In an age where running your own personal blog or business website is the norm, there is plenty of analytics to keep tabs on.
Whether you’re new to the game or you’ve been running your own website for years, there are always new skills to learn.
Sometimes, this can leave you feeling out of your depth and struggling to optimize your website.
This is where plugins like Yoast come in handy and in this Yoast overview, we’ll check out how this SEO plugin can assist you.
Even with the smallest amount of SEO knowledge, Yoast can give you the knowledge and insight you need to optimize your website and make your online presence a success.
Table of Contents
What Is Yoast?
Yoast SEO is a plugin that helps you optimize your web content and makes all the technical SEO (search engine optimization) jargon simpler to understand.
SEO is an integral part of any marketing strategy, but for beginners, making sense of it can be a headache.
Once you’ve installed the Yoast SEO plugin, it’ll appear on every page and post you create, sift through your content, and suggest how to improve it.
Because this tool is SEO based, every suggestion you’re given centers around improving your ranking on Google, so you can get the exposure your website needs to succeed.
Your website’s ranking will be improved on all search engines by examining content and keywords and giving you the tips you need to use them efficiently.
How Does Yoast Work?
Yoast SEO is a free plugin that can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin repository or the Yoast website.
Like all good tools, Yoast also offers customers the chance to upgrade to the premium plugin, which includes more features that can boost you to the top of Google’s rankings.
We’ll explore these additional features later on.
Once you install the Yoast plugin, it’ll appear on each page or post you make.
You’ll see three options at the top of your screen:
- SEO
- Readability
- Social
If Yoast has identified issues with your content in any of these areas, you can click on each subheading to reveal an in-depth breakdown of the problem and view suggestions to improve it.
For example, under the readability section, Yoast may tell you that too much of your content is using passive voice, it will suggest you use active language instead and give you examples of how to tweak your content accordingly.
You’ll also see a score of your content given by Yoast, with examples of how to improve it.
Yoast SEO Plugin Premium Features
If you pay for the premium version of Yoast, you’ll have access to additional features such as:
- Reminders to update the most important content on your site.
- Redirect manager, which will automatically add a redirect for you every time you make a change to your page or URL.
- Internal linking blocks to make your content findable, increase your chances to rank, and use the blocks on your site to simplify internal linking.
- Orphaned content finder so you can find pages that lack internal links so you can keep an eye on your content and get an overview of which pages or posts need your extra attention.
- Internal linking suggestion tool to give you relevant content suggestions while you’re writing.
- Advanced language analysis called word forms support, which finds an exact match of the focus keyphrase you enter, plus the grammatical forms of the word.
- The social preview feature lets you see how your post would look when shared on your social platforms.
- And more.
The Benefits Of Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO has been ranked the #1 WordPress SEO plugin, and for good reasons.
So let’s take a closer look at the benefits of using Yoast SEO, followed by some of the drawbacks you might encounter.
- Accessible and User Friendly: Yoast is a great tool, especially for beginners. It’s easy to navigate and can give you plenty of suggestions to optimize your website for Google.
- SEO Proofreader: Yoast also does a great job at proofreading content. If you misspell a focus keyword, you will mess up your chances of ranking highly on Google. Yoast will proofread your content and identify mistakes you might have never picked up on.
- Uses the Right Keywords: If you’re new to SEO, you might not even be sure what keywords you need to use to rank highly. Thankfully, Yoast will suggest relevant keywords for you, so you’ll always be setting your content up for success.
The Drawbacks Of Yoast SEO
Although Yoast is the top-ranked SEO plugin for WordPress, it doesn’t come without drawbacks.
So let’s explore some cons of using Yoast for your content.
- Struggles to Understand Intent: Unfortunately, Yoast isn’t the best at understanding the intent of your content. This could end up throwing you the wrong focus keywords. So, if you’re using Yoast, double-check it understands your writing before you start taking suggestions.
- Pedantic: Yoast can also be pedantic. Although the software has rules to follow, it doesn’t always recognize when it’s doing something wrong, and the rules need to be broken. An example is its proofreading software, which can occasionally run into some serious ‘wait, what?’ moments.
Yoast Overview – The Bottom Line
If you want your website to rank higher on Google, Yoast SEO is the simple, user-friendly tool that can help you get there.
Although Yoast has a few drawbacks, this plugin has many things to love. If you’re unfamiliar with SEO jargon, this is also the perfect tool for beginners.
Even more experienced bloggers and SEO specialists can benefit from Yoast.
With a diverse range of tools, tips, and tricks on offer, Yoast can save the need to install multiple plugins, and despite the odd hiccup, most of its suggestions are actionable, practical, and easy to follow.
Yoast SEO is a must-have plugin for your WordPress site if you’re ready to take your personal blog or business website to greater heights.