WordPress now powers over one-quarter of all websites on the Internet. And Yoast SEO It is by far the most popular content management system on the planet. I remember posting a video by Matt Cutts from Google Search on WordPress and SEO from 2009, and it is still relevant today!
One of the tools Yakadanda uses for all of our client’s websites is called Yoast SEO, which is a free WordPress SEO tool that is integrated into every post, page and custom post type on our customer’s sites. As many of our clients, particularly our Functional and Integrative Medicine websites are prolific bloggers, it is important to get your SEO right. Otherwise, you are just wasting valuable time creating great content that is not going to reach a wider Audience.
Setting Up Yoast SEO
So in setting up Yoast SEO, you want to make sure you have all of the followings configured correctly.
- Time Zone: Under General Settings in your WordPress administration, make sure your time zone is set correctly.
- Google Analytics: You have Google Analytics set up correctly and maybe even create some goals in analytics.
- Google Search Console: You had Google Search Console setup and Integrated with Yoast SEO.
- XML Sitemaps: Submit your XML Sitemap to Google Seach Console.
- Facebook Open Graph: Add Open Graph Social Meta Data in Yoast Settings.
- Twitter Cards Setup: Add Twitter Cards in Yoast Settings.
Getting Things Right for Great SEO
Now once you have all the settings correct in Yoast, you will need to get on with writing the rest of your article.
Terms
My target audience is Functional Medicine Practitioners website design and development in the United States primarily, so I make sure I use this term often in my writings. They also go under the term Integrative Medicine website design, so I will want to use this term as well.
Tagging
When tagging an article make 100% sure you only use keywords in items that are found in the article title or article text like here. Thinking you are smart by adding keywords in your tags that are not actually in your content, creates a negative SEO score in search engines. Yes, they are smarter than you! Make sure your article content has at least 300 words and it reads well.
Featured Image
Now it is time to add a featured image. There are many sites, like Pexels, Splitshire, Life of Pix, Gratisography where you can get great quality free stock images.
- Rename the image once you have downloaded it to the title of your post or the keyword of your post.
- Then upload it to the featured image area.
- Add Title, Description, Caption, and Alt Text to Image
- Save Image to Featured Image Area
Finishing Up
Categories
Now, I am sure you know your categories. I don’t like it very much when you have more than ten categories unless it is a huge site with hundreds and hundreds of articles, it is just not necessary. Select one, two or three categories (if you must). Make sure it is relevant to the article. Otherwise, you are wasting you audiences time.
Excerpt, Cleaning Up, Reviewing
Add an Excerpt to the post. I try to keep all excerpts around the same size, so my site is beautiful and balanced. Review your article, make sure all is in order and then either post article or schedule it for a date and time.
