Yoast SEO Secrets from the hard-working (if judgemental) WordPress Elves
by Anne R. Allen
Our fantastic webmaster, Barb Drozdowich of Bakerview Consulting, put a Yoast SEO plug-in on this blog when she rescued us several years ago. (After my disastrous attempt at turning this into a “monetized” blog. Note: Author blogs shouldn’t be monetized.)
Like most things about WordPress, I found the Yoast SEO secrets stuff daunting at first.
Some judgmental algorithms I call the “elves” wouldn’t give me a “green light” to publish my posts unless I passed muster with them. And they can be pretty fierce in enforcing their rules.
The elves have two tribes: the “readability” elves and the “SEO” elves. (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.) That means getting Google and other search engines to notice you, and hopefully put your post on the SERP. (First Search Engine Results Page.)
Both tribes can drive a creative writer batty.
On the other hand, our blog keeps getting Google love and our Alexa rating is down in the 120K range. It was up in the 600K range before we started using the plug-in. (Most author blogs can feel good about being in the 1 million range.)
So the elves know what Google likes, and if Google likes you, your traffic goes up.
History of the Yoast SEO Secrets
Yoast SEO was originally called “WordPress SEO.” A man named Joost de Valk developed it as a WordPress plugin in 2010. In 2012, WordPress renamed it Yoast SEO. (I assume “Yoast” is a phonetic spelling of Joost’s Dutch name.)
The “readability” rules are based on Flesch Reading Ease Test and Flesch-Kincaid reading grade level. The Reading Ease formula was invented by Rudolph Flesch in 1948 to help people write readable military training manuals.
Yeah. Military training manuals. Not fiction. Or creative nonfiction. Or fun, punchy blogposts.
Which is why when I put up a blogpost every week it almost always involves a battle with the elves.
Readablity
With the Yoast plug-in, you don’t get a list of rules. You discover each one when the elves give you a red, amber or green light on your copy. If you get a red or amber light, you must scroll down and find out what you’ve done “wrong” according to the Yoast rules.
This is probably wonderful for training manuals, but I do find some of the rules are less than helpful.
The problem is that the elves will red-light a lot of poetic writing. I do worry about what that is going to do our language in the long run. Online content is 90% of what most people read these days, and if it’s always aimed at a 7th grade level, will we lose the ability to write and read more complex thoughts?
Still, I soldier on. I’m always removing some of Ruth’s best writing and she’s a good sport about it because she’s a pro, but I know she often wonders what on earth I was thinking.
Thing is—I wasn’t the one doing the thinking. It was the elves.
Here are the things the readability elves will ding you on.
Repetition
They give you an automatic red light if you start three sentences in a row with the same word. So never quote Charles Dickens “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom…”
Bad Mr. Dickens would never get a readability green light.
Long sentences
Any sentence longer than 20 words is considered too long.
Big paragraphs
Break up your paragraphs into two or three skimmable sentences.
A dearth of “transition” words
The elves love them some transition words. These are words and phrases like “And, But, Moreover, On the other hand, Therefore, Hence, Besides, Consequently,” or “In Summary.” They are the words a military training officer might use to make a point.
However, these are not words and phrases I use often, so I get the most scolding from the elves on my lack of transition words.
More than 300 words after a subheading.
This is a major no-no and gets you an automatic red light. The elves love subheaders. They do pull the reader’s eye through the piece quickly, so I get it, but sometimes you need more than 300 words on one subject. Then you have to put sub-sub headers in there to appease the elven overlords
The passive voice
If any more than 10% of your copy is written in the passive voice, you are on the elf poop list.
Words with more than 4 syllables
Long words are considered “difficult” to read. So never, ever mention your fondness for that Mary Poppins song about “Supercalifr…..” Don’t want to write it all and upset the elves.
Yoast SEO Secrets
Now we get down to the nitty-gritty of how the Google search engines pick up an article or post. Keywords are the primary factor, and there are specific ways they must be used.
Keyword density
You need to use your keyword phrase at least 7 times in the post. Ideally, it should be in the title and the first sentence. It also needs to be in at least two subheadings.
And it must be the identical keyword. If you make it plural, it doesn’t count.
Following this rule has to be the hardest part of this whole SEO adventure. I have ruined so many great titles and first lines of our guests trying to follow this rule.
Keyword choices
For best results, you should use a keyword you haven’t used before. It shouldn’t be very long. (I haven’t been dinged for this so I’m not sure the ideal number of words, but I kind of think it might be three.)
