Not Using the Yoast SEO Plugin? You’re Making a Mistake

SEO Web Design Mistakes in San Diego, CA

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not something that can be mastered overnight. Luckily, there are things that can help you on your journey to understand the ever-changing landscape of SEO. Chief among these things is the Yoast SEO plugin, recommended by leading digital marketing agencies in San Diego.

The Yoast SEO plugin for the WordPress publishing platform is one of the most useful SEO tools in the market. In essence, the Yoast plugin allows WordPress users to apply the best on-page SEO practices for each piece of content they publish.

The beauty of the Yoast plugin is that it sits right at the bottom of each post, and it analyzes the content as soon as a draft is automatically saved by the content management system (CMS). The page analysis provided includes all the points that a professional SEO would critique in post.

Yoast starts by providing a visual snippet of how the post will look on the Google search engine results page (SERP). The SEO points are listed below that snippet, and they start with the custom title followed by various taxonomies, which include metatags, categories, links, keyword density, alt tags for images, and even a Flesch Reading Ease Test score.

Content publishers should consider each taxonomy as a checklist. The plugin scores each item using a traffic signal scheme: a red light indicates immediate action required, a yellow light suggests that improvements should be made, and the green light prompts publishers to move to the next item.

The recommendations provided by Yoast are easy to follow. For example, if the focus keyword does not appear in the title, Yoast displays a reminder and recommends placing the keyword close to the beginning.

Although going through the entire Yoast checklist is not required, it is highly recommended for publishers concerned about SEO. When the content is published, Yoast automatically creates an optimized XML sitemap for that particular page. This allows the Google search bot to get a good feel for the content and will help the page achieve optimal SERP placement.

Yoast can be used for more than just Google SEO. There are add-ons available for news websites and for improving social media updates.

Learn more about what your company needs to move up in the search rankings by reaching out to Saba SEO in San Diego. Through a combination of SEO, social media, and San Diego PPC management, we help companies big and small grow their online presence, connect with their target audience, and ultimately increase their bottom line.