How to Set up the Yoast SEO Plugin

Name: How to Set up the Yoast SEO Plugin
Rating: 4.3 (17 reviews)

Get the most out of your WordPress SEO by setting up the Yoast SEO plugin for optimum results

Created bySteven O'Sullivan

Last updated 5/2017

English

What you'll learn

Set up the Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin the proper way for your site
Understand what all the setting mean and choose the best settings for your WordPress site without the guesswork
Understand which settings are right for personal blogs or company blogs
Know what the plugin does and does NOT do - this is critical for your success
Focus on creating great content that is SEO friendly

Course content

3 sections • 11 lectures • 1h 6m total length

Introduction4:45
This is the introduction to How to Set up the Yoast SEO Plugin.
First, most people who install this plugin don’t do anything other than activate it, and move on from there. So, setting it up correctly for your site puts you out in front of most WordPress website owners.
Second, this is only one of the SEO plugins I recommend. Hopefully you got a copy of my report on the Top 11+ Must Use SEO WordPress Plugins for 2016. And hopefully you went through the report and installed some of those plugins to your site.

If you didn’t get the report, I’ve put a copy of it either below this video or in the notes section, depending on where you are watching this.
Third, simply setting up the Yoast SEO plugin will not fix your SEO woes if you don’t optimize each page and post on your site, and continue to optimize each new page and post as you go.
So whether you’re a seasoned content marketer or you’re just starting your WordPress site, you’re in the right place.

The following lessons will walk you through each section of the plugin so you’ll understand what each setting does and what you should choose without the guesswork.

How to Set up the Yoast SEO Plugin - The Configuration Wizard5:52
Setting up the Yoast SEO plugin with the Configuration Wizard
If you are just installing the Yoast SEO plugin for the first time on your site, things will look a little different than with the older versions of the plugin. To start, you’ll only see 3 choices in the nav bar on the left of the dashboard.

They are...

Dashboard
Search Console
Go Premium

If you’ve previously installed the plugin and your version gives you more options than shown here, you can skip this video if you want, or it may be interesting for you to see how the Configuration Wizard works. Your choice.
How to Set up the Yoast SEO Plugin - General Settings6:47
In this lesson I’ll take you through the General Settings in the Yoast Dashboard.
At this point, you should have the plugin installed and activated already, but if not, go to the link I’ve listed below or in the notes, then install and activate the plugin. Make sure you have the most current version of the plugin installed before you go any farther.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/

The rest of of this lesson is on the General Settings section of the plugin.
Titles and Metas14:14
In this lesson, we’ll be working on the Titles & Metas section. This is one of, if not, the most important section of the Yoast SEO plugin. Take your time going through the lesson, and ask questions if you aren't clear on any of the settings.
Social7:19
In this lesson, we will set up all of our social media profiles.
You want to pick your main accounts associated with your website. So if you have company or business social accounts, enter those URLs. Otherwise, just enter your personal social media accounts as desired.
Here is the link for the Twitter Validation page I mention in the lecture - https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator
Sitemaps5:25
This lesson is on XML sitemaps.
If you don’t already know, an XML sitemap is a document that helps Google and other search engines better understand your website while crawling it. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. Luckily, you don’t need to remember what XML stands for, you just need to know that having these sitemaps will help your SEO.
Advanced Settings11:14
The Advanced Settings

In advanced settings we’ll be going over Breadcrumbs, Permalinks and RSS settings.
Tools3:26
This lesson is on the Tools section of the Yoast SEO plugin.
There are 3 tools you may want to use.

Bulk Editor
File Editor
Import and Export

Pay attention to this lesson, as some of the tools available to you can break your website.
Search Console1:37
This lesson is on connecting the Yoast plugin to your Google Search Console account.

Before you take this step, you have to have your website connected to your Google Search Console inside of Google analytics, or this won’t work.
Go Premium, Extensions + Help and Variables3:25
First, this is not an endorsement of the Yoast SEO premium plugins or extensions, I just want to be thorough by covering all sections of the plugin. You’ll have to decide if any of the premium products are right for you.

On the Go Premium page you’ll find information about the Premium version of the plugin as well as Extensions for Video SEO, News SEO and Local SEO.

Requirements

Have a live self-installed WordPress site on the web or on your local machine
You should be familiar with WordPress and how to install and activate plugins

Description

You have a WordPress website and you've installed the Yoast SEO plugin, but you have no idea how to set it up correctly, and it makes your brain hurt just to think about it. This course is your solution! In about an hour, you can have the plugin settings done, and have your site ready for SEO stardom.

Once you've installed and setup the plugin, you’ll have access to some pretty powerful SEO tools and have greater control over what the search engines add to their index so visitors who are looking for you can easily discover your site, and your products and services.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of WordPress and can install a plugin is eligible to take this course.

If you want to:

Set up the Yoast SEO plugin correctly
Get the most up-to-date instructions on the plugin
Easily understand what the plugin can do for your SEO
Get more organic traffic to your WordPress site
Have more visibility on Google
and Finally understand what "all that stuff" means

then, this is the course for you!

Don't spend another minute writing content for a site that isn't optimized for search.

Who this course is for:

This course is for small business owners, writers, authors and publishers who want to know how to set up the Yoast SEO plugin correctly
You should have a basic understanding of WordPress, and be able to install and activate plugins
This course is not intended for SEO experts
This course is not for those who want to know specifically how to use the plugin to optimize posts and pages for your WordPress site
This course is only for those using the self installed WordPress application. (This plugin does not work on WordPress dot com accounts.)

How to Set up the Yoast SEO Plugin

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 5min

Setting up the Yoast SEO Plugin9 lectures • 59min

Conclusion1 lecture • 2min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: