1 billion downloads: The people and stories behind Yoast SEO
1 billion downloads of Yoast SEO. That’s a milestone worth celebrating.
But behind that number are the people who made it possible: the bloggers who wanted more people to find their content, the businesses working to grow online, the agencies helping their clients succeed, and the countless people who simply wanted a little help with SEO.
Over the years, Yoast SEO has been part of millions of these journeys. Some people have been using it for more than a decade, while others have only recently discovered it. So, as we celebrate 1 billion downloads, we wanted to hear from the people behind the number and look back at what Yoast SEO has meant to them.
This milestone belongs to you. Thank you for being part of the journey.
What our users told us
We recently rolled out a short survey to our users, asking them to share how Yoast SEO has been part of their SEO journey. (If you’re a Yoast user, you may have even received it in your inbox.) We heard from people at very different stages from a WordPress agency that has been using Yoast since its early days to people who discovered it more recently.
Here are a few of the stories they shared with us.
More than a decade of making SEO accessible
One respondent is part of a WordPress agency in Montreal that has been using Yoast SEO for more than a decade. The agency installs Yoast SEO by default for its clients and says it has helped make SEO more accessible:
“As a pioneering WordPress agency based in Montreal, Canada, we’ve been using Yoast since its inception and install it by default for all our clients. Yoast played a key role in raising awareness and making the SEO strategy for a WordPress project more accessible.”
Their favorite feature? The Yoast SEO Meta Box.
Building a website with confidence
Another respondent started using Yoast SEO less than a year ago, after building an author website and looking for help with SEO. They particularly appreciated the setup process and the guidance built into the plugin:
“The easy-to-follow setup steps, along with the built-in features to let you know if the SEO for your webpage checks all the boxes, have allowed me to build it with confidence.”
The traffic-light feedback was a particular favorite, giving them a simple way to understand how their SEO and readability were shaping up as they built their site.
Making SEO accessible to non-experts
A third respondent came to Yoast SEO while rebuilding a website where the SEO work had to be handled by people who weren’t SEO experts. For them, the value was straightforward: understanding what needed to be done and being able to do it.
“It had to be done by non-SEO experts so the ability to understand what to do and then do it meant Yoast SEO had to be useful. It is useful. Very useful and our business has improved because of it.”
They also appreciated something that goes beyond the familiar green, orange, and red indicators. Yoast’s guidance and articles helped them understand that SEO isn’t always about making everything green, a perspective that made the tool feel more like a trusted guide than a checklist.
And these aren’t the only stories….
The stories shared by our users are just a small glimpse into how Yoast SEO has been part of people’s journeys. Over the years, we’ve heard from many more website owners, content creators, and agencies who have shared their experiences with us. Here are a few words from them:
- “Yoast has always been our go-to SEO solution for our website and client website projects for over a decade.” — Mark Baldwin, Director at Baldwin Digital
- “Yoast is now our most valuable app. It saves our team a lot of time writing SEO-optimized content.” — Andrea Oswald, Managing Director at Age Suit Germany
- “Yoast has helped us spread the word to everyone we work with about how important SEO is.” — Dan Atrill, Director at DJA Online Services Limited
- “Yoast has been an enormous help with helping us focus our content around the right keywords, changing our site structure and giving nudges when something needs improving.” — Jon, cakebakerecipes
- “This has helped me improve the traffic on my website by 10 folds, but we started ranking on the 1st page of Google on the majority of our searches.” — Sunny Choudhary, PortraitFlip
These are just a few of the experiences people have shared with us. You can read more on our testimonials page.
And while we’re grateful for every kind word, we’re equally thankful to everyone who has shared feedback, asked questions, or helped us improve Yoast SEO along the way. You’ve all played a part in getting us to 1 billion downloads.
So, why do people use Yoast SEO?
Looking at these stories, a few things stand out. People use Yoast SEO for different reasons, but there’s a common thread: it helps make SEO easier to understand and easier to do.
For some, it’s a way to learn the basics and get a little guidance as they build their website. For others, it’s a familiar part of their day-to-day workflow, helping them optimize content without having to be an SEO expert.
A few themes come up again and again:
- It makes SEO more approachable. You don’t need to be an SEO professional to understand what needs attention on your pages.
- It gives you guidance while you work. The feedback in the editor helps you spot areas for improvement as you create or update content.
- It takes care of important technical SEO. Things like XML sitemaps, canonical URLs, structured data, and redirects can be handled without having to manage everything yourself.
- It helps people learn along the way. Yoast’s analysis, articles, documentation, and other educational resources have helped many users better understand SEO itself.
And perhaps that’s one of the most meaningful things about reaching 1 billion downloads: Yoast SEO has been used by people at very different stages of their SEO journey. Some needed a starting point, some needed a helping hand, and others have been using it as part of their workflow for years.
But we wondered: if we asked AI what people think about Yoast SEO, would it come up with the same themes?
We also asked AI what people think about Yoast SEO
We couldn’t resist asking AI, too. So we gave Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity the same two questions: Why do people love the Yoast SEO plugin? and What are people’s reviews of Yoast SEO?
Their answers were different, but a few familiar themes kept popping up: making SEO easier to understand, providing helpful guidance, and handling the technical stuff.
In other words, the AI found many of the same things our users told us themselves. We won’t let the robots take all the credit, though. The real stories are still the best part.
SEO for everyone: Thank you for being part of 1 billion downloads
A billion downloads is a huge number, but what makes this milestone special is the people behind it. Every download represents someone working on a website, creating something new, learning about SEO, growing a business, or simply trying to help more people find their content.
Over the years, you’ve used Yoast SEO in countless different ways. You’ve shared your experiences, asked questions, given us feedback, and helped us improve the product. Some of you have been with us for more than a decade, while others have only just started their SEO journey.
And that’s what SEO for everyone means to us. Not just making SEO tools available to everyone, but helping people at every stage feel that SEO is something they can understand and use.
So, whether you were download number one or somewhere among the billion that followed, thank you. Thank you for trusting Yoast SEO, for learning with us, and for being part of our journey.
Here’s to the next billion — and to making SEO for everyone.
