Yoast SEO has become the most powerful plugin for doing SEO for WordPress websites, even though for beginners or masters.
Yoast SEO plugin has over thirteen millions active installations, becoming the top plugins for WordPress websites.
This plugin makes our SEO work easy and faster to get a higher rank on Google – the wish of all bloggers and online entrepreneurs.
Now check how to install and set up Yoast SEO to make your websites perfect for readers’ experience and search engines.
Some features of Yoast Seo plugin to study before install it
Yoast SEO is the most popular SEO WordPress plugin with many excellent tools and features; it includes a free plugin and premium plugin.
Free Yoast SEO is enough for beginners for most of the websites. Also, here it works:
- Support to change the title of the posts, pages, and meta descriptions on each post and pages that can be shown on Google.
- Can rewrite meta titles and description for categories, and tags.
- Show meta snippet on Google search results, for example FAQ schema.
- Check focused keywords.
- Have on noindex, nofollow on any pages, or posts.
- Set up the XML Sitemap.
- Interact with Google Webmaster Tools, Bing, Baidu, and Yandex.
- And more…
Yoast SEO basically has the main functions of search engine optimization for WordPress websites.
Configuring Yoast SEO may be a bit difficult for WP beginners. If the configuration goes wrong, the advantage of Yoast SEO is reduced; in some cases, search engines will mark bad and warning for your websites.
Install Yoast SEO plugin in WordPress
The crucial work is to install Yoast SEO. If you have it with your site, you should update to the latest version to make it safe and better work with new features of search engines.
- And, remember that you need to type a correct name of this plugin “Yoast SEO”, it is written by Team Yoast.
- 2 ways to download and install this plugin. You can install it via the control panel of your website or download its pack to your computer and then upload to the WordPress hosting via FTP software.
I like to install this plugin as well as the others through the dashboard of the website; it is an easy and fast way.
To install Yoast SEO, login in the admin of your website, click on Plugins -> Add New -> Search for Yoast SEO -> click install now -> Activate. Finish installation.
Now we start to set up Yoast SEO with step by step.
Step 1: Starting with General Setting
When you click on the Yoast SEO -> General item.
Select the tab “First-time configuration”.
Choose “Continue” button, and following for setting up the first settings.
Following the guides to set up. But, pay attention to “Personal Preferences”. I choose “No, don’t track my site data” becasue I do not want to share information of website with Yoast SEO.
And I do not want to receive Yoast newsletter. Too many emails come to my mail box now.
For “Setting” tab:
You may notice “Website name” and “Tagline” and ignore the others for the beginners working with WordPress.
Do not forget clicking on “Save changes” button.
For “Site Presentatiion”:
- Choose “Organization” or “Person”
- Type “Organization name”, meaning your company name. Often is website name.
- Upload logo.
- Add business social media of yours.
Click “Save changes” to save theme.
For the “Site connections”:
I recommend leaving it empty. If you connect here, it can make your site run heavily.
If you want to trek your site, please use it seperate analytic codes to install directly into the site.
In spite of that, you can check the way to insert the Google Search Console to set up it.
Step 2: Setting the Content Types
In this part, you just need to look at the tabs: Posts and Pages. You need to turn on it (number 2 in the photo below).
When you turn it on, it means you allows pages and posts of your website to index in search engines.
And, then ignore all the rest in this part.
Step 3: Set up “Categories & Tags”:
I recommend keeping Categories to be indexed, meaning turn it on.
But, turn off Tags to avoid double contents, not useful for SEO.
Step 4: Adanced setting
You may notice these:
For Breadcrumbs:
You may want to set up Breadcrumbs for your website.
You need to turn on Breadcrumbs in Yoast if your theme is not available.
A few theme can be adapted with Yoast breadcrumbs, so when you turn this feature on, it will work.
However, for a few theme, you need to customize it manually, so you check link like in number 3 above in your dashboard to follow it.
You have to install a code of Yoast SEO into your theme to make it work correctly.
For Author archives, Date archives, Format Archives:
You should turn off all of them.
For “Media pages” tab:
You should keep this turn off. If not, your website will have a lot of unnessesary indexed pages of only photos.
For setting up Yoast SEO plugin is completed. You follow the guides above, your website will become better and easier to start doing SEO.
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