1. What paid features are you looking at?

2. What platform? WordPress or something else?

On WP I see SEO plugins as simply a means of installing the necessary on-page components:

– meta title & description

– social & other metadata

– control & submit sitemaps

– control link attributes (nofollow, dofollow, etc.)

– control noindexed pages

The free plugins are sufficient for all of these.

As for schema, I customize and write it by hand.

I don’t go by Yoast or AIOSEO “scores”. They are subjective metrics based on the plugin developers’ opinions. Whatever data they get it from is anyone’s guess.

I keyword-optimize elements based on my & others’ own testing and data of what it takes to rank.

**Remember:** NONE of these plugins can guarantee or assure ranking. They are a means of **implementing SEO optimizations**, so I treat them as such, not a guarantee of rankings.

They are certainly not a replacement for your own SEO skill & knowledge.

You must understand what element does what in each keyword, each niche, and each locality.

Most importantly, you have to pay attention how the Search Console graphs respond after every optimization you do. *That* alone, in most cases, can give you the data to determine what works and what doesn’t.