Basics Yoast SEO Plugin (Free Version) for WordPress

Search engine optimization is an important part of your website, but it’s not just about making Google happy, it’s also about generating valuable content for your target group. The Yoast SEO plugin can help you with this.

Step-by-step instructions for the Yoast SEO plugin:

1. You install Yoast SEO like any other plugin and activate it.

2. Do you have z. B. If the indexing of the search engines is blocked in the WordPress “Settings > Read”, the Yoast SEO plugin will show you this as the first problem after activation. If you are still in work mode with your website, this is the correct setting and you can ignore the reminder. However, when you are finished with your website, you should remove the check mark in the WordPress settings.

3. In the “Company information” you can make important entries and choose whether you act as a company or as an individual. If you register as a company, you also have the option of storing your logo, which may be read by the search engines.

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4. You can also store your social profiles.

5. At this point you have the option to insert an image, which Facebook uses when someone shares your page and also takes it whenever this shared page does not contain any images.

6. After activating the plugin, an area for optimizing your data for Google appears at the top of every page and post. This includes the page title, the permalink and the meta description. These 3 pieces of information are reflected in the Google search results.

7. You can use the Yoast SEO plugin to determine exactly these things from point 6 individually for each page and each post. Look at the example. There is still a lot to do there.

Annotation:
Unfortunately, the Yoast SEO plugin does not replace the work of search engine optimization, it only helps you to track down errors and to automate and optimize a few things. You don’t always get the green light (see photo below) from the plugin. But don’t despair, because you don’t always achieve that. But there are many other things you can do to make your site fit for Google, but that’s another topic.

Make sure you know your audience well and make adjustments to your site for them, not you. It’s nice if Google finds you, but if you don’t have relevant content, a nice design and a user-friendly guide through your website, the green traffic light will unfortunately not help you any further.

This guide is intended as an introduction. You can of course make many more settings with this plugin. Eg:

– Set up and store a sitemap
– Connect Google Search Console
– Edit robots.txt
– and much more

If you want to know more about this, you can find out more about it on the plugin’s developer page: Developer page

There are also a number of explanatory videos on YouTube. I really liked this short video about onpage optimization: YouTube

By the way!!!! There is now also a second part for advanced users. Have a look here: Advanced Yoast SEO.

Of course you can also contact me directly.

And now have fun 🙂
Yours, Kerstin Mueller

about the author

Kerstin Mueller

Kerstin Mueller is a web programmer and web designer in Berlin. She doesn’t just create websites, she advises and accompanies you on your way to a perfect website. Together you adapt your website to your budget and optimize it for search engines. She also gives WordPress workshops and takes away your fear of technology and guides you safely.