To answer my own question…
Yes. I do think they are overrated.
Now, pump your brakes. I’m not saying they are completely worthless, I just think some people assume they are THE definitive answer to some massive search engine ranking increase.
The Advantages
SEO plugins can be useful when they provide additional reporting features, display errors, reminders or if they help you utilize and understand basic SEO markup, build sitemaps, etc.
For example, Yoast allows you to create breadcrumbs to help people navigate through your site. This feature is not just beneficial for SEO, but for the user experience. 
Premium Plugins
Yoast happens to be free, but there are a couple of plugins on the market that are not. To be honest, I’ve never spent too much time researching them. No interest.
All I can say is I suppose there could be value if they provide additional reporting, tracking, etc. and do not make unrealistic claims about what they can do for your traffic.
But whatever you do, please do not install an SEO plugin (free or paid) and expect the search engine heavens to part while flooding you with traffic overnight.
Today SEO is largely driven by social media shares, the quality of your backlinks, your Google Authority and content. So waiting for a plugin to dramatically influence your rankings is unrealistic.
Why I Uninstalled My Plugin
I don’t have an SEO plugin installed on this blog anymore. Yoast was causing a conflict with my theme, which already has some fundamental SEO settings and options. And to be honest, I never really used many of the additional settings that Yoast provides anyway.
Actually, I was a tad bit overwhelmed by all the choices. The only settings I ever changed can be updated in my current theme, so I had redundant markup and some issues saving a few settings. Since disabling the plugin several months ago, I’ve seen no negative impact. As long as my posts are still getting indexed and I have the option to edit basic SEO settings that my theme provides, that’s all I need. 
And I just did another check…. My organic traffic is actually a bit higher than it was last winter when I had Yoast installed.
Now, I don’t want to get into cause and effect because I think it’s really hard to know what is specifically influencing SEO today. All I’m saying is it didn’t seem to make much of a difference having a plugin installed or not.
And for the record, I wasn’t too terribly concerned with what would happen to my Google traffic after uninstalling Yoast. Right now, only 35-40% of my blog’s traffic comes from Google… thankfully.
The rest comes from referring sites, email, social media, RSS, etc. And I’d love to get that SE percentage down to 25-30 and raise the other to 70-75. So if this blog was more dependent on Google traffic, maybe I would have been a little more reluctant (A.K.A. afraid) to make such a change. Having said that, I’m not convinced a plugin was making a big difference.
What About Sitemaps?
Now I do like the XML Sitemaps plugin. I have used this since the beginning and do feel it’s necessary to keep your sitemap updated and submitted. Most SEO plugins already has a sitemap feature, so you may not even need an additional plugin.
Yes, There’s Still Some Value
Hear me out. I’m not suggesting you run to uninstall your SEO plugin.
I just feel they are overrated when it comes to the traffic expectations — especially today. I also think you need to be very careful when you claim or assume some tool is drastically improving your rankings when Google now uses more off-page signals like social media and select backlinks to influence SEO.
And finally… multiple plugins are not going to give you any greater benefit. If anything, they can conflict with each other and cause a host of other problems such as duplicate tags, sitemaps and other markup issues. Now, if you can confirm the features don’t overlap that’s one thing, but be careful of installing plugins that perform similar tasks.
What Say You?
I’m really looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I can imagine some of you cannot even THINK of parting with your beloved plugins. 🙂 Am I the only one who feels they are overrated?
Love ’em or hate ’em, I want to hear from you!
Hey Lisa, I was really surprised to hear that your rankings actually went up without the Yoast plugin. I have had my doubts about this plugin, and I think your article confirms it for me! I am going to try removing mine and see what happens, as my theme has most of the Yoast elements built into it!
Thanks for the post, share worthy indeed!
what? —> My organic traffic is actually a bit higher than it was last winter when I had Yoast installed.
I love reading your posts.
They are easy to read, type face is clear and big, and your content is fun to read.
Thank you again.
I am surfing your site. =)
Fairly new blogger.
Hello Lisa,
I cannot tell you how refreshing this post is (and how happy I am to have found it!) I have been debating whether to add SEO Yoast, but for whatever reason (being overwhelmed?), I simply cannot begin the task.
I also feel that the plugin (any SEO plugin for that matter!) is overrated. There are so many factors to consider when reconciling your site’s SEO, to put the pressure on one SEO plugin is a recipe for heartache. Having said that, could you recommend 3 key factors to consider when looking to increase traffic? I am thinking content, permalinks and word of mouth (i.e. social media, etc.). I am definitely in need of improving ranking, but to be honest, not sure how to effectively go about it.
Keep well, and continue the great work,
Candace
Hi Candace
Glad I can shed some light. The #1 way to increase search engine traffic is to EARN more relevant links from other bloggers who like your content. Now that is harder to do than artificially creating links the not-so-natural way but that’s the whole point. Google wants to rank sites that are naturally earning links. So that’s why networking is important, as well as being unique, helpful and standing out in a way your competitors aren’t.
Content is important too and if you’re talking about ranking in google you have to target keywords that aren’t as competitive. I use Long Tail Pro software for research to see how competitive certain phrases are.
If you notice many of the top 10 rankings are dominated by either brands are very popular sites. That’s because they have a lot of links so that is the key with ranking. Content is very important, but others have to find and share your content for Google to take notice.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the reply; you essentially echoed what I thought. I have toyed with Keyword Planner in the past – looking at searched terms with low competition – but will look into Long Tail Pro. Bottom line, I know I have to get a handle on this SEO thing, so no time like the present! Moving forward I will approach increasing traffic the old-fashion-way; one relevant link at a time.
Again, keep up the fab work!
I saw the same as you did, Lisa, when I had Yoast installed. My site dropped quite markedly in SERPs, plus weird titles started showing up on Google (name of website before actual title of post etc). So…after a month, I dumped it. My site went back to the same as before SERPs or better.
On top of that, Yoast is a huge resource hog and, with little or no benefit, I just didn’t see the point in using it. Wouldn’t install it again either.
I took a class at the Pubcon conference in Vegas and learned how to use Yoast. I think it helps with ranking.
Good article Lisa, I tried without SEO plugin and with Yoast on my sites. There is a lot of difference, SEO plugins are just useless. SEO is depends on the content only.