he Yoast SEO add-on is considered the most common and widespread add-on for improving search engines and improving the content of your site, as it offers many features and characteristics that help you prepare your site for search results.
While you are working on improving your site for search engines, you will search for SEO services from some specialists , and you will also seek to optimize your site’s content for the search engine. The Yoast SEO plugin will help you in this task in a way with several features present in the tool that will facilitate your SEO tasks.
Whether you use the free or paid version of the add-on, there are a large number of features it contains to help you improve your site’s SEO, which makes it a reliable add-on, in addition to its support for the Arabic language.
In this article, we will learn about using the Yoast SEO add-on, how it helps you improve content, use keywords, and create site maps, its many features, and the difference between the free version and the paid version of the add-on.
Yoast add-on features
The free version of Yoast offers many features that help you improve your site’s content, including the following:
1- Keyword management – Keyword Optimization
Yoast helps you determine the keyword phrase you want to target in your article, and provides suggestions and solutions to help you improve it. You write the keyword phrase in the space designated for it, and then Yoast will analyze the content, show problems, and provide suggestions to prepare the content for the keyword improvements.
Yoast, in its free version, offers the ability to work on a single keyword, while the paid version gives you the ability to target 5 keywords in the same article.
What does Yoast do for keyword phrase analysis?
- Examine the number of times the keyword is mentioned in the article (if it is mentioned infrequently or excessively) and provide appropriate suggestions.
- Check the distribution of the keyword (is it evenly distributed or not).
- The plugin tells you if the keyword phrase is already used on your site or not.
- Ensure the quality of the keyword in (SEO Title) and (Meta Description).
- Check the length of the keyword phrase.
2- Page Preview
Yoast offers a preview of what your page will look like on search engines, through Google Preview. It offers you preview on desktop devices and also on mobile.
3- Preview the page on social media
This feature is only available with the paid version of Yoast.
This feature gives you the ability to preview the appearance of the page on social media.
4- Suggestions for adding internal links
This feature is only available with the paid version of Yoast.
Since you do not have to bother searching for the internal links that you want to add in the article. Yoast will provide you with internal link suggestions, which you can add easily, thus saving you the hassle of searching your site for appropriate links.
5- Verify readability
Yoast helps verify the readability and understandability of written text. It is very important that the written text be easily readable for visitors, and it is one of the most important criteria and things that must be taken into account when writing the article.
The text and content provided should be simple, understandable and well broken down. Yoast uses the Flesch Reading Ease score tool to scan text and provide suggestions and improvements.
What is checked for readability?
- Check the length of text and paragraphs.
- Check the use of transitional words (words that link sentences together, such as “so, because, and, because, etc.”).
- Check the repetition of sentences and words.
- Make sure to use subheadings to divide the article.
When Yoast analyzes the text, it shows and presents to you (problems found + improvements needed + good results).
6- Edit robots.txt or .htaccess files.
If you are an expert or you want to modify or examine the ( .htaccess or robots.txt ) files of your site. Yoast gives you the ability to do this with ease through the extension’s settings control panel.
From within the WordPress control panel, you must go to (SEO >> Tools).
Note: We do not recommend modifying these files, unless you have sufficient experience modifying them.
7-Create a site map
One of the important things to improve your visibility in search engines is to create a site map, as it helps and makes it easier for search engines to discover your content.
Yoast can create an XML sitemap for you, which tells search engines how to navigate between different pages on your site. Yoast also handles a file (robots.txt) to instruct web crawlers how to crawl your site.
You can create a sitemap yourself, if you’re experienced enough, or you can leave it to Yoast to automatically create XML maps of your site and send them to Google.
You can turn this option on or off in Yoast by going to (SEO >> Features >> On/Off)
8- Content Insights
This feature is only available with the paid version of Yoast.
This feature also analyzes your text and lists the most important words that were mentioned more than 5 times in the text and with the number of repetitions.
Therefore, you can determine whether the repeated words in your text are appropriate for what you want to write about, or whether you have strayed from the goal of the article or the idea that you wanted to write about or target.
This feature can be turned on and off by going to (SEO >> Features >> On/Off)
9- Directions – Redirect
This feature is only available with the paid version of Yoast.
Are you tired of page 404 appearing on your site? Do you want to delete a specific page?
This feature in Yoast Premium helps you redirect visitors to a new address, so visitors will continue to get the information and will not be shown a 404 page.
