WordPress serves as a well-known platform for those looking to expand their online presence. Whether it’s through a blog or even creating a website, WordPress has something for almost everyone. For those who upgrade from the free platform, the number of SEO tools, such as Yoast SEO, begins to expand tremendously.
Those more experienced in the online world understand just how helpful WordPress SEO and SEO tools are when it comes to growing their audience. However, for those just starting, let’s first dive into what SEO is.
Search Engine Optimization– SEO for Beginners
SEO stands for search engine optimization. When breaking down SEO for beginners, the whole concept comes down to the actions you take to get your website ranking favorably on search engines such as Google and Bing.
Let’s face it; we create content for people to see, and to achieve visibility, we need to take steps that help us rank favorably. Sure, there are ways to do this through paid methods, but search engine optimization focuses on organic (non-paid) search results.
Here is the easiest way to think of search engine optimization – people want what you are providing, and they turn to search engines to find it. Google and Bing then search through millions of pieces of content to see what will answer the searcher’s pain point. If you practice proper SEO, then you set up your content to be found.
Different factors play into a website’s ranking, such as the quality of its content, use of keywords, and having a proper linking strategy – all of which are topics for a different day.
While some individuals find it easier to pay an SEO professional to maintain these ranking factors for them, there are hundreds of free SEO tools out there. Platforms such as WordPress even have helpful plugins that guide users in not only setting up but also learning to optimize their SEO practices.
WordPress Plugins 101
WordPress has both a free platform and a platform for those who choose to self-host their site. While the free WordPress platform is excellent for those just starting, it limits the use of WordPress plugins, such as free SEO tools like Yoast SEO.
A WordPress plugin provides additional software with set functions that users can add to their websites.
Users turn to plugins for various reasons, but mostly because developers already built them. This means you don’t need coding skills to add new and exciting functions to your website. WordPress SEO plugins are especially popular because once you set them up, they help you maintain and run your site effectively.
When it comes to WordPress SEO and SEO tools, Yoast SEO ranks as one of the most popular free options. Thousands of users rely on it worldwide. This popularity stems from more than just its powerful SEO capabilities. Yoast SEO helps make your website as SEO-friendly as possible.
Setting Up the Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin
Yoast SEO is an incredibly popular WordPress SEO plugin. Because of this popularity, we decided to create a comprehensive breakdown for you. We’ll cover how to add the free tool to your site. We’ll also show you how to optimize it properly. This way, you can start practicing important SEO techniques right away.
That being said, let’s go ahead and begin by installing the Yoast SEO plugin.
Installing & Activating the Yoast SEO Plugin
While some plugins are available on the free WordPress platform, the Yoast SEO plugin is only available for self-hosted WordPress sites.
That being said, let’s go ahead and get it installed and activated!
First things first, you’ll want to go along the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard until you come across the Plugins tab. Click on that and choose “Add New.”
This will bring users to a page with all sorts of featured, popular, and highly recommended plugins. While Yoast SEO should be featured in this section, there is also a search box that you can utilize to find it. Once you’ve found it, click “Install Now.”
WordPress will do the rest of the downloading and installation work for you.
You will, however, have to follow the on-screen steps to activate it after it is installed. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see a new item on the left-hand menu on your dashboard labeled “SEO.”
Setting Up Yoast SEO
Installing and activating the Yoast SEO plugin was the easy part, but don’t fret, we will help walk you through the setup process, so you don’t miss a thing.
General Settings
During your initial setup, you’ll want to begin with the General settings under the “General” tab. This tab gives users a basic tutorial option and is where you’ll find the “restore default settings” option, should you ever need to start over from scratch.
Your Information
After you’ve familiarized yourself with the “General” tab, move on over to the “Your Info” tab.
This section is where you will tell Yoast about your site. This will include your website’s name and an alternative name you may want Google to consider. You’ll also want to let Yoast know if you are a company or an individual.
If you enter ‘company’ here, we’ll ask you to fill out additional information on the company. If you select ‘person,’ then we’ll ask you to enter the name of the person behind the website.
Webmaster Tools
For those versed in SEO, popular search engines let website owners add sites via webmaster tools. These tools show your website’s data and insights from each engine.
