Yoast SEO Tutorial: Step-by-Step for Beginners
Yoast SEO Tutorial: Step-by-Step for Beginners
Do you want to boost your blog's rankings, but don't want to spend hours learning the technical aspects of SEO?
Yoast is the answer. In this post, I'll talk about how to install Yoast to your WordPress blog, and how to configure the plugin so that it works optimally for your unique needs.
Below, I've outlined each step in the video. Feel free to use it as a reference as you're watching the step-by-step tutorial.
How to Install and Activate the Yoast SEO Plugin
- Step 1: To install Yoast, go to your WordPress Dashboard and hover your mouse over Plugins. Then, click Add New.
- Step 2: In the search field in the upper right corner of the screen, simply search for “Yoast”.
- Step 3: Install and activate the Yoast plugin.
How to Configure the Plugin
- Step 1: To configure Yoast, hover your mouse over SEO and click General. This will bring you to the Settings page.
- Note: If this is your first time using the Yoast plugin, you may see a few notifications asking for you to build your index so that Yoast can process your content to help speed up your site. You can skip this feature for now, and come back to it after you configure the plugin. You might also see other notifications that ask you to allow search engines to crawl your site. But we'll discuss how to do that a bit later in this post.
- Step 2: Click the “configuration wizard” link at the top of the Yoast Settings page. This will bring you to the Yoast SEO Configuration Wizard.
- Step 3: Determine the environment your website is in. This basically means whether your blog is live or under construction. If you're in the process of building your blog, then choose Option B, which states “My site is under construction and should not be indexed.” But if your site is already live, you can select Option A, stating, “My site is live and ready to be indexed.” Click the Next button.
- Note: After you've launched your blog, go back to the Configuration Wizard, and choose Option A. This helps ensure your site is indexed by the search engines.
- Step 4: Under Site type, select “A blog.” Click Next.
- Step 5: In this step, Yoast wants to know if you're an organization or a person. If you're an organization, choose that option, Type in the name of your organization, upload your logo, and type your social network URLs. But if you're a person, a.k.a. a blogger, select “Person.” There will be a dropdown menu, which will show what you chose your display name to be in your WordPress Profile. Select the name you want to use from the dropdown, and click the Next button.
- Step 6: The next setting deals with Search engine visibility, which allows you to choose which content types you want the search engines to index. Unless you have specific requirements, I recommend leaving this section as is. Click the Next button.
- Step 7: Next is the Multiple authors section. If you're going to have multiple people writing blog posts, select “Yes”. If it's just you, select “No”. Click the Next button.
- Step 8: In the Title settings, this is where you can change the website name that Yoast displays in the search engines, and the symbols it will use as your title separator. Feel free to choose whatever title separator you want.
- Note: Later in this post, I'll show you another way to change your title separator outside of the configuration settings. So you can leave the default setting for now. Click the Next button.
- Step 9: On the next screen, titled, “Help us improve Yoast SEO”, Yoast will ask you if they can track your site data. “No” is selected by default. If you're okay with tracking, you can select “Yes”. Once you've made your selection, click the Next button.
- Step 10: The next screen asks you if you'd like to subscribe to Yoast's newsletter. I actually recommend that you sign up as you'll stay up to date with everything going on in the world of SEO. After making your selection, click Next.
- Step 11: The last screen will show that you've completed the configuration and that your site is ready to be search engine optimized.
How to Configure the Homepage SEO and Social Sharing Settings
The next thing to configure for the Yoast plugin is the search appearance of your homepage. This means editing how the search engines and social media channels display your blog when people either search for it online or share it on social media.
Hover your mouse on SEO and click Search Appearance. It'll take you to a page where you can configure the title separator and your homepage. Here, you can also set the SEO title, meta description, and social settings for your homepage For the meta description, try to use keywords that you want to rank for.
For the Social Settings, you can modify the image, title, and description used when someone links to your homepage and shares it via social media. By default, the social title will use your site title.
How to Configure the Page and Post SEO Settings
Now that you have Yoast installed and configured to your liking, it's time to put it to use. Start by creating a page or post.
- Step 1: Go to the left menu of your WordPress Dashboard and choose All Posts or All Pages. You should see a column that says SEO on the right side of the screen.
- Step 2: Then, click the General tab under the Yoast SEO Toolbox, and enter your focus keyword, SEO title, URL, and meta description.
Yoast will rate your page or post using a color-coded system:
- A gray dot: No information available
- A green dot: Good
- A yellow/orange dot: Room for improvement
- A red dot: Significant problems
Yoast will base this rating on:
- Whether you used your target keyword enough (or keyword stuffing)
- Your use of inbound and outbound links
- Your use of subheadings
- Your use of images
- Your content's readability score
- The length of your title, URL slug, and meta description
Keep in mind that Yoast offers general guidelines for SEO, so don't worry about following them to a tee.
Bonus Yoast SEO Features and Tips
Looking for more in-depth info? Interested in bonus SEO features and tips? Go watch my Yoast SEO video tutorial on YouTube and subscribe to the Blog With Ben YouTube channel. Or feel free to contact me! I'm always here to help.
Do you want to boost your blog's rankings, but don't want to spend hours learning the technical aspects of SEO?
