Does SEO leave your mind spinning? Don’t worry, whether you’re just getting started with SEO, or you’re a grizzled expert, it’s easy to get overwhelmed sometimes. That’s why we’ve compiled some of the best features included in Yoast SEO, just for you – aren’t we good?

What is the Yoast SEO?

Yoast SEO is an example of those most famous plugins on WordPress and has been for some time. It’s advertised as the #1 WordPress SEO plugin, and for a good reason!

Anyone with a self-hosted WordPress site can use Yoast SEO. It’s a comprehensive addition to the platform and allows its users to produce great content and build a killer WordPress site.

1. Optimise keywords like a pro

The platform boasts an extensive keyword optimisation process. It’s designed to ensure that your SEO efforts are as fruitful as possible and that you’re not making any glaring mistakes.

When you choose a focus keyword, Yoast SEO will evaluate your page’s content and provide various pointers about how you can further optimise to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

This is an excellent way of maintaining a balance between including your keyword and not using it too much.

2. Maintaining a competitive website

With the number of new plugins & features being added to WordPress every year, does Yoast SEO compete?
While it boasts an all-in-one nature, nothing ever quite hits that mark fully, but it does come exceptionally close. Yoast SEO does allow you to create a competitive website quickly and efficiently.

How do I build a competitive website?

The most important step in building a website is carrying out website competitive analysis.
Your competitors are ranking for keywords that you won’t be and will be driving traffic that you aren’t. You must alter your content to keep up.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. You will likely find gaps in your competitor’s content that you can capitalise on. SEO is a constant uphill race – keeping tabs on what’s going on around you is a sure-fire way of getting ahead!

3. Write better content with Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO will automatically conduct readability analysis. It uses a carefully crafted algorithm to suggest changes to your writing to ensure that it’s easily understood.

It’s really important to write with readability in mind, as this makes it more likely that readers will stay on your article, and your content will have the desired effect.

Their readability analysis currently checks for:

i. Transition words

Linking your points together with transition words like ‘because’, or ‘therefore’ brings together what you’re saying and helps your writing flow better.

ii. Sentence beginnings

When flicking through your writing after you finished, you might notice that you start each sentence in a very similar way (don’t worry, we’ve all done it). By varying your sentence starters, you’ll make

iii. Flesch reading ease

The Flesch-Kincaid readability tests are intended to intimate how trying a passage is in English to understand. Yoast SEO will rank your writing on a scale from 1-100, with 100 extremely easy to read, and one being extremely difficult.

You want to aim for about 60-70% readability to get the most bang for your buck out of your website copy.

iv. Paragraph length

Break up your work! It’s easy to ramble on when writing. Keeping it concise and breaking up your points will seem less daunting to your reader.

v. Subheading distribution

Many visitors to your site will skim-read to find what they need, and that’s completely fine! To make this easier, make sure to include plenty of subheadings to direct them to the information that they want.

vi. Sentence length

If your sentences are too long (over 20 words), people will struggle to follow your point. Shorten your sentences to increase accessibility, and this isn’t Shakespeare!

vii. Passive voice

The passive voice is a complicated aspect of grammar.

Passive sentence: “The dog chased the ball”.

Active sentence: “The dog chased the ball”.

An active sentence is more concise and puts the sentence’s focus on the actor (who the sentence is about). This can take a bit of time to wrap your head around, but it’s a worthy adjustment to make!

4. Automate website configuration

The configuration wizard in Yoast SEO helps to streamline set-up. The best part? It works on old websites just as well as it does on new websites.

Using this ensures that your settings are kept up to date without you having to do anything; all you have to do is focus on the important stuff!

5. Google preview

No matter how much work you put into your SEO content, it can often be challenging to visualise how links to your website will appear on SERPs.

The Google preview feature in Yoast SEO gives you a good idea of how a snippet from your website will look.

This is useful when looking to climb the rankings, as ranking with a snippet is like striking gold!
Using the snippet preview, you can set your SEO title and meta description. This is done to inform people about what they’ll find on your site, hopefully enticing them to click.

Editing this data doesn’t guarantee that your snippet will be displayed on Google, but if your meta description is good, then you’ll increase your odds, which is always a plus!

Should I use Yoast SEO on WordPress?

If you are viewing to make a professional website using WordPress, there aren’t many plugins that compete with Yoast SEO.

It does a wide variety of jobs, and it does them well. It’s a great place to start and is an asset to anyone looking to build a website with WordPress in 2021.