If you have a WordPress site and you know what SEO is , then you most likely already have the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin installed . But given the fact that this plugin can be quite handy, not everyone will use all of its features. In this article, we will look at the 10 most important Yoast SEO features for WordPress and how to use them for your own site.
Contents hide
1 Generates XML Sitemaps
2 Automatically submit XML Sitemaps singapore b2b leads
to Google/other search engines
3 Allows you to create custom meta titles/descriptions
4 Checking keywords
5 Allows you to easily add page redirects
6 Allows you to add bread crumbs
7 Allows you to change permalinks
7.1 Redirecting ugly URLs to clean permalinks.
7.2 Automatically removing stop words from slug
8 Helps you bulk edit titles/descriptions
9 Helps to "hide" specific posts/pages from search engines
9.1 Related publications:
Generates XML Sitemaps
Proper organization is a must for SEO, and an essential part of this is an XML sitemap. Yoast SEO automatically generates one when you install it, and it is constantly updated as you create new content . You can easily change the XML settings by going to SEO > XML Sitemaps in your WordPress admin.
Automatically submit XML Sitemaps to Google/other search engines
Also called pinging, Yoast SEO automatically sends updated sitemaps to Google and Bing . This is done to help search engines quickly add new content and keep other indexed pieces of content up to date if you change them. In the XML sitemap options, you can also choose to have it send a message to Yahoo and Ask.com every time you publish a new piece of content.
Allows you to create custom meta titles/descriptions
Often, a headline that would be a perfect subject line for your subscribers becomes a terrible headline for SEO. With the Yoast plugin, you simply write two headlines: one for humans and one for search engines . You should also add a custom meta description for your content. Not only will this help you choose the right keywords , but it will also allow you to manually create an incredibly compelling description that will make more people choose your page when they look at search results . You can access both of these options in the SEO box right below the regular post/page editor.
Keyword Checking
You can easily and quickly check if you're overdoing it with keyword density , among other factors, and get a reminder to fix page/post URLs/placeholders and other things that affect on-page SEO. This can be a great general reminder to keep you on track post by post. You simply enter your keyword into the regular SEO box under the post/page WYSIWIG editor and see what appears underneath.
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Allows you to easily add page redirects
If you update a post or page of content on your site, but the old content is still getting the most traffic , it can be a great idea to add a simple redirect to the new version. This can indirectly help your SEO by providing visitors with more relevant/better/cleaner information, which can potentially lead to more views and overall user engagement.
Allows you to add bread crumbs
Breadcrumbs provide a visual representation of your site’s organization and the specific area of your site that you’re currently visiting. We use breadcrumbs here at WPExplorer, and you can see an example of how it works by scrolling to the top of this very post. (Or see the example below, taken from one of the posts on this blog.) Not only do breadcrumbs help visitors navigate your site, they also help Google (and other search engines) determine how related your site is to a particular topic or keyword. You can enable breadcrumbs in the internal linking options, and while you have a lot of freedom to make adjustments, it’s generally a good idea to keep things simple and easy to understand for both humans and bots.
Allows you to change permalinks
Under the permalink options , you can access several different features that can be very useful for a proper website. Here you can manage the URL or slug for posts or pages.
Redirect ugly URLs to clean permalinks.
This feature helps to fix slightly incorrect links to your pages from other sites or from your own pages. If someone accidentally puts a number or something extra at the end of the page URL, it will automatically turn into a clean/correct URL. (For example: http ://website.com/page2/291 -> http://website.com/page2)
Important : If you use any eCommerce plugin or track sales origin using campaign tags in the URL, you should not enable this feature, no matter how many ugly links you find on your pages.
Automatically remove stop words from slug
As the name suggests, this feature removes stop words from syllables. This means that even if you don’t enter a specific syllable for each post, stop words (which Google recommends not to include in URLs because they don’t add any meaning) will be automatically removed. Since it’s easy to forget about such small details, it’s very useful to have it enabled.
Helps to bulk edit titles/descriptions
Let’s say Yoast SEO was slow to arrive at the party, and many of your popular posts and pages were created before installing the plugin and don’t have an SEO-specific title or description, game over, right? I mean, going in and editing the same page/post is too much work, right? Luckily, the plugin offers a bulk title editor and a bulk description editor. This allows you to edit the titles and descriptions of old posts and pages with ease . Of course, if your content is very extensive, trying to do this for every piece of content can turn into a full-time job for three people, so it’s a good idea to only edit the high-priority pages.
Helps to "hide" specific posts/pages from search engines
