TheΒ Yoast SEOΒ is, without a doubt, one of the best WordPress SEO plugins and a great way to manage your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It has fantastic documentation, it’s simple to use, and it delivers reliable results.
Plenty of you are already familiar with the Yoast SEO basics β such as using keywords correctly, getting as many green lights as possible, and structuring your content adequately. However, there are plenty of other features that you mayΒ have missed in your rush to start optimizing your content.
In this piece, we’ll review the Yoast SEO setup process together, and make sure our installations are properly optimized.
Install and Activate Yoast SEO
Weβre sure that most of you knowΒ how to install and activate a WordPress plugin, but weβll go over the basics for anyΒ newcomers among you.
The fastest way to add any plugin within the WordPress.org repository is to navigate to the Plugins tab on your dashboard, selectΒ Add NewΒ at the top,Β then use the search function to locate it:
Once found, click on Install Now,Β then Activate to complete the process. Now weβre ready to configure theΒ plugin itself.
Meet the Yoast SEO Dashboard
After installing the plugin, youβll find a new admin panelΒ on your dashboard called SEO, andΒ is comprised of eight subsections:
- Dashboard
- Titles & Metas
- Social
- XML Sitemaps
- Advanced
- Tools
- Search Console
- Go Premium
The DashboardΒ section includes five tabs, plus two notification hubs thatΒ show any outstanding SEO problems or improvements you should look into:
The GeneralΒ tab enables you to take a guided tour through all of the main Yoast SEO sections, peek at the pluginβs credits, or restore the plugin’sΒ default settings. If you do choose to go through with the guided tour β which is a good idea to get acquainted with the plugin β you’ll be presented with some handy tooltips throughout the process:
Moving on, the Your Info tab enables you to modify how your websiteβs name appears in search results, and lets you set an alternative name for Googleβs consideration. Further down, you can specify whether youβre a company or a person if you want this information to appear in Googleβs Knowledge Graph:
We recommend leaving these settings blank except for the last one, which wonβt affect your SEO rankings in any way.
Webmaster Tools and Security Settings
Next, the Webmaster ToolsΒ tab includes three fields thatΒ need to be filled out if you want to use the respective tools for Bing, Google Search Console, andΒ Yandex:
Later on, we’ll look at the settings dedicated to fetching your Google Search Console information, but if you want to read up on Google Search Console before we get there, take a look at this piece from our archives:
Here,Β there’s also an option toΒ enable or disableΒ OnPage.org’sΒ indexability check. OnPage.org is a website optimization organization that cooperates with Yoast SEO to check your homepageβs search engine indexability. It makes sure everything is set up correctly for inclusion inΒ searchΒ results. Rest easy, though β it doesnβt gather any information regarding your personal settings or WordPress data while performing itsΒ checks.
Finally, the Security tab includes a setting thatΒ togglesΒ the display of the advanced Yoast SEO meta box for edit pages. By default, the Advanced section will only appear for administrators β and we recommend you keep it that way, since it includes settings for non-indexing posts, and changing their canonical URLs:
Thatβs the end of the Yoast SEO Dashboard section, and we hardly got to tinker with any settings at all. Donβt worry β the following tabs offer plenty of options for us to play with.
Optimize Your Titles and Meta Descriptions
The Yoast SEO Titles & Metas section is an important one β it includes six different tabs grouping settings such asΒ title separators andΒ post taxonomies. Letβs take it from the top.
First up is theΒ General tab, and here you can choose theΒ option of setting a different title separator:
These symbols are used to separate your post titles and site names on search engine results β for example, at Elegant Themes we use the Η symbol, so our search engine titles read:Β Yoast SEO, An Easy to Follow Setup Guide Η Elegant Themes.