Yoast is the answer. In this post, I'll talk about how to install Yoast to your WordPress blog, and how to configure the plugin so that it works optimally for your unique needs.
Below, I've outlined each step in the video. Feel free to use it as a reference as you're watching the step-by-step tutorial.
How to Install and Activate the Yoast SEO Plugin
- Step 1: To install Yoast, go to your WordPress Dashboard and hover your mouse over Plugins. Then, click Add New.
- Step 2: In the search field in the upper right corner of the screen, simply search for “Yoast”.
- Step 3: Install and activate the Yoast plugin.
How to Configure the Plugin
- Step 1: To configure Yoast, hover your mouse over SEO and click General. This will bring you to the Settings page.
- Note: If this is your first time using the Yoast plugin, you may see a few notifications asking for you to build your index so that Yoast can process your content to help speed up your site. You can skip this feature for now, and come back to it after you configure the plugin. You might also see other notifications that ask you to allow search engines to crawl your site. But we'll discuss how to do that a bit later in this post.
- Step 2: Click the “configuration wizard” link at the top of the Yoast Settings page. This will bring you to the Yoast SEO Configuration Wizard.
- Step 3: Determine the environment your website is in. This basically means whether your blog is live or under construction. If you're in the process of building your blog, then choose Option B, which states “My site is under construction and should not be indexed.” But if your site is already live, you can select Option A, stating, “My site is live and ready to be indexed.” Click the Next button.
- Note: After you've launched your blog, go back to the Configuration Wizard, and choose Option A. This helps ensure your site is indexed by the search engines.
- Step 4: Under Site type, select “A blog.” Click Next.
- Step 5: In this step, Yoast wants to know if you're an organization or a person. If you're an organization, choose that option, Type in the name of your organization, upload your logo, and type your social network URLs. But if you're a person, a.k.a. a blogger, select “Person.” There will be a dropdown menu, which will show what you chose your display name to be in your WordPress Profile. Select the name you want to use from the dropdown, and click the Next button.
- Step 6: The next setting deals with Search engine visibility, which allows you to choose which content types you want the search engines to index. Unless you have specific requirements, I recommend leaving this section as is. Click the Next button.
- Step 7: Next is the Multiple authors section. If you're going to have multiple people writing blog posts, select “Yes”. If it's just you, select “No”. Click the Next button.
- Step 8: In the Title settings, this is where you can change the website name that Yoast displays in the search engines, and the symbols it will use as your title separator. Feel free to choose whatever title separator you want.
- Note: Later in this post, I'll show you another way to change your title separator outside of the configuration settings. So you can leave the default setting for now. Click the Next button.
- Step 9: On the next screen, titled, “Help us improve Yoast SEO”, Yoast will ask you if they can track your site data. “No” is selected by default. If you're okay with tracking, you can select “Yes”. Once you've made your selection, click the Next button.
- Step 10: The next screen asks you if you'd like to subscribe to Yoast's newsletter. I actually recommend that you sign up as you'll stay up to date with everything going on in the world of SEO. After making your selection, click Next.
- Step 11: The last screen will show that you've completed the configuration and that your site is ready to be search engine optimized.
How to Configure the Homepage SEO and Social Sharing Settings
The next thing to configure for the Yoast plugin is the search appearance of your homepage. This means editing how the search engines and social media channels display your blog when people either search for it online or share it on social media.
Hover your mouse on SEO and click Search Appearance. It'll take you to a page where you can configure the title separator and your homepage. Here, you can also set the SEO title, meta description, and social settings for your homepage For the meta description, try to use keywords that you want to rank for.
For the Social Settings, you can modify the image, title, and description used when someone links to your homepage and shares it via social media. By default, the social title will use your site title.
How to Configure the Page and Post SEO Settings
Now that you have Yoast installed and configured to your liking, it's time to put it to use. Start by creating a page or post.
- Step 1: Go to the left menu of your WordPress Dashboard and choose All Posts or All Pages. You should see a column that says SEO on the right side of the screen.
- Step 2: Then, click the General tab under the Yoast SEO Toolbox, and enter your focus keyword, SEO title, URL, and meta description.
Yoast will rate your page or post using a color-coded system:
- A gray dot: No information available
- A green dot: Good
- A yellow/orange dot: Room for improvement
- A red dot: Significant problems
Yoast will base this rating on:
- Whether you used your target keyword enough (or keyword stuffing)
- Your use of inbound and outbound links
- Your use of subheadings
- Your use of images
- Your content's readability score
- The length of your title, URL slug, and meta description
Keep in mind that Yoast offers general guidelines for SEO, so don't worry about following them to a tee.
Bonus Yoast SEO Features and Tips
Looking for more in-depth info? Interested in bonus SEO features and tips? Go watch my Yoast SEO video tutorial on YouTube and subscribe to the Blog With Ben YouTube channel. Or feel free to contact me! I'm always here to help.
Written by Ben Cummings
Cofounder of Sage Wave Media
Ben is a professional blogger who holds an MBA with a specialization in Entrepreneurship. He enjoys teaching, blogging, startups, a hoppy IPA, and college basketball. Whenever he's not blogging, you can find him cruising around sunny San Diego with his amazing family.
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