Yoast SEO: the ultimate tutorial for the WP SEO tool

Yoast SEO - info and facts

Definition: What is the WordPress SEO plugin Yoast SEO?

The Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress was developed in 2010 by Joost de Valk, the founder of the Dutch company yoast.com. The specialist in the field of search engine optimisation provides a tool that supports WordPress CMS users in the on-page optimisation of articles and websites.

According to the manufacturer, the Yoast extension is now used by over 5 million users to help their 12 million websites rank higher in search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!

What is an SEO plugin needed for?

Basically, an SEO plugin helps you with the on-page optimisation of a WordPress website or a WP blog. However, it requires more than just installing the plugin: the extension with its numerous functions simply helps you to get the best out of your website.

Typical tasks of an SEO extension are

• providestructured data
• generate a sitemap
• Provide instructions in the robots.txt file
• Manage redirects
• tell search engines which content and URLs should be indexed and crawled
• Content analyses and recommendations regarding further optimisation measures

All in One SEO ( AIOSEO for short) or Rank Math SEO are other well-known SEO plugins.

If you want to make your WordPress website a success with the help of Yoast SEO, you need to think outside the box. Because it is still up to you how you

• configure the tool
• carry out the keyword research
• Write and present content
• Formulate calls to action (CTA)
• optimise the loading speed of your page

In addition to an SEO plugin, you will also need other plugins for your WP website. In this article, we'll introduce you to 10 practical WordPress plugins that we use in our daily work as an SEO agency.

Let's take a look at the points where the extension can help you.

What can the Yoast SEO plugin help you with?

Thanks to the wide range of tools, the tool provides you with a useful assistant that can help you with the following on-page optimisation measures

• Control over your keyword or up to 5 keywords in the premium version
• Optimise the meta description including a preview of the SERP snippet
• Sitemaps creation
• OpenGraph description for your social media channels

You can also:

• define the permalink structure for article types and taxonomies
• perform an SEO and readability analysis
• optimise the website structure using internal linking

Now let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of the extension.

Yoast SEO: advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of the tool

11 years after the release of the SEO tool, it is safe to say that the SEO extension works on most websites without any problems. The Yoast SEO plugin is also compatible with numerous WordPress themes and extensions (more on this later).

The support team responds promptly to user enquiries. The WordPress SEO extension is updated every 14 days to remove any security vulnerabilities or to work with the latest WordPress version.

Disadvantages of the tool

Premium users are prioritised for support requests. This means that users of the free tool version may have to wait a little longer for a response.

Another point of criticism from users is the extensive code of the plugin: this can lead to complications such as longer loading times, indexing problems or vulnerabilities in website security.

Yoast SEO and its compatibility with numerous WordPress extensions

Probably the biggest advantage of this extension is its compatibility with many WordPress themes and extensions.

According to WP, Yoast SEO works optimally with these extensions:

In the following article section, we will look at the numerous functions of the Yoast SEO tool.

What functions do Yoast SEO Free and Yoast SEO Premium offer?

The SEO tool offers you a wide range of functions and tools. Here is an overview of the most important functions available in both versions.

SEO analysis

This function allows you to analyse and optimise the content of your website and articles.

Once you have started the analysis, the analysis results are presented to you using a traffic light system.

Traffic light system:

• red light: Action required
• yellow/orange light: Further improvements possible
• green light: Your content is ideally optimised.

Yoast SEO analyses the focus keyword (keyphrase) and examines the content according to these criteria:

• Outbound links
• Internal links
• Keyphrase in the introduction
• Length of the keyphrase
• Keyphrase density
• Keyphrase in meta description
• Length of the meta description
• Keyphrase already used (focus keyword)
• Images with alt attributes
• Text length
• Keyphrase in title
• Width of the SEO title
• Keyphrase in the permalink
• Keyphrase in subheadings

By clicking on a traffic light icon, the analysis results are displayed directly in the text: The respective text passage is highlighted.

In addition to these optimisation recommendations, you will also receive a useful explanation. This should be of particular interest to SEO newcomers.

