Yoast SEO: How to use Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin

Strategies like social media and paid advertising can be essential for an online publicity campaign.   

Yet, with 51% of users finding a new company or product with a search, organic traffic remains a cornerstone of brand growth (source). This makes optimizing your WordPress site for search engines crucial for business success.  

Securing a spot on the first page of search results is challenging and requires consistent effort, but ranking high is essential. That’s why it’s so important to understand how to use Yoast SEO effectively on WordPress, maximizing your potential to reach your audience and drive growth.  

What is the Yoast SEO plugin?   

Yoast SEO is a leading WordPress SEO tool that helps optimize your website for higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines like Google, Bing and Yandex can now better understand your site.  

Yoast was first developed in 2008 by the original designers of WordPress. Since then, it’s been downloaded millions of times for use on WordPress sites of many kinds. Yoast is easy to configure even for beginning users and it has a robust set of features to satisfy more advanced site runners as well.  

Key features of Yoast SEO  

The plugin offers essential tools to optimize meta descriptions, title tags and focus keywords, helping your content stand out. Yoast also provides functionality for rich results, enhancing your listings with eye-catching visuals like images, product information and star ratings.  

Notably, with Yoast, online experiences that start with search engines become opportunities for you to capture user attention directly from Google’s search results.  

Related Content: Learn how to add a Google search button to your WordPress site. 

Setting up Yoast SEO is straightforward: it’s available for free from the WordPress Plugin Directory or can be directly downloaded from Yoast, which also offers a premium version.  

Yoast SEO Premium provides even more features, such as advanced SEO analysis, redirect management and multiple key phrase targeting. Upon installation, the plugin adds an SEO section to your WordPress dashboard to configure key settings for your site.  

In addition to user-friendly configuration, Yoast SEO automates technical SEO essentials. It outputs structured data to help search engines better interpret your pages, creates an XML sitemap for better indexing and, in the Premium version, handles redirects automatically when content is moved or deleted.  

Yoast automates SEO on multiple levels  

Once installed and activated, Yoast provides tools for customizing SEO functions on every level, from content to custom URLs to even your title tags and meta descriptions.   

With Yoast,

• Users can create templates to standardize elements like titles, URL structures, internal linking and meta descriptions across key page types, ensuring consistency and improving SEO impact.   
• Yoast automatically generates and updates an XML sitemap, which enables search engines to find and index your pages. Users have control over what is indexed and can exclude specific pages or temporarily pause indexing if the site is still under construction.  
• Users can also submit site information, logos and more to Google to create a Knowledge Graph. The detailed profile of a company or professional website appears in the sidebar of Google search results.   
• If you’re transitioning from other SEO plugins, Yoast includes a setup wizard that allows you to import your settings seamlessly, simplifying the switch. The wizard guides users through each configuration step, ensuring the plugin is ready to optimize your WordPress site efficiently.  

Learn more about how SEO gives your website a better exposure here.  

How does Yoast improve your SEO?  

Yoast SEO simplifies content optimization for search engines by:  

• Running SEO analyses that pinpoint areas for improvement on your site.  
• Allowing you to set a focus keyword and receive guidance on optimizing content around it.  
• Monitor the content’s age so you can update it when required.  
• Provide Google previews, so you know how your content appears in search results.  
• Preparing your content for optimal display for sharing on social media.  
• Performing an overall assessment measuring readability so you can optimize your writing keeping your target audience in mind.  
• Handling technical SEO — robots.txt, XML sitemaps, .htaccess files and schema-structured data.  

Besides these SEO and site management tools, you also get access to several free courses at Yoast SEO Academy. By following these courses, you’ll learn about the most ideal ways to optimize your site for search engines.  

Downloading and installing Yoast SEO  

Here is a quick guide to installing Yoast SEO on your website if you’re just getting started. You can also follow the steps in the video instead.  

1. Open your WordPress dashboard once you log in to your WordPress site.  
2. Click Plugins on the menu on the left.  
3. Near the top of your screen, click Add New.  
4. Type Yoast SEO in the search box.
5. Click Install Now to install the plugin.  
6. Click Activate to activate the plugin.  

