WordPress SEO by Yoast is considered by many - including me - to be the best SEO plugin for WordPress - and it is not without reason. There are plenty of options, in fact so many that it may seem confusing for the generel user. That is why I made this guide, where I will show you how I recommend that you set up WordPress SEO by Yoast.
Do you have problems with the links in the slideshow, so they stand below.
WordPress SEO by Yoast Guide: http://www.jonathanlindahl.dk/wordpress-seo-yoast-guide/
Search engine optimize category and author archive: http://kaiserthesage.com/seo-for-blogs/
Preview tool: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/cards/validation/validator
Kwayy HTML Sitemap: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kwayy-html-sitemap/
Robots.txt Guide: http://tools.seobook.com/robots-txt/
.htaccess Guide: http://www.noupe.com/php/htaccess-techniques.html
SEO Title: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag
Meta Description: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description
Twitter: http://goo.gl/0UexV
Google+: http://goo.gl/4nzhQ
2. www.jonathanlindahl.dk
WordPress SEO by Yoast
About
About
WordPress SEO by Yoast is a plugin for WordPress. With this
plugin you can for example add Meta Title, Facebook Open
Graph, breadcrumbs, noindex your date archives and much
more.
Why should I install it?
This is considered by many - including me – to be the best SEO
plugin for WordPress, and is definitely a MUST-HAVE plugin for
your WordPress website. There are far more options than
plugin like All in One SEO Pack and the other SEO plugins for
WordPress.
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WordPress SEO by Yoast
Why a guide?
Why a guide?
As I said, there are a lot of options and settings that can be set.
This may seem overwhelming for general users, and it may
mean that the user can not get around these things. And it's sin,
as there are many important settings in this plugin, as it is
important that you know about.
What's in this guide?
The guide contains photos and small text on how I
recommend to setup WordPress SEO by Yoast. Want a more in-
depth explanation, read this one:
WordPress SEO by Yoast Guide (note: it is in Danish, use
browser to translate)
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Dashboard
Tracking
I recommend to allow
this. This will help Yoast to
make the plugin even
better, and there are no
cons of it.
Security
Ensures that users with
the role of
writer/contributor can
not redirect, noindex and
other advanced SEO. I
recommend to check this
one.
Webmaster Tools
Do you have a user on
Google/Bing Webmaster
Tool or Alexa, add the
meta tag and have it
verified.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Titles & Metas: General
Title settings
Do your pages/posts not
show the meta title you
entered, check this one.
Are you unsure about your
theme do it, so just check
it anyway.
Sitewide Meta
Your subpages to your
archives must be noindex
to prevent DC. Meta
Keywords are so last year.
And check only the bottom
if you are listed on DMOZ
or the Yahoo! Directory.
Clean <header>
Google (supposed) to like
a "clean" header. Check (in
most case) the top 3, but
not the last.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Titles & Metas: Home
Homepage
Have you inside the
Settings > Reading, set
“Front page displays" to
"Your latest posts“, then
you can write your Meta
Title and Meta Description
here.
Front page
Have you inside the
Settings > Reading, set
“Front page displays" to "A
static page (select below)",
then you can not write
your Meta Title and Meta
Description here.
Author metadata
Here you can verify your
Google+ Author and/or -
Publisher. I do not
recommend that you do it
here, but instead manually
(see guide).
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Titles & Metas: Post types
Posts
Add %%title%% at Title
template. In my example it
looks like this: %%title%
% • Jonathan Lindahl. Do
not check any of the boxes.
Pages
Use the same settings
from “Posts” here.
Media
You must noindex your
media. Do not worry, it's
not your images you
noindex, but the post the
images creates.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Titles & Metas: Taxonomies
Categories
Add %%category%% at
Title template. In my
example: %%category%%
• Jonathan Lindahl.
Noindex them, but only if
you
search engine optimize it.
Tags
Do you use tags - which I
do not recommend -
please add %%tag%% on
Title template. And
remember to noindex
them since they can create
DC.
Format
Noindex your format.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Titles & Metas: Other
Author Archives
Is there one author,
disable is. Are there
multiple authors, add %
%name%% at Title
template, uncheck the
boxes and
search engine optimize it.
Date Archives
Add %%date%% at Title
template (in my example:
%%date%% • Jonathan
Lindahl) and noindex
them, otherwise they will
be able to create duplicate
content.
Special Pages
What I have written:
“Search results for %
%searchphrase%% •
Jonathan Lindahl.”
“Page not found •
Jonathan Lindahl”
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Social: FB Open Graph
FB Open Graph
With the Facebook
OpenGraph, you can
determine which text and
images to appear when
people share your website
on Facebook. So check it.
Facebook
Insights
Connect with your
Facebook user/app so the
plugin can access
Facebook Insight for your
site.
