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Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO allows you to edit the content along with the stored metadata or keywords according to SEO criteria. With Yoast SEO you are able to check and optimize every page of your entire website. This is partially about the settings of page properties, which you can set here.

Step by step guide  Video tutorial  Pieces of advice

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

The actual search engine optimization is done by clicking on the page properties of each page in the tabs labelled SEO and Social media. We'll be looking at how to work with these two tabs on this tutorial page. Real URL is now located in the General tab of the page properties, not in the Yoast SEO tab as it was in TYPO3 8 LTS.


Step by step

»SEO«

 

Overview of entries

  • By clicking on any page title, the content area appears. Above all content elements, a window with the Yoast traffic lights for »Readability« and »SEO« is shown.
  • This preview window shows a section of the stored content, the snippet. Here, you can switch from mobile view to desktop view.
  • By clicking on the page properties icon above you will get to the editing functions.
  • Under the tab SEO you will find all SEO functions.

SEO title

  • The title of your page. You should choose this carefully, because every visitor wants to know at a glance what your page is about.
  • This title also appears as a headline in the list of search results.
  • The bar below the input field indicates whether the length of the title is in the »green area«.
  • The actual TYPO3 page title can be overwritten by this SEO title field. This makes sense, since the TYPO3 page tree can lead to clearer titles if necessary, and yet longer, search engine friendly page names are possible.

Meta description

  • The description of your page. Here, you briefly explain the page content and place the most relevant keywords for each page.
  • Again, the bar under the input field indicates whether the length of the description is in the »green area«.
  • The specified focus keyword is highlighted in bold in the meta-description.
  • The snippet preview shows how the search result will appear in Google for users interested in your main keyword (here: website).

Readability

  • Yoast automatically determines various values ​​for the online readability of the text on your page.
  • Traffic lights and descriptions provide direct information on whether there is potential for improvement.
  • We recommend that you always follow the suggestions of the readability test with care. More information and tips for everyday use can be found in Yoast's SEO blog ↗.

Focus keyword

  • Just as each page of your site conveys a message, each of the pages might have a collective term for which it is to be found: the Focus Keyword.
  • In the corresponding mask you specify the main keyword for each page. This Keyword can also be used on other subpages or rather several times.
  • As with the meta description, a web search is worthwhile to research suitable keywords.

Analysis

  • The SEO capability of the page at a glance. As usual, the traffic lights indicate which of the properties can be improved.
  • Not every improvement can be implemented directly, such as links to external pages or internal links. Nevertheless, it is worth to have the traffic lights in mind when creating content.
  • Here you will see, for example
    • how often the focus keyword is already used and
    • whether the page title and URL address match the keyword.

Related keywords

  • With the related keywords you can improve your SEO analysis for a page in toujou. This function offers you the possibility to add four additional terms to the main search term, also called the focus keyword.
  • To do this, click + Create new and a new drop-down element will open. Enter the desired related keyword in the General tab in the SEO Focus keyword text field. You also have the option to add synonyms, if you would like to.
  • Save the changes by clicking the Save button on the top.
  • Afterwards, all created related keywords appear directly with an indicator in the proven analysis color traffic light. Expand the respective drop-down menus to see the automatically generated analysis for this keyword.

Insights

  • This part of the Yoast SEO analysis provides an overview of the most used words and their number on the page. This will give you a quick overview of the weighting of the relevant words. 
  • If several words in this selection do not show any correlation to the desired keyword you want to rank for, you should think about revising the content. 
  • Please note that this listing is admittedly just that: a listing. With this features there is no indication wether the weighting of a single word is appropriate for the content length. For this, consult the analysis under the Focus keyword or any other services.

Robot (for professionals only!)

  • Googlebot, Google's web crawler, regularly visits your website to collect information from and about your site for the search engine.
  • Usually, your website will be automatically indexed. By deactivating Index this page, you can prohibit indexing, for example, if the page is incomplete or contains content that should not appear in the search index.
  • Deactivate the default Follow this page setting if you do not want Google to track embedded links on this page. For example when links that are not encrypted or direct to pages that should not be related to your own website.

Canonical (for professionals only!)

  • If you use content multiple times (and identically), also known as »duplicate content«, you can identify the original resource in the input field Canonical link. This helps search engines and other websites that link to your site recognize the original content.

Sitemap settings (for professionals only!)

  • With TYPO3 Version 10 LTS, the sitemap settings change frequency and priority can be modified manually by just clicking on the corresponding button.
  • Change frequency refers to how often search engines should pay attention to potential updates to the page in question. Priority referes to the significance of an individual page relative to the other pages of your website. Both attributes will help search engines to better understand the structure of your website.
  • With toujou, all pages are rated with a priority of 0.5. By increasing this to a maximum of 1.0, you give more importance to certain pages. This maximum value is recommended for pages with greater importance like the home page. Likewise, the lowest value of 0.0 is recommended for less important pages like the legal notice page.
  • By default, the change frequency is not pre-selected in toujou, equivalent to none (see screenshot for further gradations).

»Social media«

Open Graph (Facebook)

  • Open Graph controls the interaction of the websites with social media, in this case Facebook. If your page is linked to Facebook, Open Graph optimizes the interaction and presentation.
  • Title and description are similar to the Title and Description entries you have already made for this page. But this setting controls the display on Facebook, for example, if a link is shown with an image.
  • Upload a picture that fits your specific Facebook description. If no image is stored, the system automatically falls back on the medium stored in the Resources tab.

Twitter

  • Twitter Cards are similar to Open Graph entries described above: they control the interaction and display of links on Twitter.
  • The goal: more information and visual appeal for more interaction.
  • Again, the title and description control the display of a link, in this case on Twitter.
  • Add a picture that suits your Twitter link. If no image is stored, the system automatically falls back on the medium stored in the Resources tab.

Hide Yoast SEO snippet

  • With the Hide Yoast SEO preview in page module for this page option, you can hide the preview at the top of the content area.

Video tutorial via TYPO3 GmbH

Yoast SEO for TYPO3

Get to know the benefits and functionality of your Yoast SEO plugin.

Duration: 12'31"
Watch on YouTube ↗

MaxServ is a TYPO3 Member and TYPO3 Solution Partner based in the Netherlands. Our colleagues from Yoast SEO are also based in the Netherlands and they have been experts in this field from the very beginning. MaxServ’s chief developer Richard Haeser was instrumental in implementing the successful Yoast plug-in for TYPO3. So today, millions of website owners are benefiting from search engine optimization and content creation.


Pieces of advice

toujou is based on TYPO3 and anyone familiar with TYPO3 knows that there are many different options to use to reach your desired results. We would like to point out important information and little tricks that can assist you when you’re creating and editing your website.

Yoast SEO is a very useful tool which allows you to optimize your website for optimal search engine results, page by page. But despite the assistance Yoast provides, your aim should not be to just put all the traffic lights on »green«. Also, focus on making sure that your content makes sense to your visitors and check to see if it contradicts at all with the core message of your subpage.

On the web, you'll find plenty of research tools and keyword finders to help you compare the keywords. Also, checking out your competitors may provide further insight. But beware of editorial texts with a particularly high keyword density: this is an outdated method for search engine optimization. It even can be obstructive if you use keywords in your SEO-Tool that are not found on the page to be analyzed.

With the analysis field, however, texts can be checked for the use of synonyms before publication.

Additional information can be found in the TYPO3 documentation: Yoast SEO for TYPO3 ↗