As powerful as WordPress is, it doesn’t offer many tools for search engine optimisation (SEO). Yoast is a plugin that claims to offer those tools. But is it up to the task?
SEO is a key concern for any coach who has their own website. You face a ton of competition in the online space. Every website in your niche competes against you on some level.
That’s especially the case when it comes to search engine results. The likes of Google and Bing have complex algorithms in place to determine where you appear for searches. If you’re not on the top page, your site has almost no chance of attracting a click.
That may sound extreme. However, the data suggests that bad SEO leads to far lower visitor numbers.
In total, 75% of search engine clicks go to websites that appear on the first page of a search. The rest gets spread around the other pages. That means you’re missing out on three-quarters of your potential audience if your SEO isn’t on point.
Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t offer a lot of concessions to users who want to optimise their websites. It allows you to handle some basic stuff, such as URL names. But you’ll need a plugin if you want to optimise your site fully.
That’s where Yoast comes in.
What is Yoast?
Yoast is a WordPress plugin that places a range of optimisation tools at your command. It builds on the basic stuff that WordPress offers to allow you to create friendlier pages for search engines.
If you want to climb the rankings, a tool like this is absolutely essential.
However, the tool claims that it goes much further than pulling more visitors from search engines. It aims to help you deliver more engaging content. Plus, it runs a host of checks to ensure that your content doesn’t go overboard.
That’s crucial in the current search environment. We’re long past the days when stuffing content full of keywords was enough to get good rankings. Search engine algorithms are incredibly complex and can pick up on instances of people trying to manipulate them.
Yoast claims to help you optimise while staying within search engine guidelines.
This review looks at some of the plugin’s key features to help you determine if it’s a good choice for your site.
Feature #1 – The Readability Checker
There’s a simple rule to follow when it comes to online content:
Make it as easy to read as possible.
People generally have a limited amount of time to spend on your website. That’s especially the case for mobile users who may only have a couple of minutes to browse. They’re not going to waste precious time trying to understand the meaning behind your words. If you’re not conveying a clear message to them, they’ll find someone who is.
Content readability is as important as the message the content conveys.
Yoast offers a great tool to help in this department. Its Readability Checker examines your content in real-time and offers instant feedback for it.
The checker uses a combination of Yoast’s own algorithm and the Flesch readability scale. It then gives you a score out of 100 for your text. The lower the score, the more complex the text is.
That’s not all. It also scans the text for keyword usage and lets you know if you’ve gone overboard in regards to density.
The checker integrates straight into WordPress’ post creation pages. That means you can see it at all times as you write and adjust the text on the fly. Of course, you can also copy and paste text into WordPress to have the tool analyse it for you.
It’s not perfect, of course. Sometimes, you need a level of complexity to deal with certain topics. The tool doesn’t check your text in relation to the subject matter.
However, it’s a great way to get an instant feel for how difficult your text is to read. You can then make changes based on how that feedback aligns with your audience.
Feature #2 – Free vs Premium
You also have a couple of options when you install Yoast. The plugin offers Free and Premium versions.
The good news is that the Free version isn’t as bare-bones as you may expect. You still gain access to the Readability Checker. Plus, it still handles a lot of the technical stuff, such as the creation of sitemaps.
However, you’re limited when it comes to keyword usage. The Free version only allows you to optimise based on a single keyword. Furthermore, it doesn’t provide any content insights or suggestions for internal links.
That’s all stuff that you get with the Premium version. It allows for in-depth optimisation that takes synonyms and multiple keywords into account. Premium also provides you with access to a 24/7 support service and does away with Yoast’s ads.
Either version works fine for the SEO beginner. The Free version actually offers great insight into the tool’s power. Plus, it’s good enough for fairly simple optimisation.
Feature #3 – Ease of Use
Few plugins integrate into the WordPress CMS quite as effectively as Yoast.
Everything that you need to optimise your pages is on your page creation screen. The Readability Checker’s right underneath your main text box. Plus, Yoast installs separate sections to help you handle all of the other stuff, such as Metadata creation.
That means you don’t have to navigate anywhere else to fully optimise a page. And as mentioned, Yoast takes care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff automatically. It’ll update your sitemap whenever you create a new page. And it’ll clean up your code a little to make your site more search engine-friendly.
It’s this ease of use that makes it such an appealing tool. You don’t have to learn any HTML coding to make use of the plugin. The tool’s available right at the point where you need it most and it provides constant feedback on the content you create.
Yoast also uses a simple light system to provide insight into how well you’ve optimised your page. Plus, you get a checklist of issues so you can make improvements.
It’s all extremely easy to use.
Feature #4 – RSS Protection
Content duplication is one of the biggest concerns that any website owner has. If you create great content, people may copy it and try to claim it as their own. Trying to track all of this content down is a time-consuming process. Plus, search engines can dole out some harsh punishments for duplication.
Your RSS Feed can provide ammo to people who want to steal content.
These feeds are a great way to aggregate content and present it to your visitors in a digestible way. You can even get people to subscribe to your feed, which provides data for your marketing efforts.
However, some engage in an activity called scraping. Using special tools, they pull the content out of your feed and place it into their own. Thus, they basically steal your content to promote their own websites.
Yoast recognises the problems that this can cause for your optimisation efforts. And it’s created a simple solution.
Within the plugin’s Advanced Settings, you can create content to post before and after any content that goes into your feed. That means you can pop a link back to your original article into any content you share.
If a scraper tries to steal your content, that link gets added to it. If someone comes across that content online, they can see who wrote it and thus may visit your site. Plus, this link tells search engines where the content came from so there’s no chance for confusion.
It’s a clever solution to a common problem and it’s easy to access within the plugin.
Install Yoast Today
Yoast is the premier SEO plugin for WordPress. It packs a lot of clever features into a very simple package. Best of all, it’s able to mask the complexities of SEO while still ensuring that you optimise your website.
You don’t have to do any coding and the tool constantly provides feedback about your content. With the Premium version, you can even partially automate things like internal linking.
Best of all, Automation Agency can help you to install the plugin for your WordPress website. Just send a task to the Concierge Service to find out more.
But perhaps you’re not already a client and you’re not sure if we can help you? That’s okay. A quick chat with our Right Fit Chatbot will reveal if we’re a good fit for your business.