Settings
Add description and URL
of the picture, that you
want to appear when
people share your front
page on FB. Just add the
URL of the same image at
the default settings.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Social: Twitter Meta Data
Twitter
This allows you to add
Twitter card meta data to
your website. Activate it,
then enter your user name
for Twitter underneath
the box.
Users
Access Users > Your
profile. Go down to
"Contact Info" and further
down to "Twitter
username (without @)"
and write there your
Twitter user name.
Preview
Then try their
preview tool, and apply to
participate so that it is
activated on your website.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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XML Sitemap
Do not use XML Sitemap
I do not recommend that you use XML Sitemap
(only if you are also using Yoasts plugin Video SEO),
but rather that you have a good and healthy internal
link structure that links to all your pages/posts so
that Google can find them. Therefore, I recommend
that you uncheck this field (like the picture to the
left).
Instead, I recommend you to use an HTML Sitemap,
which you can either use a plugin or do manually.
Here are one plugin, that you can use
• Kwayy HTML Sitemap
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Permalinks
Permalinks
Check the first to remove
/category/ from your
category URL. Check only
the second, if you use
.html at the end of your
URL. Check also the last.
Remove, redirect
Check the top and let the
past be unchecked.
Canonical
Can you both get on your
blog with http and https,
so choose one of them
here. If you can’t do it, so
do not do anything.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Internal Links
Breadcrumb
Is there not already
breadcrumbs on your
website, activate it here.
Set it then, according to
your wishes.
Code
Copy the code.
Paste
Then go into the
Appearance > Editor and
paste it where you want it.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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RSS
RSS
Here at RSS, you can
ensure that when the
(stupid) spammer scrape
your content and publish
it, then there will be a link
to the original content
(your page/posts).
Delete
Delete the text that
appears next to "Content
to put after each post
(HTML allowed)".
Paste
Now insert the following:
“This post was originally
written by %%POST LINK
%%” - next to "Content to
put before each post in the
feed (HTML allowed).
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Import & Export
Import - SEO
Here you have the ability
to import data from
another SEO plugin (eg
Headspace 2, All in One
SEO etc.) to WordPress
SEO.
Import - Other
You also have the option
to importing from other
plugins like RSS Footer,
Robots Meta, etc.
Export
There is also the
possibility to export, if you
want to use another SEO
plugin, or want to export
data to another website
where you also use
WordPress SEO by Yoast.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Edit files
Robots.txt
From here you can
directly edit your
robots.txt. Can eg be used
to noindex certain content
from your website and
much more.
.htaccess fil
While you're here can
directly edit your .htaccess
file. Here, you can for
example make redirect
and much more.
Guides
You should know what
you're doing when you
edit these files. Therefore,
I recommend to read
• Robots.txt Guide
• .htaccess Guide
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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WordPress SEO Meta Box
Screen Options
Go to any post/page, and
click on the “Screen
Options" in the upper right
corner.
WordPress SEO
Make sure that you have
checked the "WordPress
SEO by Yoast".
Meta Box
Now you should
underneath your
post/page could see the
WordPress SEO Meta Box,
where you can add Focus
Keywords, SEO Title etc.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Meta Box: General
General
In general you have to add your page/post's
Focus Keyword; the Focus Keyword is that
keyword(s) that describe your content. Nota:
this is not Meta Keywords or similar - this is
only used to create a Page Analysis of your
page / post.
In addition, you need to add an SEO title (you
can read more about SEO title).
And finally, add a Meta description. You can
here read more about Meta description.
At the top, you could see a Snippet Preview.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Meta Box: Page Analysis
Page Analysis
At Page Analysis, you can see an SEO analysis
of your page/post on the basis of the Focus
Keywords that you have used.
I would not recommend you to go too much
into this. Remember that it is your users you
are writing to and not the search engines. Does
it therefore eg not make sense to place your
focus Keywords as the first word in your SEO
Title (as Page Analysis recommend), then
don’t do it.
But have instead these tips in mind when you
write: as a kind of guidelines.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Meta Box: Advanced
Advanced
At Advanced, you can - as the name suggests -
edit on the more advanced things. Here, you
can
Meta Robots Index: Index or noindex
Meta Robots Follow: NoFollow or DoFollow
Meta Robots Advanced: Eg not allow
snippets and/or Cache link to be displayed in
SERP.
And other advanced SEO things that you
probably only going to use in a limited way.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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Meta Box: Social
Social
Normally Facebook and Google+ use the
post/page meta description as the description
(or the first text in the post/page if you have
not set any meta description) when the post is
being shared.
But do you want another text shown on
Facebook/Google +, this is where you need to
add the text.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
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WordPress SEO by Yoast
It was all!
Made by
This presentation is made by Jonathan
Lindahl, who dealing with SEO, Affiliate &
WordPress. You can find me on my blog
http://www.jonathanlindahl.dk/
I will be very happy if you follow me on the
social media.
Twitter: http://goo.gl/0UexV
Google+: http://goo.gl/4nzhQ
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