Readability analysis

The readability analysis assesses a text on your page according to its readability for visitors to your website: How comprehensible is the article written? Do you use complicated words? Or too many passive sentences?

It is assessed according to these criteria:

• Readability (Flesch Reading Ease): This readability index uses a formula to calculate how readable an article is worded. A value above 60 is optimal.
• passive sentences
• consecutive sentences
• Distribution of subheadings
• Paragraph length
• Sentence length
• Connecting words

The results of this analysis are also presented to you using the traffic light system.

Cornerstone content

Yoast SEO describes cornerstone content as the core or cornerstone of your website: It should consist of the most relevant and best articles, posts and pages on your website. In short, the content that is particularly important for a good search engine ranking.

Are you wondering which articles these could be?

Suitable cornerstone articles are informative and relatively long, as they contain insights from different blog posts and cover all the important information on a particular topic.

Their primary goal should not be to sell products, but to provide up-to-date and comprehensive information. At the same time, Cornerstone content should communicate or reflect the actual mission of your company to the outside world.

In the free version, you can mark relevant articles on your website as cornerstone content. In the premium version of this feature, the link suggestions for the marked cornerstone articles are prioritised.

Text link counter

This tool can be used to check posts and articles on a website for internal links.

Under Posts in the WordPress admin area, you can display two counters as additional columns in the post overview. This way you can see

• the number of links within the respective text to other posts on your website
• the number of links from your website posts that are linked to this text

With the help of the premium function "Orphanedcontent", which is located in the post overview, you can also call up all unlinked website posts.

Tip from our experts: In combination with Cornerstone content, this feature can help to optimise the internal link structure of a WordPress website and increase the relevance of a pre-defined article.

XML sitemap

XML sitemaps are the road maps for Google, Bing or Yahoo! However, XML sitemaps can only function as these after you have created them and submitted them to the Google Search Console.

Creating XML sitemaps is (almost) child's play with this extension. At least it's one of the easier options.

If you want to learn how to create your XML sitemap with Yoast SEO, take a look at our article Sitemap - Definition + Sitemap Types + Instructions.

Ryte integration

This feature is an indexability check from Ryte. Once activated, you can check the current status of your website in Yoast SEO.

You can access the indexability check by calling up the Site Health tool in the WordPress admin dashboard.

Ryte will then check on a weekly basis whether your website can be indexed by the search crawlers of search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo! In the event of a problem, you will be notified.

Adminbar menu

By activating this function, a Yoast icon is added to the WP Adminbar menu, which acts as a link to the practical tool features. Additional helpful resources and links are also displayed.

The admin bar menu in the WordPress backend differs from that of the WordPress frontend.

If you are currently working on an article in the backend, you will see it there:

• Notifications from the extension
• the configuration wizard after initial installation
• the Keyword Research section with exercises for keyword searches, Google Ads and Google Trends
• SEO settings such as General, Display in search, Social, Tools, Premium, Workouts and Redirects

In the admin bar menu of the frontend you will find another item: Analyse this page. This contains these features:

• Check links to this URL (Google Search Console)
• Keyphrase density
• Check Google Cache
• Structured data test from Google
• Facebook debugger
• Pinterest Rich Pins Validator
• HTML Validator
• CSS Validator
• Page speed test from Google (Page Speed Test)
• Mobile-Friendly Test

Security: No advanced or schema settings for authors

As soon as several authors can access a post, it may be advisable to activate this function. Afterwards, only administrators and editors are allowed to remove posts or pages from search engine results or change canonical URLs.

Usage tracking

Have you already customised the settings to your needs using the configuration wizard? Then you may have noticed that the plugin has a usage tracking function.

In the free version, Yoast can only use usage tracking if you register first. However, if you have installed the premium version, Yoast automatically assumes that you trust them and want to share specific data with them.

