Yoast SEO

Have you heard a lot about Yoast SEO, but not sure where to start? Here is some general information to help get you started!

Yoast SEO

Keep in mind that from an SEO perspective, Google is only looking at your content, and Yoast itself doesn't actually affect your site's SEO. It can be helpful for inputting meta titles/descriptions and can act as a quick spot check, but take what Yoast says with a grain of salt. 

One thing to keep in mind is that the "Focus Keyword" section in Yoast does NOT actually affect your site's SEO at all. Yoast just uses the keyword that you input for its checklist that it uses to score your content. Google does not see this.

The free version of Yoast only allows you to input one focus keyword. However, one page can actually rank for many keywords related to a single topic. It is best to try to pick 2-3 keywords per page that we optimize the content around, but Google will naturally rank your site for many other semantically related keywords without intentionally including them on the site.  

Meta Descriptions

These influence how your page appears in the search engines results page.  The sweet spot is typically around 160-180 characters, but it varies case by case. Sometimes Google will only show 100, sometimes they'll show 200 or more. The purpose of the meta descriptions is the sell the value of your page so that users will click on the result. One thing to note is that the meta description is not a direct ranking factor in Google. It CAN indirectly affect your rankings because having a good description can help improve your organic click through rate in the search engine results page. 

If you are adding new pages to your site you should consider targeting relevant keywords throughout your content, meta titles and descriptions. One thing to keep in mind is that every page should have a unique focus. You should try to avoid targeting the exact same keyword on multiple pages, so you'll likely need to do some more keyword research for newer pages. 

Big thank you to our SEO Advisor, Dan for this information!

**If you are unsure of what SEO information to use, Haley Marketing provides SEO services, including Keyword Research.  Contact the Haley Marketing support team for pricing at success@haleymarketing.com.