SEO Training for the Yoast Plugin
I am going to attempt to explain some IMPORTANT SEO strategies via this post. Please, please, please… if you need one on one training we can definitely schedule some time to meet up!!!
This will be important enough for you to know if you own a site already too! VERY BENEFICIAL for you!!!
SEO is the way each post is optimized for organic search traffic. This means, we won’t rely on Facebook, Pinterest or any other social media platform at all.
It simple means that traffic will come directly from search.
I have a plugin installed on my site to help us and guide us in learning this SEO process and believe me, its a job! It’s called WordPress SEO by Yoast and it’s found just under the post details on WordPress. (I’m a visual learner so forgive me for putting all kinds of screenshots in here)
I wrote a post today about the Ulta Printable coupon that is out. http://www.isavea2z.com/ulta-printable-coupon/
I could have just titled my post Ulta sale or Ulta Deal but I just know people would search ulta printable coupon instead. (there’s a tool that helped me with this too. I will explain this more below)
I started off my post just talking about the coupon. My post was about 100 words or less. I was just about to publish my post but I hit the SEO button found just above the publish button and checked my work. I encourage you to check your work too! If the button is red. The post is useless (unless of course you want to work hard to get social media hits). Useless to google search is what I mean.
Now Im going to through a disclaimer in here… I’m NOT an expert (YET!) by any means but I am sharing what I learn daily to help all of us!
Here’s the check button. It will be green, yellow or red depending on your post. Mine typically starts off red and when I make suggested updates it goes to yellow then to green if I did everything right:
Basic Rules of SEO (this means it’s like walking… you need legs or limbs to walk right… well SEO needs some basics to even get started).
1. MUST have a Focus Keyword
2. MUST have a SEO Title (You want it in your subheadings and image tags too)
3. MUST have the meta description
4. URL must have your keyword in it. (I will explain this in detail below. This is important to change BEFORE you publish the post).
Those are 4 MUST’s that are needed on all posts. (well… almost all posts. If the post is going to be available for a week, then it needs it!) If it’s a free pizza or coke and the post is going to expire in a few hours. I wouldn’t even bother.
Click the Check button after you complete your post with the 4 required SEO field found at the bottom of WordPress under SEO by Yoast. Once you do this, it will tell you one of two things. It will tell you that you have no keyword focus (which it’s been doing to me a lot lately) or it will give you the page analysis. If it gives you no keyword focus, you may have to publish the page and update it again after clicking the button.
In case you don’t know how to change the URL before you publish it: The URL is something that is automatically generated based on the title you put in your post before you even write your post. WordPress automates this. You CAN edit this before you publish your post. If you edit if AFTER you publish your post and the post went to Facebook, twitter etc… then they will get a 404 error because it will try and pull a link that isn’t valid.
Here’s how to change the URL that was automatically formatted and the format rules.
When I first wrote the post I just title it Ulta. WordPress automatically put ulta in the url. That wasn’t my keyword focus at all. I had to change it. I changed it to Ulta Printable Coupon.
I clicked the EDIT button
Here’s what I updated it to: (NOTE: Be sure to put the – (dash) in between each word. Google will recognize those as separate words with the dash. Don’t put Ultaprintablecoupon or Don’t put Utla/Printable/coupon It must be Ulta-Printable-coupon
Here’s the hard part…. what if you don’t know what the best keyword term should be??? This is something we will all struggle with. Use the Yoast tool below to find out what your keyword should be. For Example, I typed ULTA in the Focus Keyword and let it pull up terms that are mostly searched like this:
I decided the make the “ulta printable coupon” the focus of my post because that fit! Besides, there will always be people who search for this coupon for years to come!!
Extra Knowledge for yourself:
You don’t have to do this but I know you would want to know this for your own websites! There is a google keyword tool!!! FREE!!
(here’s the link to my google search for this helpful tool: https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=7395371498&__u=9169515098&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS) I think you have to be logged on to use it. If you have trouble with that link just search google keyword tool.
I searched Ulta and found that 90,500 people search monthly for ulta coupons!!! (NOTE: This is not a required step but I did want you to know about this for your own websites!)
My title has both Ulta Coupon and Ulta Printable Coupon in the title. I should be able to grab some of that google search is my page is ranked high enough and if I out perform other websites that are trying to rank for that keyword too!
Like I said, it’s not required to do on every post and Yoast does a really, really good job of pulling those keyword terms right into the Focus Keyword tool because its built into a keyword tool already. You just can’t get an idea of the search numbers on Yoast.
Tip: Add you keywords to your image tags too.
NEXT!!!
Now after you fill out all 4 required SEO basics with the correct url for your keyword, then you can publish it. After you publish it you can click the “check” button again to see if you get a yellow or green light. If not, just look over the page analysis at the bottom on Yoast to see what recommendations you can use. Sometimes you won’t be able to do all of them but if you can do them, I would highly recommend you do them… I usually have to click this button 3 and 4 times after I update it to finally get a green light.
Here’s a sample of my page analysis for the Ulta post I just wrote:
I got most of it right but they told me my post should be longer to rank so I did some research and grab some of the best and worst products to help my page length.
Here’s after I hit the check button again:
After all of my updates I got a green light!!! I am finally happy with a quality written post that may actually grab some google organic searches and NEW CUSTOMERS!!!!! YAY!!!!
I really, really hope I didn’t confuse you. If I did, we can always schedule a one on one too! Phew… Ok… Now I’m exhausted! lol…
Keep in mind:
When you’re done with the Yoast Plugin and your post is live, you’re not done with SEO. In fact, you’ve really only finished 25% of what needs to be done.
1. You still need to find related posts on your site and link them to the new one.
2. You still need engaging content that will get readers to Like, Tweet, Pin and Comment
3. You still need incoming links and love from others.
99 million people use Yoast. They do the right things and get the green light, but only one can be #1.
For me Yoast is bad because people rely on it. They think they are done when they get the green light. I love it as a checklist, but it is not a crutch. Getting the green light only means you’ve gotten a good start. After that you’re poised to begin proving relevance.
