Yoast SEO Setup Guide

Overview guide to Yoast SEO setup for a Wordpress website.

1. Yonat SEO Consultant

HERE IS THE COMPLETE GUIDE T O
SETTING UP THE YOAST SEO PLUGIN ON
YOUR WORDPRESS SITE.
CONTENTS
Installation Wizard......................................................................................................................................... 2
Welcome ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Environment .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Site Type .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Company or Person ................................................................................................................................... 4
Social Profiles ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Search Engine Visibility .............................................................................................................................. 5
Multiple Authors ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Authorize Google Search Console ............................................................................................................. 6
Title Settings .............................................................................................................................................. 6
WebSite Name....................................................................................................................................... 6
Separator ............................................................................................................................................... 7
General .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Features .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Webmaster Tools ...................................................................................................................................... 8
Google ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Bing........................................................................................................................................................ 8
Search Appearance.................................................................................................................................... 9
General .................................................................................................................................................. 9
Title Separator ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Knowledge Graph ................................................................................................................................ 10
Company/person ................................................................................................................................. 10
Name ................................................................................................................................................... 10
Content Type ....................................................................................................................................... 10

2. Yonat SEO Consultant
Post/Page ............................................................................................................................................ 10
SEO Title .............................................................................................................................................. 11
Media .................................................................................................................................................. 11
Taxonomies ......................................................................................................................................... 11
Categories ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Tags ..................................................................................................................................................... 12
Category URLs ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Archives ............................................................................................................................................... 13
Date Archives ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Special Pages ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Breadcrumbs ....................................................................................................................................... 13
Search Console ........................................................................................................................................ 14
Social Profiles .......................................................................................................................................... 14
Tools ........................................................................................................................................................ 14

INSTALLATION WIZARD
After downloading the Yoast SEO plugin, begin by clicking on the Installation Wizard.

WELCOME
Choose “Configure YOAST SEO”

3. Yonat SEO Consultant

ENVIRONMENT
In the Installation Wizard, on the Environment tab, you have two options;
• If your site is live and you are ready to apply optimized SEO and have your website indexed on
search engines like Google, choose Option A.
• If your site is not live and not ready to be live, choose Option B.


SITE TYPE
Depending on what your website’s organization is, choose the appropriate type on this tab. For example,
if it’s a Corporation, choose “Corporation”.

4. Yonat SEO Consultant

COMPANY OR PERSON
This tab is for letting the search engines know if the website represents an individual or a company,
choose appropriate type. If company, upload logo image here.

5. Yonat SEO Consultant
SOCIAL PROFILES
List your social profiles on this tab, for your business Facebook page, Instagram account, etc.

SEARCH ENGINE VISIBILITY
These options tell search engines to index and list your website, so unless you have a specific reason to
block any, choose YES for all of these. Pages you may want to block include Thank you pages, for example.

MULTIPLE AUTHORS

6. Yonat SEO Consultant
There is no longer any positive reasons to list multiple authors, and it may even cause duplicate content
issues, so choose NO for this.

AUTHORIZE GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
You want to track your website on the Google Search Console (previously known as Webmaster Tools).
Click on the “Authenticate with Google” link and follow the steps to complete this setup.

TITLE SETTINGS
This is crucial for SEO optimization. This tab will help set the stage for optimal search engine results for
your web pages. They can be manually overruled on a page-specific level if needed.
WEBSITE NAME
Enter your site name here

7. Yonat SEO Consultant

SEPARATOR
My preferred separator is | as it is clean and takes minimal pixel width.


CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE NOW COMPLETED THE
INSTALLATION WIZARD STEPS FOR SETTING UP SEO ON YOUR
WORDPRESS SITE.
CONTINUE FOR ADDITIONAL SETUP STEPS ON THE YOAST SEO PLUGIN.
GENERAL
You will now begin SEO setup on the General tab of the Yoast SEO plugin

FEATURES
Unless you have a specific site-unique reason no to, choose YES for everything on this tab.

8. Yonat SEO Consultant

WEBMASTER TOOLS
As mentioned before, Google Search Console used to be known as Webmaster Tools. In the Yoast plugin
it is still called this on this tab, and it also refers to Bing and other search engine’s webmaster tools.

GOOGLE
If you didn’t set this up during the installation wizard, follow these steps now:
• In new tab, go to Google Webmaster Tools
o Sign in
o Enter website URL – click “Add Property”
• Go back to Yoast tab, click “Google Search Console” blue link under “Google verification code”
• Copy HTML Tag code from Webmaster tools/Search Console
• Verify in Search Console

BING

9. Yonat SEO Consultant
Setting up the Bing webmaster tools is straightforward and worthwhile. Follow these steps:
• Click blue link “Bing Webmaster Tools”
• New tab, Sign Up (if new)
• Add URL website
• Yoast tab, paste in meta name verification code
• Bing tab – click “Verify”




SEARCH APPEARANCE
This tab sets the site-wide meta data and SEO themes for your website. These can be manually overruled
on a page/post basis if need be.

GENERAL
Some of this may be set rom the Wizard Installation steps, complete the setup now.

TITLE SEPARATOR
My preferred separator is |

10. Yonat SEO Consultant

KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
Choose if your website represents a person or a company
COMPANY/PERSON
If your website represents a company, enter Company Name and a link to the Company logo or upload
image.
NAME
If your site represents a person, enter the person’s name here.

CONTENT TYPE
For posts and pages, choose the following content types:

POST/PAGE
“Show Posts/Pages in search results?” Toggle Yes if your site is ready to be indexed on search engines.
Choose No for Snippet Preview and Yes for Yoast SEO Meta Box.

11. Yonat SEO Consultant

SEO TITLE
Choose the following labels for pages and posts:
Title, separator, Site Name

MEDIA

Redirect attachment URLS – Toggle YES

TAXONOMIES

12. Yonat SEO Consultant

This section helps clarify site structure for the search engines.
CATEGORIES
• Show Categories in search results? – choose YES

• SEO Title – Term Title, Separator, Site Title

• Yoast SEO Meta Bos – Toggle Show






TAGS
• Show Tags in search results? – choose NO


CATEGORY URLS
• Remove the categories prefix– Toggle Keep

13. Yonat SEO Consultant

ARCHIVES

Author archives – Toggle Disabled

DATE ARCHIVES
Date archives – Toggle Disabled

SPECIAL PAGES
Search pages – You searched for Search phrase, separator, Site Title
404 pages - Page not found Separator, Site Title

BREADCRUMBS

14. Yonat SEO Consultant

This is personal choice. You can activate the breadcrumbs or keep it disabled.
SEARCH CONSOLE
This tab should be complete by now, if not, follow these steps in the guide above.
SOCIAL PROFILES
This tab should be complete by now, if not, follow these steps in the guide above.
TOOLS

This is an excellent opportunity to expedite yoast setup for your other website. Once everything above is
set up, export settings here for similar site.