The choice of which symbol to use is purely cosmetic and wonβt affect your SEO ranking, so go ahead and pick theΒ one that suits your style the best. Below the Title Separator section, youβll find two toggles under Enabled analysisΒ β these govern the readability and keyword analyses respectively:
The readability analysis could be turned off if you donβt intend to use it, but in our experience itβs a useful tool to gauge the overall structure of your posts. We recommend keeping it on and ignoring its score if you feel like it, but do consider heeding its structural advice if you want to craft better content.
Keyword analysis, on the other hand, is arguably the heart of the Yoast SEO plugin. If you remove this tab from your meta box, you might as well uninstall the plugin β it’s that crucial. We’ll discuss these meta boxesΒ later on.
Homepage and Post Types
Moving on, theΒ Homepage tab enables you toΒ change the template of your homepage title and metaΒ description templates:
The first field includes multiple variables that make up the structure of your template β these can be altered to suit your preferences, but we recommend keeping your site name in there as well as your site description (including keywords). For example,Β %%sitename%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitedesc%%.
Breaking it down, there are fourΒ percentage symbolsΒ surrounding each variable β your site name, page name, description, and a separator. As for meta descriptions, you should be writingΒ a unique one for each page, so keep this blank. Hereβs a list of the variables you can employ in both fields. Keep it handy, because youβll need it during the next few sections.
Moving on, the Post Types tab looks intimidating, but it should be simple to grasp if youβve stuck with us so far. It includes title and meta description template fields for your posts, pages, media, and other custom post types β as well as the option to non-index each of these, show dates in your previews, and toggle display of the Yoast SEO meta box:
We’re already familiar with the template fields and the procedures we should follow here β modify your title templates according to your personal criteria, and keep the meta description template fields blank since each page or post should have a custom one.
Finally, you shouldnβt mess with the non-index setting unless there are any custom post types you donβt want showing up in search results β just make sure that your posts and pages remain indexed.
Taxonomies and Archives
Now itβs time to repeat the same process forΒ TaxonomiesΒ and Archives, both of which have their own tabs. Adhere to the guidelines we explained above, but feel free to non-index those taxonomies you donβt want to include in your archives.
When it comes to Archives, a lot of WordPress sites are choosing to ditch date-based archives in favor of just indexing authors. It keeps your archives neater, and most users appear to prefer either keyword based searches, or use categories to find the content they’reΒ looking for. If you feel the same way, disable the Date archives indexing option on this tab and leave authors enabled:
Other Settings
The last tab in this section, Others, includes three settings that donβt fit in elsewhere. These are:
- Subpages of archives: This governs whether pages two and onwards of your archives appear in search engine results, and is enabled by default β we recommend leaving it there.
- Use the meta keywords tag: A legacy option that’s not worth enabling, in the words of the Yoast SEO developers themselves.
- Force noodp meta robots tag sitewide: This setting is enabled by default when you set a custom description for any page or post β it prevents search engines from showing the wrong descriptions, but you donβt need to turn it on.
Configure Your Social Media Settings
The Yoast SEO Social section isnβt as intensive as the last one, since most of its settings are quite simple to configure. Weβll briefly cover four of the tabs, then take a closer look at the Facebook tab separately:
- Accounts: This is a straightforward list of fields where you’re prompted to enter all of your site’s social media URLs. Yoast SEO uses this information to tell search engines “Hey, these sites are all related!β.
- Twitter: Here you can toggle the Twitter settings that appear under the Social tab of your Yoast SEO meta box β keep it enabled unless you don’t use the platform. We also recommend setting the default card type to Summary with a large image, since social media content tends to do better when accompanied by relevant media.
- Pinterest: On this tab, you can linkΒ your site with Pinterest so it can access your Open Graph metadata.
- Google+: You can add a URL to your Google+ business page here if you have one.
