Effective search engine optimization (SEO) is the cornerstone of a successful online presence, and the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress has long been a trusted tool in the arsenal of website owners and e-commerce shop managers. When it comes to optimizing your site’s SEO, it’s not about how many features you enable, but rather, it’s about using the right settings to enhance your site’s visibility and performance. In this in-depth guide, we will delve into the best Yoast SEO settings and practices for both websites and e-commerce shops, with a primary focus on the philosophy of enabling only what you need. While each website is unique and may require customized settings, we will provide you with valuable suggestions and insights to fine-tune your SEO strategy.
General Settings:
Site Features:
In this section, you will decide which aspects of Yoast SEO you want to activate. While it’s tempting to enable everything, consider your specific needs. For instance, if you don’t use breadcrumbs, XML sitemaps, or the text link counter, it’s best to disable them to reduce unnecessary clutter.
We suggest turning everything off unless you exclusively need it! That means turning all helpers and services Yoast has to offer:
We specifically chose to leave enabled the REST API, the XML Sitemaps, the Open Graph Data and the Twitter card meta. Those are the only features that are crucial for your rankings. We have also enabled Slack sharing, but if your website has nothing to do with the Business Industry, you don’t have to enable it. (For example if you sell lash extensions, chances are your site will not be shared on Slack).
Site Basics:
These settings allow you to define your website’s title separator, which appears in search results. The default separator usually works well, but you can customize it to align with your brand’s style. You can add whatever you like here, just pay attention to 2 things: Firstly, keep it short and simple, and secondly, make sure you follow the suggestions about the image sizes and dimensions. The plugin may accept smaller images but that doesn’t mean that Google likes those images also.
Site Representation:
Here, you can specify how your website should appear when shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Crafting an appealing preview can improve click-through rates when your content is shared. Same as above, add whatever you like while keeping it and make sure you follow the instructions for the image size.
Site Connections:
Make it easy for search engines to understand your site structure by configuring the settings in this section. Choose whether you want to redirect media attachment URLs and enable the “Subpages of archives” feature if your site uses archives heavily.
You can leave those field empty as it’s preferred to keep all your verifications together and outside of specific plugins. After all, if you change on Rank Math in the future, you don’t want your site connections to break!
Content Types:
Homepage:
Customize how your homepage appears in search results. Yoast SEO offers templates for the homepage title and meta description, allowing you to craft an enticing snippet that encourages clicks. You can fill those info up but they will be overridden by the settings in the Page Settings of the Homepage. Same applies to the posts below.
Posts, Pages, and Products:
Tailor the templates for these content types to ensure consistency in your SEO strategy. Consider adding variables like the post title, separator, and site name to create compelling and informative snippets for each content type. As the Homepage settings, they will be overridden by specific Page Settings.
Categories and Tags:
Categories:
Optimize the way category pages are displayed in search results. Yoast SEO provides template variables for titles and meta descriptions, allowing you to dynamically generate snippets based on the category’s name and parent category.
Product Categories:
If you run an e-commerce shop, focus on optimizing your product category pages. Use templates to generate titles and meta descriptions that highlight the relevance and uniqueness of each product category.
Product Tags and Tags:
Similar to product categories, product tags can benefit from custom templates. Craft engaging snippets that entice users to explore products related to specific tags. Plain “Tags” refer to non-product-related tags, create templates that provide value to users and improve the click-through rate from search results.
Shipping Classes:
If you have a WooCommerce store, it is preferred to hide specific shipping pages from search engine results.
Advanced:
Crawl Optimization:
In this section, you can make your website more efficient by removing WordPress features. Like the site connections section, it is better to implement all those outside of Yoast, in order to manage them better and keep them consistent (and enabled) no matter the status of Yoast at a given time.
Archives Types:
Optimize how date-based archives, author archives, and special pages like 404 error pages appear in search results. Tailor the templates to ensure they provide valuable information to users and improve your site’s click-through rates, while at the same time you make sure you hide archives that are not meant to be seen (or may lower your site’s rankings in the search engines due to limited content).
Optimize settings for your Yoast installation!
Remember, SEO is a dynamic field, and what works for one website may not be suitable for another. These suggestions serve as a starting point to help you configure Yoast SEO effectively. Regularly monitor your site’s performance and adjust your settings to align with your evolving SEO strategy. By enabling only what you need and crafting custom templates for your content types, categories, and tags, you can maximize your site’s visibility and drive more organic traffic.