Wordpress Seo by Yoast step by step installation!

In this article I will discuss about the Best Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin Settings to get higher rank in search results. Using these settings you can easily secure place on first or second page in Google search results for your keywords. It would be over claimed to say that you will able to manage to get position on page one or two in search results for all of your keywords. But yes, you can get it for your correctly optimize content and articles.

Well, we all know that good Search engine optimization (SEO) is extremely important for a website to be successful. And if I am not wrong WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin has become most popular SEO plugin among WordPress users. Because this plugin is packed with so many amazingly effective and killer features needed for good WordPress SEO.

Of course there are so many settings, you too will admit it, if you are already using it. And in case you are not, once you download it you can see. By default all these settings come with default values. So the point is – Is this default configuration the best for your WordPress website? Can you get place on first or second page in search results with default settings? Well I don’t say ‘yes’ on this. Because some setting fields in the plugin are either blank or set to default values, which you should consider to change to get better SEO results.

In following paragraphs I will try to cover all necessary details for all main settings and their sub settings of Yoast WordPress SEO plugin. In some cases I will share even very basic and simple information too. Because I want to make it a complete guide for beginners who are starting it from scratch and for advance users as well. So be patient and bear with me. Anytime you can jump to the next paragraph if found something, you are already good at.

Setup Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin with Most Optimized Settings

# Dashboard – General Settings

• GeneralIntroduction Tour – You can start on screen pop up message tour by clicking “Start Tour”. This includes introduction of all major settings tab.
  Default Settings – This allow you to restore Yoast WordPress SEO plugin settings to default.
• Tracking – By enabling this, you are allowing plugin’s publisher i.e. Yoast to track your WordPress website anonymous data. This is upto you whether you wish to enable it or not. I usually don’t enable this.
• Security – Enable this if you have many author logins for your WordPress and you don’t trust them all.

• Webmaster Tools – This is highly recommended setting for all WordPress users. Create your account on different Webmaster Tools for your website and enter meta value (verification code) of these webmaster services in their respective box in the plugin. These meta codes are used for easy site ownership verification. As for now WordPress SEO Yoast plugin supports webmaster meta codes for five services i.e. Alexa, Bing, Google, Pinterest and Yandex.

# Title & Metas

• General
  Title Settings
  Force rewrite tittle: Not recommended to enable. As enabling this will auto detect and force rewrite titles in your website.
  Title Separator: Although there is choice to have a separator from several available in the list. But I insist to choose one you think may ever can be used by user in search keywords. Hence, my favorite is dash (-).Other angle of choosing a separator is, to have one which gives your title a unique look among other search results. For this purpose (•), (*) or (⋆) are good.

Sitewide meta settings

Noindex subpages of archives: Don’t enable this until you have sufficient content on your website. If you enable this, search engines will not index subpages of your website (for example – www.yourdomain.com/page/2).
Use meta keywords tag?: I prefer to use to meta keywords. Although some online SEO magazines claim that use of meta keywords is an outdated method for SEO. On the other hand, all good WordPress SEO plugins offer the option to use meta keywords. So enable it, it won’t harm your SEO.
Add noodp meta robots tag sitewide: I do not advise to enable this unless you are not sure what you are doing. Better, not to mess with it.
Add noydir meta robots tag sitewide: Generally you don’t need to enable this.

Clean up the : Good SEO practices always include clean . So keep it clean by checking all four options.

For your better understanding I am using this Google search results screenshot. By seeing screenshot you may have a clear idea that how different parameters appear in search results, likewise you can set them in your plugin settings.

Here I want to clear one more thing that wherever in the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin settings you’ll see word “Template” that means you can assign a predefined value to that setting field. And the plugin will use this predefined value if you do not assign any value to the individual setting field at the time of creation of new post or say page.

• HomeHomepage

Title template: Marked with red color in the above screenshot. It should not be more than70 characters. It can be your site name with description. For example – Music Store – Free Music, Online Music Store, etc.
Meta description template: Marked with orange color in the above screenshot. It should be brief description of your website. As most search engines (including Google) support limited number of characters for this. So you should try to limit it up to 165 characters.
Meta keywords template: 6 or 8 keywords separated with comma. Here you may enter most popular keywords which you are intended to use throughout the content on your website.

• Post Types

In this section you can tune SEO settings of different content formats (like Posts, Pages, Media, Portfolio, Testimonials etc) on you website. There are same setting fields for each type of content as given below.

Title template: By default it looks like this
%%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%
or you can use only: %%title%%
If it is something else, replace that with one of above template.
Meta description template: You can use: %%excerpt%% or leave it empty. As you can set it in individual entry (post, page etc.).
Meta keywords template: You can use: %%focuskw%%, %%tag%%, %%category%% or Leave empty. As you can set it in individual entry (post, page etc.).
Meta Robots: (noindex, follow) Don’t enable it. As enabling it prevents indexing of this content.
Date in Snippet Preview: Don’t enable it.
WordPress SEO Meta Box: Don’t enable it. (Don’t hide it.)