These are all pretty straightforward. On the other hand, the Facebook tab requires you to configure the front page settings used in the Open Graph meta tags, set a default image for posts that donβt have any featured media (which we don’tΒ recommend, as no image is better than an unrelated one), and addΒ Facebook Insights access for your site:
Here, keep the Open Graph meta data settings enabled, set a featured image and title, and disregard the Facebook Insights and Admins section since the platform is currently not accepting new additions to its Domain Insights program. This wonβt have any impact on your SEO either way, so letβs move on to the next section.
Construct Your XML Sitemap
The XML Sitemaps section governs the page types and taxonomies thatΒ are included in your sitemaps. To be more accurate, Yoast SEO creates individual sitemaps for each of your page types (i.e. posts, pages, and each taxonomy) to speed the process up and make it easier to track query errors:
You should, of course, keep the XML sitemap functionality option enabled so that search engines can crawl your data more efficiently, but letβs discuss some of the individual settings within this section:
- Entries per sitemap page: This governs the maximum number of entries on your sitemaps β the default should be more than enough.
- User sitemap settings: Enabling this setting includesΒ the archives for every user of your site in your sitemaps, and itβs completely unnecessary!
- Post types sitemap settings: These settings determine which post types get their own sitemaps. The default configuration is set to posts, pages, and custom projects (excluding media), which is perfect for SEO purposes.
- Excluded posts: You can exclude individual posts from your sitemaps using their unique ID if necessary β this can be useful for certain scenarios, such as for members-only content.
- Taxonomies sitemap settings: Here you can determine which taxonomies get their own sitemaps. All of them are enabled by default, but Yoast SEO wonβt create sitemaps for taxonomies withΒ no entries, so you can safely keepΒ the default settings.
Choose to Enable Breadcrumbs
Onto the Advanced section, the first tab here enables you to toggle the display of breadcrumbs on your site:
Breadcrumbs have fallen out of favor in website design during the past years. Their benefits β such as enabling users to quickly determine their location on a website and enabling crawlers to better index your site β are easily taken care of with better methods.
While enabling users to quickly determine their locationΒ is clearly a benefit, the truth is that this could signify a navigational or layout issue. Furthermore, yourΒ sitemaps should be good enough for any crawlers to get the information they require to index your site.
Either way, itβs worth noting that youβll need to manually insert breadcrumbs into your theme if you want to display them. To be frank, this is a personal decision that wonβt have any significant impact on your SEO, so feel free to go with your gut.
Modify Your Permalink Structure and RSS Feed Settings
Next up isΒ the Permalinks tab in Yoast SEO’sΒ Advanced section:
The optimal configuration for some of these settings is debatable, but on the whole, we recommend removing the category base from our URLs, redirecting attachments towards their parent URLs, and removing stop words from the slugs. With that being said, the optimal solution is always to create unique, optimized URLs for each of your posts.
Finally, keep the last two settings in this section untouched, and proceed to the RSSΒ settings. This tab enables you to include specific content before or after your posts on user feeds, which is perfect for author descriptions or adding links back to your blog.
Miscellaneous Tools and Google Search Console Authorization
The last two tabs on the Yoast SEO dashboard section are Tools and Search Console, which aren’t crucial for day-to-day operations, but do warrant a mention:
- Tools:Β This tab includes links to a bulk editor (for editing the titles and descriptions of your posts and pages en masse), a file editor (for modifying your robots.txt and .htaccess files), and options to importΒ settings from other SEO plugins or export them your own for re-use.
- Search Console: We mentioned earlier that there was a separateΒ Google Search Console tab, and this is it. Here you can obtain andΒ enter your Google Authorization Code, and enable the plugin to retrieve your Search Console data.
Congratulations β you’ve now set up Yoast SEO optimally! Let’sΒ now look at the settings found within theΒ meta boxes on your posts and pages.
Maximize Your Readability and Keyword Performance
If you didnβt disable the setting during the previous setup process, each of your posts and pages will include a Yoast SEO meta box. This contains three sections, and theΒ most important oneΒ is Content optimization βΒ thatβs where we can find the Readability and Keyword tabs.