In this way you can install and activate Yoast SEO on your website. It’s time to use Yoast SEO and optimize your website.  

Note: For kickstarting your technical SEO, it is recommended that you follow the first-time configuration after installation.  

How to set up the Yoast SEO configuration wizard?  

Setting up the Yoast SEO configuration wizard is crucial in optimizing your WordPress website for search engines. Below, we’ll walk you through the process with easy-to-follow steps: 

Step 1: Access the Yoast SEO configuration wizard 

• Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. 
• Navigate to SEO > General in the dashboard menu on the left.
• Click on the First-time configuration tab. This will open the configuration wizard to guide you through the primary setup.

Step 2: Configure Yoast SEO 

Once in the configuration wizard, go through the following sections: 

SEO data optimization 

1. Click “Start SEO data optimization.” This step analyzes your site’s indexable content and improves technical SEO. 

Site representation 

2. Choose whether your site represents an organization or a Person.
3. For organizations, add your name and logo. 
4. If representing a person, enter the individual’s name.

Social profiles 

5. Add links to your primary social media profiles. This helps search engines associate social channels with your website. 

Personal preferences 

6. Opt in or out of Yoast’s usage data tracking and newsletter options. 

Step 3: Additional options (Optional) 

In the remaining sections, you’ll find optional features: 

• Newsletter Subscription: Sign up for SEO insights and tips. 
• Yoast SEO Premium: Consider upgrading for advanced features and support. 

By following these steps, you’ll have effectively configured Yoast SEO’s essential settings to enhance your WordPress site’s visibility on search engines.  

Using Yoast SEO on your WordPress website  

The Yoast SEO plugin is an excellent resource if you wish to optimize your content. Still, the results depend on how you use it. Let’s learn how to use the basics of Yoast SEO effectively.  

1. Enter a focus keyword 

To reach the front page for relevant searches, you need to optimize for relevant keywords.  

Suppose you manage a blog related to Italian cuisine. You would want it to show up in Google search results when someone searches for lasagna, Italian Pizza, Risotto and other Italian foods.  

You can use Yoast SEO to make it easy for you.  

In the Yoast SEO meta box, enter the desired focus phrase under the Focus key phrase.  

As a result, you will see Yoast’s SEO analysis for the focus key phrase beneath it. It will let you know what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.  

For example, if your focus keyword is Risotto ingredients, it will tell you whether you need internal links and key phrases in headings and introduction. Also, it will tell you that you need to ensure key phrase density throughout the text.    

2. Discover related key phrases  

You shouldn’t optimize for only one key phrase. You will want to appear in search results of related key phrases, too.  

For example, in addition to Risotto ingredients, you should also try to have your webpage appear in search results for ingredients to make Risotto. For that, you need to find the related keywords that provide you with additional searches.  

You can do so using Yoast by clicking on Get related key phrases below the focus key phrase text box.  

A pop-up will show you the related key phrases and their volume and trend (average monthly searches over the last 12 months). You can choose your relevant keywords with the desired volume and trend to optimize your content.  

3. Add synonyms and related key phrases  

Search engines have evolved considerably; Google and Bing being excellent examples. Instead of searching the web for exact words the user enters, search engines also look for synonyms and related phrases. This means that you can optimize your content without catering to awkward keywords.  

You can add synonyms and related phrases for Yoast to analyze by clicking + Add synonyms and + Add related keyphrases. While it is a premium-only feature, you can benefit from it to create content without risking keyword stuffing.  

4. Improve readability  

Hard-to-read content can push away even the most interested website visitors. You need the readers to keep reading and stay on the page to achieve your goals.  

How can you improve readability? You can make your content easier to read by using shorter sentences, writing in an active voice and adding transition words. It also helps to keep your paragraphs short and organize them using subheadings.  

Yoast SEO simplifies it for you by identifying all the readability issues through its algorithm. You can see the problems by opening the Readability tab in Yoast SEO.  

5. Add SEO title and meta description  

Without a WordPress plugin, there’s no easy way to add an SEO title and meta description to a post. With Yoast SEO, you can add it in seconds using the Google preview section.  

