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  • Search_Synergy

    Guest
    November 13, 2025 at 10:14 pm

    You can always refer clients directly to the official documentation showing that these plugins are content optimization tools, not ranking tools, and their scores do not guarantee SEO success:

    * [Yoast’s documentation](https://yoast.com/how-to-yoast-your-post/#:~:text=Yoast%20SEO%20is,the%20end%20result)
    * “*Yoast SEO is a tool that aims to help you optimize your content. It gives practical tips on how to improve your content. Think of it as your personal SEO assistant! But that being said, it’s also just a tool. Make sure to re-read your content once you’ve optimized it to ensure you’re happy with the end result!”*
    * [Rank Math’s documentation](https://rankmath.com/kb/seo-analysis/#:~:text=Let%E2%80%99s%20clear%20something,traffic%20from%20SEO)
    * “*Let’s clear something up before we get into the post. Although the SEO Analyzer will help you fix the most basic issues, you will still need to* ***perform SEO activities to get more traffic continuously.*** *Millions of things play a role in SEO, and it is not possible to configure them with an automated tool. That does not mean that the SEO Analyzer is not important—it absolutely is! But, once you’ve used the SEO analyzer to improve your website, you will still need to keep improving if you expect to get more traffic from SEO.”*

    A big issue we face in this industry is that people who don’t understand SEO give blanket credibility to these tools simply because they exist in the SEO ecosystem. They assume the tool is authoritative, even when it’s only checking a handful of surface-level elements.

    For example, the number of people who think SEMrush = Google — that its rankings, audits, errors, or keyword numbers are direct reflections of Google — drives me insane. Clients run a scan and suddenly believe the tool automatically knows more than the specialist they hired.

    At the end of the day, the only real measurement is results. And for someone who doesn’t understand SEO, there’s often a fixed conflated “expected outcome,” and even when you significantly improve their visibility and grow their online presence, that bar keeps moving. Their expectations don’t align with how SEO actually works, and that’s where most of the frustration comes from.