WordPress optimisation with Yoast SEO plugin
WordPress Plugins are able to extend your WordPress web functionality. There are several Plugins that can help with optimising WordPress. Each of them has its own strengths and downsides.
We recommend you use Yoast SEO Plugin, one of the best and most used SEO Plugins in the world and available in both free and paid versions. The free version is often enough for small and medium-sized websites.
Use Yoast SEO Plugin to the fullest: 4 tips
This plugin helps you to improve the visibility of your website for search engines. So, check and adjust the following:
Indexed pages, Metadata Content for Social Networks, Google Search Console
Tip 1: Indexed Pages
First, with "Follow/NoFollow", you specify which website pages are or are not "indexed". In this way, you show search engine robots which pages are or are not visible to search engines.
Follow
Use "Follow" so web visitors can find your web page in the search results of search engines pages. Indexation of the website is not only needed for the homepage - you need to index all different web pages, including:
different category pages, products and services pages, contact page
NoFollow
Use "NoFollow" to avoid duplicate content. Indexing is not desired for:
The registration page in the basket. The user account. The box office.
Search Engines such as Google will penalise such content.
How to Install Follow/NoFollow
For each specific website page, you need to index whether search engines may or may not follow the page. Click on the bottom of your WordPress administration page in the Yoast SEO Plugin to:
“index” (follow) your web page. “no-index” (Nofollow) your web page.
How to create a Canonical Address
You can access the same content through different URLs. So, it is wise to use "Canonization" for existing, duplicated content. With content syndication, you can distribute content to different URLs and domains.
Add the URL of your original content as the “Canonical URL” address.
In this way, search engines understand that you know about the duplicate content and will not punish you with less visibility.
Tip 2: Metadata
Second, with the Yoast SEO plugin, you can manage the information that appears in search results better known as Metadata.
It consists of:
Title: a page title (max. 60 characters). Meta label: meta description (max. 156 characters). Keyword: main keyword of the page, article.
Snippet
This metadata is called Snippet.
A snippet is:
“a short summary of the website text that appears on the search result pages.”
It shows the information web visitors find when clicking on the link.
An example of a snippet:
TIP: Add your main keyword at the beginning of your metadata both in the title as well as in the meta description. This will improve the visibility of your website text.
Tip 3: Content for Social Networks
Third, with the Yoast SEO plugin, you can define how to share your site on social networks and create different content for social networks.
For example, Facebook:
Create a different Facebook Title. Create a different Facebook Description. Add a different Facebook Picture. Recommended size: 1200x630 pixels.
Tip 4: Connect with Google Search Console
Fourth, connect the Yoast SEO Plugin with Google Search Console to have all relevant information available from a single interface. Your WordPress site. This connection allows you to:
Analyse how your WordPress website pages rank in search results. Detect possible SEO errors. Test how search engines read your WordPress website content.
More information
Download the Yoast SEO Plugin. Google Help Information about canonical URLs. Questions? Contact our Customer Service department.