A redirect happens when someone asks for a specific page but gets sent to a different page. Often, the site owner deleted the page and set up a redirect to send visitors and search engine crawlers to a relevant page — a much better approach than serving them annoying, user-experience-breaking 404 messages. Redirects play a big part in the lives of site owners, developers, and SEOs. So, let’s answer a couple of recurring questions about redirects for SEO.

1. Are redirects bad for SEO?

Are redirects bad for SEO? The answer is no; redirects are not inherently bad for SEO. However, it is crucial to implement them correctly to avoid potential issues. An improper implementation can lead to problems such as losing PageRank and traffic. Redirecting pages is necessary when making URL changes, as you want to preserve the hard work invested in building an audience and acquiring backlinks.

To ensure that redirects are implemented correctly and effectively, consider the following best practices:

• Use the appropriate redirect type: The most commonly used redirect for permanent URL changes is the 301 redirect. This informs search engines that the original URL has permanently moved to a new location. By using a 301 redirect, you can maintain the ranking and relevance of the old URL and seamlessly redirect users and search engine crawlers to the new URL.
• Update internal links: When you implement redirects, updating any internal links on your website that refer to the old URLs is important. This ensures visitors can navigate to the correct pages and search engines can properly index the new URLs.
• Preserve user experience: Redirects should aim to provide a smooth user experience. Avoid excessive redirect chains, which can slow page load times and frustrate users. It’s also important to redirect users to relevant content that aligns with their intent. For example, if a page has been permanently removed, redirect users to a relevant alternative rather than a generic homepage.
• Monitor and test redirects: Regularly monitor your redirects. Check for errors or issues, such as broken redirects or redirect loops. It’s also helpful to periodically test the redirects to ensure they function as expected.

2. Why should I redirect a URL?

By redirecting a changed URL, you send users and crawlers to a new URL, minimizing annoyance. Whenever you perform any maintenance on your site, you are taking stuff out. You could delete a post, change your URL structure, or move your site to a new domain. You must replace it, or visitors will land on those 404 pages.

If you make small changes, like deleting an outdated article, you can redirect that old URL with a 301 to a relevant new article or give it a 410 to say that you deleted it. Don’t delete stuff without a plan. And don’t redirect your URLs to random articles that don’t have anything to do with the article you’re deleting. Lastly, don’t 301 redirect all your 404s to your homepage!

Bigger projects need a URL migration strategy. For instance, moving to a new domain or changing the URL paths. In these cases, you should look at all your site’s URLs and map them to their future locations on the new domain. After determining what goes where you can start redirecting the URLs. Use the change of address tool in Google Search Console to notify Google of the changes.

3. What is a 301 redirect? And a 302 redirect?

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect informing visitors and search engine crawlers that the requested URL has moved to a new destination permanently. It is the most commonly used redirect for permanent URL changes. When implementing a 301 redirect, you signal that the old URL is no longer in use and that the new URL should be accessed instead. It is important to note that with a 301 redirect, the old URL should not be used again in the future, as it signifies a permanent change.

On the other hand, a 302 redirect is a temporary redirect. This type of redirect is used to indicate that the requested content is temporarily unavailable at a specific address but will return at a later time. Unlike a 301 redirect, a 302 redirect suggests that the change is temporary and that the original URL may be used again.

You must consider the URL change’s nature when deciding which redirect to use. If the change is permanent and you have no intention of using the original URL again, a 301 redirect is appropriate. However, if the change is temporary and you plan on returning to the original URL, a 302 redirect should be used.

It is recommended to carefully consider the purpose and longevity of the URL change when selecting the appropriate redirect. If you are uncertain about which redirect you need, please read our article on which redirect to pick?

4. What’s an easy way to manage redirects in WordPress?

We might be biased, but we think the redirect manager in our Yoast SEO Premium WordPress plugin is incredibly helpful. We know that many people struggle to understand the concept of redirects and the work that goes into adding and managing them. That’s why one of the first things we wanted our WordPress SEO plugin to have was an easy-to-use redirect tool. I think we succeeded, but don’t take my word for it.

The redirect manager can help set up and manage redirects on your WordPress site. It’s an indispensable tool to keep your site fresh and healthy. We made it as easy as possible. Here’s what happens when you delete a post:

• Move a post to the trash
• A message pops up saying that you moved a post to the trash
• Choose one of two options given by the redirects manager:
  • Redirect to another URL
  • Serve a 410 Content deleted header
• If you pick redirect, a modal opens where you can enter the new URL for this particular post
• Save, and you’re done!

So convenient, right? Here’s an insightful article called What does the redirect manager in Yoast SEO do, that answers that question. Or watch the video below!

5. What is a redirect checker?

A redirect checker is a tool to determine if a certain URL is redirected and to analyze the path it follows. You can use this information to find bottlenecks, like a redirect chain in which a URL is redirected many times, making it much harder for Google to crawl that URL — and giving users a less-than-stellar user experience. These chains often happen without you knowing it: if you delete a redirected page, you add another piece. So, you need to keep an eye on your redirects; a redirect checker is one of the tools to do that.

You can use one of the SEO suites, such as Sitebulb, Ahrefs or Screaming Frog to test your redirects and links. If you only need a quick check, you can also use a simpler tool like httpstatus.io to give you an insight into the life of a URL on your site. Another must-have tool is the Redirect Path extension for Chrome, made by Ayima.

6. Do I need to redirect HTTP to HTTPS?

Every site should use the HTTPS protocol, but be sure to redirect your HTTP traffic to HTTPS. You could get into trouble with Google if you make your site available on HTTP and HTTPS, so watch out for that. Google prefers HTTPS sites because these tend to be faster and more secure. Your visitors expect the extra security as well.

So, you need to set up a 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS. There are a couple of ways of doing this, and you must plan this to ensure everything goes as it should. First, the preferred way of doing this is at the server level. Find out what kind of server your site is running (NGINX, Apache, or something else) and the code needed to add to your server config file or .htaccess file. Your host will often have a guide to help you set up a redirect for HTTP to HTTPS on the server level. Some hosts have a simple setting to manage this in one go.

There are also WordPress plugins that can handle the HTTPS/SSL stuff for your site, but for this specific issue, we wouldn’t rely on a plugin, but manage your redirect at a server level. Don’t forget to let Google know of the changes in Search Console.

Redirects for SEO

There are loads of questions about redirects to answer. The redirect concept isn’t too hard to grasp if you think about it. Getting started with redirects isn’t that hard, either. The hard part of working with redirects is managing them. Where are all these redirects leading? What if something breaks? Can you find redirect chains or redirect loops? Can you shorten the paths? You can gain a lot from optimizing your redirects, so dive in and fix them. Do you have burning questions about redirects? Let us know in the comments!

Read more: How to properly delete a page from your site »

The post 6 questions about redirects for SEO appeared first on Yoast.

Hot on the heels of our AI release comes Yoast SEO 21.2. Always committed to helping businesses grow and attract more traffic, this new release is packed with enhancements and fixes to improve your experience and site’s SEO. Find out more!

What’s new?

The update to our sidebar is particularly interesting in the 21.2 release of Yoast SEO. We’re always looking for ways to make our SEO plugins more intuitive and easy to use. This led us to rethink how we organize our sidebar.

Firstly, we’ve renamed the ‘Google preview’ section to ‘Search appearance.’ This new title better reflects the function of this section. Namely, giving you an accurate depiction of how your post or page will appear in the search engine results.

Similarly, what you previously knew as ‘Social previews’ — i.e., X, the app formerly known as Twitter and Facebook previews — is now appropriately titled ‘Social media appearance. This gives you a clearer idea of how your content will display across various social media platforms. Checking your social media appearance is a Yoast SEO Premium feature.

Additionally, not only have we renamed these sections, but they also now come with new, distinctive icons. These changes make spotting these sections more straightforward, making your SEO process more efficient and effective.

How your content appears to users, whether on search engines or social media, can significantly affect click-through rates. These updates provide a superior ability to manage and optimize how your content will look, thereby enhancing your potential visibility and traffic.

Dropping support for WordPress 6.1

We’ll drop support for WordPress 6.1 in Yoast SEO 21.2 to stay ahead with technology and provide optimal performance. This change will allow us to utilize advanced features and improvements to the newer WordPress versions. Thus, we highly recommend users of WordPress 6.1 upgrade to enjoy enhanced performance, security, and features offered in newer versions alongside the best Yoast SEO.

Update and optimize!

We want to keep Yoast SEO as the best tool for all your SEO needs. We’re confident you’ll find this updated version helpful. As always, we remain committed to helping you optimize your site, attract more organic traffic, and earn higher visibility!

Update now to the latest version of Yoast SEO and enjoy an optimized, user-friendly, and results-driven SEO experience! Effective SEO is a continuous process, so stay tuned for future updates and enhancements as we refine Yoast SEO to serve you better.

The post Yoast SEO 21.2: An updated sidebar appeared first on Yoast.

Nowadays, it seems everyone and their mother have an online store. Platforms such as WooCommerce and Shopify make it easy to start one, so why not? But creating a shop doesn’t equal success. There are many moving parts before you can celebrate sale after sale. One of those is writing great product descriptions.

Why improve the descriptions of your products?

Two of the most important tools you have at your disposal to sell your products are product photography and writing product descriptions. An online store has to work extra hard to make products on its product pages tangible for its customers. Customers can’t handle your products in the flesh, so they have to make do with a description and imagery — so these better be great!

Unfortunately, many ecommerce sites don’t take this to heart. There are a lot of opportunities for online stores to improve their offerings. That also means there’s a lot of room for forward-thinking online stores to conquer the market. Whatever you do, there’s always a chance to improve your product descriptions. Don’t rely on tedious and standard stuff!

Do you need more reasons to improve your product descriptions? Good product descriptions help you:

• Communicate benefits more clearly,
• establish a voice,
• improve customer experience,
• increase the chance of ranking your product in the search results,
• get higher conversion rates,
• get more return customers/build relationships,
• create trust.

See what we mean?

Use Yoast WooCommerce SEO or Yoast SEO for Shopify

Before we get into how to improve your product descriptions, we want to mention that we offer some awesome ecommerce tools: our WooCommerce SEO plugin and the Yoast SEO for Shopify app. These add-ons help you maximize the performance of your online store. Plus, as a bonus, you’ll also get access to Yoast SEO academy, including our ecommerce training course, and if you’re using Shopify, our Yoast SEO for Shopify course, too!

In both the WooCommerce plugin and the Shopify app, you’ll find an analysis that gives you feedback you can use to optimize your product pages. This analysis specifically aims to improve your product content and the SEO of your product pages. It enables you to build unbeatable product pages that are ready to get ranking.

We have more detailed articles about product descriptions on each platform. So, if you’re interested, you can read more about writing great product descriptions with WooCommerce SEO or how to write great product descriptions in Shopify.

1. Always focus on your customer

Step number one in almost everything SEO is doing keyword research. The same goes for improving product descriptions. You need to know the product, the customer, and how they write or talk about this particular product. You need to know how the customer comes from realizing a need to buy a product from you: the user journey.

It might be that the manufacturer came up with a snazzy name and description that in no way aligns with the consumer’s thoughts about this product. A particle destroyer doesn’t scream vacuum cleaner, right? Don’t amplify that; keep it sensible and understandable.

Doing keyword research for products also gives you an idea about how to discuss products — not just which words to use. Find out the real value of the product and use consumers’ way of talking to communicate that.

2. Don’t rely on generic text from manufacturers

It’s easy to use the descriptions provided by manufacturers. The content is in the data set, so why not use it? Well, you shouldn’t use that default description for a couple of reasons. One, many other online stores selling the same products use these descriptions. Two, many other online stores selling the same products use these descriptions. See duplicate content!

It’s hard to stand out if you are like everyone else. Of course, it’s hard for some products to come up with a description that accurately describes the product in your unique way. Plus, you might have many slight product variations, causing frustration in writing those individual descriptions. Still, if there’s only the possibility of writing something that stands out — go for it.

In researching, search for your product in Google and see which competitor comes up. Analyze their writing and see how you can top that.

3. Don’t write for search engines (but do)

One of the most important things to remember is that you are writing for humans, not machines. Of course, writing a good product description makes it easier for search engines to understand it, but that shouldn’t be your goal. You aim to communicate the product’s value to customers and sell it as a solution.

Doing keyword research will give you an idea of which terms a product ranks for — and you know what people use to describe it. Combining these helps you write great product descriptions that can work well for search engines and consumers!

Don’t forget to use Yoast SEO to prepare your product pages for the search engines; if your site runs on WooCommerce, you’ll enjoy our WooCommerce SEO add-on. If you want to broaden your horizon and increase the chance of your site turning up in Google, you could start blogging on your ecommerce store.

4. Focus on solving the user’s pain

It’s easy to list a selection of plusses you think fit the product well. Maybe add some specifications while you are at it. But, then you might end up with a product description written from your perspective and not the consumer’s. What are they gaining from using your product? What’s the solution? How do you plan to solve the user’s pain?

An example

Remember, you are not selling dental picks, but you are selling a solution for bleeding gums. Sometimes, consumers don’t even know the product name they are looking for — they want to fix their problem. Selling your dental picks as simply that might mean missing out on the people looking for a quick and easy way can help them reduce their woes.

Look at the difference between these two product descriptions. The first one is generic:

Introducing our high-quality Dental Picks! These dental tools are perfect for maintaining oral hygiene and keeping your teeth clean. With their durable construction and ergonomic design, our Dental Picks are a must-have for anyone looking to improve their dental care routine.

Featuring a sleek and compact design, our Dental Picks are easy to use and provide effective cleaning between teeth. Made from premium materials, they ensure durability and longevity for long-lasting use. Whether you’re at home or on the go, our Dental Picks are the ideal companion for maintaining a healthy smile.

Upgrade your dental care routine with our Dental Picks today and experience the difference for yourself!

The second example focuses on the benefits that dental picks have for the user:

Are your bleeding gums causing you discomfort and frustration? Say goodbye to oral woes with our innovative Dental Health Solution Kit. Designed to provide a quick and easy way to reduce bleeding gums, our kit is your ultimate solution for achieving optimal oral health.

Unlike traditional dental picks, our Dental Health Solution Kit goes beyond simply cleaning teeth. It is specially crafted to target the underlying causes of bleeding gums, effectively soothing irritation and promoting gum health. With our kit, you can finally experience the relief you’ve been searching for.

