Yoast SEO Plugin – Updated June 2020
Nowadays, most of the web developers prefer WordPress for website building. The website created through WordPress needs some plugins to implement On-page SEO techniques.
To help in SEO of the website, plenty of SEO plugins are available on the Internet. So, the question arises which one you should install?
The widely used by most of the big digital marketers, “Yoast SEO” plugin, seems to be just perfect.
Here, we are going to discuss everything you need to know about Yoast SEO (formerly known as ‘WordPress SEO by Yoast’)
What is Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is used by millions of WordPress users. It was found in 2008 as an SEO tutorial. But in 2010, it became the official WordPress repository.
At that time, it was known as WordPress SEO by Yoast or WordPress SEO. The plugin was rebranded in 2015 as “Yoast SEO”.
Now Yoast SEO is one of the most popular and most downloaded WordPress plugins of all time.
What does Yoast do?
- Improves readability- the plugin offers feedback on how to optimize specific writing for readability. It uses algorithm yo check content against different factors that improve the readability score such as linking words, passive voice, sentence length, and clarity, etc.
- Improves content- by analyzing for the length of the text, links used, keywords quality, and density, the Yoast SEO improves the content according the search engine’s preference. With bullets of different colors for specific categories, it’s easy to navigate through the overview.
Settings & Configurations
After installing Yoast SEO, first-time users get an option of a quick tour of the plugin. With so many settings available, this is the easiest way to find the relevancy of your website.
Yoast SEO’s settings can be found by exploring “General” under the SEO section, where you’ll have the option to switch between five tabs. The Webmaster Tools tab is especially helpful, enabling you to incorporate your site with four integral programs, especially Google and Bing, yet in addition to Alexa and Yandex.
By switching between the tabs, you can find the option to specify a title template for all the pages of your WordPress website such as homepage, posts, pages, custom post types, categories, tags, and archives pages.
You can also get the option to choose whether you want to ‘no-index’ a particular post type by default, enable the Yoast SEO meta box or display a date in search engine snippets.
This plugin also supports ‘breadcrumbs’. You can find the option behind the Advanced settings screen. Breadcrumbs provide navigation to the site visitors and give search engines a better understanding of your website’s structure. Read more about breadcrumbs here: https://yoast.com/breadcrumbs-seo/
Content Analysis
If you are in search of a content analysis tool, then Yoast SEO is one of the best to choose from. You can see the content analyzer tool in meta box just below the WordPress text editor.
There is one more feature and that is “Snippet Editor”. This editor allows you to define how your content should appear in the SERPs.
Specifically, it gives you the authority to customize your SEO title and meta description, as these both play a vital role in boosting the ranking of the keywords in SERP. Read more about meta tags here: https://www.seoliquido.com/write-meta-descriptions-to-earn-higher-priority-in-serp/
Now, the next step is the “Content Analysis Tool”. To use this tool, simply write your focused keyword(s).
According to your defined keyword, Yoast SEO analyzes your whole content against 12 SEO ‘best practices’. For example, keyword density, user readability, and the number of outbound links are all included.
It also checks whether your keyword is used in the SEO title, meta description, and in the first paragraph of your content.
There is an indicator like ‘traffic light’ which is there to help you identify the areas you can improve. Obviously, the aim is always green.
XML Sitemaps
Your content needs to get indexed. Only after that, you can get rank on a search engine. To get indexed completely and properly, your website should have an XML Sitemap.
Fortunately, Yoast SEO offers a built-in XML Sitemap function. You can enable your XML Sitemaps by navigating to XML Sitemap under SEO settings.
When you successfully activate Sitemap for your site, Yoast SEO informs the web crawlers every time you publish new content. This makes it the speediest method to get new posts indexed. Your images are also indexed, meaning you can appear in image searches, too.