The Readability tab offers a quick assessment of how easy it is for readers to digest your post according to several criteria such as:
- Sentence and paragraph length.
- Use of subheadings.
- Instances of passive voice.
- Use of transition words.
- An overall Flesch reading score.
While these criteria are all valid, itβs important to keep in mind that not every good post needs to obtain a perfect readability score. Sometimes, youβll have to explore subjects thatΒ require different structures or approaches, so donβt sweat it. However, do keep an eye on the suggestions Yoast SEO makes, in case you feel they can improve your articles.
Next, we have the main dish β the Keyword tab. This section is where the majority of your time is spent when using the plugin to test keywords and fine tune their implementation:
One of the reasons Yoast SEO is so popular is that its suggestion system is very simple to grasp β if youβre using your keywords wrongly, itβll inform you and explain how to correct it. Instead, weβll leave you with this guide by Yoast on How to choose the perfect focus keyword.
Tweak Your Meta Boxes Social and Advanced Settings
Earlier, we mentioned your Yoast SEO meta box also includes two additional sections βΒ Social and Advanced. The first consists of two tabs for Facebook and Twitter,Β and enables you toΒ configure how your posts will show up if they are shared on either social media platform. They’re pretty straightforward β modify your titles, descriptions, and images if youΒ want to, or stick with those of your post:
Finally, the Advanced tab includes options to non-index the post in question or point canonical URLs:
Yoast SEO Premium
Before we wrap things up, we want to mention the additional features the Yoast SEO premium version includes. There arenβt many since the pluginβs free offering is quite strong out of the box:
- Enables you to use multiple focus keywords.
- Includes a social preview feature on your meta box.
- EnablesΒ you to manage your redirects.
- Comes with premium support.
If this additional functionality is something you need, the plugin is priced starting from $69.
Conclusion
Yoast SEO includes a staggering amount of features that are quite easy to overlook if you keep your focus just on keyword optimization. If you’d rather squeeze every ounce of performance out of your setup, we recommend that you:
- Familiarize yourself with the Yoast SEO dashboard, not just the meta box.
- Optimize your titles and meta descriptions.
- Configure your social media settings.
- Consider enabling breadcrumbs.
- Optimize your permalink structure and RSS feed settings.
- Maximize your readability and keyword performance usingΒ the Yoast SEO tips withinΒ your meta box.
Do you have any other SEO tips that youβd like to share with us? Subscribe and do so in the comments section below!
Article thumbnail image by ideyweb /shutterstock.com
Do you recommend Yoast Sitemap feature over Google XML Sitemaps plugin ? Wait for answer
Hello Bican,
As Al said below, Yoast’s version does the job β what’s more, it’s already baked into the plugin.
same question here.. i use jetpack.. and i use yoast plugin..
both plugin offer xml sitemap creation, the url is different.
what i’m asking is, should i activate function from both plugin ? since it didn’t conflict one another.
or should i use only one ? in this case, what your recommendation is ?
No, there’s no need. I’d choose one or the other and stick with it. Given that Yoast have more SEO knowledge, I’d go with that option.
Hope that helps. π
Can you use this great plugin with Divi Theme? I tried it but I think it creates a conflict.
I use Yoast with all of my Divi sites with no problems to date.
Well i am using free version of yoast seo plugin. its quiet good But when think about premium version confused between seoprocessor or yoast SEO
Unfortunately, we haven’t tested SEOPressor so we’re unable to discuss its relative merits. However, the website looks detailed β drop them an email and ask some questions. π
I like the Yoast sitemap that comes with the free version of the plugin. It seems to work very well with the search engines.
Thanks for your comment Al!
I’m using yost seo plugin on my blog.I think It’s a must have wordpress plugin for wordpress user.what about meta tag & category tag? I think No index better.I’m right? thanks for your useful guide
noindex is a good option as it tells search engines not to how this page in results.
