Yoast SEO

The Yoast SEO plugin for Wordpress is the world’s most popular SEO solution, and for good reason. Offering both free and premium options, Yoast offers a powerful suite of SEO tools that work “right out of the box” to help both novice and expert website owners improve their search engine visibility.

Yoast SEO Wordpress Plugin Features

What’s Included in the Yoast Free Version?

Optimize website text for keywords, keyphrases, and related keywords

Getting the right mix of keywords is critical to attracting relevant search engine traffic. Yoast SEO automates this process for you. Simply enter the keyword you want to optimize for and the plugin does the rest, running a check to see how often the keyword is currently used in your title, headings, subheadings, and body text, and then lets you know whether to add more or fewer instances. Note: the free tier limits you to one keyword check, while the premium supports multiple checks.

Add schema information to help Google understand what your page is about

Until recently, adding schema.org markup to websites has been the purview of professional SEO experts. Not anymore. This data -- which uses hierarchical categorization to signal to search engines what, exactly, the site is about -- is a critical part of an SEO strategy. Yoast is the only plugin that allows you to connect schema.org data to your site quickly and easily.

See how your page appears in Google search results

Want to know how your page appears in Google search results? Yoast SEO’s snippet editor lets you adjust your title and description manually for maximum effect. This prevents Google from choosing the snippet for you, so you won’t have to worry about cut-off titles or bad descriptions.

Check your content’s readability score

Readability is a key SEO metric Google uses to rank content. Yoast SEO quickly scans your page and assigns a readability score, and suggests ways to make it easier for visitors to read.

Automatic technical optimizations

Yoast SEO works behind the scenes to make it easier for Google to crawl your site. It can optimize your .htaccess and robots.txt files, as well as generate sitemaps to improve your search rankings.

As well, Yoast SEO free offers the following:

• Breadcrumb manager
• Duplicate content check
• Outdated content check

What’s Included in the Yoast plugin Premium Version?

Although the free tier packs a powerful punch, upgrading to the premium version offers even more benefits.

• Optimize for multiple keywords at once, as well as check for related keywords to boost your SEO score even higher
• Internal linking suggestions
• Social media sharing previews -- see what your content looks like in Facebook and Twitter
• URL redirect manager
• Export your focus keywords as CSV
• Ad-free
• 24/7 technical support

The Bottom Line: Yoast SEO Wordpress Plugin

Simply put, Yoast SEO is a must-have plugin for your Wordpress site. The free version alone offers features that other paid-for options can’t even dream of, so there’s no excuse not to install it. A one-click install, followed by a quick setup, and before you know it your site is off to the races.