Data tracked through usage tracking:

• basic site data such as the website language and number of users
• Server data such as the PHP version and operating system used
• Third-party plugins and WordPress themes
• search engine optimisation plugin options used

Don't worry! On the one hand, you can unsubscribe at any time. On the other hand, Yoast needs this data so that their development team can make improvements to the Yoast SEO plugin.

REST API: Header endpoint

After activating the REST API header endpoint function, you will receive all the metadata required for a URL.

This should significantly simplify the use of Yoast SEO for headless WordPress pages.

The REST API output "head" contains:

• the title
• the meta description (if available)
• Robots meta tags
• the canonical URL
• the schema output
• the Open Graph meta data
• the Twitter meta data

Improved Slack sharing

This feature is interesting for Slack users: when an article is published, the estimated reading time and an author line are added to the article excerpt.

Next, I would like to take a closer look at the premium features of the tool.

The premium features of the Yoast SEO plugin

Redirects/Redirect Manager

The premium redirect manager can make your work with the URL redirects of your WP pages much easier.

This is what this function can do:

• Redirects are created automatically when pages are deleted or moved.
• All redirects are managed via the admin area of the site.
• Various redirect types and their HTTP status are available for selection.
• It is possible to create regex redirects.
• Existing redirects can be imported and exported using the tool settings.
• Redirects can be scaled.
  
  

Internal linking blocks

• Related links block: After Yoast's linking tool has analysed the content of your website, it will suggest related posts, categories, pages or tags. You can add these suggestions to this block.
• Table of Contents block/Yoast Table of Contents block: The Table of Contents block can be implemented in a page or blog post. The Yoast SEO plugin then lists all existing headings (H2-H6) in the page content in an overview table.
  In addition, the headings of the table of contents are automatically provided with anchor links (anchor tags) so that readers can reach the respective text section with one click.
• Sibling block/Siblings block: Sibling pages are the subordinate pages of the same parent page. These pages should not only be linked to the parent page, but also to their sibling pages.
  By adding the siblings block to a page, readers of a sibling article can go from this page to the next with just one click.
• Subpages block/subpages block: You may have already guessed it. From an SEO perspective, the higher-level pages must also be linked to the lower-level sibling pages in the hierarchy. By adding the subpages block, website visitors can see all the links relevant to them at a glance.
• Breadcrumbs block: On the one hand, breadcrumbs serve the user experience, as the breadcrumb navigation makes it easier for visitors to find their way around the site. On the other hand, they help search engines to recognise the website structure.
  
  

Social previews

With this function, you can easily check a social media post before it is published, as you can see in advance how your post will be displayed on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Premium Support

Premium Support primarily deals with the problems of paying users.

If you need help, you can contact the Yoast support team as follows

> by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

> via the help beacon in Yoast SEO within your WP dashboard

> via the help beacon in your My Yoast user account

 

No adverts/no ads

The premium version of the plugin also contains no adverts from other Yoast products or services.

As you can see, the premium functions are quite extensive. However, whether it pays off for you depends on your own requirements.

Are you now asking yourself the question: How much does the complete package cost? Then read on.

The cost of Yoast SEO

The price includes the licence for one year - including free updates and personal premium support.

Yoast SEO - practical application

Admittedly, that was a lot of facts so far. This is where the practical part of my tutorial begins. Let's start right away with a step-by-step guide.

Instructions for the Yoast SEO installation

Before you can use a WordPress plugin, you need to download and install it. I'll demonstrate this process here using Yoast SEO as an example.

Now that the SEO plugin is active, you just need to keep it up to date. All you need to do is check once a month to see if there are any updates for Yoast SEO.

If an update is available, you can perform the update via the path WP backend > Plugins > Installed plugins.

After installation, you should configure the plugin using the configuration wizard. I will show you how to do this in the next section of the article.

Perform Yoast SEO configuration with the configuration wizard

If you want to configure the tool, first click on SEO in your WP sidebar to get to the Yoast dashboard.

If you are new to Yoast SEO, you will see the message "First-time SEO configuration" after installation. If you have already configured Yoast SEO, you will see the message "Open the configuration wizard again", as we did.