Don’t let the pain of bleeding gums hold you back from enjoying a confident smile. Our Dental Health Solution Kit is here to rescue you from your oral troubles. Take the first step towards healthier gums and a happier you.

Focussing on the user intent makes it possible to uncover those problems and helps you offer solutions with your product.

5. Stay away from cliches and avoid using superlatives

Calling every product the best will achieve the opposite — nobody will believe anything anymore. Words have power, but you must learn how to wield that power. Think carefully about which words you use because, most often, less is more. Omit needless words. By using stripped-back language, that single power word can do the job. Of course, if your products have won awards or other accolades, you can brag about it — please do so tastefully!

The same goes for cliches in your writing. Don’t use cliched language if a regular text can do the job. Keep in mind that not everyone knows the same idioms as you do. Keep your content easy to understand, easy to scan, and easy to remember.

Sticking with the dental picks example, please don’t do this:

Looking for a game-changing solution to keep your pearly whites in tip-top shape? Look no further than our revolutionary Dental Picks! These bad boys are the ultimate weapon in the fight against plaque and gum disease.

With their cutting-edge design and precision-engineered tips, our Dental Picks are like a knight in shining armor for your oral health. They effortlessly glide between your teeth, removing stubborn food particles and banishing plaque with the power of a thousand suns.

But wait, there’s more! Our Dental Picks are as versatile as they come. They can tackle the toughest tartar, defy the most challenging cavities, and make your teeth shine brighter than a Hollywood smile. Say goodbye to boring dental care routines and hello to a dazzling, award-winning smile.

Experience the dental pick revolution today and join the ranks of satisfied customers who have witnessed the magic firsthand. Don’t be fooled by imitations, choose our Dental Picks for a smile that will leave everyone speechless!

6. Make it personal

Not every piece of text has to be boring and distant. You can use your voice and make it more personal. Develop your tone of voice and stick to it! It makes you recognizable and helps your branding, making you stand out from the crowd.

Keep in mind that you are not simply selling a product to a person, but you are selling an experience. And, since you want that customer to return sometime soon, it better be a good experience!

7. Use user stories and examples

It shouldn’t always be you who tells the story of a product — the best seller of your product is someone who bought it already. Ask your customers for input and use their insights to enhance your content. You might even incorporate their stories in your product descriptions.

Use visual and textual examples of your product in use by actual customers. This gives potential customers a better feel for the product, its benefits, and usage.

Improve the product descriptions for an online store

In this article, we’ve highlighted seven ways to write better product descriptions for your ecommerce site — be that a Shopify or a WooCommerce site. Of course, there are many more ways of doing that, but with these simple tips, anyone can improve the marketing copy of their products. Looking for more ecommerce SEO tips? We have an ultimate guide on ecommerce SEO that touches on many subjects. Or, if you’re using Shopify, you might want to read our ultimate guide to Shopify SEO.

Read more: Write great product descriptions with WooCommerce SEO »

The post 7 ways to improve product descriptions in your online store appeared first on Yoast.

Master the art of using Schema.org to elevate your online visibility with our ultimate guide to structured data. Dive into the heart of Schema.org and how it can revolutionize how your site interacts with search engines like Google. Explore its power in improving the presentation of your pages when describing products, reviews, events, and recipes. Discover how to get rich results such as snippets, interactive mobile results, voice-activated actions, or securing a spot in Google’s coveted Knowledge Graph. Embrace structured data — your ticket to better online exposure and interaction.

Table of contents

• What is structured data?
• A simple example of structured data
• Why do you need structured data?
• Is structured data important for SEO?
• Structured data can lead to rich results
• Does structured data work on mobile?
• Different kinds of structured data
• Actions for voice assistants
• The technical details
• What do you need to describe for search engines?
• How to implement structured data
• Tools for working with structured data
• The Yoast SEO Schema structured data framework
• In the end

What is structured data?

Structured data is a way of describing your website to make it easier for search engines to understand. You need a so-called vocabulary to make it work, and the one used by the big search engines is Schema.org. Schema.org provides a series of tags and properties to describe your products, reviews, local business listings, job postings, et cetera in detail.

The major search engines, Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo, developed this vocabulary to reach a shared language to understand websites better. Search engines use it today for many things, from fact-checking content to listing job postings!

If added well, search engines can use the applied structured data to better understand your page’s contents. As a result, your site might be presented better in search results, for example, in the form of rich results like rich snippets. However, there are no guarantees you’ll get rich results — that’s up to the search engines.

Read more: Schema – why you NEED Yoast SEO to do it right! »

A simple example of structured data

Below is an example of a simple structured data using Schema.org in JSON-LD format. This is a basic schema for a product with review properties. This code tells search engines that the page is a product (Product); it provides the name and description of the product, pricing information, the URL, plus product ratings and reviews. This allows search engines to understand your products and present your content in search results.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Product Title</title>
    <meta name="description" content="Brief description of the product">
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "Product",
      "name": "Product Name",
      "image": "https://www.example.com/product-image.jpg",
      "description": "Product description",
      "brand": {
         "@type": "Brand",
         "name": "Brand Name"
      },
      "offers": {
        "@type": "Offer",
        "priceCurrency": "USD",
        "price": "99.99"
      },
      "aggregateRating": {
        "@type": "AggregateRating",
        "ratingValue": "4.5",
        "reviewCount": "11"
      },
      "review": {
        "@type": "Review",
        "reviewRating": {
          "@type": "Rating",
          "ratingValue": "4",
          "bestRating": "5"
        },
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Reviewer's Name"
        },
        "reviewBody": "Review text goes here"
      }
    }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
    <!-- Your webpage content goes here -->
</body>
</html>

Why do you need structured data?

Structured data, particularly when using the Schema.org vocabulary, breathes life into your site for search engines. It describes your products, reviews, events, job postings, and more in a language that search engines instantly understand. The beauty of structured data lies in its precision and detailed presentation of your site’s content. Gone are the days when search engines had to make guesses about your content: with structured data, every site element is deciphered clearly.

Structured data is crucial because it can outline clear connections among diverse website components. It fosters a new understanding for search engines, helping them see your site’s content and how everything relates. It’s a roadmap of your site’s content, with each piece connected and important to the bigger picture.

In a world where clarity equals visibility, structured data is no longer nice but necessary. By applying structured data, you speak the language of search engines, augmenting your website’s comprehensibility and attracting more organic traffic.

Is structured data important for SEO?

Implementing structured data using Schema.org is a strategic move in bolstering your website’s SEO. While it may not directly improve your site’s rankings, it enriches search result listings, making your site a more appealing click to prospective visitors.

Envision your search result as a movie trailer: The preview captivates the audience and compels them to watch it. An enhanced search result crafted with structured data offers a similar advantage. It gives searchers a more detailed, enriched preview of your website, significantly increasing the likelihood of being chosen from a sea of links. If your website delivers on what the enhanced listing promises, congratulations – you’ve just become a reputable source for your visitor. This user satisfaction translates into a lower bounce rate, signaling to search engines like Google that your site is a credible and reliable resource.

Moreover, with structured data gradually gaining traction, now is the perfect opportunity to leapfrog your competitors. It’s not just about keeping pace in the SEO race; it’s about being a frontrunner. Our structured data guide is designed to equip you with pragmatic tips and recommendations to maximize your website’s potential using structured data

Structured data can lead to rich results

By describing your site for search engines, you allow them to do exciting things with your content. Schema.org and its support are constantly developing, improving, and expanding. As structured data forms the basis for many new developments in the SEO world — like voice search –, there are bound to be more shortly. Below is an overview of the available rich search results; examples are in Google’s Search Gallery. At the moment, these are a couple of the available rich results:

The rich results formerly known as rich snippets

Rich results are your golden ticket to creating dynamic, engaging, and information-packed search result listings. They are much more than the standard, black-line meta description text on a search engine results page. Harnessing the power of rich results enriches search listings with additional information and interactive functionalities.

Consider rich results as added-value details that elevate a user’s search experience. From showing critical product data such as pricing and reviews to practical navigational tools like breadcrumbs or in-site search functions, rich results make your listing stand out in a competitive digital landscape.

Where a conventional search result offers a glimpse into your site, a rich result is akin to rolling out a red carpet, enticing users with a premium overview of what they can expect when they click through. These enriched listings can effectively boost click-through rates (CTR) and enhance user interaction, providing an SEO advantage that improves your site’s visibility and drives more traffic.

Keep reading: Rich snippets everywhere »

Rich results on mobile

In today’s mobile-driven world, rich results are pivotal in shaping a distinctive and interactive search experience. Rich results find a particular resonance in mobile searches, becoming more prevalent and impactful. Specific searches for local restaurants, recipes, movies, how-tos, and courses benefit from a specialized treatment in mobile search results.

They are often presented in a touch-friendly and user-engaging, swipeable manner, making rich results intuitive and streamlined on mobile devices. This format, frequently called the carousel, significantly enhances the user experience and the ease of information access.

Google significantly emphasizes fostering rich, interactive elements within these results. With Google’s touch of innovation, you can conveniently reserve a table at your favorite restaurant, order movie tickets, find delectable cheesecake recipes, or even book flight tickets— all directly from the search results. Google’s advancements have turned the humble search engine results page into a powerhouse encompassing almost every aspect of daily life, with structured data propelling parts of it.

With structured data and rich results, your website gains the potential to offer more than just links and text — it becomes more visible to the user. It elevates the user experience by leaps and bounds, improving your site’s visibility and creating potential for greater user engagement. Remember, the precision and dynamism offered by structured data and rich results are still in the early adoption phases across the web. Therefore, harnessing them presents a lucrative opportunity to gain a competitive edge. And from the looks of it, we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of potential here.

Knowledge Graph Panel

When you search Google, you’ll commonly see a large box of detailed information on the right side. This dynamic feature, Google’s Knowledge Graph Panel, provides an enriched snapshot of information tied to your specific search.

So, how does Google amass this information? It systematically evaluates related content about the subject in question, with structured data from a website being a significant resource. This exhaustive examination of interconnected data helps to unveil a more holistic picture of the search subject.

Imagine you’re a verified business or an authority on a particular subject. The Knowledge Graph Panel can showcase your name, logo, and social media profiles. This visibility warrants a sense of prestige and credibility conferred by Google.

But the implications of the Knowledge Graph Panel go beyond just surface-level information. Linking to a multitude of related content creates a comprehensive web of knowledge that helps users delve deeper into their areas of interest. This enhances user experience and increases the time spent on Google services, making it a win-win feature for both ends.

Moreover, the Knowledge Graph’s influence extends to SEO strategy. A billboard showcasing your site’s relevance and authority is featured in search results. It underscores the importance of structured data in shaping a website’s digital visibility and underlines how optimized, high-quality content can pave the way for enriched search results.

Featured snippets

This might be a sneaky addition because featured snippets are rich results, but they do not get their content from structured data. A featured snippet answers a search question directly in the search results but uses regular content from a web page to do so.

Does structured data work on mobile?

Yes, the results of implementing structured data work everywhere. Mobile is one of the places where the results of a Schema implementation are most visible.

If a page meets the criteria Google sets, you can now book movie tickets or reserve a table at a restaurant directly from the search results. If you implement structured data correctly, you could also be eligible for several interactive extras on the mobile search results pages.

Different kinds of structured data

If you look at the Schema.org website, you’ll notice a lot of information you could add to your site as structured data. Not everything is relevant, though. Before implementing structured data, you need to know what you should markup. Do you have a product in an online store? Do you own a restaurant? Or do you have a local business providing services to the community? Or a site with your favorite cheesecake recipes? Whichever it is, you need to know what you want to do and explore the possibilities. Don’t forget to check the documentation by search engines to understand what they need from you.

Yoast SEO does a lot of these

Yoast SEO has Schema controls, which help translate your content into a language search engines understand and appreciate. It automatically generates structured data for your site with sensible default settings, which you can also manually adjust based on over twenty supported content types. This granular control over your Schema settings can increase your chance of obtaining coveted rich results.

For instance, our Schema tab lets you specify your contact page as a ContactPage, removing potential ambiguities for search engines. Beyond this, Yoast SEO makes automatic connections that guide search engines in deciphering the meaning of your site. We also provide additional features that enhance Schema elements and center around content specificity, all contributing to a cohesive structured data strategy.

Creative works

The Creative Work group encompasses all creative things produced by someone or something. You’ll find the most common ones below, but the list is much longer. You’ll also find properties for sculptures, games, conversations, software applications, visual artworks, and much more. However, most of these properties don’t have a rich presentation in search engine results, so they are less valuable. But, as mentioned earlier, if your site has items in the categories below, mark them up with Schema.org.

Articles

An article could be a news item or part of an investigative report. You can distinguish between a news article, a tech article, or even a blog post.

Books

A book is a book, whether in paper form or digital form, as an eBook. You can mark up every property type, from the author who wrote it to any awards it has won.

Courses

Courses can also appear as a rich result.

Datasets

Google understands structured data for datasets and can use this to help surface and understand these datasets better. Find out more on Google’s developer pages.

FAQ pages

Make a great FAQ page to answer your customers’ frequently asked questions. Yoast SEO helps you turn those FAQs into something Google can understand properly, with the Schema structured data FAQ content block.

How-tos

You can markup your how-to articles with HowTo structured data. Our structured data content block for how-tos is in the WordPress block editor. By following a step-by-step process, users can get a specific task done.

Image metadata

By incorporating detailed image metadata, Google Images can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the image, including details about the creator, usage permissions, and acknowledgment specifics.

Music

Music also gets the structured data treatment. There are a couple of Schema.orgs of interest for music, like MusicRecording, MusicAlbum, MusicEvent, and MusicGroup.

Q&A pages

Question and answer pages are eligible for rich results as well. According to Google, Q&A pages differ from FAQ pages, where you can find multiple questions and answers on a page — more in Google’s Q&A page documentation. Use the Yoast SEO structured data content blocks to provide structured data for your FAQ pages.

Recipes

Adding Recipe structured data to the recipes on your cooking website lets you get your recipes featured directly in search results. Moreover, with mobile rich results, recipes look great on mobile featuring great images — if you add them. And that’s not all, because you can now send your recipes to Google Home and get Assistant to speak it out loud. How cool is that?

