To gain these benefits, install Yoast SEO and treat it as a valuable tool. It is the key to hitting targets as it makes the site search-engine friendly.

Installing Yoast SEO Plugin

Photo by WP.All Club

To set up the plugin, select the “Plugins” option from the site’s admin dashboard on the left side of the screen. Hovering over it shows the ” Add New” option. Clicking on it brings you to a page with featured, popular, recommended or favorite plugins. There is a search box available if Yoast SEO doesn’t appear in the current selection. Click “Install Now” to download install. Afterward, WordPress asks to activate the plugin.

Setting Up and Getting Started

Here’s how to get started with Yoast SEO on a WordPress site without importing settings from prior SEO plugins.

1. Locate “SEO” from the admin dashboard. It’s on the left-hand side of the screen.

2. Select “General” to set the basic SEO options of the site through the ‘Introduction Tour.’

3. Go to the “Your Info” tab upon skipping the tour.

The tab has fields for ‘Website name’ and ‘Company or person’ information. Fill them out, so Google shows the WordPress site’s name on the SERP. Meanwhile, the company or person drop-down selection is for Google’s Knowledge Graph. This info appears as metadata on the site.

4. Head to the ‘Webmaster Tools‘ tab to verify the site.

It’s necessary to create an account at Google Search Console to connect and verify the site. To create an account at Google Search console, add your domain and click on the “Add a Property” button. Select the Meta Tag Verification option. Copy and paste the Meta Tag HTML into the Google Search Console section of the Webmaster Verification section of Yoast SEO and click “Save Changes.” Return to Google Search Console and click on the Verify button.

Besides Google Search Console, Yoast SEO makes the process of site verification on Alexa, Bing, and Yandex Webmaster Tools quick and simple.

5. Change user access.

Yoast SEO has a ‘Security’ tab with an option to disable the Advanced part of Yoast SEO metabox. Unchecking this option may be helpful to sites with multiple authors. It doesn’t allow other users access to redirects and ‘noindex’ settings.

Visiting these tabs covers the ‘General’ section of SEO. It also takes care of the basics of the plugin. There are other sections to view and *adjust for total optimization of the site.

On-site and Off-site SEO Settings

Site optimization has two factor areas. These are on-site SEO (also called on-page SEO) and off-site SEO. Aligning your Yoast SEO settings on these aspects ensures the optimum performance of the site.

Title and Meta Data

Part of on-page SEO is title and metadata. Yoast SEO has a “Titles & Metas” section with seven tabs focused on the site’s appearance in SERPs. The first tab has settings for titles. It shows options for changing title separators to make the appearance of page titles consistent. It also has a ‘force rewrite titles’ option to override built-in SEO title displays and prevent using the same title on different pages.

Next up is “Homepage.” The contents of this tab depend on the blog’s set up. It is useful for making changes in the title and meta descriptions for the front page and pages for blog entries. If there’s nothing to edit, proceed to “Post Types.” It has fields to set a template for post, page, and media titles and meta description. It also has checkboxes for ‘noindex, follow’ tags, ‘Date in Snippet Preview,’ and ‘Yoast SEO Meta Box.’ Filling these out inserts the information to pages, titles, and meta descriptions. Leaving the meta description box blank allows search engines to pull an excerpt of content from the page.

The ‘noindex, follow’ option instructs meta robots not to index the page and crawl for links. At most cases, it’s unnecessary to check this box. This option is useful to pages that could be a duplicate content or irrelevant to site rankings such as a ‘Thank You’ page or ‘About Us.’

XML Sitemap

Yoast SEO automatically generates a comprehensive sitemap for the site. It is an XML or extensible markup language file listing all the site’s URL available for crawling. Besides the URLs, it also has the relevant information regarding each page that helps bots to crawl the site. The plugin categorizes the URLs for easy access and clear structure. Submitting the sitemap to the Search Console is essential. It helps the search engine can make sense of the organization of the site’s content. A large site can have multiple sitemaps so web crawlers can access all areas, information, and files on the site.

Submit the sitemap to Search Console by clicking on the “Crawl” > “Sitemaps” on the sidebar menu of the site property management dashboard. Click the “Add Test/Sitemap” button to add the sitemap URL.

Robots.txt

The site’s robots.txt file is available for edit through the ‘File Editor’ link on the plugin. The file tells search engine bots the pages to crawl. Specified crawl instructions help bots crawl the site quickly to leverage SEO methods and raise site ranking. Search engines have a crawl budget so hacking the file by disallowing some pages one way to optimize the site.

The format of a robots.txt file has two lines – the user agent and directives. Directives are crawl instructions such as disallow, allow, and crawl-delays.

