and laugh; other times, it makes me sad that new bloggers can be so gullible and clueless.

Why?

Because this is an utterly ridiculous statement.

First, some newer bloggers mistakenly think that Yoast “gives them SEO.” And, of course, it doesn’t. In fact, there is no plugin that “gives you SEO.” There is no such thing. Rather the blog posts you write and the activities you do for a post will get you organic traffic. There is no silver bullet and no easy way around this.

Rather, Yoast attempts to measure your SEO. It uses some basic formulas that “check off” some of the boxes. Notice how I say “attempts.” This is because it’s very formulaic. And, also, it’s not very accurate nor predictive. In fact, often it gives you bad advice because it will direct you to do things that will lead to keyword stuffing (which is very bad for SEO) as well as poor writing, and that is bad for user experience. And, if it’s a bad user experience, it’s bad for SEO.

Many people mistakenly think that if they get a green light that their post is SEO optimized and will rank well. This simply isn’t true. Far from it. It’s all based on the keyword phrase that you enter. It does not tell you if that’s a highly searched term nor your chances of ranking for it. And, it’s simply garbage in/garbage out.

–Debbie Gartner

Will it upset us if you install a plugin and do “SEO”? Not at all. We have freedom of speech and religion – and SEO. Go for it.

If you do SEO and see some miracle happen, please let us know. We’re only right 51 percent of the time. We’re not perfect.

So prove us wrong. That’s the challenge. Document your traffic dramatically increasing in short order after changing SEO tactics using snippets.

We’d actually like to be wrong on this one.