Speakable

Google is currently testing the implementation of speakable Schema.org. With this code, you can tell a search engine that a piece of content is specially written to be spoken aloud by digital assistants like Alexa, Siri, Cortana, or Google Assistant.

TV & Movies

Movies and TV shows get their piece of structured data as well. Searching for a movie in search engines will yield a rich result with reviews, poster art, cast information, and even the ability to order tickets for a showing directly. You can even mark up lists of the best movies ever made or your favorite TV shows.

Videos

It’s possible to do all kinds of interesting things with video. Google, in particular, is working on new ways to display videos in the search results.

Commerce

There is also structured data for commercial goals. Here, you’ll find a couple of important ones:

Events

Marking up your event listings with the correct Event Schema.org, might lead to search engines showing your events directly in the search results. This is a must-have if you own a nightclub, a venue, or any business regularly organizing events.

Businesses and organizations

If you make money with your website, you might own a business. If you’re a site owner or work on a company site, you’ll find the business and organization Schema.orgs interesting. Almost every site can benefit from the correct business Schema.org. If you do it well, you could get a nice Knowledge Graph or another type of rich listing in the search engines. You can even add special structured data for your contact details so customers can contact you directly from the search results. For local businesses, our Local SEO plugin helps you take care of all your local structured data needs.

Read on: Local business listings with Schema.org and JSON-LD »

Job Postings

Have job postings on your site? Mark them up with the job postings structured data to have them show up nicely in Google. We use this on all our Yoast job postings as well.

Products

Schema.org for products is almost as important as the one for businesses and organizations. Using Product Schema.org; you can give your products the extra data search engines need to give you rich snippets, for example. Consider all the search results with added information, like pricing, reviews, availability, etc. This should be a significant part of your structured data strategy if you have products. Remember to mark up your product images. Our WooCommerce SEO and Shopify SEO products output proper product structured data.

Keep on reading: Rich snippets for product listings with Schema.org »

Reviews

Reviews and ratings play an important role in today’s search process. Businesses, service providers, and online stores all use reviews to attract more customers and show how trustworthy their offer is. Getting those five stars in search engines might be the missing link to creating a successful business.

Read more: Grow your business with ratings and reviews »

Actions for voice assistants

Voice assistants are interesting, but they have yet to reach the adoption levels they were predicted to have. Still, there’s stuff happening on this front if you see it as part of the conversational search movement. Take recipes, for instance; you can send a recipe from the search results to your Google Home to read aloud while cooking. These are called Actions, and there are a whole bunch of them. If you want your recipes to appear in the Google Assistant library, add a specific structured data set and adhere to additional rules. You can find more on that on the Creating a recipe action page. Visit Google’s Assistant site to get a feel for what’s possible (a lot!).

The technical details

To start marking up your pages, you must understand how Schema.org works. If you look closely at the full specs on Schema.org, you’ll see a strict hierarchy in the vocabulary. Everything is connected, just like everything is connected on your pages. Scroll through the list to see all the options, and note the ones you need.

Let’s look at the structure. A Schema.org implementation starts with a Thing, the most generic type of item. A Thing could be a more specific type of item, for instance, a Creative Work, an Event, Organization, Person, Place, or Product.

For example, a movie is a “Thing” and a “Creative Work”, which falls under the category “Movie”. You can add a lot of properties to this, like a “Description”, a “Director”, an “Actor”, a poster “Image”, “Duration” or “Genre”. There are loads to add, so you can get as specific as you want. However, don’t overdo it since not all search engines use every property – at least not yet. For instance, you should look at the specifications in Google’s documentation to see which properties are required and which are recommended.

A sample Schema.org structure

If we put what we know now in a hierarchy, this is what you will end up with:

• Thing
  • Creative Work
    • Movie
      • Description (type: text)
      • Director (type: person)
      • Actor (type: person)
      • Image (type: ImageObject or URL)
      • etc.

If it would be a local business, you could use something like this:

• Thing
  • Organization (or Place)
    • LocalBusiness
      • Dentist
        • Name
        • Address
        • Email
        • Logo
        • Review
        • etc.

For local businesses, you could pick a more specific type of business. This makes it easier for search engines to determine what kind of business you own. There are hundreds of types of local businesses, but your business might not fit one of the descriptions. Using the Product Types Ontology you can get more specific information if your listing is too broad.

In the local business example, you’ll see that Google lists several required properties, like your business’s NAP (Name and Phone) details. There are also recommended properties, like URLs, geo-coordinates, opening hours, etc. Try to fill out as many of these as possible because search engines will only give you the whole presentation you want. You’ll find our Local SEO plugin very helpful if you need help with your local business markup.

What do you need to describe for search engines?

Looking at Schema.org for the first time is daunting. The list is enormous, and the possibilities are endless, so it’s easy to become overwhelmed. To get over this, you need to go back to basics. Think about your site, business, or product and write down the specifications and properties you feel are necessary, then work up. Also, Yoast SEO covers the most essential properties automatically — so there is no need to worry about those if your plugin is configured correctly!

Having said that, there are a couple of sections you should prioritize in your plan to add structured data to your site. If you start with these three, you’ll have the basics covered, and then you can build on that. You should start with structured data for your business details, products, and reviews. These will have the biggest effect in the short term.

How to implement structured data

Don’t be frightened, but here comes the technical part of the story. Before we do that, we’d like to remind you that Yoast SEO comes with an excellent structured data implementation. It’ll automatically handle most sites’ most pressing structured data needs. Of course, as mentioned below, you can extend our structured data framework as your needs become bigger.

Do the Yoast SEO configuration and get your site’s structured data set up in a few clicks! The configuration is available for all Yoast SEO users to help you get your plugin configured correctly. It’s quick, it’s easy, and doing it will pay off. Plus, if you’re using the new block editor in WordPress you can also add structured data to your FAQ pages and how-to articles using our structured data content blocks.

Thanks to JSON-LD, there’s nothing scary about adding the data to your pages anymore. This JavaScript-based data format makes it much easier to add structured data since it forms a block of code and is no longer embedded in the HTML of your page. This makes it easier to write and maintain, plus both humans and machines better understand it. If you need help implementing JSON-LD structured data, you can enroll in our free Structured data for beginners course, our Understanding structured data course or follow a high-level course on Google’s Codelabs.

Structured data with JSON-LD

JSON-LD is the preferred method of adding structured data to your site. However, not all search engines have been quick to adopt it — Bing being the last hold-out. Thankfully, Microsoft came around in August 2018 and now supports this, as the most efficient method.

Since Yoast SEO 11.0, the plugin comes with a fully-featured Schema.org implementation. Yoast SEO now creates a structured data graph for every page on your site, interconnecting everything. While working on this, we’ve also created complete, detailed documentation on Schema, including a specification for integrating structured data. You’ll find some example graphs for various standard pages on your site.

The old ways: RFDa and Microdata

The classic way of writing structured data for inclusion on your pages involves directly embedding it into your HTML. This made a really inefficient and error-prone process and is much of the reason why the uptake of Schema.org hasn’t been swift. Writing and maintaining it via RDFa or Microdata is a pain. Believe us, try to do as much as you can in JSON-LD.

Microdata needs itemprops to function, so everything has to be inline coded. You can instantly see how that makes it hard to read, write and edit.

Tools for working with structured data

Yoast SEO automatically handles much of the structured data in the background. You could extend our Schema framework, of course — see the next chapter –, but if adding code by hand seems scary, you could try some of the tools listed below. If you need help with how to proceed, ask your web developer for help. They will fix this for you in a couple of minutes.

• Generators
  • Google Data Highlighter
  • Google Structured Data Markup Helper
  • JSON-LD Schema Generator by Merkle
• Validators and test tools
  • Yandex Structured data markup
  • Yandex Structured data validator API
  • Schema Markup Validator
  • Google Search Console Enhancements report
  • Google Rich Results Tester
  • Bing Webmaster Tools Markup Validator
• WordPress Plugins
  • Yoast SEO Local (Our Local SEO plugin adds Schema.org for your business details, like address, geo-location, opening hours, etc.)
  • The Yoast SEO WooCommerce plugin outputs product Schema to highlight your products in search.
  • Yoast SEO uses JSON-LD to add Schema.org information about your site search, your site name, your logo, images, articles, social profiles and a lot more to your web pages. We ask if your site represents a person or an organization and adapt our structured data based on that. Also, our structured data content blocks for the WordPress block editor make it easy to add structured data to your FAQs and How-to’s. Check our the structured data features in Yoast SEO.

The Yoast SEO Schema structured data framework

Implementing structured data has always been challenging. Also, the results of most of those implementations often needed improvement. At Yoast, we set out to enhance the Schema output by millions of sites. For this, we built a Schema framework — ready to be adapted and extended by anyone. We combined all those loose bits and pieces of structured data that appear on many sites, improved these, and put them in a graph. By interconnecting all these bits, we offer search engines all your connections on a silver platter.

See this video for more background on the schema graph.

Of course, there’s a lot more to it. We can also extend Yoast SEO output by adding specific Schema pieces, like how-tos or FAQs. We built structured data content blocks for use in the WordPress block editor. We’ve also enabled other WordPress plugins to integrate with our structured data framework, like Easy Digital Downloads, The Events Calendar, Seriously Simple Podcasting, and WP Recipe Maker, with more to come. Together, these help you remove barriers for search engines and users, as it has always been challenging to work with structured data.

Expand and improve your structured data implementation

You’ll need to follow a structured and focused approach to effectively implement and enhance Schema.org markup on your website. This includes understanding the key concepts, identifying your goals, leveraging the right tools, and regularly reviewing your strategy. Here’s a guide on how you can do this:

1. Understanding Schema.org Markup: First, you need to understand what Schema.org markup is and why it’s crucial for your SEO strategy. Yoast’s developer portal provides a detailed insight into the functional approach of constructing Schema.org markup. This will help you to comprehend its importance in generating rich results on search engines.
2. Selecting the right format: Choosing the right format for your structured data is critically important. Yoast’s approach recommends JSON-LD as the preferred format for structured markup. According to their Technology and Approach page, JSON-LD provides usability and efficiency in conveying structured information, making it a recommended format by major search engines, including Google.
3. Integrating with Yoast’s structured data framework: To seamlessly add Schema.org markup to your web pages, you can use our structured data framework. Yoast’s Schema Integration Guidelines provide an easy and beneficial way to integrate Schema.org markup, optimize communication with search engines, and potentially improve its SEO performance.
4. Reviewing and enhancing your implementation: To keep your structured data markup implementation effective, reviewing and enhancing it regularly is advisable. Not only does this help in identifying any potential issues, but it also presents opportunities to improve your existing markup for better SEO performance.

Read up

By following the guidelines and adopting a comprehensive approach, you can successfully get structured data on your pages and enhance the effectiveness of your schema.org markup implementation for a robust SEO performance. Read the Yoast SEO Schema documentation to learn how Yoast SEO works with structured data, how you can extend it via an API, and how you can integrate it into your work.

Keep reading: Open-source software, open Schema protocol! »

External links

Most search engines have their developer center where you can find more information on the inner workings of their structured data implementations. You can read these to see what works and what doesn’t. It would be best to stick to their rules because a bad Schema.org implementation could lead to a penalty. Always check your code in the structured data test tool to see if it’s correct. Fix errors and regularly maintain the code on your site to see if it is still up to scratch.

• Google’s Introduction to Structured Data
• Bing’s Marking Up Your Site with Structured Data
• Yandex’ Schema.org for Webmasters

In the end

You can’t run away from structured data anymore. If your site means anything to you, you should look into it and figure out the best way to use Schema.org. Still need some help? Read more on how Yoast SEO makes it easy for you. Or check out our digital story on rich results, structured data and Schema, or take our free structured data for beginner’s online training course. If implemented correctly, it can do great things for your site, now and in the future. Search engines are constantly developing new ways to present search results, and more often than not, they use Schema.org data.

Adding structured data to your site is an essential part of technical SEO. If you’re wondering how fit your site’s overall technical SEO is, take our technical SEO fitness quiz to find out. This quiz helps you figure out what you can still work on!

Read on: How to check the performance of your rich results in Google Search Console »

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Today, there’s a constant demand for more efficient and effective SEO practices. Keeping this in mind, we’re constantly updating and refining the features of Yoast SEO. One of our key milestones was the release of Yoast SEO 21.0, where we revealed a pioneering generative AI to redefine SEO optimization. In our next release, Yoast SEO 21.1, we’re improving upon that work.

AI in Yoast SEO

In Yoast SEO 21.0, we introduced a generative AI tool that simplified the generation of SEO-optimized titles and meta descriptions. No longer a tedious manual effort, this tool gives you the power to create engaging titles and descriptions at the click of a button. This innovative application of generative AI eliminates the complexity of SEO optimization, freeing up valuable time to produce top-quality content.

Here’s the awesome video we made to remind you!

Building upon this foundation, we’re excited to present Yoast SEO 21.1, continuing our journey into optimizing your SEO with AI. We’re making the first behind-the-scenes improvements to improve the performance and results of the generative AI feature. This makes your content more appealing, while also upholding its SEO-friendly character. Remember that the AI generator functionality only works when the SEO analysis is turned on. If you don’t have it activated, we’ll show a message alerting you about this.

Making the most of Yoast SEO Premium

If you’re still on the fence about including AI in your SEO strategy, we recommend trying out Yoast SEO Premium. This grants access to our robust AI feature and equips you with other advanced tools to enhance your site’s SEO performance. More so, these tools are specifically designed to streamline your workflow and amplify your productivity.

Fixes and enhancements

As usual with our new releases, Yoast SEO 21.1 brings a series of fixes and enhancements to boost performance. We’re always at work to keep Yoast SEO a practical and reliable tool that supports your needs.

We value your trust in Yoast SEO, and our goal is always to deliver tools that simplify your SEO routine. So, we would like to encourage you to upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium to unlock the full potential of your site’s SEO capabilities with AI and our advanced features.

Update to Yoast SEO 21.1

Yoast SEO 21.0 was a great success, and we can’t wait to show you what’s next. As we continue to improve your SEO experience, we invite your feedback to help us refine our services further. Comment on this post, use the WordPress forums, or contact us via our socials — it’s all good. Guided by your input, we can ensure Yoast SEO remains high-quality, effective, and user-friendly. Be smarter with SEO in Yoast SEO 21.1!