Thanks for your kind words. π
Here is my comment without protocols on the links (suspect I am getting flagged as spam here, when this comment most certainly is not spam)…
Beware of the crippling client side javascript cpu load that Yoast SEO can create on editing large Divi pages.
See:
Typing Lag Caused by YoastShortcodePlugin
github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/4013
Browser stalls while typing with many shortcode tags
github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/5248
Update wp-seo-shortcode-plugin-305.js
github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/pull/4310
Yoast refuses to acknowledge that this is a serious problem. Which resulted in me creating a plugin to address the issue:
wordpress.org/plugins/typing-lag-fix-for-yoast-seo/
My plugin may require an update for the latest versions of Yoast SEO, and given this post on Elegant Themes I will move that up in my priorities. I will look at it again this week.
Maybe if Elegant Themes itself goes to Yoast with this they might listen?
Thanks for mentioning this Reidtech. I’ve had annoying typing lags happen on large Divi pages before and couldn’t figure out why. Now at least I have something to try.
@Pat Martinez:
You’re welcome Pat. If you are experiencing typing lag on large Divi pages with Yoast installed, Yoast is almost certainly to blame.
I have just updated my plugin that fixes this for Yoast versions 3.5 to 3.6.1.
wordpress.org/plugins/typing-lag-fix-for-yoast-seo/
Note that my plugin removes the keyup bindings for the Yoast shortcode plugin javascript, so the Yoast metabox will not update with every keystroke, but only onchange of the tinymce editor(s) within the post (when they lose focus).
Thanks for this β it’s certainly an interesting subject.
I think contacting support (https://www.elegantthemes.com/contact/) is the best course of action for getting your viewpoint in front of those who can make a decision β at the very least you can talk about the issue with someone likeminded.
Thanks again for your input!
@John Hughes: I have already discussed this with Nick and Eduard of ET support and fully described the issue and my fix. Nothing ever came of it. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Yoast SEO plugin is one such plugin I highly use and recommend. Thanks for sharing the tutorial, it really helps newbie to set it up in no time. Like Bican asked, it is recommended to use Yoast Sitemap over Google XML sitemaps? Using Yoast XML sitemap feature though.
Waiting for your answer
Hello Vivek,
As I said to Bican, Yoast’s functionality is just fine β stick with what you’re using. π
@John: Thanks a ton for all the much needed information.
Thanks for this John
I’m a Yoast SEO user and whilst most of the settings are straightforward, it’s good to have a resource such as this post to help with setup.
Much appreciated by all Yoast users and set to become “The Yoast SEO resource”.
That’s the plan, Keith. π Thanks for your comment and kind words!
Great post. I guess I’m not the only person confused about which xml sitemap is better btw Google and Yoast. Right now I have them both active. So I echo the same question about what xml is better…
I’d stick with Yoast, James. The functionality is solid, it’s already part of the plugin, and Yoast are experts in their field.
Thanks for your comment. π
I’ve been using Yoast SEO for a couple of years now and never fully understood how it works. This post has answered a few questions I had, and for that, I thank you.
Thanks, Nelson!
I’ve used Yoast for years and found it excellent. Recently, however, it got very “Look at me, Kimmy!” with all it’s won’t-go-away messages about what was new in the latest upgrade and other endless notifications. I saw a lot of people talking about how it had headed towards the bloatware/performance impacting side (see Reidtech’s notes above, for instance), I moved to the SEO Framework. I don’t have a direct comparison, but the latter seems lighter , actively supported and includes all the features I need.I don’t have a particular drum to bang, just my 2c on where my recent experiences with SEO plugins…
We’d be careless if we said that Yoast is the be all and end all of SEO plugins. However, it’s very popular, comprehensive, and backed by a team with a lot of knowledge of SEO.
