Yoast - Polishing Content for SEO
I feel I must share an exciting new discovery I have made in Wealthy Affiliate. Of course, my post is mainly for the newbies like myself but hopefully it will help someone.
Eversince, I started writing posts on my website and getting feedback from the community and my coach Jack Cao I've been wondering if I'm doing it right.
- Am I choosing the right Keywords?
- How is my sentence structure?
- Are my paragraphs too big?
Yes! On and on. I didn't want to have to do a writing course, as it would take me away from actually writing. But then my wonderful coach loaded Yoast SEO onto my website, it's FREE.
I still didn't get it and then I noticed the colored lights and a comment to the right of my posts, when I went into edit. OK? Readability (Orange) OK, SEO (red) Bad
My first reaction was, what, who cares? Then I scrolled down to the bottom of my post and clicked on the SEO and Readability tags and a list came up of all the problems with my post.
Well, not all bad! Each tag has a list of Problems (RED), Improvements (Orange) and Good Results (Green). There were a lot of problems and few Good Results but I could click on each problem, read about what it meant and how to solve it.
Woo Hoo, now we were cooking with gas!
I did wonder if it was too much work to fix everything but then I realized that I needed to understand what the problems were, so that I could move forward as a better writer.
Some keys of SEO and Readability that are covered
- Outbound Links
- Internal Links
- Title Keyphrase
- Subheading Keyphrase
- Meta Description
- Image Alt Attributes
- Keyphrase in slug
- Transition words
- Ease of reading
- Passive voice
- Consecutive sentences
- Subheading Distribution
- Paragraph Length
- Sentence Length
If you have ever wondered what these terms mean and why you need to know, Yoast will tell you.
Since I have fixed the problems in one of my posts, it has been indexed.
So, I will be spending the next week correcting the other 10 posts that I have written.
Then I will write my next post using the guidelines I have learned in this process.
If you are serious about becoming a great blogger and are reaching for that Google first page, look no further. If you type Yoast into the question bar you will see JasonGB has a terrific training post on how to load and use Yoast.
YOAST SEO is a very specific, personal teacher in your journey to growing your business and being successful in the internet world.
If you are having any difficulties or challenges with writing your content this will help.
Between the Spell, Grammar, Punctuation and Sentence Structure Icon and Yoast you will improve. Be patient and work your way through each point.
Wishing you all terrific success. Please comment and tell me of your experience with Yoast and how it has helped you.
Have a lovely productive day
Lily
Recent Comments
72
Hello Lily!
Outstanding post you have here!
I'm not quite sure how many of you know this but Jay Neill, the Friday Webinar Creator here on Wealthy Affiliate, uses Yoast SEO Premium.
Jay Neill is the #3 dude here at Wealthy Affiliate, last I checked.
He had mentioned he uses Yoast SEO Premium on one of his webinars: Indexing A Blog Post Live
The minute I heard that I switched to Yoast SEO Premium.
It's an amazing tool!
Something else as well...
I've noticed that by using Yoast SEO Premium, I've actually become a better copywriter!
Why do I say this?
Now when I write posts, many times my "green lights" already appear after I publish my post!
Now that to me is GREAT!
What that means is by using Yoast consistently and so often, I've started to pick up the same SEO habits in Yoast when I write my blog posts.
I would highly recommend Yoast SEO Premium.
Not to digress, I would be lost without Grammerly.
Grammerly has helped me tremendously in writing my posts.
Although WA has its own Spellchecker which does a great job, Grammerly does an even better job.
It continues to edit your grammar even if you are making changes in Wordpress.
Both of those tools together have given me outstanding results!
Grammerly was recommended to me by a successful member here at WA.
My last word on Yoast SEO is if you can afford it, definetly get Yoast SEO Premium.
It's absolutely worth it!
Just my Two Cents Worth,
Talk Soon,
Howard
Yeah, I agree with you, if anyone can afford they should buy Yoast Premium, its a great plugin.
Howard could you please put the link here for Jay's post that you mentioned. I think I need to watch that.
Ta
Lily 😊
Thanks for this excellent post, Lily. I found out I have WordPress SEO plugin installed in my Czech website, it is by Yoast too and it has the same green/yellow/red lights, I think it works great because my ranking with my Czech posts works well.
I just thought after joining WA that All in one SEO is better when it is recommended here but reading your post I will switch to Yoast.
Have a beautiful day!
Jason said in his tutorial that everything is transferred across.
If you're still not sure perhaps ask him directly under his training at the link.
Lily 😊
I love Yoast SEO, and won't use anything else. I love the way it guides you into creating search engine friendly posts, and get great joy at seeing all the lights green!! Thank you for sharing this. Kathy
I know many people prefer yoast to all in one SEO and another popular one is squirrly. I have tried all three but still go back to the training here and all in one SEO but it’s a lovely choice to have. Use whatever works for you.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Yes, Lily, I also use for the second blog, not first blog, I think, that yoast is more support for the content readability and seo. I thank you Lily and wish you all the best
SAM
Hello Lily,
Thank you for your excellent blog post. I have actually almost always used Yoast on my website, I have tried all in one seo, however, not for very long, as my personal view I think that Yoast is much better!
For your interest, Yoast has 5 million+ active installations and 25,490 five-star reviews. Well all in one seo has 2 million+ active installations and 366 five-star reviews. I think this says something!
I have never understood why Wealthy Affiliate recommends all in one seo, give me Yoast anyday, it works!
Have a great day or night!
Roy
I'm sure Lily! I would definitely expect it to improve your rating, big time!
I feel a blog post coming on the subject!
Roy
Really a good advice. I have not yet done it. Soon I will try.
Thank you so much for sharing this.
My regards,
Kalyan.
It is very helpful indeed, since it points at problems we are not aware of
Marked as top Lily
Awesome
✨
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Umm. I'm not very fond of Yoast. It's way overpriced and not any more effective than some of the lesser known SEO plugin's, and it's LACKING without the bells and whistles.
Yoast has too many add-ons. AIO (All in One), is still quite a powerful SEO tool with out upgrading to the pro version.
IMHO
Michael
Hi Michael,
That's interesting as my version is the Free one. I considered upgrading but it does all I need now. The teaching feedback on my content and SEO is what I love. The rest is just getting in there and learning the basics.
Good input
Lily 😊
There are other not very well known plugins that are just as good if not better than the higher profiled ones Lily.
As Kyle would say "don't overthink" this too much. Once your site is rolling along, then exploring these options might be a worthwhile task.
Essentially you are only tweaking your sites performance.
Michael.