The post Yoast SEO 21.1 brings even more improvements appeared first on Yoast.

There are many reasons why you may want to create a dedicated website for your videos. Perhaps you’re selling a course that you want to put behind a paywall. Maybe you’ve created a video series or podcast that requires its own branded home. Or maybe you just want to create an immersive environment for users to consume your video content, without the typical distractions of YouTube.

Whatever your goal, you can take two approaches to achieve this. You either use the automatically generated pages from a video hosting service or e-learning platform, or you build a dedicated website then embed your videos across it.

Using a video hosting service or e-learning platform

If you don’t want the hassle of maintaining a website, this is the way to go. By using a video hosting service or e-learning platform, you can easily store your videos. These services are also useful if you want out-of-the-box monetization options for a video course.

Vimeo Showcases & Collections

Vimeo offers two ways of building out a quick video website:

1. Showcases allow you to put together an elevated playlist, which is ideal for a short series. Plus, you get to create a nice looking webpage to accompany it. 
2. Collections are designed to support Vimeo OTT. This is a subscription service for those looking to monetize a library of video in a simple way. It’s priced at $1 per subscriber per month.

Sprout video

Sprout video offers a lightweight CMS that can be used to create a video website with multiple pages – and applied sitewide to a custom domain of your choice. It’s a great choice if you want a simple plug-and-play solution, and you have a fairly large library of video content that you want to categorise by topic.  

If you have some CSS and HTML skills, you can customize Sprout video’s CMS somewhat. However, at that point you may be better off building a custom solution with WordPress.

Wistia Channels

Wistia Channels is a great solution if you have serialized video content that you’re publishing regularly, like a podcast. Channels allows you to combine audio and video, and create a branded landing page that looks a bit like a video streaming service. Plus, it includes unique pages for each video. 

You can run Wistia Channels on a standard Wistia account subdomain URL. But you can also embed it into any page on an existing website, if you use a simple JavaScript embed code – thereby straddling the options of video hosting service vs. own website.

Kajabi

For video courses and courses that include videos alongside written content in particular, Kajabi is a great solution. It allows you to build a quick video website that you can easily monetize. Kajabi has a very simple WYSIWYG CMS that doesn’t require any web development skills to use. Plus, it can be integrated with an existing website.

Creating a video website

If you’d like to do something more custom, or integrate your videos as part of a bigger web experience, you could consider creating a website with a more traditional CMS before embedding your videos. The advantage of this is not only in being able to build something precisely to your design and structure specifications, but also in having a web property capable of driving traffic from organic search and organic video sources.

WordPress is the ideal base technology

In the vast majority of cases, the best CMS for creating a video portfolio, series or course website will be WordPress. With thousands of video gallery plugins and integrations with all the major video hosting platforms, WordPress gives you all the options you need for a custom video website. Plus, it’s very simple and requires little technical know-how. You can very simply include videos from almost every platform in any page you created with the Gutenberg editor. Meaning: video can be part of the fabric of your WordPress site out of the box.

And if you use WordPress, you can also use the Yoast Video SEO plugin! The video SEO plugin ensures that your videos are indexed in Google, so you can drive more traffic to your website through video search.

Options for integrating videos in WordPress

If you want to integrate your videos more elaborately within your chosen page types, there are a lot of great options out there.

LearnDash

LearnDash is a great plugin for a course-type video execution. It allows you to include videos from any source, like YouTube or Wistia, then create user playback triggers for course progression.

Wistia Channels

As with the standalone solution, Wistia Channels works really well as a way of creating a video gallery within any other page or page type. It creates unique URLs for every video within the gallery. These URLS are indexable by Google, which is great for your SEO.

All-in-one video gallery

This plugin is a bit like a mini CMS within a CMS. It allows you to build a fairly feature-rich video gallery experience within a WordPress website, bringing in videos from YouTube and elsewhere. All-in-one video gallery is a reasonable solution if you want a simple and traditional catalogue of your videos within a single page.

In conclusion: building a video website is fairly straightforward and shouldn’t feel intimidating. Whatever your needs, there are great options out there.

Read more: How to stop videos negatively impacting Core Web Vitals »

The post How to create a video website appeared first on Yoast.

Writing high-quality content that ranks in search engines is a difficult job. And how do you know that it’s a job well done? In this post, we’ll give you a handy SEO copywriting checklist with some quick checks you should do before you publish your article.

Do the hard work first!

Before using this SEO copywriting checklist, you should’ve done much work. Before you start to write, you should’ve done your keyword research, decided upon the exact topic, then set up the structure of your article. It’s a lot of work, but… nobody said SEO copywriting was easy! To help you out, however, we’ve written an ultimate guide on SEO copywriting. Good luck!

Read more: 10 copywriting tips – from experts to experts »

Then check:

Before you hit the publish button, you should ask yourself the following eight questions. We created this SEO copywriting checklist to ensure you thought of everything before posting new content.

Note: a lot of the checks are covered in the content analysis of our Yoast SEO plugin. Useful, right?

1. Is your traffic light in Yoast SEO green?

You should have an overall green light for the Yoast SEO readability, inclusive language, and SEO analysis. Check whether or not you can (and need to) improve based on the feedback you get from the orange or red lights. Just keep in mind that you don’t worsen the quality of your article. You shouldn’t optimize just for the sake of getting a green light!

2. Is the main topic of your article clear?

When scanning through your text, check if the topic of your article is immediately evident to your audience. Your readers will probably read your subheading first, so make sure those fit the topic of your post. Next, most people read the first sentence of every paragraph. That’s why it’s wise to have these core sentences cover the topic of each paragraph as much as you can.

Another tip is to look at the word complexity of your post. If you’ve used too many complex words, it will be hard for people to understand your message. However, if you use easier words, people will breeze through your content!

Keep reading: Why text structure is important for SEO »

3. Are there any lengthy paragraphs?

People generally prefer to read only a short piece of text. So, check whether you need to shorten any lengthy paragraphs. Five or six sentences per paragraph are ideal.

4. Have you added internal links?

Before publishing your article, think about linking to similar articles. If you have a cornerstone content article on a similar topic, make sure you link to it. And if your new article is the best piece you’ve written in a long time, you should add links to this new piece.

Read on: Internal linking for SEO: why and how »

5. Is your call to action clear?

What do you want people to do after they’ve read your article? Should people buy something? Or do you want them to read another article? Make sure your call to action is clear, and that it’s easy for your audience to click from your article to other places on your website.

6. Could you optimize for related keyphrases?

You’ve probably considered which keyphrase you’d like your new post to rank for. And if your article is lengthy, it also makes sense to optimize for related keyphrases. So, if your keyword is [games for children’s birthday parties] you could also optimize for [hide and seek] or [musical chairs], for example.

Keep on reading: Yoast SEO Premium analysis: as smart as Google »

7. Do you use transition words?

A text is more readable with the proper use of transition words (or signal words, same thing). Transition words include ‘most important’, ‘because’, ‘thus’, or ‘besides that’. They give direction to your readers. Make sure every paragraph has some of these transition words.

Read more: 5 tips to improve readability »

8. Did you choose the right category and tag?

This check is all about site structure! Because if you choose the right category and tag (or tags) for your article, you clarify your site’s structure to search engines. This helps search engines understand what your site is about. In addition, it will also help visitors to your site to find this article or related articles.

Keep reading: Using category and tag pages for SEO »

Bonus tip: Use inclusive language

You might be thinking: Why should I care about inclusive language? But it’s good for your users and your SEO. Because Google’s (and other search engines’) goal is to provide people with the best result for their queries. People who feel included because of your language will probably stay on your site longer!

Conclusion

Writing articles that rank in search engines takes time and effort, but it will pay off! So, besides checking the Yoast SEO plugin, please look at this SEO copywriting checklist. Remember to ask yourself these eight questions before hitting the publish button. If you’ve covered these, you can confidently publish well-optimized quality content!

Need more help? Make sure to check out our SEO copywriting training.

Read on: 5 SEO copywriting mistakes you should avoid »

The post SEO copywriting checklist: 8 things to check before publishing appeared first on Yoast.

In part, attracting visitors from the search results pages comes down to crafting irresistible titles and meta descriptions to entice users to click. However, it’s a challenging task to create these elements for every page manually. This is where the disruptive power of generative AI comes into play, revolutionizing your SEO strategy by automating the process and generating top-notch titles and meta descriptions. But, don’t blindly follow the suggestions without critical assessment. In this post, we’ll dive into the practical side of generating flawless titles and meta descriptions using generative AI for SEO.

Mastering AI titles and meta descriptions for SEO

Titles and meta descriptions serve as your web page’s ambassadors in search engine results, making their role critical to your online presence. As users perform searches, these snippets are often their first encounter with your content, influencing their decision to click and explore further. Hence, creating captivating titles and meta descriptions is essential for capturing attention, showcasing relevance, and enticing users to choose your website. Generative AI can help write good ones. Generative AI and SEO can go hand in hand if you do it well.

Enhancing click-through rates (CTR) and UX

Titles and meta descriptions that effectively communicate the value of your content play a pivotal role in improving click-through rates. Compelling titles and descriptions are relevant to the users’ search query, which leads to a high chance of getting them to click on your link.

A higher CTR signals to search engines that your content is valuable, potentially leading to more traffic. Moreover, conveying the essence of your content accurately helps users find precisely what they’re seeking, leading to increased engagement, prolonged time spent on your website, and, ultimately, SEO success.

Unveiling the (un)predictability of Google’s rewriting game

While you invest time and effort into crafting optimized titles and meta descriptions, it’s crucial to note that Google often rewrites them on the SERPs. Therefore, there’s no guarantee that your carefully written titles and meta descriptions will always appear as intended.

Google often thinks it knows how to present your site best. It tends to rewrite stuff to provide users with the most relevant and informative snippets that align with their search intent. Thus, it may rephrase or modify a title or meta description if it believes its version better matches the user’s query or accurately represents the page’s content.

Although Google’s rewriting will occur, optimizing your titles and meta descriptions remains beneficial. Generating well-structured, keyword-rich content increases the likelihood that Google will utilize your provided title and meta description.

Remember to monitor how Google treats your titles and meta descriptions in the search results and make necessary adjustments. Keep optimizing your content and stay up-to-date with changes in Google’s algorithms so your site will remain superbly represented in the SERPs.

Use the AI in Yoast SEO Premium to generate titles

Hot off the presses! Yoast SEO now empowers you to generate titles and meta descriptions using AI. Imagine not having to ponder and labor over crafting the perfect meta descriptions and titles. Our advanced AI does it for you! It’s designed to understand your content and create precise, engaging titles and descriptions that boost your SEO performance.

This feature is not just about saving your time and effort; it’s about improving the quality of your SEO, enhancing your visibility, and driving more traffic to your site. It’s where technology meets creativity, resulting in an unparalleled SEO experience. Give it a try today!

A helpful AI tool in Yoast SEO Premium

Experience the benefits of generative AI and make your work simpler today!

Get Yoast SEO Premium »Only $99 USD / year (ex VAT)

Using generative AI to create powerful titles

For SEO, generative AI presents a powerful tool for automating the creation of captivating and optimized titles. We can streamline our workflows and generate irresistible, tailor-made titles for our target audience using state-of-the-art generative AI models like GPT-based models.

How to evaluate AI-generated titles

Getting models to spit out titles is not hard, but what comes next might be even more important. When evaluating AI-generated titles, you should check for relevance, keywords, length, uniqueness, and branding, to ensure they are effective and appropriate for your content:

• Clarity and relevance: The title should accurately convey the subject and main focus of the content. It should indicate what the page or article is about so that users can understand its relevance before clicking on it.
• Keyword optimization: Incorporate relevant keywords that align with the content and help search engines understand the topic. However, ensure the title remains natural and readable, avoiding keyword stuffing or over-optimization.
• Length and readability: Keep the title within a reasonable length so it can be fully displayed in search engine results. The title must be easy to read, with proper grammar and punctuation, so users can quickly grasp its meaning.
• Engaging and unique: Titles that stand out and generate interest are more likely to attract clicks. Use AI-generated titles that evoke curiosity, offer a benefit, or create a sense of urgency. Always try to make your titles unique and different from your competitors.
• Brand consistency: Check if the AI-generated title aligns with your brand voice and messaging guidelines. Ensure it accurately represents your brand’s personality and values while maintaining consistency across your content.

Remember, there’s still no substitute for human experience, so please take the time to manually improve the work of the generative AI tool of your choice.

Unleashing AI-generated meta descriptions

Titles are not the only heroes in the SEO battlefield — meta descriptions also play a vital role. These concise summaries entice users to click on your link and explore your website. By harnessing the power of generative AI, you can optimize your meta descriptions to be engaging, informative, and perfectly aligned with users’ search intent.

Checking the AI-generated meta description

Here are a few key aspects to consider when evaluating AI-generated meta descriptions. In general, look for relevance, length, clickability, and if it has the correct tone of voice.

For relevance, ensure that the generated meta description accurately reflects the content of the corresponding web page. Verify that the description captures the main topic or purpose of the page and includes relevant keywords or phrases that users might search for.

Looking at length and readability, you should check the length of the generated meta description. Ensure it falls within the desired character limit (around 150-160 characters). Check the readability and clarity of the text so it flows smoothly and is easy to understand for users. See if the message comes across in this short piece of text.

Clickability is a vital aspect. Consider whether the generated meta description is enticing and likely to attract user clicks. Does it address the user’s search intent, highlight the unique value proposition of the page, or create a sense of curiosity or urgency? Aim for attractive descriptions and encourage users to click through to your website.

Another essential aspect is tone and brand voice. Review the tone and style of the generated meta description to ensure it aligns with your brand voice and messaging guidelines. Does it accurately represent the personality and values of your brand? Make any necessary adjustments to maintain consistency.

We’ll dive deeper into these aspects in the following sections of this article.

Checking generated content: A mix of AI and human expertise

Once you have your AI-generated titles and meta descriptions, evaluating and refining them becomes crucial in ensuring their quality, relevance, and alignment with your objectives. Manual review and refinement, infused with human expertise, are vital in perfecting the generated content before implementation.