Yoast Premium also allows you to do “regex” conversions. This means that you can redirect all URLs that match a particular text pattern to a different page.
10 – Import and export
Yoast gives you the ability to import SEO settings from another plugin or export your settings for use on another site. For example, you want to import SEO settings from the Rank Math plugin. You have to go to (SEO >> Tools >> Import and Export).
Then you have to choose (Import from other SEO plugins)
Can keyword phrases be exported?
Yes, it is possible, but this feature is only available in the paid version of Yoast.
If you want to export your site’s keywords as well as the SEO titles, description, and URL, Yoast Premium gives you this ability.
11- RSS Feed
One of the common problems for site owners is that other sites pull your site’s articles and publish them on their sites automatically, relying on some programming scripts (i.e., stealing your articles without mentioning the source).
Yoast SEO solves this problem by adding a link to your article with each RSS feed. This gives search engines an indication of the location of the original article and its primary source.
Advantages and disadvantages of Yoast
Positives:
- Easy to install and use.
- It helps you write correctly, checking long and short sentences, the density and distribution of keyword phrases, etc.
- RSS to prevent your content from being pulled.
- Many options for managing keywords.
- Suggestions for internal links.
- Redirect links.
Negatives:
- Suggestions for internal links Sometimes this is not appropriate
- The feature of counting content and the number of times a speech is used is not of much use.
- Customer service is only provided for the paid version of Yoast.
- Yoast offers suggestions for improving your site’s visibility in search engines but doesn’t give you examples of how to do so.
- Yoast requires a lot of transition words, so you may struggle to make it (green readability).
- Yoast algorithms are based on analyzing keyword density, and their results are sometimes not good (it is possible to reach the green color by repeatedly mentioning keywords randomly). Therefore, you must pay attention not to write keywords randomly, but rather they must be written within the context of natural speech and in a way that is useful to the article and provides an addition.
- The green color in Yoast does not mean that you have written a good and distinctive article. Yoast can easily be circumvented to reach the green color. You must know well what the rules of SEO are and write in a distinctive and useful way, and Yoast will serve as a helpful tool for you to remind you of what needs to be done.
What additional features does Yoast SEO Premium offer?
Is Yoast worth the money for the paid version?
Yoast costs about $89 for one site for just one year.
What plugins does Yoast SEO Premium offer to website owners?
The answer to these questions lies in the following lines, which explain the features and additions offered by Yoast SEO Premium.
1- Use a larger number of keywords
When you use the paid version, you will be able to work on more than one keyword or keyword phrase within a single article. You can use up to 5 keywords with 5 synonyms for the keyword.
This feature is considered very good, as you can thus target the largest number of keywords within your article, and thus you can target the general idea you want, but in more than one phrase and in more than one way.
For example, let the idea of the topic you want to write about be making money from blogging. When you use Yoast Premium, you will target 5 key phrases related to the topic of “creating a WordPress website.” Thus, you can think about what visitors are searching for in this field and target it within an article.
You can make:
- Primary keyword phrase: create a WordPress website
- Keyphrase #1: Create a WordPress website
- Keyphrase #2: How to create a WordPress website
- Keyphrase #3: Steps to create a WordPress website
- Keyword #4: Create a website based on WordPress
This means that you have targeted all of these topics in your article, and thus you have strengthened your article and improved its appearance in search engines
But you must pay attention not to randomly stuff keywords into your article and use appropriate keyword phrases that are appropriate to the content of the article.
2- Orphaned content
Content for orphans, or as it is translated (isolated content), is content that does not use any internal links and is not easily accessible to search engines or visitors. That is, when you share an article on your site and this article does not contain internal links, it will be called and listed under the category (content for orphans).
Yoast Premium tells you this, meaning it tells you which articles on your site do not contain internal links, so you can fix them.
3- Redirecting
Yoast Premium gives you the ability to redirect old URLs to new ones.
If you want to restructure your site or want to delete some articles or pages, you will see a problem (404), meaning the requested page does not exist.
If you want to delete or change a page, you’ll need to redirect visitors to the new page.
Here you can either put a message to visitors that the page has been deleted or the page is being modified or you can direct them to the new page via Yoast Premium.
Types of redirection in Yoast SEO Premium:
- 301 – Completely copied content.
- 307 – Temporary redirection.
- 410 – Deleted content
- 451 – Content not available.
