Getting Yoast Right

with Angela Bowman aka Ask WP GirlMay 12, 2020

Angela Bowman

@AskWPGirl@WomenInWP - podcast

AskWPGirl.comWomeninWP.com

WordPress User since 2007Builder of Boutique Websites

WordPress Instructor since 2009Meetup Organizer

WordCamp SpeakerBackyard Chicken Lover

What Does Yoast Do?

What Does Yoast SEO Plugin Do?

1. Helps you meet “technical” SEO standards and as well as gives you feedback about the quality of your content.

2. Makes sure your site uses canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content.

3. Provides valid Schema.org structured data implementation.

4. Does NOT improve the rank of your pages on the search engine results page (SERP) on its own. That comes down to many other factors which you need to work on constantly (never ending).

Technical SEO

1. SERP Results: The blue (purple if visited) SEO Title and the black Meta Description (though Google might choose its own wording).

2. Schema: Markup to allow other cool things to show on the SERP (e.g. price and star ratings if using WooCommerce) as well as correct info for Google Knowledge Panels and full support for Rich Article Pins on Pinterest

3. Index/No-Index: Let’s you control what content is indexed by search engines.

4. Open Graph Data: Let’s you control images and text that displays in social media

5. Keyword/Readability Analysis: Gives you feedback on your writing and keyword use on content (posts, pages, archives)

Connecting to Google Search

Console

Install Yoast Plugin

Install the Yoast plugin (Plugins > Add New), search for Yoast, install, and and activate.

Set Your Preferred URL in WordPress

Do you want your site to show up as www.example.com or simply example.com.

Change the setting under Settings → General

Use https!

Submit Your Site to Google Search Console

1. You will need to have a Google account. https://account.google.com/

2. Sign up for Google Search Console (GSC). https://search.google.com/search-console

Type of Verifications

1. If you have subdomains, e.g. store.askwpgirl.com, using the URL prefix.

2. If you have one site for your domain, use Domain.

Option 1: Domain Verification

If you have GoDaddy or Name.com for your domain registrar, this process is relatively simple. If you have another domain registrar, you will need to edit your DNS zone file and add a TXT file and paste in the code provided.

Can take time to propagate.

Option 2: URL prefix verification

This process is more complicated as you have to add your http, https, and www and non-www versions of your site to GSC. However, it allows you to verify subdomains separately.

1. Download the HTML file and upload it to the folder where your WordPress is installed

OR click HTML tag.

Option 2, cont.: Copy Meta Tag into Yoast

2. Copy the meta tag number into the WordPress SEO plugin General Settings and click Save Changes. Go back to Search Console and click Verify.

Option 2, cont.: Add and Verify All URL Variations

http://askwpgirl.com (we added this in the previous slide)http://www.askwpgirl.comhttps://askwpgirl.comhttps://www.askwpgirl.com

Be sure that ALL FOUR URL variations of your domain resolve to the same canonical URL. WordPress handles this well, but you MUST be sure SSL is set up to work on both the www and non-www versions of your site. So test all four URLs and make sure they all redirect correctly.

Check Search Console for IssuesGoogle Search Console provides amazing depth of reporting on the health of your site. Poke around and see what you find.

Google Email Alerts

Login to Google Search Console - https://search.google.com/search-console

Go to https://search.google.com/search-console/user-settings/email-preferences (or click the icon in the toolbar in the upper-right corner of the screen and click Email preferences).

WordPress Settings

Settings > Permalinks

Post name is ideal for almost all websites. Date and name are legacy.

The permalink aka slug is an important part of on-page SEO.

Settings > Reading

Be sure you aren’t blocking search engines!

Yoast Settings and Tools

Yoast Features

SEO: https://yoast.com/beginners-guide-yoast-seo/

Readability: https://yoast.com/does-readability-rank/

Cornerstone: https://yoast.com/cornerstone-content-rank/

Text Link: https://yoast.com/how-to-use-the-text-link-counter/

XML Sitemap: https://yoast.com/what-is-an-xml-sitemap-and-why-should-you-have-one/

Ryte: https://en.ryte.com/lp/yoast/

REST API: https://developer.yoast.com/blog/yoast-seo-rest-api-endpoint/

XML Sitemap

View Sitemap under General > Features.

Click ? next to sitemap.

/sitemap_index.xml

Index of content types.

Submit Sitemap to Search Console

In Google Search Console, click on your website, and then click on Crawl.