Reviewing for quality and coherence

Initiate your evaluation process by scrutinizing the generated titles and meta descriptions for quality and coherence. Assess their language fluency, grammatical correctness, and overall readability. Identify and rectify any inconsistencies or errors hindering the content’s clarity and impact. By making necessary edits, you enhance the overall quality and cohesiveness of the generated content.

Assessing relevance to content and context

While reviewing the generated output, evaluate its alignment with its content. Consider the specific web page and its context to ensure the generated content accurately portrays the page’s main topic, theme, or purpose and adjust where necessary.

Infusing brand voice and messaging

Like any other content, aligning the generated titles and meta descriptions with your brand’s voice, messaging, and tone is critical. Assess how the generated content reflects your brand’s personality and resonates with your target audience. Make necessary edits to infuse your brand’s unique identity into the content while preserving clarity and readability.

Optimize keyphrase integration

Examine how effectively the generated titles and meta descriptions incorporate target keyphrases. Keyphrases play a crucial role in optimizing your content for search engine rankings. Evaluate whether the generated content naturally integrates the desired keywords and their variations.

Analyzing user engagement metrics

In addition to manual review, analysis of user engagement metrics is vital in assessing the effectiveness of the generated titles and meta descriptions. Monitor key performance indicators like impressions, click-through rates, bounce rates, and time spent on the page to gauge their impact. Compare the AI-generated content’s performance against alternative variations to determine the best-performing options.

Incorporating human input and expertise

While generative AI plays a significant role in generating titles and meta descriptions, it’s imperative to acknowledge the indispensable value of human expertise. Generative AI models are trained on data but lack intuition and a thorough understanding of contextual nuances. You can inject your creative insights, industry-specific knowledge, and brand context into the content by implementing manual review and refinement.

Balancing SEO optimization and user value

Leveraging generative AI for generating titles and meta descriptions requires achieving the elusive balance between search engine optimization and delivering value to users. This harmony ensures your content features prominently in search results while providing an engaging and meaningful experience for your audience.

Grasping user intent

To strike the right balance, understand the intent behind user searches. Analyze the keywords and search queries relevant to your content, and consider the motivations and expectations of users when they land on your web page.

Providing clear and concise information

When crafting titles and meta descriptions, ensure they convey precisely what users can expect from your page. Clearly outline your content’s main topic, purpose, or value proposition. Use concise and compelling language to capture users’ attention and encourage them to click through.

Showcasing unique selling points (USPs)

Titles and meta descriptions are excellent opportunities to showcase the unique selling points of your content. What sets your page or product apart from the competition? Does it offer a unique perspective, in-depth analysis, or exclusive insights? By incorporating these selling points into the generated content, you entice users and demonstrate the value they stand to gain by engaging with your page.

Engaging and connecting with users

Titles and meta descriptions are gateways to user engagement. Use compelling language, emotional triggers, and storytelling elements that resonate with your target audience. Emphasize the benefits, solutions, or outcomes users can achieve by interacting with your content. Stir curiosity or evoke a sense of urgency that compels users to click through and explore further.

Prioritizing readability and usability

While SEO optimization is essential, prioritize the readability and usability of your titles and meta descriptions. Use language that is clear and concise, making information easily understandable. Structure the content in a scannable format, incorporating proper punctuation and well-defined sections. Ensure the generated output doesn’t compromise readability or coherence by focusing solely on optimization.

Redefining SEO with AI and human ingenuity

Generative AI presents an extraordinary opportunity to simplify and optimize the creation of stunning titles and meta descriptions for SEO success. By leveraging the power of AI, you can save time, amplify click-through rates, and elevate user engagement. Yoast SEO Premium has a helpful AI tool that lets you generate titles and meta descriptions with the click of a button.

It’s crucial, however, to remember that AI should enhance human expertise, not replace it entirely. By combining the creativity of human content creators with the assistance of generative AI, you can create titles and meta descriptions that are optimized, captivating, and valuable to users.

The post Using AI to generate great SEO titles and meta descriptions appeared first on Yoast.

Say goodbye to the manual labor of creating SEO-optimized titles and meta descriptions! We’re excited to introduce an AI-powered breakthrough in Yoast SEO 21.0 that transforms how you optimize your content. We’ve harnessed the power of generative AI to bring you effortless title and meta description generation at the click of a button. Dive into our newest release and experience the benefits of seamless SEO optimization, giving you more time to craft quality content and less time worrying about SEO details.

Simplified SEO

We’ve designed this update of Yoast SEO to eliminate the hassle of your SEO optimization efforts. We all know that creating SEO-friendly titles and descriptions can be complex, often consuming a lot of your time and requiring an understanding of SEO best practices. Not anymore. Unlock the potential of AI with the newest release of Yoast SEO Premium. You can now generate titles and meta descriptions with just a click!

Now available as beta in Yoast SEO Premium

The new AI feature is now available as a beta in Yoast SEO Premium. As we fine-tune the API, you might see system messages in this beta phase. These are not huge issues, and it’s certainly not your fault. Simply try again if you see a message pop up! Think of it as getting a sneak peek behind the scenes, like witnessing a chef in a restaurant kitchen perfecting your dish. It’s all part of the process as we refine and optimize the product. You can activate the AI feature in the Yoast SEO settings.

We’re constantly working to improve our AI features, which is where we need your input. We value your feedback and ideas to ensure our products serve you better each time. We understand how quickly the world moves, particularly in areas like LLMs and generative AI. So, we are ready to make numerous tweaks and changes to keep pace and maintain high quality. Together, let’s explore this exciting new chapter!

Powered by generative AI

The new feature in Yoast SEO 21.0 uses advanced generative AI to create engaging, creative, SEO-optimized titles and meta descriptions. Relying on large language models, machine learning algorithms and fed with vast amounts of data, our AI understands your content to provide you with optimal suggestions.

Why use AI for SEO

SEO involves techniques and strategies to rank your site higher in search results. One of them is to have good, catchy titles and relevant meta descriptions that appeal both to readers and search engines.

But the challenges are real. Manually crafting these pieces of content can be tedious, and time-consuming and may require an advanced understanding of SEO. This is where our new feature steps in.

Here’s how the AI in Yoast SEO Premium benefits you

• Saves time: You can focus more on creating quality content when you automate the generation of titles and meta descriptions.
• Enhances creativity: It helps stimulate creative and engaging titles and descriptions, ensuring they grab the reader’s attention in search results.
• Improved CTR: Leveraging AI for your SEO efforts can revolutionize your content optimization strategy and helps the number of people clicking through to your site.
• Integrated workflow: By integrating different tasks — in this case, content creation and SEO optimization — into a seamless workflow, you save time, reduce complexity, and increase productivity. It also ensures that all your work is aligned toward one goal, increasing the effectiveness of your efforts.

Let us walk you through the functionality to show how this new feature will help you do SEO.

How does it work?

The AI feature in Yoast SEO 21.0 works for all your content. Here’s how:

• Get started: Activate the AI feature in the Yoast SEO settings. Locate the ‘Use AI’ button. You’ll find this in the Google Preview in the Yoast SEO Premium sidebar or by scrolling down your post. Once your content is ready, click this button, and our AI feature will appear.
• One-time consent: We’ve powered the AI features in Yoast SEO with external services. We need your consent to allow you to use them. Remember that we’ll transfer your data once you consent to use the AI feature.
• AI at work: Ask it to generate titles or meta descriptions. Our advanced algorithms analyze your content after you click the button. The AI then uses this to generate a list of engaging and SEO-friendly titles or meta descriptions that align with your content.
• View suggestions: You’ll see five unique suggestions for the title and meta description. Check them to see which ones suit your content the best. They are in the context of a Google SERP result. You can immediately see how it might look in the search results.
• Choose or refresh: Find a title or meta description you love? Wonderful! Select it and click the ‘Apply AI title/meta description’ button next to the selection, and it will automatically populate the appropriate fields. Not entirely satisfied with the first round of suggestions? No problem! Click the ‘Generate more’ button, and five fresh suggestions for titles and meta descriptions will appear.
• Finalize: The generated titles and meta descriptions are not set in stone. Tweak them to your liking.

Remember, there’s no need for any configuration. It also doesn’t cost you anything extra, like AI credits or an extra subscription — it’s all included in Yoast SEO Premium.

Keep Google in mind

Even as you use our AI feature to create SEO meta tags, it’s worth remembering that Google often rewrites titles and meta descriptions. This process is based on their algorithms’ understanding of your content and what they consider will be most helpful to users.

What does this mean? Google’s systems serve the user the best content according to their search query, which means it will occasionally adjust your titles and meta descriptions. This fact underlines the importance of your on-page content aligning with your meta tags.

Something else to keep in mind

While our generative AI is a powerful tool designed to deliver high-quality, SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions, we want to remind you that it doesn’t replace the human touch. The technology provides incredible choices by learning from your data, but it might only partially grasp the unique context, branding, or tone of voice your content requires.

The suggestions generated by our AI feature provide a solid foundation for your SEO data, saving you time and effort. However, it’s still important to review these suggestions to ensure they align with your brand’s voice and your content’s context and are factually correct. We have a blog post explaining how to evaluate the generated titles and meta descriptions.

The power of generative AI in SEO is immense, offering time-saving benefits and efficiency; still, the technology should complement human intelligence, not replace it. We ensured that Yoast SEO 21.0 allows and encourages you to review, refine, and tailor the AI’s output.

Stay involved in the process, use this tool to enhance your workflow, and remember — the magic truly happens when human creativity and advanced AI work together!

Get Yoast SEO 21.0 now

We can’t wait for you to dive in and use this helpful feature in Yoast SEO Premium. We firmly believe it has the potential to improve your SEO work and make it more efficient. It helps free up that valuable time to do what you do best — create fantastic content.

The update is free if you use the Premium version of our SEO plugin. If you’re not a Premium subscriber, upgrade today to enjoy this and many more advanced features to help your SEO.

We’re excited about this new chapter in simplifying and optimizing your SEO work. As always, we are open to feedback and suggestions about Yoast SEO, and we’re looking forward to hearing about your experiences with this new feature.

Get ready to harness the power of AI for your SEO efforts!

The post Boost your SEO with AI: Now available in Yoast SEO 21.0 appeared first on Yoast.

“Find your niche!” is popular advice for people who own or want to start a business. You have to find your audience; the more specific, the better! But is that true? Should you only talk to the same group of people, or is there merit to making your content globally relatable?

What is globally relatable content?

Creating global content means everyone can understand it. No matter where they live or who they are. The homepage of your website is a good example, since it’s meant to convey to everyone who visits your site what type of business you are. As a result, global content is usually written in English. 

The SEO benefit of global content is obviously the larger reach. Most people use English keywords, so if you optimize for those, you’ll be able to reach more people. Then, if your content is good and people find what they’re looking for, your rankings will also improve.

A side note about local content

The opposite of global content is local content. This type of content is more niche. It’s catered to a specific audience, which also means it can be in any language. A good example of businesses who benefit from and almost exclusively use local content are local businesses. For example, the hairdressers on the corner and the Italian place a few blocks away. 

These local businesses probably benefit the most from local content. It wouldn’t make sense for them to create a lot of (if any) global content, and that’s totally fine. If you google Donuts Nijmegen, you don’t need the donut place to have global content. You just need that sweet, sugary donut. 

People expect personalized content

… is what you might say to argue that content shouldn’t be globally relatable. And you’re right. But personalization doesn’t mean ‘only people in the Netherlands use SEO to optimize their site’. There’s no gender or race restriction on SEO optimization. The only requirement: a website, and a desire to rank high in search engines.

What if Yoast were to only address Dutch people? We’d be alienating so many people who would benefit from our product. And that’s a shame! Since our motto is SEO for everyone, our website is in English and our plugin is available in no less than 27 languages! This is also why we use people of every gender and color in our images. And of course, we’d be missing out on a lot of revenue. 

There are always exceptions

Of course, there are businesses that cater specifically to a certain group of people. Still, you might be surprised who actually buys your product, uses your service, or reads your blog posts. For example, skincare products that help with acne are usually geared towards women, specifically white women, but a lot of men and non-binary people use them too.

Imagine if you actually featured these groups in your products and content. You’ll probably sell more! Because when people feel seen and spoken to, they’re more likely to buy. So, if you think your business only caters to one specific customer, you’re probably forgetting someone.

Globalization and social media

With the extreme popularity of social media, you also have to wonder if it’s even possible to only address one type of customer. Sure, language plays a role. But even that’s not black and white anymore. People travel, move to other countries, learn new languages. Your content probably reaches more people than you might think. So why wouldn’t you talk to them too?

One size doesn’t fit all

However, you shouldn’t only create globally relatable content. First, because it doesn’t exist. No two people are alike, so while you can strive to be as globally relatable as possible, you’ll never find the ultimate, globally relatable piece of content. 

People from different cultures and backgrounds have different associations with certain words and imagery. A well-known example is the color white, which is associated with cleanliness and purity in western culture. But in some Asian countries, it’s the color of mourning. And there are more instances like this.

Don’t become a faceless brand

We also can’t ignore the other reason why creating only globally relatable content is a bad idea: it makes for some pretty bland content. If you try to appeal to everyone (especially in written content), you can’t rely on cultural context. And you have to wonder if that’s even possible when you too have participated and grown up in a culture, so your cultural context will color everything you do. 

Globally relatable content can’t be contemporary either, because referencing an event that happened in the US, for example, isn’t necessarily relevant for people in other parts of the world. 

In other words: bland content won’t make your business stand out from the crowd. If all you create is globally relatable content, then you will be snowed under by brands with more personality.

A happy medium

As is true for most things in life, it’s all about balance. Creating content for your perfect customer is possible but also silly, because your content will most likely be seen and used by other people. People who might benefit from or are interested in your business. Are you just going to ignore them? Or are you ready to participate in the global society we live in? 

The post Should your content be globally relatable? appeared first on Yoast.

SEO has always been vital in making your website visible and getting organic traffic. Content creation is at the heart of SEO success. Yet, creating relevant, high-quality content can be a difficult task. Enter generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), a technology that mimics human-like creativity. Today, generative AI is on everyone’s lips and is poised to change the SEO landscape. This article delves into the fusion of generative AI and SEO, examining how it can revolutionize content creation and enhance user experiences.

