Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that boosts a website’s rankings on Google via optimising your site’s content and keywords – but is it really as simple as that?
Otherwise known as Search Engine Optimisation, SEO is what we call the practice of including specific content on your website that has the potential to improve your visibility on search engines, and in turn their users. Put simply, it helps your site show up more often in relevant searches, and is crucial if you want to reach the lofty heights of the first page on search engines like Bing and Google.
However, between the buzzwords like keyword research, readability, meta descriptions and title tags, the world of SEO can be overwhelming for the inexperienced. Thankfully, plugins like Yoast SEO were purposefully designed to ensure that it doesn’t have to be.
Introducing Yoast SEO
WordPress is a content management system, otherwise known as a CMS, and is renowned for being a robust tool for creating and managing your website. Blogs, business websites, personal sites, and ecommerce stores alike can all benefit from using WordPress, as it’s designed to be so simple to use, that just about anyone can build their own website.
This platform is run online, meaning you don’t need to download any desktop software to use it. Unless you’re a savvy coder, many people use a CMS system like WordPress, Wix, Shopify or SquareSpace to launch the website of their dreams by using the built in widgets and functions that these systems provide.
However, they can be tricky to navigate when it comes to meeting the illusive Google Page Experience guidelines. Google is a big fan of both optimised and dynamic content, so users of these platforms should be aware that as they contain areas in the code structure that are only accessible to developers, typically they feature more complicated content, yet are often unoptimised. As such, using these platforms means that you need to pay special attention to how your content is published, how well it is optimised, and in turn, how you go about conquering SEO.
Thankfully, a plugin like Yoast SEO offers an easily workable solution. Available in both paid and free subscription models, the process adds a Yoast SEO metabox on the edit screen of articles published through WordPress. This metabox allows users to add a title and description to their blog post in a format that is ‘Google friendly’, while also allowing users to choose and target keywords at the same time. In turn, the Yoast SEO plugin then analyses the content in the article against that of your keyword of choice, and assigns it with an SEO score or ranking. If it’s less than ideal, the plugin then gives you advice on what you need to do to improve it.
In a nutshell, Yoast SEO offers an easy to use plugin for beginners and experienced bloggers alike to streamline their content in a way that is both effective, and efficient. The best part? Even the installation is easy.
- Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be directed to your website’s Dashboard.
- On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. Within that menu, click on ‘Plugins’.
- Click on ‘Add New’ near the top right of your screen. Type ‘Yoast SEO’ into the search bar.
- You will then see a page full of search results, and the Yoast SEO plugin should now be visible. Click the ‘Install Now’ link to start installing the plugin to use on your website.
- Once the installation has finished, click the ‘Activate’ button. It has appeared where the ‘Install Now’ button was previously located.
- And that’s it! You can now go and configure the plugin, and go forth and conquer the internet.
The Key To Good SEO Is Great Content
Producing quality, consistent and on brand content that’s SEO and ultimately Google friendly takes time, effort, experience and resources – and you’re not alone if you can’t quite commit to that. Avoiding the use of content marketing altogether may actually be doing your brand a disservice, but thankfully – investing in a solid strategy has never been easier.
Here at Content Hive, producing top quality digital content is exactly what we do best. We have itemised a list of digital content services, and allocated credits next to each of these. This means that each month, you can use your credits with us to produce digital content such as social media posts, blog articles, videos and even animated Instagram stories.
We believe that this model means we can produce high quality content in faster than normal delivery times. It also means that because you have a monthly credit, you are going to want to make sure you use these up – and so do we – meaning that your digital content is always consistent.
If you aren’t quite sure where to start on your digital marketing journey and would like to speak to a professional, why not book a free discovery call with us at Content Hive today to discuss how we can get your brand buzzing online.