Click Sitemaps. Click the red Add/Test Sitemap button.

Enter the file name for the sitemap. If you are using the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast, the URL is: sitemap_index.xml.

Click Submit Sitemap

Knowledge Graph

Yoast > Search Appearance > Generalhttps://yoast.com/google-knowledge-graph/

To get your content in the Knowledge Graph, you need to become an authority on your subject. Use square logo.

Content Types

Yoast > Search Appearance > Content Types

Turn off indexing for content types you don’t want indexed or to show up in your XML Sitemap, e.g.

● Sliders● Testimonials● Faqs● Other custom post types you don’t want

indexed

Taxonomies

Yoast > Search Appearance > Taxonomies

It’s best practice to disable Tags and other taxonomies that might show redundant or not meaningful pages of content.

Archives

It’s best practice to disable Author archives if you have one author and Date archives if you are not a news agency.

Media

WordPress creates posts for every image you create by default. This isn’t great for SEO, so set this setting to Yes to have image posts link to the images.

Social

Open Graph meta data is used for many social networks (including Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn as default). Important to turn this on. Default image (1200 x 630) is used if post or page doesn’t have an image.

Twitter

Enable Twitter open graph and display type.

Right is the Summary with Large Image.

Pinterest

Connect site to Pinterest to give more exposure and authority to your Pinterest account. https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/claim-your-website Paste code they give you into Yoast field.

Tools

Bulk edit SEO Title and Meta Descriptions (displays on SERP)

Authors

Add social media URLs to each user who writes for your site.

Edit the author slug if you have author archives enabled: https://wordpress.org/plugins/edit-author-slug/

Show an author box on the site. https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-author-box/

Page Analysis

Content to Optimize in WordPress

Categories

Posts

Pages

Authors

Tags (if using well)

Other post types and taxonomies (e.g. products, product categories)

Snippet Preview

Always edit the snippet.

This is what displays on the SERP.

The SEO Title is NOT the same as the Page Title (which is in the Heading 1 tag of the page)

Can take a few weeks for Google to see changes.

SEO Analysis

Helps us use keywords better in our content. Reminds us where.

1. Add focus keyphrase.2. Address problems and

improvements.3. Goal is not to receive all GREEN

but to make you mindful of how you are using keyword phrases in your content.

Cornerstone Articles

Longer, overview articles.

Many links to it from other articles.

SEO Analysis in Yoast will be more strict with articles marked cornerstone.

Read: https://yoast.com/what-is-cornerstone-content/

Cornerstone Linked Articles

Communicates to Google the posts that are most important

Focuses on links to that article

Other related posts become long tail articles on this main topic

Social Media Options

Good idea to set Facebook and Twitter Options including image. Makes social sharing of your posts look good.

Clear cached page from Facebook - https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/

Clear cached page from Twitter - https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator

Advanced Settings

If this is a thank you page or other unimportant page, set option to No. This will hide the page from search engines and remove it from the XML Sitemap.

More info on Robots: https://yoast.com/articles/robots-meta-tags/

Resources

Learn About SEO and More About Yoast

Rebecca Gill - Amazing SEO Workshop from Wordcamp US

● https://wordpress.tv/2019/11/19/rebecca-gill-align-seo-efforts-with-your-target-market-and-todays-search-part-1/● https://wordpress.tv/2019/11/19/rebecca-gill-align-seo-efforts-with-your-target-market-and-todays-search-part-2/

Must watch these if you do nothing else after this class!

Kate Toon - SEO Classes and Podcast

● https://therecipeforseosuccess.com/

● https://www.clevercopywritingschool.com/

Yoast Tutorial - https://yoast.com/wordpress-seo/

Performance

SPEED TESTING:

● https://gtmetrix.com/● https://tools.pingdom.com/● https://developers.google.com/speed/pag

espeed/insights/

SPEED OPTIMIZATION PLUGINS:

● Autoptimize● Shortpixel Pro● Caching● BJ Lazy Load● WP Rocket

GOOD WEB HOSTS:

● Kinsta● SiteDistrict● WP Engine● Get Flywheel● SiteGround

Mobile Friendliness

Tests:

1. Use Chrome and right-click (ctrl+click) and click Inspect, then click device icon.

2. Check Google Search Console for Mobile Friendliness.

3. Check Google Lighthouse Report.

Site Analysis

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/googlebot-fetch

Moz Pro: https://moz.com/products/pro

SEO Report Card: http://app.upcity.com/free-tools/seo-report-card

WooRank: https://www.woorank.com/

SEO Pathfinder: https://www.pathfinderseo.com/

Website Grader: https://website.grader.com/

SEO Audit Tool: https://www.found.co.uk/seo-tool/

Varvy SEO Tool: https://varvy.com/

Site Analyzer: http://www.mobilemoxie.com/tools/site_analysis/

URL Status and Indexing

Screaming Frog: https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Search on - site:mysitename.com

SEM Rush or Moz paid tools can perform deep site audits.