Table of contents

• Understanding generative AI
• Applications of generative AI
• The role of generative AI in SEO
• Generating SEO-friendly content
• Enhancing UX with generative AI
• Challenges and ethical considerations
• Future directions in generative AI and SEO
• Conclusion

Understanding generative AI

Generative AI is artificial intelligence focused on generating original and creative content. It uses advanced algorithms, vast amounts of data, and machine-learning techniques to generate output to emulate human creativity. Understanding what happens in generative AI can provide valuable insights into its application in various industries, including content creation for SEO purposes.

Deep learning and neural networks

At the heart of generative AI lies deep learning, a subfield of machine learning that uses neural networks to learn and produce complex patterns. Neural networks consist of layers of artificial neurons that process and analyze data, altering their internal parameters to optimize performance over time. This architecture enables the network to make new output based on the patterns it has learned from training data.

You’ve heard about large language models (LLMs)

Large language models, such as ChatGPT, are advanced AI models trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like text. These models use refined techniques like transformers to capture the relationships between words and making contextually relevant responses. Read this in-depth explanation by Stephen Wolfram if you want to know exactly what happens inside ChatGPT.

Large language models like ChatGPT have many applications, including natural language understanding, text generation, translation, and content creation. They can write coherent and contextually appropriate text reacting to given prompts, making them useful for chatbots, virtual assistants, automated content creation, and other interactive language-based tasks. They’re even great developers!

Training a large language model exposes it to diverse and vast text datasets, including books, articles, sites, and other sources. The model learns the statistical patterns, grammar rules, and contextual associations from this training data to generate text that reads like a person could have written.

These large language models can capture complex language structures, understand context, and produce coherent and meaningful text. However, they also come with challenges, such as potential biases in training data, susceptibility to generating incorrect or misleading information, and the need for ongoing supervision to ensure quality and ethical usage.

Balancing creativity and realism

A key challenge in generative AI is to balance creativity and realism. While making unique and inspiring content is crucial, it should align with audience needs and adhere to best practices. Achieving this balance involves fine-tuning the model and including rules guiding the output.

Now that you understand the basics of generative AI let’s dive deeper into the applications of generative AI.

Applications of generative AI

Generative AI has entered numerous industries, changing organizations’ operations and creating innovations. Across various domains, generative AI applications enable you to automate tasks, generate creative outputs, and simplify operations.

Art and creative works

Generative AI has significantly affected the world of art and creative expression. Artists can use AI to generate unique artworks, explore new styles, and push the limits of creativity. From algorithmic paintings to computer-generated music compositions, generative AI offers endless options for artists to experiment with and produce stunning pieces.

Virtual assistants and chatbots

Chatbots have been around for a while, but generative AI has become vital to creating next-level virtual assistants and chatbots. By training AI models to understand and generate human-like responses, virtual assistants and chatbots can engage in meaningful conversations with users and provide personalized support. Through AI, these intelligent systems can generate natural language responses that are contextually relevant and enhance user satisfaction.

Content generation and curation

It’s the understatement of the year to say that generative AI has altered the content creation landscape. With the ability to learn patterns from vast amounts of data, AI models can create written content for specific topics or industries. This technology is beneficial for creating product descriptions, blog posts, and social media posts at scale, helping you to maintain your online presence and meet content demands.

Video and image generation

We’ve all seen the results of generative AI for images and videos. The technology has opened up new options for video and image generation. AI models can make images or videos based on text input parameters, making them useful in advertising, gaming, and virtual reality. This power allows anyone, skill or no skill, to create beautiful content in every style imaginable.

Recommendation systems

Generative AI powers recommendation systems that suggest products, movies, music, or content for individual preferences. Understanding user preferences and generating recommendations for their tastes can enhance user engagement, improve customer satisfaction, and increase conversion rates. AI algorithms enable recommendation systems to constantly learn and adapt to users’ changing interests, giving good recommendations.

The role of generative AI in SEO

Generative AI has emerged as a game-changer in SEO, offering new ways to improve websites, user experience, and content creation. Using generative AI, you can optimize your SEO strategies and stay ahead of your competitors.

Content generation and optimization

We’ve touched on this before, but generative AI is vital in content generation. It allows you to produce large-scale, relevant, and engaging content. It can help overcome the challenge of consistently creating content by generating unique blog posts, articles, and product descriptions that align with SEO best practices.

Keyword research and targeting

AI offers valuable support in keyword research and targeting. With its ability to analyze vast amounts of data, AI algorithms can identify relevant and trending topics and uncover long-tail keyword opportunities. Using AI for keyword research, you can optimize your content, improve relevance, and enhance search engine visibility.

Design and user experience

AI can help with site design and UX optimizations. We’ve seen various AI-powered site builders appear in the last year. AI algorithms can recommend designs and suggest interfaces, layouts, and visual element improvements.

A/B testing and optimization

AI can automate A/B testing methods so that you can evaluate and optimize versions of your sites. By making multiple variations of landing pages or content, the AI can analyze user behavior and statistically determine the most effective options, which could lead to improved conversion rates.

Generating SEO-friendly content

Making SEO-friendly content is one of the most impactful applications of generative AI in SEO. Generative AI lets you simplify your content creation process, ensuring the generated content aligns with SEO best practices.

Craft your content with care

Crafting exceptional content with the help of generative AI while keeping SEO in mind requires a careful balance between creativity and optimization. Using AI models, you can make content that helps you include suitable keywords, optimize meta tags, and employ a reader-friendly tone and structure.

However, it is crucial to go beyond mere optimization and ensure the content remains engaging, informative, and tailored to the target audience. This is where human expertise and intervention come in, adding a personal touch, unique insights, and crafting authentic storytelling.

Tailoring content to target keywords

Generative AI can help write content for specific keywords. This enables you to create content that is not only engaging but also optimized for specific target keywords.

Maintaining content relevance and freshness

Search engines favor fresh and relevant content; generative AI can help you address this need. AI can also help you keep your evergreen content fresh and relevant by suggesting improvements.

Working SEO into content

You can get generative AI to include SEO-friendly elements in its content. This can consist of optimizing meta tags, headers, and subheadings with relevant keywords, ensuring proper usage of internal and external links, and structuring the content for easy readability. By automating this, AI saves time and effort for content creators while improving the content for better results.

Balancing creativity and optimization

While generating SEO-friendly content, it is crucial to maintain a balance between creativity and optimization. Generative AI algorithms can ensure the generated content is optimized for search engines and retains a creative and engaging tone. This prevents the content from sounding robotic or keyword-stuffed, providing a positive experience while sticking to SEO best practices.

Enhancing UX with generative AI

In SEO, user experience plays a crucial role in deciding the success of a website. With the advancements in generative AI, you can now use these technologies to enhance user experiences in several ways.

Personalized content recommendations

Generative AI models can analyze user behavior, preferences, and historical data to generate personalized content recommendations. The AI can suggest relevant articles, products, or services by understanding user patterns and interests, increasing engagement and satisfaction. This personalized approach also improves the chances of conversion and customer retention.

Interactive virtual assistants and chatbots

Chatbots are all the rage. Generative AI helped the development of interactive virtual assistants and chatbots that provide valuable support to users. With natural language processing abilities, these AI models can understand and respond to user queries, providing instant assistance and fixing common issues. This leads to a better user experience and less work for customer support teams.

Dynamic content generation

Generative AI models can dynamically make real-time content based on user inputs, making the user experience more immersive and interactive. For example, online stores can use AI-powered systems to generate personalized product descriptions or virtual showrooms based on user preferences or browsing history. By tailoring content this way, you can create a more engaging and user-centric experience.

Sentiment analysis and emotional responses

AI can discover sentiment. Generative AI models can analyze user sentiment and emotional cues from text or voice inputs. This information can be used to tailor responses to better match users’ emotional states and needs. By understanding user sentiment, websites and applications can adjust their tone, recommendations, or support accordingly, creating a more empathetic and engaging user experience.

Generative AI and keyword research

Keyword research is critical in SEO, as it helps you identify and target the most relevant and valuable keywords for your content. Leveraging the power of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) allows you to streamline and enhance your keyword research process for improved SEO performance.

Analyzing big data for keyword insights

AI models excel at analyzing vast amounts of data, making them invaluable for keyword research. You can gain insights into keyword trends, search volumes, and user intent by training AI algorithms on large search queries, website content, and user behavior datasets. These insights help organizations understand the preferences and requirements of their target audience, enabling them to create relevant and engaging content that aligns with user expectations.

Uncovering long-tail keywords

One of the advantages of generative AI in keyword research is its ability to uncover long-tail keyword options. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search phrases with lower competition but higher conversion potential. Generative AI algorithms can analyze user search queries and identify patterns, allowing you to uncover long-tail keywords that align with your niche and target audience. By optimizing your content for these specific keywords, you can attract highly targeted organic traffic to increase conversion.

Improving keyword relevance and optimization

Keyword relevance and optimization are crucial elements of successful SEO strategies. Generative AI can help you create content that not only contains relevant keywords but also meets the conditions of search engines.

AI models can examine top-ranking content and identify patterns contributing to higher rankings. Incorporating these insights into the generation process allows you to improve content for targeted keywords while keeping a natural and engaging tone.

Enhancing local SEO with AI-generated keywords

Local businesses can also benefit from AI by finding more keywords for local SEO. These keywords can help local companies to optimize their content for optimal visibility in local search results. This enables them to attract local customers and drive foot traffic to their physical locations.

Addressing language and cultural variances

Generative AI is handy in handling language and cultural variances in keyword research. It can consider nuances in language, regional dialects, and cultural preferences to generate keywords that resonate with specific target audiences. By using AI, you can expand your reach and tailor your content to diverse linguistic and cultural groups.

AI-generated SEO titles and meta descriptions

In SEO, creating compelling titles and meta descriptions is vital to attract users and increase click-through rates. Traditionally, human writers have been responsible for writing these elements. However, with the rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you can now use AI-generated SEO titles and meta descriptions to optimize your content for search engines.

Challenges and ethical considerations

As AI becomes integrated into SEO strategies, it is vital to recognize and address its use’s challenges and ethical considerations. While generative AI offers remarkable capabilities and benefits, it raises concerns about transparency, biases, and human supervision.

Lack of transparency

One significant challenge in using generative AI for SEO lies in transparency. Generative AI models often operate as black boxes, meaning the decision-making process behind their outputs can be difficult to understand. This lack of transparency raises concerns, as you may be unable to explain how and why specific choices were made based on AI recommendations.

Biases and unintended consequences

Generative AI models learn from large datasets that reflect the biases and preferences of the data they were trained on. Consequently, these models can perpetuate existing biases or introduce unintended consequences when making content or recommending SEO. Biases can appear in various ways, such as gender biases in image selection, favoring specific demographics over others, or reinforcing stereotypes in content creation.

Evaluating the outcome AI models generate is critical to make them clear of bias and unintended results. The Yoast SEO inclusive language analysis can help you find and correct these in the text.

Human supervision and decision making

While generative AI can automate and streamline many aspects of SEO, it should not replace human supervision and decision-making. Human oversight remains crucial to ensure ethical practices, maintain control, and make informed decisions. Relying solely on AI-driven optimizations may lead to unintended consequences, as AI models may not fully understand the business goals, cultural contexts, or nuances specific to a particular industry.

Human supervision concerns critically checking the AI models’ outputs, recommendations, and decisions. It entails validating AI-generated variations, evaluating the impact on user experience, and aligning the optimizations with the business objectives and ethical considerations. Human involvement helps maintain accountability, ensures that AI remains a tool rather than an independent decision-maker, and allows for intuitive adjustments that AI may not capture effectively.

Future directions in generative AI and SEO

As AI advances and changes various industries, including content creation and SEO, several exciting future directions emerge.

Integration of generative AI and user feedback

User feedback helps understand user preferences, improve content responses, and enhance user experiences. Future directions in AI involve incorporating user feedback loops within AI models. The AI can learn and adapt to growing user expectations by including user responses and making content more relevant, engaging, and user-centric.

Real-time content generation

Real-time content generation is an exciting direction with immense potential for creating dynamic and contextually aware content. By leveraging real-time data streams, AI models can make content using current events, trends, and user interactions.

Personalized content recommendations

Generative AI can significantly tailor personalized content to individual preferences and interests. This direction uses AI models to analyze user behavior, consumption patterns, and historical data to provide personalized content suggestions.

Improved content planning and strategy

AI can revolutionize content planning and strategy by giving data-driven insights and suggestions. Future directions in generative AI involve developing AI models that can analyze market trends, competitor strategies, and user preferences to assist in content planning.

Conclusion

The intersection of generative AI and SEO represents a significant content creation and optimization milestone. Generative AI lets anyone produce high-quality, engaging content at scale — which is also one of the most important flaws. It revolutionizes the content creation landscape by automating tasks, enhancing user experiences, and simplifying operations.

Generative AI presents numerous chances for content creators, marketers, and firms to excel online. However, handling ethical considerations and bias mitigation is crucial when implementing AI in content creation. Striking a balance between automation and human creativity is critical to creating content that engages, informs, and delights users while sticking to SEO best practices.

As generative AI evolves, integrating it into your SEO work could help you to thrive online. Using the power of GenAI, you can optimize your SEO strategies, improve visibility, drive traffic, and offer users excellent experiences.

Generative AI is a powerful tool but cannot replace human creativity and expertise. People must collaborate with AI to shape and refine the content, ensuring it meets audience expectations and aligns with brand values. Together, you can continue to create meaningful, relevant, and SEO-optimized content that captivates audiences and drives success.

The post Generative AI and SEO: Revolutionizing content creation appeared first on Yoast.

Yesterday, WordPress 6.3 was released! And this is definitely an update you want to check out. It comes with a renewed site editor, lots of new design options, and improvements in terms of performance and accessibility. Especially the updated site editor got us excited, it makes working on your website a breeze! In this post, we’ve listed the highlights of this week’s release that you will definitely want to know more about!

The site editor has a few new features

The site editor in WordPress has been a focus point for a while now, and the release of WordPress 6.3 brings it to a new level. Some of you might already be using the site editor to make changes to your website, and some of you might not use it at all. But with this release of WordPress, it’s definitely worth another look. You can easily access the editor by going to Appearance > Editor in the left side menu when you’re in the backend.