Type in the SEO title and Meta description text boxes and you will have your search snippet preview — the result you see in the search engine results — ready.  

6. Add internal links  

Internal links inform search engines about the structure of your website — which posts are related and which pages are essential. You should, therefore, link to related posts while writing a post.  

Still, adding links manually does take time and effort. In contrast, you can use Yoast’s premium plugin, which offers internal linking suggestions as you write your article.  

7. Add a slug  

The slug is an important SEO component that identifies the location of a page on your website in an easy-to-read form. For example, in this URL: www.yourwebsite.com/how-to-make-Risotto, the bolded portion is a slug.  

While slugs have little impact on rankings, they enable search engines and human users to process your content — leading to more clicks.  

Additionally, you can add a custom slug to the post using the Permalink setting in WordPress or Yoast’s SEO tab. Yoast SEO will check whether it includes your keyword wherever you add your slug. If it doesn’t, the plugin will remind you to add it.   

8. Add Schema structured data  

Using Yoast SEO, you can add schema-structured data to your posts.  

Suppose you are writing an FAQ post. By implementing proper Schema markup, you get the chance of rich results — questions and answers from your FAQ post — on search engine result pages.  

You can add structured data by using the in-built option provided by Yoast SEO. Select a Page type and Article type according to your post from the Schema tab. If not required, you can leave the default template selected. You can change the defaults using the Search Appearance Settings if necessary.  

Yoast SEO Premium: Extra benefits  

Yoast provides both free and paid plans to its subscribers. You can get the basics of SEO done using the free version. The paid version offers advanced SEO implementation and a few time-saving shortcuts.  

The free version of Yoast offers a broad range of general SEO features, but the premium version includes several extensions that can be useful for certain kinds of sites.   

Yoast News SEO optimizes sites specifically for appearing in Google Newsfeeds. Yoast Video SEO has additional tools for optimizing video and Yoast Local SEO helps make a site relevant to local area searches.   

The premium version also has technical support and advanced webmaster tools. Plus, it contains a number of tutorials on using the various free and premium features of the plugin and its extensions.  

Here is why you should choose the premium version over the free one for a higher-ranking website:  

Search Engine Optimization  

• Optimize for multiple related keywords and synonyms (up to 5 keywords per page to reach a broader audience)  
• Export keyphrase data in CSV format — for easier management  
• Save time with internal linking suggestions  
• Get smart, real-time internal link suggestions that improve your site’s structure and ranking potential.  
• Find and solve SEO issues with SEO workouts  
• Use generative AI to create SEO titles & meta descriptions  

Website management  

• Receive notifications about outdated content — usually content older than six months.  
• See an overview of pages with orphaned content.  
• Complete control over previews ensures your posts are share-worthy on social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  
• Yoast Premium’s AI tools automate SEO tasks, such as creating optimized titles and descriptions, saving time while enhancing quality.  
• Resolve duplicate content issues with the canonical URL tool.  
• Add and manage redirects for moved or deleted pages.  

Access to all Yoast SEO academy courses  

• Learn about advanced SEO topics, including Technical SEO  
• Follow additional WordPress courses  

Better product experience  

• Get 24/7 email support  
• Enjoy an ad-free experience  

Final thoughts: Use Yoast SEO to stay ahead of your competition  

Organic search results still top the list of ways new customers can find the products and services they need. Whether posting a freelance portfolio, launching an eCommerce store or running a large corporate site, your WordPress site needs to be as search friendly as possible.   

Related Content: The 13 Best WordPress AI Plugins  

Whether you’re a new user or an experienced developer, the Yoast SEO plugin may be the best all-around SEO solution for your self-hosted WordPress site.  

Using Yoast SEO for WordPress, you can rank your pages higher on SERPs and drive traffic to your website. Even if you lack SEO know-how, you can benefit from the plugin and optimize your website content using its beginner-friendly interface.  

Looking for innovative ideas to launch your online business? Check out our article on content ideas for your website! 

Besides optimized webpages, you also need an optimized website that loads quickly and handles higher traffic that you will get after ranking higher.  

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