1.) Environment

2.) Page type

3.) Organisation or person

4.) Visibility for search engines

5.) Multiple authors

6.) Title settings

7.) Help improve Yoast SEO

8.) Learn more

9.) Finish configuration successfully

Making settings in the dashboard

Especially at the beginning, you will need to make various settings in the Yoast dashboard. To help you find your way around the dashboard, I'll explain its structure here.

General

The first menu item in the Yoast Dashboard is divided into the following areas

Dashboard

Functions

Integrations

Webmaster Tools

Display in the search

General tab

Content types

Media

Taxonomies

Archives

Breadcrumbs

RSS

Social

Tools

Import and export

You can find the tools here:

• Import settings: Here you can import settings from Yoast SEO.
• Export settings: Export settings
• Import from other SEO plugins: You can use this tool to import data from other plugins such as All in One SEO.
• Export redirects: 301 redirects can be exported with this premium feature.
• Export key phrases: Keyphrases can be exported from optimisation with this premium feature.
• Import redirects: 301 redirects can be imported with this premium feature.

File editor

Here you can edit your .htaccess and robots.txt file without direct FTP access.

Bulk editing

This tool allows you to edit the title and description of multiple pages or posts without having to access each individual page.

Optimise SEO data

This indexing tool saves all SEO data (title and meta descriptions) in a separate table to enable faster loading of the website.

If you use the premium features text link counter, internal linking or redirects, you will find them under Tools.

Premium

Courses/Workouts

The penultimate menu item lists various SEO courses and workouts that you can take part in if you are interested.

Redirects

So, now you have familiarised yourself with the extensive dashboard of the SEO plugin and its setting options. However, there is still one important point missing: How can you connect your WP website to Google Search Console?

Connecting Google Search Console with WordPress

As an SEO agency, we appreciate the advantages of Google Search Console and recommend that you connect it to WP in any case.

You can find out how to do this in our step-by-step guide to setting up Google Search Console.

Once you've got to know all the advantages, features and setting options of the Yoast tool, I'll show you how to optimise your website with the plugin.

OnPage optimisation: How to pimp the content of your website

Once you have installed and configured the plugin, it is ready to use.

I will now show you how to make a new post or page search engine optimised using the Yoast Meta Box: After all, your content should be indexed by Google and other search engines and listed as high as possible in the search results.

Let's start with the SEO tab, because this is where you define your focus keyword and description.

1. SEO

Focus keyphrase

Firstly, enter your focus keyphrase: This is the search term with which the post/page should rank. The keyphrase can consist of one or more words.

Google snippet preview

Now enter the text of your meta description, the title and, if desired, the desired permalink in the fields provided instead of the magenta-coloured placeholders. In the Google preview, you can immediately see how your post will appear in the search engine results: Google users will also see this Google snippet when they search for your keyword.

The bar below the text fields is based on the optimal length of the title and meta description: if it is red and orange, you should optimise the meta tags - if it is green, the text length is ideal.

You can find tips for optimising your meta tags (Google snippets) here.

Cornerstone content

You can mark relevant posts as cornerstone content in the premium version. In the free Yoast version, the feature has no significant advantages.

2. Readability analysis

3. Scheme

4. Social

Last but not least, I would like to recommend a video tutorial that you can use to deepen the knowledge you have just acquired.

Conclusion: The free plugin version is definitely worth it

As you can see, the free version of Yoast SEO already offers many options for optimising your website content.

Although the installation, configuration and setting up of the settings takes more time, especially at the beginning, you can work well with this solid basis in the future. Especially if you are dealing with on-page optimisation measures for the first time.

There is no general answer as to whether you need the premium version: If you prefer personalised support or want to implement a lot of social media marketing measures, then the paid version is certainly worth considering.

Is your website still not ranking as well as you would like? Then it may help to consult an SEO expert.

Do you need expert support with the on-page optimisation of your WordPress website? Then feel free to contact us. Send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. call us on +43 1 353 2 353 or send us your enquiry using our contact form.