Installing Yoast SEO takes two clicks. Configuring it well takes a checklist. This is the one I use on WordPress sites, including the issues I found and fixed on this one.
1. Get the site language right
Go to Settings › General › Site Language and choose the language your content is written in. If it is wrong, your pages tell Google the wrong language. Your dashboard can stay in your own language: that is set per user, in your profile.
2. Write a title and meta description for every page
- Keep titles under about 60 characters and meta descriptions under about 155.
- Make each one unique and describe what the page offers.
- Write for people first. Repeating a keyword does not help.
3. Clean up the title templates
In Yoast SEO › Settings, check the templates under Content types, Categories & tags and Special pages. If the site was set up in another language, these templates often stay in it, so you get titles like “Archivos” on an English site. Pick one separator and use it everywhere.
4. Tell Google your site’s name
Under Site basics, set the website name you want in search results and an alternate name if you have one. Under Site representation, choose whether the site is a person or an organization and add a logo or photo. Make sure that image still exists in your media library: a deleted image leaves broken data behind.
5. Remove thin and duplicate archives
WordPress creates archive pages automatically. On a small site, many of them repeat the same posts.
- If you are the only author, disable author archives in Settings › Advanced › Author archives.
- If a category or tag has only one or two posts, set it to noindex until it grows.
- Keep media (attachment) pages disabled.
6. Give every image alt text
Describe what the image shows and why it is there. Alt text helps people using screen readers and helps search engines understand your images.
7. Connect Google Search Console
- Verify your site in Search Console. Yoast can add the verification tag in Settings › Site connections.
- Submit your sitemap:
https://example.com/sitemap_index.xml. - Use URL inspection to request indexing of important new pages.
8. Check what Google actually sees
Open a page, view its source and look for one <title>, one meta description, a canonical link and a single H1. Run important pages through Google’s Rich Results Test to check the structured data.
Common mistakes
- Leaving Discourage search engines from indexing this site checked in Settings › Reading after launch.
- Two H1 headings on the same page.
- Keyword stuffing in titles.
- Ignoring 404 errors after deleting or renaming pages.
Speed matters for SEO too: read how to speed up WordPress without paid plugins.
If you want me to review your site’s SEO, get in touch. You can also browse my portfolio or read more about me.