So why should you check it out? Well, the editor in WordPress 6.3 doesn’t just allow you to change the style elements of your site, it also allows you to edit pages right away, create patterns and control your navigation menus. Meaning that the editor comes in handy when you need to make quick changes to your website. That being said when you make bigger changes to your content, we would recommend using the post or page editor to make sure you don’t miss out on any essential feedback by the Yoast SEO plugin. But for quick changes or improvements to your menu or design, this is a welcome improvement. Bringing all of this together in one place saves us some clicking around and it all works in quite an intuitive way.

New navigation in the site editor

The menu on the left of the site editor has changed with this new WordPress release. As you can see in the image above, the menu now has several new items in addition to the Templates section. Now you can also select Navigation to manage your menus. You can use Styles to change up the design of your entire site or specific blocks. Click pages to browse and edit existing pages on your website, or even create a new one. Go to templates to create new ones or edit the ones you already have. Lastly, patterns gives you an overview of your patterns and template parts, also giving you the option to create a new one. It seems simple because it is, and that’s exactly why it works so intuitively.

Get more control over your design

This release comes with several features that allow you to take more control over what your pages look like. For one, WordPress 6.3 comes with enhanced padding and margin controls. You can select a block, click Dimensions in the right panel and use the slider to adjust the padding and margin per block. Making it easier to select the right padding and margin right away.

There’s also the option to select different aspect ratios for your images. This will help you make the image fitting for your page, without stretching it unintentionally. This can be especially helpful with images you’re using in patterns. Just select the image of which you want to change the dimensions, and use the aspect ratio dropdown in the right panel to select the image size of your choice.

Changes to the Cover block

WordPress 6.3 also brings us a few new options in the design of the Cover block. It now comes with layout options, helping you take control of how the text in your Cover block is styled. This may seem like a small thing, but all of these ‘smaller’ improvements give you more freedom in what your pages look like. It’s also possible to select duotone filters for your Cover blocks and play with the different dimensions like padding, margin and block spacing. Go check it out!

The Styles section and more

There’s loads more, and you can find a lot of it when you go to the Styles section in the site editor mentioned above. Here you can change up the general style of your website and the style you’ve set per block. Use this to style your paragraphs, quotes, buttons, headings, etc etc. It’s all there.

It’s also good to mention that the new release comes with style revisions. This means that you can keep an eye on the changes you’ve made to the design of your site and click through previous versions of your site. It also allows you to restore previous designs with one click.

Two new blocks to play with

Lately, every new release of WordPress comes with new blocks and this one is no exception. The two blocks that are added to the library this time are the Details block and the Footnote block.

The Details block allows you to hide content that people can access if they choose to do so. This could be helpful if you want to elaborate on something but don’t want your page to become too long. The content that is initially ‘hidden’ can be text, images or other media. It’s also good to note that search engines will still be able to see the content you hide when using this block. So you don’t have to worry about that having a negative impact on your SEO.

The second block that has been added is the Footnote block, which does pretty much what you expect it to do. It allows you to add a footnote (or multiple) to your post. Before, this had to be done by using a plugin, but now it’s possible with a block that’s part of the WordPress block library. Just select the text and click the arrow that points down in the toolbar to find the footnote functionality.

Reusable blocks are now patterns

Reusable blocks allowed you to create a block (filled with content and/or media) and use it on different parts of your website by simply selecting it. These reusable blocks have gotten a sort of revamp and are now available in the form of Patterns.

A pattern allows you to choose whichever blocks you like, style them however you want them to look and save them to use throughout your website. Using specific patterns in different spots can save you time and help you keep your website and pages consistent. You can choose to sync a pattern, meaning that that one change will apply to all parts of your website. Keeping you in control.

Meet the WordPress command palette

WordPress 6.3 introduces us to a new command palette. Access this palette by going to your post editor or site editor and using the ‘ctrl + k’ or ‘command + k’ keyboard shortcut. This allows you to type in a command (it will load suggestions as you type) and do what you want to do a lot faster. The command palette offers an API for third-party developers to (un)register commands, but it also comes with a list of core commands by default. To give a few examples:

• Navigating the site editor
• Creating new posts and pages
• Toggling editor preferences (such as distraction-free mode)
• Toggling UI elements.

Dropping support for PHP 5

With the 6.3 release, WordPress is officially dropping support for PHP 5. Meaning that PHP 7.0.0 is now the minimum required PHP version. That being said, the recommended version of PHP remains at 7.4 or higher. Until now, the minimum PHP version that is being supported is 5.6.20. Although there isn’t a specific usage percentage that the PHP version has to fall below to get dropped, historically the team has used 5% as the baseline. Now that the percentage of PHP 5.6 usage users is 3.9% (and dropping), it’s time to drop support for PHP 5.

Technical enhancements in WordPress 6.3

Of course, a WordPress release isn’t complete without several performance and technical enhancements. Also, as with the last few releases, there was a strong focus on accessibility. Making WordPress more accessible with every new version that’s being released. For example, tab and arrow-key navigation has been improved, the heading hierarchy has been tweaked and new controls in the admin image editor make it easier for assistive technologies to navigate WordPress websites.

Rollback feature for failed plugin/theme updates

WordPress 6.3 comes with a rollback feature, which is worth mentioning here. This feature restores the previously installed version when a manual plugin or theme update fails. That way, website owners can be sure that their website is still available to their users when an update fails. As mentioned above, this will happen when a plugin or theme is manually updated. This feature will also become available for automatic updates in a future WordPress release.

A lot of the technical enhancements and features are focused on improving the performance of your website. If you’re interested in reading more about this (and what else you can find in WordPress 6.3), check out the Field Guide.

WordPress 6.3: A short recap

This release wraps up the second phase of Gutenberg, but that doesn’t mean it’s done. It’s onwards to the next phase of Gutenberg, which will probably once again bring us lots more in terms of intuitive features and accessibility. We can’t wait and hope you enjoy this new update of WordPress as much as we do!

Read more: WordPress is 20 years old: The CMS that revolutionized the web! »

The post WordPress 6.3: A more intuitive way to work on your site appeared first on Yoast.

The latest update of our plugin is here: Yoast SEO 20.13. This release is packed with crucial fixes that improve your SEO workflow. We’ve focused on enhancing compatibility and performance, making your SEO efforts smoother and more effective. So, let’s dive into the details of our latest release.

Compatibility with WordPress 6.3

Today, the new version of WordPress will be released. This WordPress 6.3 release would cause a small issue in the form of a design overlap in Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Insight preview pop-ups when using our plugin. That’s why today’s Yoast SEO release comes with a fix for this compatibility issue. We understand how important these previews are for your workflow, as they allow you to see how your content will appear on these platforms. With this fix, you can continue to enjoy a seamless preview experience, ensuring your content always looks its best.

We’ve also made improvements to the Premium version of our plugin. We’ve fixed a performance issue on hosts with limited object caching that was caused by autoloading of redirect data. This enhancement means faster loading times and a smoother user experience.

Update to Yoast SEO 20.13

These updates are designed to make your SEO efforts more efficient. This allows you to focus on what truly matters: creating quality content that resonates with your audience. We encourage you to update to the latest version of Yoast SEO. Not only will you benefit from these enhancements, but you’ll also be equipped with the most up-to-date SEO tools to optimize your website effectively.

We’re committed to continuously improving our plugin, ensuring it remains your go-to SEO solution. Thank you for your continued support and trust in Yoast SEO. We can’t wait to see how these updates will help you take your website’s SEO to new heights.

Video SEO 14.8

In other news, we’re also releasing a new version of our Video SEO add-on that comes with some bug fixes. It contains a fix for a few of our users (with large websites) that got a timeout when reindexing. We also fixed a few other bugs that some users with specific situations encountered, so make sure to update if you are a user of Video SEO!

Sneak peek at our upcoming Yoast SEO release…

At the moment we are still dotting the i’s, but we’re working on something awesome in Yoast SEO and are bursting to share it with you! It’s almost ready to go, so keep an eye on our upcoming release post and for now, see what you can make of this short teaser:

The post Yoast SEO 20.13: A few more enhancements appeared first on Yoast.

Meet our latest update, Yoast SEO 20.12. It’s loaded with improvements designed to enhance your SEO efforts and simplify your journey toward better rankings. We owe the growth and evolution of Yoast SEO to your constant support and invaluable feedback. This update will benefit your website optimization efforts as we improve our products.

More improvements in Yoast SEO 20.12

The heart of this Yoast SEO 20.12 lies in fixes and improvements. Our dedicated team has worked hard to fix issues, refine our plugin, and optimize functionalities to ensure a smoother, more efficient user experience.

Reliability is a cornerstone of effective SEO, so we’ve strengthened the stability of our plugin to give you consistent, peak performance. Also, we’ve ironed out issues to ensure your SEO strategy remains intact and your site’s performance soars.

Helping you do SEO

Quality readability analysis ensures your content is available and understandable to your audience. Adhering to recommended reading levels, using clear language, and structuring your content effectively can improve user engagement and lower bounce rates. Remember, Google and other search engines also focus on the user experience when ranking websites, which means good readability is critical for SEO.

Our well-executed SEO analysis helps you to improve your rankings and increase your visibility to organic traffic. By catering to relevant keywords and building high-quality backlinks, you can attract a larger, more targeted audience to your website.

Updating WooCommerce SEO

We’ve also updated our WooCommerce SEO plugin. We’ve made it easier to use, more stable, and with an enhanced user experience. Our team has worked hard to streamline the plugin, incorporating more intuitive controls and cleaner processes to make your SEO optimization as easy as 1-2-3. Moreover, we’ve improved the plugin’s stability, eliminating bugs and ensuring a smooth run for your SEO needs. The user experience is now seamless, with faster response and comfortable navigation, making your tasks more efficient and hassle-free.

Update now to Yoast SEO 20.12

Yoast SEO 20.12 is available to download for all. We appreciate your support and remain committed to continually improving our products to cater to your SEO needs. This update aims to make Yoast SEO not just a tool for your website but the ultimate companion in your online success journey. Try out our latest release and experience the difference.

The post Yoast SEO 20.12: Improvements and fixes appeared first on Yoast.

Building trust and establishing authority has become paramount for most online publishers. As Google strives to deliver the most reliable and high-quality content to users — especially in the age of generative AI, they have emphasized a concept known as E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. E-E-A-T serves as a critical framework to evaluate the credibility and reliability of websites and their content. Improving your E-E-A-T can solidify your position as a trusted authority in your field. Yoast SEO Premium now has a tool to help you work on that.

Yoast SEO Premium helps improve E-E-A-T

Google looks at your site from all angles to help determine its expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. There are so many options for you to point Google to the right places so it can quickly find what it needs to verify all that. For instance, your publishing principles pages provide excellent insights for Google. In today’s release of Yoast SEO Premium, we’ll enhance these pages via structured data.

Publishing principles are guidelines that govern the creation and dissemination of content. They encompass accuracy, integrity, relevance, transparency, engagement, privacy, accessibility, continuous improvement, and legal compliance. Following these principles ensures high-quality, trustworthy content that resonates with users.

Adhering to publishing principles establishes credibility and expertise, improves user satisfaction, and positively impacts SEO by enhancing E-E-A-T.

There’s structured data for that: publishingPrinciples

Yoast SEO Premium has new options to help Google find those all-important pages. We also make sure to add the publishingPrinciples schema to it so it’s instantly recognizable as such for search engines.

Head to the Site basics settings in Yoast SEO and scroll down to the Site policies section. Here, you can find different options for publishing principles, like:

• General publishing principles
• Funding information
• Corrections policy
• Ethics policy
• Diversity policy
• And more…

Select the appropriate pages from the fields, and you are ready. If you don’t have policies, this might be a good time to start writing those!

Update now to Yoast SEO 20.11

In Yoast SEO 20.11, we’ve added a new notification that reminds you to optimize recently added content types. You’ll not only see a notification on your dashboard, but we’ve also added a label to the content types to make them easily recognizable as new.

In Yoast SEO Premium, we’ve added a new option to add your publishing principles to your site. Select them from the options, and we’ll add the proper schema. This makes it easier for Google to find and recognize your essential principles, which helps your E-E-A-T!

The post Yoast SEO 20.11: Publishing principles to improve E-E-A-T appeared first on Yoast.

With the rise of TikTok, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts, it feels like people want nothing but videos. Specifically short videos. So where does that leave blogging? Is it still relevant, or has video taken over the world? 

Will blogs still exist?

It’s impossible to predict the future, but it’s safe to say that blogging isn’t going anywhere. You’ve probably heard that blogs are dead for years now. When YouTube first became a thing, blogging was supposedly done. But it’s not. It’s still here and probably will be for a while.

But blogs have changed. Ten years ago, blogs were like journals. Obviously, they’re not anymore. If you read a business blog, you won’t find what the CEO ate for dinner last night. Nowadays, blogs are more like digital newsletters. They are polished, focused, and viewed as pieces of content in a marketing strategy. And that’s exactly what will happen this time around. Blogs will change. Again.

How will blogging change?

The short answer: in multiple ways. Generative AI will become more popular, which means storytelling will become more important. Blogs will become a tool for someone’s personal brand, so it’ll be harder to make a name for yourself. And finally, blogs will probably transform into digital publishing businesses. 

Let’s go over these in more detail.

Generative AI: Why write it yourself?

Everyone’s talking about it. Or everyone’s asked ChatGPT to talk about it. It’s becoming increasingly harder to tell whether AI or a human wrote content. Of course, there are still tells, but that’s because the technology is still in its early stages. Who knows how quickly it will evolve?

Sure, Google wants to crack down on AI content. But the algorithm they want to build is also still in its infancy, meaning it’ll take awhile before Google can prioritize human-made content. But who’s to say that a post written by AI and modified by people isn’t human-made? It’s a gray area. But one thing’s for sure: it’ll make it easier for people to start blogs.

AI can’t fake human experience

As a response to more generated content, storytelling will become more important. But wait, you might think. People don’t want to read stories. They want to watch videos. Yes, but part of why people prefer video content is because it feels more genuine and authentic. And that’s exactly what you should focus on in your blogs.

By sharing personal stories, experiences, and insights, you can create that sense of authenticity readers crave. It’ll also allow you to build trust and eventually a relationship with your readers. The result? A loyal audience and a successful blog. 

Bonus: You’ll appeal to Google

Sharing personal experiences isn’t just great for your readers. Google likes it too. That’s why they added an extra E to their previously E-A-T system. They stand for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. 