For those who’ve done this, verify your site—with Yoast SEO, you can enter meta codes from search engines directly into the plugin.
Security
The “Security” tab is the final one in the initial setup. If you are the only one working on the website, then you won’t need to change anything here.
However, if you have multiple authors and editors working on your site, you’ll want to make an important adjustment. Check the “Disable the Advanced part of the Yoast SEO meta box” option. This prevents others from changing advanced settings like redirects and noindex settings.
Optimizing Yoast SEO Settings
Now that your initial setup is complete, you’ll want to optimize your WordPress SEO. This is done by diving deeper into the Yoast SEO settings.
Yes, this can seem intimidating at first, but trust us, taking these steps now will save you time in the long run.
Titles & Metas
This is the next section you’ll see on your WordPress Dashboard under the SEO option. In this section, you’ll notice six tabs, and for the sake of simplicity, we will list them below with a short description.
- General– This section allows users to change how their titles will display. You can choose from some different title separators and even have the option to “Force Rewrite Titles,” which helps if your site name appears more than once in the title.
- Homepage– This tab will differ depending on how your website is set up. If you use a static homepage with a separate blog, you’ll see two links to edit the title and meta descriptions separately. However, other homepages will have two boxes: one for the title template and one for the homepage meta description.
- Post Types– Much like the homepage tab, the post types page allows users to edit the title and meta description templates for each type of page (pages, posts). Users also have the option to check or uncheck “noindex, follow,” “date in snippet preview,” and “Yoast SEO Meta Box.” Keep the “noindex” bot unchecked to allow search engines to index your content. The “date in snippet” box can be left unchecked if your content is considered more evergreen. If you have lots of current newsworthy content, you can check it to hide the date. As for the “Meta Box,” you only have to hide it if you have multiple contributors.
- Taxonomies– Taxonomies include categories, tags, and so on. This allows you to set title and meta description templates for pages using different tags and categories, such as blog posts. However, if you use the same tags frequently, consider checking “noindex, follow” to avoid duplicate content penalties.
- Archives– Archives include previous content that you have created but may not be actively promoting. This tab helps site owners avoid duplicate content penalties by letting them add ‘noindex, follow,’ which prevents search engines from indexing archived pages.
- Other– This section allows users to prevent picking up descriptions from directories such as Yahoo. A rule of thumb for beginners is that if you are unsure about these, leave them unchecked.
Social
Setting up your social media links is self-explanatory, so we aren’t going to spend too much time on this one.
Site owners must enter their social media links into the designated fields. Under each social tab, there are other options to edit as far as how your content is shared from your site.
XML Sitemaps
If owners enable XML sitemap functionality, Yoast SEO automatically generates a sitemap for them. Even better, this plugin automatically updates the sitemap when users add content and pings search engines when you update the site.
Users can navigate through the different tabs and select which content to include in their sitemap.
Advanced
Yoast SEO does a fantastic job going into detail on their advanced options, so we only put a brief description of each option below.
- Breadcrumbs – Enabling breadcrumbs allows visitors to see links showing the path to the current page.
- Permalinks– Allows site owners to clean up their URL structure, permalinks, and <Head> section to make them more search engine-friendly.
- RSS– Gives site owners the ability to add content to posts when they appear in RSS feeds. This Means they can give themselves credit and link back to the original content when their work is found on other RSS feeds.
Search Console
This is where site owners get a verification code so they can connect Yoast SEO to Google Search Console.
This allows owners to see site errors that visitors encounter and correct them from the WordPress dashboard.
Tools
The tools are self-explanatory as well, so we won’t spend a whole lot of time here.
- Bulk Editor– allows users to quickly change titles and descriptions of your posts and pages without having to go into individual pages at a time.
- File Editor– allows users to quickly change important files for their SEO, such as their robots.txt
- Import & Export– Allows users to either import or export settings from or to other SEO plugins.
Free SEO Tools Make for Great WordPress Plugins
When it comes down to SEO, yes, it can be very daunting. WordPress plugins like Yoast SEO are built for users, so they’re designed to simplify and reduce intimidation. Contact us for your SEO services.
Do you utilize the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin?
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