Yoast Premium also allows you to do “regex” conversions. This means that you can redirect all URLs that match a particular text pattern to a different page.
Yoast Premium allows you to redirect one link at a time (that is, you cannot redirect a group of links together, you must do it for each link individually).
4- Internal linking suggestions
One of the important features of Yoast Premium is that it gives you some suggestions for internal links (to other articles on your site) that you can add to your article.
This saves you the trouble of searching for the appropriate links that you should add, as these suggestions are appropriate and relevant to the article you are writing.
You should pay attention to the importance of adding internal links within your posts and linking your relevant articles and posts to each other in order to improve your results in search engines.
5- Preview the page on social media
Yoast Premium gives you the ability to preview and see how a post or article will look and how it will look on social media in real time.
To activate or disable this feature, (SEO >> Social Networks >> Activate/Disable
To preview the changes and appearance of the post on social media
6- Export key phrases
Yoast Premium gives you the ability to export the keyword phrases found on your site and you can also export the SEO titles, description, and URL.
You have to go to (SEO >> Import and Export >> Export Keyphrases)
Pros and cons of Yoast Premium
Positives:
- Continuous updates and full support.
Negatives:
- There is no redirection feature if the link is changed.
- Website speed may be reduced if all features are activated at once.
- Some of the options in the paid version can be accessed through other free add-ons.
Is Yoast Premium worth paying for?
The answer that is closest to the correct one is that Yoast Premium is not worth paying for, as the advantage of using a larger number of keywords is not very useful and does not directly affect your ranking in search engines.
Also, even if you are using the free version, you can overcome this matter by writing the keyword and formatting the article based on that, then deleting it, writing keyword #1, formatting the article, then deleting it, writing keyword #2, and so on.
As well as the redirection feature, there are many free add-ons that provide this service, such as (Quick Page / Post Redirect).
The feature of providing options and suggestions for internal links can be dispensed with, and it also sometimes provides options that are not good.
As for the support provided only for the paid version, they will not help you with login issues or improving your site, the support will mainly be by directing you to the tutorials they have (which are actually available to everyone).
Comparison between Yoast and Yoast Premium
Yoast
- One keyword.
- Preview the page on Google.
- Readability check.
- There are no suggestions for internal links.
- There is no possibility to redirect links.
- Keyphrases cannot be exported.
- No Content Insights feature
- There are ads.
- No support.
- Continuous updates
Yoast Premium
- 5 keywords per page.
- Preview the page on Google, Facebook and Twitter.
- Readability check.
- There are suggestions for internal links.
- There is the possibility of redirecting links.
- Keyphrases can be exported.
- There is breadcrumbs control.
- There is a Content Insights feature.
- There are no ads.
- One year support.
- Continuous updates
Bugs that appeared in the Yoast SEO plugin
One of the technical problems in the Yoast plugin appeared when the Yoast SEO Plugin 7.0 was updated in 2018, and it affected a large number of sites around the world in terms of the ranking of sites, pages, or products, and some sites lost significant losses as a result.
To know the problem, you must go to (SEO >> Media), where there is an option (media URLs and attachments). If the option is (No), you will often have problems with the site. If the option is (Yes), then there are no problems.
What does this option mean?
This problem is related to images, and when you upload any image to WordPress, WordPress automatically creates a separate page for each image that you upload to your site.
These pages do not provide any benefit to the user and are considered harmful and negatively affect the improvement of your site’s appearance in search engines. What Yoast does is that it converts these pages into the post page itself (if the option in the image above is set to “Yes”).
When Yoast was updated to (Yoast 7.0 / Yoast 7.0.2), this setting that redirects pages and redirects them to the post page was set to “No” hence this problem.
What happened after this update?
What happened is that many of the image pages on your site were indexed into separate pages, which is bad for search engines and causes a major problem for sites.
So you have new pages (no content), indexed and archived, and you have a new URL created for every media object on your site. These pages will be empty with no content, page titles, meta descriptions, etc.
This will have a significant impact on your visibility and ranking in search engines.
How to solve Yoast update problem?
Of course, the Yoast team quickly addressed this issue in the next update, but we talked about this error for clarification.
In the end, Yoast SEO remains one of the most popular plugins that you can rely on as a beginner or to learn some things related to SEO, but you should be aware that Yoast is an auxiliary tool and is not the one that will get you to the first place in search engines
