This is a quick video walk through on how to install and setup the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPRess.

Transcription:

If you’re looking to add the SEO plugin Yoast to your WordPress website, you’ve found the perfect video blog.

Hi there, Internet fans. Ryan Perry here, Simple Biz Support. Today I’m going to show you easy it is to install the Yoast SEO plugin. Let’s go ahead and jump on the computer and I’ll show you exactly how to set it up. If you’re installing Yoast for the very first time, you won’t actually land on the dashboard like I am here, it’s going to take you right into the 10-step setup process. However, if you already have Yoast installed, and you want to double check, all you need to do is click on the plugin over here on the left-hand side called SEO. The second tab over is the general tab. You want to go ahead and click on that, and look for the open configuration wizard. This is going to actually take us through the 10 steps. And if you are installing Yoast for the very first time, this is where you’re going to start. And it starts off with, would you like to sign up for their newsletter? For me, I’ve already done so, so I’m going to go ahead and click next, and go to number two.

Here is the environment. This is important because if it’s a production site, that means it’s going to be open and indexable by Google. If you’re in developments, or staging, it’s actually going to block Google from indexing the site. There’s really no need for Google to be looking at a site typically while it’s in development. I’m assuming most of you are working on LiveSite, so production will be just fine. Click next. Number three’s pretty easy. What type of website are you? A blog, a webshop, news site, small business. I assume most of you are going to be small business. Go ahead and click the appropriate one, and then click next, which will take you to number four. See how easy this is? You just kinda step through the process. Next question. Are you a company or a person? And upload your logo. Click next.

Here on step five is where you’re going to link all of your relevant social media accounts. All you need to do is just fill in the information and click next. Here’s where things can get a little tricky for some people if you’re not familiar what the different meanings are. The nice thing about the plugin, it’s already set up by Yoast pretty much out of the box, so I leave all of these settings on the default settings. If you have additional knowledge, you want to make some tweaks, feel free to do so. Click next. Step eight may require some additional work if you do not have Google Search Console already set up. If you do not, you’ll need to go ahead and set that account up. I’ll include a link down in the description so you know where to go. To complete step eight, you will need to actually be logged into the Search Console account that’s associated with the website so that Yoast can link the accounts together. Once you’re done, click next, and you’re almost finished.

Title settings is one of the places I wish we had some flexibility. What Yoast is asking you for is the website name and then a title separator. And what the title separator for is that when you post a blog, and let’s say you’re going to create a new blog post, The Five Best Ways to Wake Up in the Morning, what you’re telling Yoast here is that, after that title I’m going to put a hyphen and then put the website name SBS. So it’s going to say, Five Best Things to Waking Up in the Morning-SBS. Every time you create a new blog, this is always going to be there. I’ve tried deleting this so it’s blank, and it doesn’t do that. It always wants something. Why I don’t like this personally is the fact that every time I create a blog, it always has, for this client, it’s going to have a hyphen SBS. I don’t like to clutter the title that way. I like a nice, clean title. I don’t like it when people include their business. It’s a personal thing.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the option. Yoast has made this so simple and so easy, this 10-step process, that I don’t know a workaround on this. If you do know one, I would love to hear in the comments below. But go ahead, put a website name in, grab the title separator that you want, click next, because at this point, you are done. And again, they’re going to ask you to sign up for the newsletter. We’re going to pass because we’ve already signed up. Click close, and that’s it. You are back to your website. Back on the plugin, you’ll notice that there are some additional tabs with information. All the important information has already been filled out in that 10-step process. I leave everything else to the default settings. If you have a reason to make a change, just make sure you know why you’re doing it. Otherwise, just leave it on the default settings.

It is that simple to install the SEO plugin by Yoast. If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.