Alternative Text

Since Google doesn’t have an algorithm for image recognition, it’s a must to fill out the form field for Alt Text on WordPress. Use descriptive words and SEO-friendly keywords to highlight the elements of the image and optimize it for search engines. The alt text increases the chances of the image to appear in the SERP. Moreover, it helps blind and visually-impaired users to make sense of the image.

Social SEO

Yoast SEO has a social section to link the business or brand’s social media accounts. It has tabs for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. The primary tab, “Accounts,” has form fields for various social platforms. Filling these out associates the site with the corresponding social media profile. This feature covers a part of social SEO or social media optimization (SMO).

SEO Ready

The following changes and settings are ways to optimize a WordPress blog. Using the Yoast SEO plugin makes it convenient for bloggers and webmasters to hit their goals, increase traffic, gain subscribers, and expand consumer base. Dabble with each option on the plugin to explore different ways to boost the site’s existing on-site and off-site SEO strategy.

The post SEO Techniques: Optimizing WordPress Blog with Yoast SEO appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

1) 25 eCommerce SEO Tips by Palmer Web Marketing

Offers useful tips on how you can beat the SEO challenges for e-commerce sites. The article also offers recommendations in making your online store more search engine-friendly.

2) Shopping Carts Gallery: Examples and Good Practices by Smashing Magazine

Shows examples of attractive and creatively designed shopping carts. It also discusses good practices when in the process of designing shopping carts to improve usability and support content.

3) E-commerce Call to Action: Design Tips by E-consultancy

Provides practical tips to improve conversion rates through attractively designed call to action buttons. It also provides good examples of calls to action.

4) Tips on How to Design to Attract More Customers by About.com

Offers tips in creating the perfect coupon including the texts and designs. The article also highlights the importance of studying your competitors’ coupons.

5) eCommerce Platform Solutions: Which Online Product Catalog is Best? by eCommerce Insiders

Discusses the e-commerce platforms and their usage statistics. It also talks about the pros and cons of each platform.

6) 30 Beautiful and Creative Ecommerce Website Designs by Shopify

Showcases the most attractive web designs. The article also accentuates the current trend which is the use of high-quality images.

7) The Mega Guide to Maximizing eCommerce Sales, Revenues and Performance on All Fronts by KISSmetrics

Outlines eight of the most important e-commerce practices that can drive revenue up. The article includes mobile responsiveness and SEO at the top of the list.

8) 22 Free Google Products for Small Business Owners by Practical Ecommerce

Provides a rundown of Google tools to make online business more productive. It segregates tools based on its use such as social, media, site and search management and general office.

9) 11 Alternative Payment Options by Practical Ecommerce

Provides information on alternative payments. It highlights the importance of giving customers more payment choices and thereby streamlining the checkout process especially for mobile consumers and tackles how the merchants can save money by introducing these alternative options.

10) 4 Principles of Social Proof Every Ecommerce Store Owner Needs to Know by Ecommerce University

Emphasizes social proof as a pillar of influence. The article discusses how important are social signals to stir reactions from the audience.

11) More Than Half of Retailers Investing in Responsive Design: E-tailing Group by Mobile Commerce Daily

Talks about the urgency of making e-commerce sites responsive. It provides stats based on an e-tailing survey regarding the status of mobile commerce.

12) Comparing the Most Popular Payment Gateways for Ecommerce linking to Exchange Payment Gateway Comparison Chart by iThemes

Provides basic information on merchant accounts and payment gateways. The link features a comparison chart of the most utilized online payment gateways.

13) Boost Your Small Business  With These 12 Free Ecommerce Tools by Mashable

Provides a list of the right tools to make your website looking professional. The tools listed are easy to set up and maintain.

14) 22 Free Google Products for Small Business Owners by Practical Ecommerce

Lists Google tools and applications that can enhance almost all aspects of online productivity. The article categorizes the products based on general office, site and search management, media and social.

15) 20 Best E-commerce WordPress Plugins of 2014 by WP Explorer

Provides plugins and applications that can turn a WordPress site into a full-pledged online store. The article maintains that these plugins are enough to run a successful digital shop.

16) Google & Universal Analytics E-commerce Tracking – Complete Guide by Optimize Smart

Provides a complete overview of e-commerce including commerce platforms and their roles in e-commerce tracking. It also discusses e-commerce tracking using Google Analytics and Universal Analytics.

It is best to take a plunge into the e-commerce world armed with the right knowledge and resources. Hope you learn a thing or two from these articles.

The post 16 Must-Read Articles for Online Storefront Owners appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.