SEO and Content Optimisation
Yoast SEO Optimisation
On-Page SEO Done Properly
Yoast SEO is the WordPress plugin that controls how search engines read and interpret your pages. Most sites have Yoast installed but configured incorrectly, leaving technical SEO gains untouched. When configured and used correctly, Yoast ensures every page you publish is structured to rank, to be understood by Google, and to earn the click when it does appear in search results.
Expert Strategies
10 Strategies for Yoast SEO That Actually Move the Needle
These are not beginner tips. These are the strategies that separate accounts generating average results from those generating exceptional ones.
01
Configure your site’s title separator and company information first
Yoast’s global settings determine how your site name, tagline, and structured data appear across every page. Setting the correct separator character, company name, and logo before doing any per-page optimisation ensures your site identity is communicated consistently to both search engines and social platforms.
02
Set a focus keyphrase that matches actual search intent
The focus keyphrase in Yoast should be the exact phrase your target reader would type into Google to find this specific page. Research this in Ahrefs or Google Search Console before writing. A keyphrase chosen based on what you want to rank for rather than what people actually search is the root cause of most on-page SEO failure.
03
Write meta descriptions that earn the click, not just include the keyword
Yoast flags missing meta descriptions, but most teams then write descriptions that simply restate the page title. A meta description is an advertisement for your page in the search results. It should identify the reader’s problem, hint at your solution, and give them a clear reason to click your result over the others on the page.
04
Use Yoast’s Schema tab to add the right structured data
Schema markup tells Google explicitly what type of content is on your page: article, product, FAQ, how-to, event, or local business. Yoast handles the technical implementation, but you need to select the correct content type and fill in the relevant fields. Pages with proper schema consistently earn rich results that improve click-through rates.
05
Fix the readability score alongside the SEO score
Yoast’s readability analysis checks sentence length, passive voice, transition words, and paragraph structure. These factors affect not just user experience but Google’s ability to understand and summarise your content. Pages that score green on both readability and SEO consistently outperform those that only optimise for keywords.
06
Manage your XML sitemap to include only indexable pages
Yoast generates an XML sitemap automatically, but the default settings often include tag archives, author pages, and other low-value pages that dilute crawl budget. Configure Yoast to exclude these from the sitemap so Google’s crawlers spend their time on your commercially important pages.
07
Set canonical URLs correctly for paginated and filtered content
Ecommerce sites and content archives generate dozens of near-duplicate URLs through filtering, sorting, and pagination. Yoast’s canonical URL settings tell Google which version of a page is the primary one, preventing the duplicate content issues that split ranking signals across multiple URL variants.
08
Use the redirect manager to fix broken internal links after restructuring
Yoast Premium includes a redirect manager that automatically creates redirects when you change a page’s slug. Without this, internal and external links pointing to the old URL return 404 errors, which destroys the link equity that had accumulated for that page.
09
Audit your site’s crawlability using Yoast’s indexability analysis
Yoast identifies pages marked as no-index, pages with robots.txt blocks, and pages with canonical tags pointing elsewhere. A quarterly crawl using Yoast alongside a tool like Screaming Frog surfaces pages that should be indexed but are not, which is a common hidden reason for underperforming organic traffic.
10
Optimise Open Graph and Twitter card settings for social sharing
Yoast controls the image, title, and description that appear when your pages are shared on social platforms. Setting a custom Open Graph image for each page dramatically improves engagement when content is shared, because the auto-generated image from the page is rarely as compelling as a purpose-built social card.
How We Use It
How EmergingAds Uses Yoast SEO for Clients
We configure Yoast SEO as part of every WordPress website build and SEO engagement. Our setup process covers global configuration, per-template defaults, schema setup for the client’s content types, and a page-by-page audit of their top 20 commercially important pages to ensure focus keyphrases, meta descriptions, and structured data are all correctly implemented.
Related Tools
Tools That Work With Yoast SEO
FAQ
Yoast SEO Questions Answered
Both are excellent plugins. Yoast has a longer track record and is more familiar to most WordPress users. Rank Math offers more features on the free plan and a slightly cleaner interface. Either works well when used correctly. The plugin matters less than the quality of the optimisation decisions made within it.
No tool guarantees rankings. Yoast ensures your on-page technical SEO is correctly implemented, which is one of several factors Google uses to rank pages. On-page optimisation combined with quality content, page speed, mobile usability, and authoritative backlinks produces rankings. Yoast handles the on-page layer.
Global configuration takes a few hours. Per-page optimisation of a full site depends on the number of pages. We typically spend 15 to 30 minutes per commercially important page on focus keyphrase research, meta description writing, schema setup, and content review against the Yoast checklist.
The free version of Yoast adds minimal load. The Premium version with all features enabled can add marginal load time, but this is negligible compared to other common WordPress performance issues like unoptimised images or poorly coded themes. Yoast should not be a meaningful factor in Core Web Vitals scores.
Yes. Yoast integrates with Elementor, Divi, and other major page builders. The Yoast meta box appears in the WordPress editor regardless of which builder you use to create the page content. Schema and Open Graph settings apply to all pages regardless of how they are built.
Ready to Get Yoast SEO Working Properly?
Book a free strategy call. We audit your current setup, identify what is broken or missing, and show you exactly what a properly configured Yoast SEO implementation would generate for your business.