How to use the Yoast SEO Plugin

How to use the Yoast SEO Plugin

17 February 2021 |

SEM and SEO

Businesses that consistently write blog posts as part of their content marketing receive 67% more leads monthly than those that don’t, according to Hubspot. It’s not hard then to see why regularly blogging should be a part of every company’s digital strategy.

But with so many similar industry blogs being posted, how do we ensure that ours is ranked over and above those of competitors? Using an SEO-friendly blogging plugin is a great place to start, with a range of easily installed options available for almost every platform.

By far the most popular free SEO plugin available, is Yoast SEO for WordPress. So why is the Yoast SEO plugin so popular amongst bloggers? Because it assists with optimising both blog posts and pages to rank for target phrases in a matter of only minutes.

Once installed, the Yoast plugin appears as a panel on every post and page within the WordPress CMS. After typing in a focus keyword, the writer is then prompted to:

  • Include the focus keyword in the SEO title (no more than 60 characters)
  • Include the focus keyword in the URL Slug if possible
  • Include the focus keyword in the meta description (no more than 155 characters)
  • Include related keywords in sub-headings and content
  • Include relevant internal and external links that reinforce the subject
  • Include images and alt tag descriptions that reinforce the subject

 

Once your post or page is well-optimised for the target phrase, a ‘green light’ is given to signal that you now have a piece of content that is likely to rank.

While WordPress CMS is a requirement for using the Yoast plugin, the above principles can be applied to blog posts created on any website platform. It’s also possible to install WordPress on a subdomain of your website for the purpose of blogging, even if another platform is used for your primary domain.

Alternative free SEO extensions that can also be used for blogging on other platforms include Plug in SEO Optimizer for Shopify, Magento 2 SEO for Magento and Easy Frontend SEO for Joomla.

Want to install an SEO plugin for blogging, but not sure how? Get in touch with ADMATIC today to find out how we can assist.