• Taxonomies

In taxonomies you will find settings for website’s internal links (like Categories, Tags, Format, Team & Testimonial Categories etc.) Just like above Post Type settings here is also same setting fields for each type of internal link as below.

Title template: By default it look like below
%%term_title%% Archives %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%or you can use: %%title%% %%page%%If it is something else, replace that with one of the above template.
Meta description template:  You can use: %%excerpt%% or leave it empty. As you can set it in individual entry (post, page etc.).
Meta keywords template: You can use: %%focuskw%% or leave it empty. As you can set it in individual entry (post, page etc.).
Meta Robots: Don’t enable it at least until you don’t have sufficient content. As enabling it prevents indexing of this content.
WordPress SEO Meta Box: Don’t enable it.

• Other

Like previous two setting tabs, under this you’ll find setting fields for Author Archives, Date Archives etc.

Title template: By default it should look like
%%name%%, Author at %%sitename%% %%page%%
or you can use: %%title%% %%page%%
If it is something else, replace that with one of the above template.
Meta description template: You can use: %%excerpt%% or leave it empty. As you can set it in individual entry (post, page etc.).
Meta keywords template: You can use: %%focuskw%% or leave it empty. As you can set it in individual entry (post, page etc.).
Meta Robots: Don’t enable it. As enabling it prevents indexing of this content.

Special Pages

Search pages

Title template: Default value is
You searched for %%searchphrase%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%
or you can make your own by changing the order of keywords between %%_%%.

404 pages

Title template: Default value is
Page Not Found %%sep%% %%sitename%%
I don’t think much changes are required. However you can use combination of keywords between %% and %% to make your own.

# Social

Here you can add Social Media profiles (Facebook fan page, Twitter Account, Google Plus page) of your website.

Facebook

Add Open Graph meta data: Enable it.
Facebook Page URL: Enter your website’s Facebook page url.

Frontpage settings:
Image URL: Locate and upload an image for front page of Facebook page.
Title: Your Website Name | Site Punch line
Description: Here you can copy home page meta description.
Default Image URL: It will appear with the post/page being shared does not contain any images.

Twitter

Add Twitter card meta data: Enable it.
Site Twitter Username: Enter website’s Twitter account URL.
The default card type to use: Here use “Summery with large image” in place of “Summary”. Because content with images is always more eye-catchy.

Google+

Add Google+ specific post meta data: Enable it.
Google Publisher Page: Fill your website’s Google Plus page URL.

# XML Sitemaps

XML sitemaps are extremely important for good SEO.

XML Sitemap: enable XML sitemap functionality by checking the box.
User sitemap: I prefer to disable it. (Note: you need to check it to disable)
Ping Yahoo!: Enable it.
Ping Ask.com: Enable it too.

Exclude post types: Check the corresponding box if you DO NOT want to include
it your sitemap. Note that, Posts, Pages, Media – at least these three are not checked. Because these formats comprise major of your website’s content.

# Permalinks

Permalink Settings:

Remove stop words from slugs: Enabling this will give you an idea to understand STOP WORDS. So that you can avoid them in Focus keywords and slugs/URLs.
Redirect attachment URL’s to parent post URL: Enable it by checking the box. This will help to get more visitors by redirecting them to parent post from attachment URL.

Read more about Most SEO friendly Permalink Structure for WordPress.

# Internal Links

Breadcrumbs Settings: You can refer to Yoast WordPress SEO plugin page to configure it. Personally I found it really tricky to setup breadcrumbs in Yoast SEO. Better to use a separate plugin for this, if your WordPress theme don’t support breadcrumbs.

# RSS

This feature is quite useful and will automatically add content to RSS feeds of your website. You can use any specific content/blog links before and/or after each post in the RSS feed. You can use HTML tags and below given variables to add specific content or links. It also helps search engines to identify you as the original source of the content.

%%AUTHORLINK%%       : A link to the post author
%%POSTLINK%%               : A link to the post with title
%%BLOGLINK%%              : A link to your blog with blog name
%%BLOGDESCLINK%%   : A link to your blog with blog name & description

# Import & Export

Here you can import and export SEO settings within WordPress SEO by Yoast or from other WordPress SEO plugins like Import from All-in-One SEO, WooThemes SEO framework, HeadSpace2, OLD All-in-One SEO etc.

# Bulk Editor

This feature allow you to bulk edit SEO Title and Meta Description of posts, pages, media etc.

# Edit Files

Here you can enable & edit Robots.txt and .htaccess file of your WordPress website. I highly recommend to setup both Robots.txt and .htaccess file for your website. They are necessary for website loading speed and indexing control of your content.

# Extensions

Here are links of some premium extensions and products by Yoast.

Hope you‘ll find this post useful, I tried to cover most of it to make it complete and simple. However, if you are facing problems with any specific setting for Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin, ask me. I’ll be happy to help you out. You can also share, what optimum settings you are using for settings for Yoast WordPress SEO plugin.

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