Yoast SEO features and benefits

Optimize for keywords, keyphrases, synonyms, related keywords, and all word forms of those

In Yoast SEO you can enter the keyword or keyphrase you’d like your post or page to rank for in the search results. We then run a check on your content to check whether you’re using the keywords often enough – but not too often – and in the right spots. In Yoast SEO Premium, we take this one major step further. We will not only check for the keyword or keyphrase you enter, but we will analyze your text on all variations of that word or phrase.

If the keyphrase is “room decorating ideas” and the synonym is “apartment decorating ideas” all the possible word forms of each word are taken into account: ‘apartments’, ‘rooms’, ‘room’s’, ‘decorate’, ‘decorates’, ‘decorated’, ‘idea’, etc. This way, you are truly optimizing your text. With this addition in Yoast SEO Premium, we can guarantee that no other WordPress plugin comes closer to how Google will see your text!

Optimize for related keywords as well

In the free version, you can only set 1 focus keyword or keyphrase. That means you’ll have to choose what exactly to optimize for. In Yoast SEO Premium, you have the option to add more related keywords. This means, that when you want to optimize for “pen”, you can also optimize for “paper” in the same text. You will be able to reach a broader audience because of it.

Find high-performing keywords right in Yoast SEO

Use the Semrush tool in Yoast SEO to find data about your keyphrases. Boost the relevance of your content by optimizing for related keywords people actually use. If you have Yoast SEO Premium, you’ll unlock the possibility to add these related keyphrases immediately, so that you can optimize for those as well.

Full access to all Yoast SEO academy courses

Learn how SEO works by following the online, on-demand SEO courses by Yoast SEO academy. Choose from an extensive list of courses that range from beginners courses to a more advanced level. Learn about SEO copywriting, technical SEO, local SEO, and so much more! It’s the ultimate recipe to becoming an SEO expert yourself.

Internal linking suggestions

Internal linking is extremely important because it helps search engines to understand your site structure. But adding links by hand is slow, tedious, and downright annoying. With the internal linking feature in Yoast SEO Premium, that’s a thing of the past. This feature analyzes your text and suggests links to related posts – as you write. Taking all the hassle out of internal linking!

Tell Google exactly what your page is about

By adding structured data to your pages in a new and innovative way, Yoast SEO is able to improve how Google, Pinterest, and other platforms understand what your page is about. With Yoast SEO, you are now able to tell Google that your WebPage is an Article made by an Organization, and other combinations like that. This is the most convenient way for search engines to retrieve that information, and at this moment, Yoast is the only product or plugin offering this information this way! Others just tell Google it’s a webpage, an article, and that there’s a brand, without connecting it all together. This leaves a lot for Google to figure out itself. Only we tell the full story.

If your website is about yourself (a Person), we’ll tell Google all the details you want Google to know, and also add your social profiles and more via that same schema.org data. This will definitely enhance your personal Knowledge Panel in Google and show these social profiles there as well, increasing your click-through chances due to that complete profile. This unique way of adding schema to your website will also connect with the schema.org data in our Local, Video or WooCommerce plugins, to make it all stunningly effective!

Preview of your page in Google

Thanks to the snippet editor, you can see through the eyes of the Google user: what will your post or page look like in the search results? And on mobile screens? Would you click a link like that? In the free version, you can only preview your link in Google, not in Facebook or Twitter.

Improve the readability of your posts and pages

Online readers don’t read – they scan. Just like you are probably doing right now. So you should write short sentences, add subheadings and use connecting words. Do you think that’s a lot harder than it sounds? 

No worries. Yoast SEO will tell you exactly what to do, based on scientific research on readability, such as the Flesch Reading Ease score.

Internal linking blocks

Having a clear site structure and proper internal links is crucial for your site’s usability, findability, and leads to a better understanding of your site by Google. The Yoast Internal linking blocks make internal linking easy as ABC. By using the different smart Internal Linking blocks, you’ll be able to create a (hierarchical) structure in no time! Use the Subpages block to show the underlying pages of a page, the Siblings block to show the siblings of a page and the Related links block to add all the links Yoast SEO Premium suggests to your post.

Full control over your breadcrumbs

Your breadcrumb can get messy because of several reasons. Some posts may be listed in several categories and appear with different breadcrumbs, for example. With Yoast SEO you can set a primary category for your post, and determine the taxonomy for every single page on your WordPress website.

 Avoid confusing Google by using canonicals

Your website can show the same content on various URLs, which might confuse Google: this is called a duplicate content issue. Yoast SEO solves this by letting you indicate one URL as the original one – what techies like to call a canonical link. That way, Yoast SEO makes sure that your content is always found under the URL you want it to be found under. Simple.

Gain insight into your content

The Insights functionality lists the 5 words or word combinations that appear most often on your page. That way, you can check if the topics and keywords you’d like to rank for in Google, Bing and Yahoo are in line with what you’re actually writing about. This is a Premium feature. In the free version, you’ll have to do your own content analysis, we’re afraid. 

Always updated for Google’s algorithm

You might have heard about Google Panda and Google Penguin – two major updates to Google’s search algorithm. Google also makes minor changes to its algorithm 500-600 times a year. We update the Yoast SEO plugin every 2 weeks. That way you’re sure that your website is optimized for Google’s most recent version of its algorithm.