Link Building and Checking

BACKLINK CHECKERS:

https://woorank.com

https://checker.monitorbacklinks.com/seo-tools/free-backlink-checker/

https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker

https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/

https://monitorbacklinks.com/

https://www.semrush.com/

https://www.thehoth.com/backlinks-checker/

Link Building Articles

https://blog.monitorbacklinks.com/

http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building

ttps://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links

http://moz.com/blog/category/link-building

http://www.slideshare.net/crumplezone/beyond-10-blue-links-the-future-of-ranking

http://www.bourncreative.com/difference-good-link-and-bad-link/

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-failures

Structured Data

Understand the various things that display in search results page:

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/search-features

You can validate structured data on any web page here: https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-seo-structured-data-schema/

Accelerated Mobile Pages

Serves highly optimized pages via Google mobile search results.

Use AMP plugin to enable. Lots of technical hoops to jump through.

https://es.semrush.com/news/amp-check-added-to-site-audit-issues/

SSL

● Encryption ensures that a user’s activity cannot be tracked or their information stolen

● Data integrity prevents files from being corrupted as they’re transferred

● Authentication protects against attacks and builds user trust

● Very small ranking boost

Instructions for installing on WordPress: https://askwpgirl.com/installing-ssl-on-wordpress/

Conversion Tools

https://userinput.io/ - Get feedback about your site, starting at $39.

https://www.usertesting.com/

https://hotjar.com

https://www.callrail.com/ - Track calls from website.

https://www.ometrics.com/ - Local guy. Very helpful. Free booklet!

More Tools

https://authoritylabs.com/free-tools/ - Tons of free tools to run on your computer.

https://website.grader.com/ - Like school! A simple grade on your site.

SEO Checklist - https://goo.gl/CZ00yH

Analyze Your Competition

https://www.semrush.com/ - Find out how your competition is performing.

https://www.spyfu.com/ - Download your competitor’s keywords!

https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/ - What is your competition’s authority and who links to them?

Keyword Research Toolshttps://www.thehoth.com/google-keyword-planner/ - very detailed, great suggestions

https://www.powersuggestpro.com/ - leverages on multiple search engines to reveal millions of popular search phrases (Windows only)

http://www.google.com/trends

https://moz.com/explorer

https://keywordseverywhere.com/ubersuggest.html

https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/

https://www.semrush.com/features/keyword-research/ - Use Keyword Magic Tool

https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner - IMPORTANT!!!! Skip the guided setup!!!!

Misc Links to More Stuff

Google Knowledge Graph: https://medium.com/better-marketing/everything-you-need-to-know-about-google-knowledge-graph-and-how-to-get-included-e14c07f95fe6

What every CEO needs to understand about SEO: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-every-ceo-needs-to-understand-about-seo/264929/

Watch Writing for SEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLrKFRYGM5M

Can you still blog your way to visibility? https://sparktoro.com/blog/can-you-still-blog-your-way-to-visibility-credibility/

Types of Content that Works Best for SEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KUlIzXP4NA

Optimize for Featured Snippets: https://moz.com/blog/optimize-featured-snippets

https://womeninwp.com/podcast/017-blogging-for-business-with-niki-robinson/

https://sparktoro.com/blog/less-than-half-of-google-searches-now-result-in-a-click/

Who to Read and Follow

● Search Engine Journal● Search Engine Roundtable

Who to follow for SEO advice –

● Brian Dean – https://twitter.com/backlinkio● Backlinko - https://backlinko.com/● Rand Fishkin – https://twitter.com/randfish and https://sparktoro.com/blog/● Cyrus Shepherd – https://twitter.com/CyrusShepard● Barry Schwartz – https://twitter.com/rustybrick and

https://searchengineland.com/author/barry-schwartz● John Mueller – https://twitter.com/JohnMu● Dawn Anderson – https://twitter.com/dawnieando