These raters determine whether you provide helpful and relevant content. If the answer is yes, then congrats. Your rankings might increase, so people can more easily find you in the search results. And since we established that people want to watch videos, why not add a few to your posts? If they make your site more relevant and helpful, that’s a win-win. 

It will be harder to make a name for yourself

Creating a blog is easy, but it’s becoming increasingly harder to grow popular. Just look at the numbers. According to Web Tribunal, “there are more than 600 million blogs out of 1.9 billion websites in the world. Their authors account for over 6 million blog posts daily, or over 2.5 billion annually.” This means that around one-third of all current websites are blogs, which is huge!

Years ago, you could write a series of 10 to 15 decent blog posts and rank for their target keywords in many niches. Now, you need to find your specific niche, then publish more and better content. And you can’t forget the visuals (photos, images, infographics, videos). That’s why becoming a successful blogger is increasingly harder when it’s just you. 

Blogs as digital businesses

Most successful blogs (that generate decent income) are actually run by a small team of people. Even if it’s just one person writing the content, they probably work directly and indirectly with web hosts, email marketing platforms, photographers, ad management companies, social media managers, graphic designers, etc. Because doing all the work by yourself and generating a lot of great quality content is nearly impossible. 

Furthermore, you must go where the people are to market your blog. And the people are mostly watching videos. That’s why most blogs also have YouTube channels, post reels on Instagram, launch podcasts, or even produce online courses. Even if your passion is writing, you can’t escape video content.

Is the rise of video such a bad thing?

Not necessarily. It even makes sense, if you ask me. If you’re a reader, consider how to choose your next read. Chances are, you look at the cover (visual), you read the blurb (short and enticing content intended to lure you in), and you might ask the bookseller if it’s any good (authentic content). Or perhaps you look for the little cards that say, “Alex recommends this book!” Again, authenticity. Is that really so different from watching a short reel from a blogger before reading their blog? You tell me. 

The post The future of blogging in a video-obsessed world appeared first on Yoast.

Hey folks, Jono here. I’m writing to you today with mixed emotions as I have some big news to share. After over five years of working with the incredible team at Yoast, I’ve decided it’s time for me to step down as Head of SEO and move on to new adventures.

I want to express my deep gratitude to all of you. Whether you’re a user of our software, a fellow SEO enthusiast, a colleague, or a member of our vibrant community, you’ve made my time at Yoast truly special. I’ve always been passionate about our mission of “SEO for everyone,” and it’s been an absolute joy to work towards this goal with all of you.

I’ve loved every moment of my journey at Yoast. From our deep dives into technical SEO, to exploring emerging technologies, to reacting to Google’s constant changes and updates, it’s been a wild ride.

I’m proud of the work we’ve done – particularly in the field of structured data. We’ve done incredible work in making structured data more accessible and understandable for everyone. I strongly believe that our approach to schema.org has had a significant positive impact on the web. Seeing how our work has helped websites improve their SEO and reach a wider audience has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.

But as much as I’ve loved my time at Yoast, I believe it’s time to explore new horizons. I’m unsure what’s next for me, but I look forward to finding out. It’s safe to say that I’ll still be involved in the world of WordPress and technical SEO consulting and cheering on the Yoast team from the sidelines.

Before I sign off, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone at Yoast. I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the industry’s most talented and dedicated people, and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved together.

So, here’s to the next chapter. I’m excited about what the future holds, and I wish you all well. Remember, SEO is for everyone, and I can’t wait to see how Yoast continues to make the web a better place.

The post Jono Alderson is leaving Yoast appeared first on Yoast.

In SEO, there are on-page factors and off-page factors. On-page SEO factors are aspects of your website that you can optimize for better search rankings. It’s about improving things like your technical set-up, your content, and how user-friendly your site is. In this post, we’ll explain all about on-page SEO and how it differs from off-page SEO, and we’ll talk about some on-page optimizations that can help you to rank better.

On-page and off-page SEO: what’s the difference?

Every SEO strategy is focused on ranking as high as possible in the search engines. To do this, we all try to design and develop a website that Google’s algorithm — and people! — will love. That’s basically what SEO is about. The factors in Google’s algorithm can be divided into two categories that will determine the ranking of your website: on-page factors and off-page factors.

On-page SEO factors all have to do with elements on your website. For instance, things you work on to improve your E-E-A-T also fall in this category. Some of the most important on-page SEO factors are:

• Your site set-up and technical features, site speed in particular
• The quality of your content and use of keywords
• How do you use additional media, such as images and videos
• Your site structure and internal linking
• Structured data and search appearance
• Your URL structure
• User experience

Meanwhile, off-page SEO looks at what happens away from your website. Some off-page SEO factors include:

• Relevant links from other websites leading to your site
• Social media activity
• Business and map listings
• External marketing activities

Pro tip: Find out more about on-page SEO with our front-end SEO inspector! You can use the front-end inspector tool in Yoast SEO Premium to explore the SEO data, metadata and schema output for pages on your site. It’s a great way to get to grips with your on-page SEO.

Importance of on-page SEO

On-page SEO consists of all the elements of SEO that you have control over. If you own a website, you can control the technical issues and the quality of your content. We believe you should be able to tackle all of these factors as they’re in your own hands. Remember: if you create an excellent website, it will start ranking.

Focusing on on-page SEO will also increase the chance that your off-page SEO strategy will be successful. Link building with a crappy site is very tough. Nobody wants to link to poorly written articles or sites that don’t work correctly.

How to optimize on-page SEO factors

1. Make sure search engines can crawl and index your site

If you’re unfamiliar with crawlability and indexing, here’s a quick explanation of what it is and what it has to do with Google. To show your page in the search results, Google must first know about that page. It has to be indexed by Google, meaning that this page has been stored in their index. And for that to be possible, you must ensure you’re not blocking Google from indexing your post or your whole site. So check if you’re not unintentionally doing that (we still see this happening!), and ensure your site is indexed.

Although this isn’t technically a ranking factor, getting your site into the search results requires it, so we thought it should be included here.

2. Invest time in creating quality content based on solid keyword research

Why do you think people visit your site? Most likely because it contains the information they’re looking for. Therefore it’s essential to write excellent content that corresponds with their needs. Search engines like Google also read your text. Which site ranks highest for a specific search term is primarily based on a website’s content. That’s why your content should be informative, easy to read, and focused on the right keywords that your audience uses.

Aside from creating quality content, you must remove or remedy low-quality pages. So-called thin content can harm your SEO. Take time to find these pages and do something with them occasionally to keep your content in good shape.

Learn about writing high-quality content in our Ultimate guide to SEO copywriting, or take our SEO copywriting training course.

3. Improve your site speed

A significant on-page ranking factor is site speed. Users don’t want to wait for pages to load, so Google tends to rank fast-loading sites higher. If you’re unsure how fast (or slow) your site is, check out your Core Web Vital scores using the report in Google Search Console. This helpful tool will point out areas where your site speed can be improved so you know what to work on.

If you’re tech-savvy, you can probably handle this on your own. If you’re unsure where to start, our Technical SEO training can help you.

4. Get your site structure and internal linking right

A good site structure helps Google (and users) understand your site and navigate your content. And when it comes to making that site structure, internal linking is the way to do it. Firstly, you must channel many internal links to your most important content. We call those pages cornerstone content. Secondly, you should tidy up pages that aren’t getting many (if any) internal links. Those pages are what we refer to as orphaned content. It would be best if you decided whether to improve those pages and add more internal links pointing to them or remove them altogether.

Yoast SEO Premium has two SEO workouts to help you improve your site structure and internal linking. Using the workouts can help you to make big improvements quickly, so give them a go!

5. Optimize your use of images and videos

You’ll want to include images on your site to make it attractive, and maybe some videos too. Doing that wrong can harm your SEO, but doing it correctly comes with some SEO benefits.

High-quality images are usually large files that can slow your site down, and that’s a problem. Using smaller image files and giving them descriptive names, captions, and alt tags will favor your SEO. Plus, there are additional benefits. For one, you’ll make your site more accessible, so it’s helpful for a wider audience. And for another thing, you’ll have a chance of your images ranking in the Google Image search results. Read more about these topics in our posts about image SEO and alt tags.

Adding videos to your site is a bit more complicated than images. And ranking your videos on Google (or YouTube) comes with its own set of challenges. We’ve got a great series of posts all about video SEO, if you’d like to learn more about optimizing in this area. There’s also a dedicated Yoast Video SEO plugin, if you’re serious about getting your videos ranking.

6. Create a persuasive search appearance

How your site looks in the search results is vital for SEO. While the search results aren’t part of your site, the things you do to optimize your search appearance are. Therefore, we consider SEO titles, meta descriptions, and structured data part of on-page SEO.

Optimizing the text for your search snippets is fairly straightforward. Adding structured data can be trickier. Good to know: Yoast SEO can help with all these tasks. With checks and previews to help you, getting your SEO titles and meta descriptions right couldn’t be easier. And when it comes to structured data, Yoast does all the hard work for you — all you need to do is select the content type and fill in the blanks.

7. Make your URLs SEO-friendly

A well-crafted URL structure helps your on-page SEO — it’s like giving your web pages a good road map. Think of it as a friendly address that guides search engines and invites users to explore your content. Creating SEO-friendly URLs makes it easier for humans and search engines to understand what your page is all about. Opt for concise and descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords, as they provide a clear signpost. A clean and organized URL structure enhances navigation, making it easier for everyone to understand your website. Don’t forget to keep it short and readable.

8. Design an excellent user experience

The last thing we want to mention is user experience. Simply put, users need to understand your website easily. They should be able to find what they want in a heartbeat. They should know where to click and how to navigate through your site. And your site should be fast! A beautifully designed website is nice, but you should make it your top priority to create a user-friendly website first.

If you want to learn more about combining SEO and UX to get more people to your site, we’d advise you to look at our other articles on user experience. Or check out our all-around SEO training course.

To conclude

We’ve talked about the most important on-page SEO factors. First, ensure that your website works correctly and that your technical SEO is up to par. Secondly, create content that is user-centered and focused on the right keywords. Thirdly, work on the usability and speed of your site to help users and search engines around your website.

As these factors are all a part of your site, you can work on them to ensure your on-page SEO is top-notch! That being said, do remember to also work on your off-page SEO. Although you may not have total control over these factors, you can still put some effort into creating that exposure on other sites too!

Read more: What is off-page SEO? »

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We are excited to present Yoast SEO 20.10, a release dedicated to fine-tuning your website and delivering an even smoother experience for all our fantastic users. This update focuses on fixing bugs and implementing minor enhancements to ensure your SEO journey is flawless. We’ve added a support section that gives you quick access to helpful content, while Premium subscribers can contact our dedicated support team.

A brand-new support section

At Yoast, we deeply value our users and understand the importance of reliable, responsive support. With Yoast SEO 20.10, we’ve made it easier for you to access the help you need, empowering you to optimize your website and achieve outstanding results confidently.

The latest release of Yoast SEO offers a new support page. Here, you’ll find options to get answers to all your burning questions quickly. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced pro, you’ll find a wealth of resources on our site to guide you through the intricacies of SEO optimization.

If you subscribe to Yoast SEO Premium, you’ll find an option to contact our support team instantly. Unlock unlimited 24/7 premium support and take your SEO to new heights by signing up for Yoast SEO Premium now!

Fixes and enhancements

In Yoast SEO 20.10, we’ve squashed numerous bugs that might have been causing a few hiccups along the way. Building stable foundations is crucial for your success, and we’re committed to providing you with a top-notch, bug-free experience. Of course, we’ve also added some interesting enhancements to our product.

For instance, we’ve expanded the list of HTML elements excluded from the content analysis to ensure these don’t influence the scores. In addition, we’ve introduced more robust HTML processing for the competing links, keyphrase in introduction, image keyphrase, and images assessments. Lastly, you can find a new option in the crawl optimization settings. This new one lets you block AdsBot crawling when enabled.

Update now to Yoast SEO 20.10

Upgrade to Yoast SEO 20.10 today and experience the updated stability and fine-tuned enhancements. We appreciate your feedback, and we’re confident that this release will bring you peace of mind and increased optimization capabilities. Let’s take your SEO goals to new heights together as we continue to refine and perfect Yoast SEO.

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Time to release Yoast SEO 20.9! In this release, we’ve added a new option for the Wincher integration, plus the regular round of enhancements, improvements, and fixes.

Enhancing the Wincher rank tracking integration

A while ago, Yoast SEO and Wincher joined hands to allow you to track your website’s ranking status in Google straight from the plugin. Wincher is a third-party tool that offers advanced rank tracking, in-depth keyword analysis, and other features that can help improve your website’s visibility in search engines.

The Wincher integration in Yoast SEO provides an easy way to track how your content is performing right from the post editor. You get critical ranking data in one place, which helps you monitor your website’s performance. On Wincher’s website, you’ll get many extra options to go in-depth with your data. You can also find great opportunities for untapped keywords!

In Yoast SEO 20.9, we’ve added a Wincher widget to the dashboard. This shows your top keywords added to Wincher via Yoast SEO. It also doubles as a connection button, so if you haven’t connected to your Wincher account, yet, you can from this widget.

Improvements in Yoast SEO 20.9

In the Crawl optimization settings, you’ll find a new pattern to help you prevent crawling from internal search results. We’ve added the line "/page/*/?s=" to the robots.txt. The asterisk * represents any numeric value, while ?s= is most websites’ typical query parameter to identify internal search URLs.

This addition will help improve websites’ crawlability by ensuring search engines do not index unnecessary pages, such as internal search result pages. This can help consolidate the website’s crawl budget, declutter the search results, and improve the website’s overall SEO performance.

Background indexing

Our latest update introduces scheduled indexing that creates the necessary database structure without requiring you to click on the SEO optimization button in Yoast SEO. With this feature, even websites not optimized previously will slowly receive automatic optimization of their databases. This process will be done gradually in chunks to ensure a smooth experience. Indexing might take some time for larger sites, but the scheduled indexation feature ensures that websites are continually optimized without user intervention.

Update now to Yoast SEO 20.9!

Yoast SEO 20.9 is out today, so download the latest update of your favorite SEO plugin. In this release, we expanded the possibilities of the Wincher integration. In addition, we did some regular bug fixes and made some enhancements to our database system.

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