For many users looking for a robust SEO plugin to help improve their WordPress website\u2019s search ranking, they need not look further than the free Yoast WordPress SEO plugin.<\/p>
It\u2019s an incredibly popular plugin that helps you tailor your content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) with the help of an SEO analyzer. It takes a look at your content and provides an instant SEO analysis to help you improve your writing so search engines rank your site well.<\/p>
It also has several other features such as advanced XML sitemap creation, inserting micro data into breadcrumbs, and other helpful capabilities that compliments the inherent SEO of the WordPress core.<\/p>
Today, I\u2019ll share more detail on the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin, its main and best features such as its SEO analyzer, and the reasons why this SEO plugin may not be right for your site.<\/p>
When it comes to SEO for WordPress, the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin<\/a> is a key player you may have already heard about. This SEO plugin helps you optimize your content for search engines with many brawny features.<\/p> It\u2019s an incredibly popular option since its inception in 2008 with over five million active installations. It\u2019s also translated into 37 languages.<\/p> Yoast SEO is renowned in the SEO and WordPress industries, and the figures prove it with 95% of its reviews being five out of five stars.<\/p> It\u2019s available for download in the WordPress repository<\/a> for free. So, you can take it for a spin and see if it will work for your site.<\/p> It\u2019s worth mentioning that there are a couple of features that set the Yoast SEO plugin apart from others, including the All in One SEO plugin<\/a>, which is its main competition. These features are its SEO content analyzer as well as its ability to create advanced XML sitemaps.<\/p> There are also other great features as well, and they\u2019re all introduced in detail below.<\/p> One of the flagship features of the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin is its SEO analyzer. As previously mentioned, it can scan your content, such as blog posts and pages. Then, it provides an instant SEO analysis to help you know where you need to optimize your content.<\/p> As you type, the SEO analyzer can adjust and provide an updated SEO analysis. No matter where you are in your writing process, you\u2019ll know whether you need to make any SEO adjustments on the fly.<\/p> The SEO analysis includes these key areas:<\/p> While this isn\u2019t an exhaustive list of areas that the SEO analysis covers, it should give you a good idea of what to expect if you decide to use this SEO plugin.<\/p> There are also an additional reason why the SEO analysis is helpful: Its ease of use.<\/p> One of the best parts about its SEO analysis is its effortless use. This also applies to its settings. Although, several settings are a lot more complex to set up if you really want to use this SEO plugin to its full, advanced potential.<\/p> Fortunately, you don\u2019t need to delve into these advanced settings to see improved results in your overall SEO strategy.<\/p> On the settings page, a checklist is displayed that guides you through the setup process, and suggests optimal settings. If you run into trouble along the way, there are several links to detailed guides to help explain the option as well as how to configure it properly.<\/p> The Yoast WordPress SEO plugin has an extensive array of documentation articles to help you with pretty well everything you may need to know.<\/p> In the SEO analyzer, it visually guides you through the process by showing a green, orange, or red bullet point next to each point of optimization. <\/p> The green bullet indicates that you\u2019re good to go. Orange signals that some improvements could be made, though, it\u2019s not urgent. The red bullet urgently lets you know there\u2019s a major area where you need to make improvements so your content can rank well.<\/p> When you go to the Pages > All Pages<\/strong>, or Posts > All Posts<\/strong> page in the WordPress admin dashboard, there are several added columns are displayed with a bullet for your overall SEO, and readability scores. It also displays the number of internal links, and links to other internal pages.<\/p> Like a stoplight, if the bullet is green, your score is high, and your content is more likely to rank well.<\/p> A notable feature, particularly for teams, is the option to set user roles for SEO.<\/p> You can provide each member of your staff with user roles that have specific SEO capabilities that correspond to the features of the SEO plugin.<\/p> Aa long as they have a user account on your WordPress site, you can set a role for them.<\/p> This is particularly useful when each member of your team has different job descriptions when it comes to SEO. You can set up a user role for them that fits with their responsibilities.<\/p> It\u2019s also helpful if not all team members are equally skilled with SEO, or you hired an SEO consultant that needs to be able to work on your site\u2019s SEO strategy, directly in the WordPress admin.<\/p> A second flagship feature of the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin is that you can create advanced XML sitemaps.<\/p> Sitemaps help search engines better understand and locate the content on your website from pages, posts, categories, media, and other similar content.<\/p> They\u2019re beneficial because your site\u2019s pages will have a better chance to rank if they\u2019re more clearly found by search engines, which is exactly what sitemaps help you do.<\/p> The XML sitemaps in the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin accomplish this task well, and are dynamic. They\u2019re also sorted by the page type you want to index.<\/p> For example, by page, article, category, and other options. They also include the associated images in the sitemap.<\/p> Possibly the best part is you can create these advanced XML sitemaps in one click.<\/p> “Pobody’s Nerfect” as they say, and even the best SEO plugin option could still use some perfecting. There are several reasons why the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin may not be suitable for everyone.<\/p> It’s entirely too common for the SEO analyzer to hate your style of writing, even if there’s nothing really wrong with it.<\/p> This is due to their readability scoring relying on points such as using an active voice as opposed to a passive voice. While this may work in some cases such as for tutorials, it\u2019s not always a part of a site\u2019s writing style, and branding.<\/p> For example, using the passive voice can give the impression of sounding a lot more professional than an active voice.<\/p> The SEO analyzer also doesn’t account for many common types of content such as text found in tables.<\/p> In this kind of situation, the SEO analysis sees incomplete sentences and repetition, when really, you’re rightfully breaking up your content in an easy-to-consume way to keep readers engaged.<\/p> This makes it difficult to consistently know if your content is still great for search engine results since there are several factors that aren’t taken into consideration. While the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin may say your page or post won\u2019t rank well, it may actually have a better chance than ever because of factors such as these.<\/p> There\u2019s also another reason why this SEO plugin may not be a great option for your site. Unlike its main competitor, the All-in-One SEO Plugin, the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin also can\u2019t add Google Analytics tracking directly in the head tag.<\/p> This is unfortunate since there\u2019s an opportunity to insert the validation code for the Google Search Console<\/a>.<\/p> To compensate for this, an additional plugin is provided by Yoast to add this option. But, adding yet another plugin to your site could potentially slow it down, which is something that we care a lot about at WP Rocket<\/a>.<\/p> Lastly, while it’s not a problem with the plugin itself, it may be worth noting that there’s a cap to the features that are included in the free version of the plugin. More advanced options are only available if you’re willing to upgrade to the premium version.<\/p> If you\u2019re on a budget, but need those features, then it\u2019s worth considering other SEO plugin options.<\/p>Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin Strengths<\/h2>
Improve Blog Posts with an SEO Analyzer<\/h3>
Easy-Peasy Lemon-Squeezy<\/h3>
<\/p>Fun for the Whole Family \u2013 Er, Team<\/h3>
Advanced XML Sitemaps to Win the Internet<\/h3>
An SEO Plugin with Room for Improvement<\/h2>