Amplify Your Website’s Reach
Writing good content for a website isn’t enough to shine through the thousands of competitors in SERPs. Just like a good product needs good packaging, a content-rich website needs to be backed by SEO in order to be worthy in the eyes of Google.
Good SEO practices make your client’s content more user-friendly & reachable to the audience rather than hidden in the pool of zillion websites.
Yoast SEO is one such WordPress plugin that stands by your clients’ websites & makes them rank in SERP. We believe you’ve read our previous article where we talked about the importance of Yoast SEO to boost the search engine rankings of your clients’ WordPress websites.
Not only does it assist in crafting SEO-friendly content, but it also aids in creating content that is more reader-friendly. And like every good thing in the world, activating the plugin on your WordPress website can be enough challenging.
Installing Yoast SEO
Log in to the WordPress website admin panel, go to the plugins section & click on add new. You will be taken to a dashboard with a search bar.
- Search for Yoast SEO
- Install the Plugin
Once you find the plugin, click on “Install now” to get the plugin.
- Activate the Plugin
After the installation is completed, the “Install now” button will transform into “Activate.” Click on the button to activate the plugin for your WordPress website.
That’s it! You have successfully installed the Yoast SEO for your WordPress Website. The next step is to set up the plugin.
Set Up Yoast SEO
Now before setting up the Yoast SEO, if your client has used any SEO plugins in the past, it is advisable to import that data before setting up Yoast SEO.
To do this click on the “Import & Export” tab on the plugin Dashboard.
Here you get two options to Import from. To import your setting from another active Yoast SEO plugin or Import from a different Plugin.
After selecting Import options, click on “Import” & all your past settings will be applied to the new Yoast SEO plugin!
If you’re setting up a fresh Yoast SEO, there are certain extra steps that you have to go through:
Go to the Yoast SEO Dashboard and click on the Configuration Wizard to start configuring Yoast SEO for your WordPress Website.
On the Configuration dashboard, you’ll see certain sections on the Configuration Wizard, Let’s go through each of them.
- Environment
This part decides whether your WordPress site should show up in the search results. Unless you’re tinkering with a development or staging server, go with Option A all the way. It lets Google and other search engines find and crawl your site, giving it the attention it deserves.
- Site Type
Determines the type of your client’s WordPress Website.
- Organization or Person
To make sure your metadata is accurate, select whether your client’s website represents an individual or an organization. If it’s an organization, you’ll need to upload your brand logo and image.For personal websites, just enter your name in the designated field. All of this data will be stored in your clients’ website’s metadata, which plays a crucial role in Google’s Knowledge Graph. This ensures that users get the right information about your clients’ websites.
- Search Engine Visibility
This section defines which type of content to show in the SERP results.
- Multiple Authors
This section indicates the number of individuals who can publish content on your WordPress site. Sharing this information will assist Yoast SEO in preventing duplicate content, while also preventing any confusion for Google when it comes to indexing your web pages.
- Title Setting
Customize how your content headlines appear on search results by incorporating your clients’ website names and choosing the perfect title separator. Select the symbol that aligns with your brand identity, as it will be displayed between your post title and website name in the snippet preview.
Sections 7 & 8 will ask you for a Yoast subscription & newsletter updates. As you finish steps 1 to 6, you are done with most of your configuration.
Configuration of General Settings for Yoast SEO
The next step is to configure general settings for your Yoast SEO Plugin. There are three main sections to be considered while configuring Yoast SEO:
- Dashboard
Right here, you have the option to cross-check and reopen your configuration wizard to make any necessary adjustments to the settings. You’ll also find a dedicated section called “Problem” that keeps you informed about any issues your clients’ websites might be encountering. Moreover, the Notifications section keeps you updated with the latest news and information.
- Integration
The Yoast SEO plugin enables smooth integration with several third-party applications. The free version supports Semrush and Ryte, while the premium plan offers Zapier and Algolia integrations.
- Webmaster Tools
Creating accounts for webmaster tools is essential for keeping tabs on different aspects of your clients’ website, such as traffic, performance, and memory usage. This data is crucial for assessing how your site is performing in search engine results. In this section, you can easily verify your site with various tools like Baidu, Bing, Yandex, and Google Search Console. If your site is already verified, you can simply skip this section.
Conclusion
Yoast SEO, one of the most powerful plugins for WordPress websites can help you strengthen SEO for your clients’ WordPress websites. Setting up & configuring Yoast SEO can be a little overwhelming but worry not, we will always be there for you & your clients!