Local Buzz Marketing writes:
Yoast SEO is a very popular WordPress plugin used to help make your site as search engine-friendly as possible. It provides useful analysis that allows you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of particular types of content – whether you are managing a blog or a website, Yoast SEO can be an incredibly useful tool for you to use to improve your ranking.
Let’s just focus on the blogging part of WordPress, for now, and let’s discuss the important requirements Yoast wants you to include during your content creation, and exactly how you can do so to improve its SEO.
Blogging in SEO
Although content creation and SEO are two completely different elements of Digital Marketing, they go together perfectly. Furthermore, blogging can essentially be a business’ secret weapon for successful search engine optimisation, if done correctly, because it fulfils it’s demands – SEO demands content, blogging provides exactly that, and Yoast SEO acts as a guide to help you achieve effective content.
Here are 10 important factors of a blog that Yoast looks to successfully optimise an SEO article.
1. Focus Keyword
When creating an article, there is a plugin option which is vital for the Yoast SEO analysis, known as the “focus keyword”. Here at Local Buzz Marketing, we rely on this bad boy a lot to help us optimise our articles at the best of our ability. The focus keyword is a plugin consisting of a word or phrase (of your choice) that is supposedly the main topic of your blog. Adding the keyword allows Yoast to evaluate the content and all of its elements to generate an accurate analysis of how well you have used that keyword or phrase in your work. Additionally, the analysis presents comments based on mainly:
- The keyword density (how often the keyword is mentioned in the text).
- Whether it appears in the first paragraph of the text.
- How many times you have used this keyword in past articles (if you have).
- Whether you have mentioned the keyword in any subheadings, alt tags, URLs or titles etc.
As a result of this, ensure you choose an appropriate keyword that is suitable to the text and will provide value to the website and its SEO. Remember the purpose and potential of a focus keyword, and combine that with the topic of your text and boom, you have yourself a focus keyword of your own.
2. SEO Titles
With WordPress, there are two titles per article – the page title and the SEO title. The page title is the title that is presented on the page of the blog, where the focus keyword isn’t entirely necessary, whereas the SEO title is the title that will be presented on search engine’s, where the focus keyword is vital to be. Failure to do so, Yoast will pick this up and comment on the fact that the focus keyword hasn’t been mentioned in either title, especially the SEO one. I mean, it’s pretty obvious which title needs the focus keyword is in, and the simple task of adding in the keyword can be very impacting on the optimisation of your blog. Therefore, make Yoast happy and add it in the best way that you can.
3. The Amount of Text
Yoast SEO is very picky about the minimum amount of words you include in your blog. For instance, with WordPress, the recommended minimum amount of words for an efficient blog is 300 words. Google likes long articles, so Yoast will too, but make sure they aren’t too long as the spiders might get confused and find it hard to read. Long articles also mean you need to increase the number of times your focus keyword is used because keyword density is measured as a percentage. Using your keyword too many times can make the article look spammy to the audience, which isn’t ideal when the purpose is to impress them.
As a result of this, find a topic that is easy to write about, meet the recommended minimum and you will be on your way to a happy Yoast analysis.
4. Images
Not only are images another secret source for your website, but they are also another place you can add your focus keyword. Yoast loves images! If you haven’t included one, it will definitely pick up on it and make sure you label it with your keyword. Images are highly useful and important, whether you have Yoast or not, so make sure you include it into your content.
5. Subheadings
Subheadings are very important when creating blogs because they are used to separate the mini-topics in your text and overall create a general structure. If you don’t include subheadings into your text, your blog can look pretty boring to your audiences, making it more likely that they will return back to the search engine results page, so we would definitely recommend including them. Yoast SEO will pick up on any absent subheadings and will mention it in the analysis, as well as the fact that you haven’t included the focus keyword in any subheading, either!
6. Meta Description
When you pick up an interesting book, you probably turn the book over and look at the blurb to see what it is about? If it sounds good, it intrigues you making you want to read the book and make the purchase. The same goes with a meta description – you can find them on search engines just below the title, and it usually contains information about the link you are about to click on to. Essentially, it is the webpage’s ‘blurb’. In order to have a successful, Yoast-SEO-friendly meta description, you need to write text that includes the focus keyword and is an exceptional length. Underneath the input field, there is a bar, and once that bar turns green, you have added enough information.
7. Internal Links
Did you know you have the ability to link URLs to words or phrases to the copy of your content? Google finds your posts and pages easiest when they are linked to and from somewhere else on the web. This can be on a social media platform, another website or even your own! There are two types of linking; internal and external. Internal linking is the process of connecting your own website and pages to another one of your pages. In terms of blogging, for example, you can link it back to your own homepage using your company name, like so; Local Buzz Marketing! By internal linking, you are giving Google an idea of the structure of your website and earning yourself another green comment from Yoast SEO.
8. External Links
On the other hand, external links are URLs that are from another domain than the one you are linking from. An example of this would be linking your Facebook page to a word or phrase on your blog! It’s so easy to do and it can help build trusty relationships with other businesses. Yoast SEO will mention if you don’t include an external link in your content, whether it’s in the copy, in a heading or even on an image alt tag. Links overall are just an important rank factor, whether they are internal or external.
9. Slug
What is a slug, you ask? The slug is the section of a URL which represents a webpage’s identity. In other words, it is the customisable and attractive part of the URL, usually. In WordPress, you have the ability to write your own slug, and Yoast gives you the perfect chance to use it for extra optimisation. So, by adding your focus keyword or phrase in a slug, it benefits your SEO as it presents your audience with a neat and healthy-looking URL such as “www.localbuzzmarketing.co.uk/blog” rather than “www.localbuzzmarketing.co.uk/?P=345872″ (not a real link, just an example).
10. Paragraphs
The final thing we are going to touch up on is the readability of your content. Sure, the other 9 points have simply been about the factors included in your copy, but what is also often overlooked is the structure of your page. Therefore, including paragraphs in your text will make not only Yoast happy but your audience too! – Yoast offers a free Readability analysis that comments on the structure, length and quality of your sentences, words, and paragraphs. Doing this efficiently will give you the green light from Yoast, and will make your article overall a lot more readable and separated for your audience.
Here at Local Buzz Marketing, we have wide expertise in Digital Marketing, especially SEO. For all enquiries, get in contact with us today so we can help you!
Thanks for reading.