That being said, I’m glad you’ve found a solution you’re comfortable with. π
This is not the first time ET is endorsing YoastSEO and you should stop. Long time ago YoastSEO (payed and free) was great WP plugin but with every new version this plugin start to be flooded with huge amount of advertising, slow or non-existent support, devs refusing to acknowledge problems and bugs, on big sites can consume large amount of CPU and sometimes memory… and the list goes on and on.
Please just stop, or at least make a sincere review of YoastSEO and other SEO plugins.
Minty mentioned SEO Framework what is right now much better than YoastSEO, no aggressive advertising, no bloatware, no up selling of other products and lightweight. Even on big WP sites you will not notice any impact on your website performance.
P.S. I’m not related to any of this plugins and my observations and opinions are based on live experience from several of my clients websites.
Agree 100%!
Nice article, but it doubles a bit with Yoast’s configuration guide.
You say “breadcrumbs have no significant impact on your SEO” but Yoast says
– They allow your users to easily navigate your site.
– They allow search engines to determine the structure of your site more easily.
You discussed the first one, but don’t you think the second one is important?
I wish there was an easy way to add the Yoast breadcrumbs to a Divi site without having to change the theme. It would be easy if the code module would accept php, or if there was a Divi module for the breadcrumbs that is only available if Yoast is installed. Or maybe a Divi native breadcrumb module.
There are two schools of thought on this one. One is that breadcrumbs are necessary for helping the user and search engines navigate your site (https://vwo.com/blog/why-use-breadcrumbs/).
The other school says that if your navigation is structured correctly, there is no need for breadcrumbs at all. I think you’ll know which side of the fence we’re on. π
Thanks for your comment!
i’m using yoast SEO free plugin over 6 year and until now i never understand about this plugin.
I’m glad we could be of assistance, Saimi!
Thanks for the great rundown. I have a questions with regard to the “Optimize Your Titles and Meta Descriptions” section.
I’m interested in adding the project category to the project post title, but I haven’t been successful in seeing it come through
Navigate to: YSEO > Titles & Meta > Tab:Post Types > scroll down to “Projects” > Title template field.
I thought it would be as easy as adding project_category, but that didn’t work. Below is what I used. Can you tell me what I’m doing incorrectly?
%%title%% %%sep%% %%project_category%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%
Thanks!
jules
Hello Jules,
Without your own installation in front of me, it’s difficult to diagnose. However, for a start I notice that %%project_category%% isn’t a recognized variable.
Take a look at this post in the Yoast knowledge base and see if it might help you (https://kb.yoast.com/kb/yoast-wordpress-seo-titles-metas-template-variables/).
Good luck. π
Thanks John, This post has answered a few questions I had.
it was very helpful.
No problem, Payam!
Which is better between Yoast SEO and All In One SEO.?
We’ve got a post on that π
https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/wordpress-seo-vs-all-in-one-seo-pack-which-is-the-best-seo-plugin
Hi everyone,
Thanks for the article. I’m using Divi for 3 months now. I’m just starting/building a magazine website.
I encountered a problem with Yoast, if you help me solve it please..
I created a layout and applied it to my Homepage.
In “Homepage” settings I can find a way to configure Yoast, but NOT in the “category builder” section!
So my question is, How can I configure Yoast SEO for a layout (created in Extra category builder)?
FaiΓ§al, that sounds like a question for our forums. π
You can post your question there (https://www.elegantthemes.com/contact/) and call on other Divi users to assist you β good luck!
Hi there. Has anybody been able to get the Readability feature of Yoast SEO to work with the Divi Builder. This is a great feature but the minute you create a page with Divi, Yoast cannot seem to access the content within DIVI to highlight your optimisation opportunities. This is the feature within Yoast Readibility where you click on the ‘eye’ and it highlights the offending text. Any ideas?
Tim, I’m afraid I don’t have an answer. You could try posting a question in our forums (https://www.elegantthemes.com/contact/). It’s frequented by a number of other Divi users who may be able help fill in the gaps. π