Post length
Your post should be at least 1000 words long. Google prefers longer posts these days. There was a time when anything over 300 words was good. And it turns out really long, 2500 word posts are more likely to get Google love these days because the keyword or synonyms will appear many times.
Now shorter pieces are considered “thin content” and don’t get picked up.
Links
Google finds our content through links, and links to other posts in the blog are good for SEO. So the elves want at least one internal link in each post. External links are good too because they connect you with the “web” of connections that makes up the Internet.
Slug
Not all blogging platforms allow you to mess with the “slug” that makes up the address (URL) of your post. The ideal slug is 3-5 words and doesn’t include small words and articles.
So if you have a post with the title. “Are You Washing Your Hands Correctly?” a good slug would be “Washing Hands Correctly.” Then your URL would be: yourblog.com/the date/washing-hands-correctly. See how neat and tidy that is compared with some of those 50-character URLs? One of the perks of having elves.
Meta Description
One of the Yoast SEO Secrets is that if your platform allows it, you may be able to give a two or three sentence pitch for the blogpost in a “metadescription.” It will be displayed in Google links to the post. Otherwise they use the first two sentences. Which doesn’t seem such a bad thing to me, but hey, what do I know?
Alt Description
The elves like it very much if you give your featured image an “alt description” which allows the blind to know what your image is about. But you need to get your keyword into that description, or it doesn’t count.
Title Length
Google doesn’t like long titles. Nor does it like ones that are too short and leave white space. But when I looked to find the ideal character count for a title, I found that Google’s standard is in pixels, not characters, and they’re looking for 600 pixels. How you measure your title’s pixels without the help of the Yoast SEO secrets that reside with these particular elves, I do not know. But it’s good to be aware that Google likes a medium-sized title.
For The Less Tech Inclined…
If you want some less techy advice on how to write for a blog, here are some of my posts on the subject: 10 Tips for Writing Strong Blog Content. And 9 Tips for Writing Good Blog Content.
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) July 12, 2020
What about you, scriveners? Did you know any of the Yoast SEO Secrets? Do you have elves plugged into your WordPress blog? Which of these rules are you going to ignore because they’re too stupid?
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Anne, I’m going to ask you a question and I need an honest answer.
See, I’m presenting on why it’s good to have an author blog this week, based in no small part on all the wisdom you already brought me, and now this right on target concrete advice on a step we all can take.
So my question- would you come with me next time I buy a PowerBall ticket, please?
I’m downloading Yoast SEO to my blog now and can’t wait to be tortured by it on my next attempted post. I’m quite sure I violate all these rules just on first skim but I’m sure the actual red-flag experience will be beyond description. Maybe I’d better go sit in a remote park while I read the first results…
Will–You do not want my luck. I’m sitting here with ice packs strapped to my body trying not to scream. But I’m so glad this helps and you’ll have to let me know how you get along with the elves.
Best of luck on your presentation, and we all look forward to your guest post here on August 9th!
Really good recap on SEO for bloggers, Anne. I spent two years writing commercial web content for my daughter’s agency and got a baptismal by fire from the elves, So, I got a pretty good idea what you’re saying here. I’d like to add a few pointers.
One is word count. We aimed for “longform” pieces with two w/c sweetspots at 2200 and 2900. That seemed to be the best for SERP placement. Much shorter and the overlords ignore you and too long they’ll send you packing. Someone told me the ideal length is around what an average reader can take in during their coffee break.
Keywords: An absolute must for Google recognition but no keyword stuffing. The trick is writing in the keywords / keyphrases early in the piece so they’re somewhat invisible but not shouting in the reader’s or Google’s face. That’s easier said than done. Hope you enter remission soon!
Garry–Thanks for the tips. I had no idea the ideal length had been upped that much. The keyword thing is very hard for me. Getting 7 in there is hard to do without the copy getting really awkward.
Really sorry you have polymyalgia rheumatica. I hope the steroids and therapy help.
While I can’t have those elves with Blogger, I can note some of what they want and try to achieve that on my own.
Alex–Thanks. Yes, I thought I could have used all this stuff on Blogger if I’d known. If you use them, let me know if you start getting a spike in traffic.
Anne, I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing pain and spending you my best wishes for remission. I am tempted to follow the guest blogger guidelines but am sure you’ll get a flood of emails. Take care.
Leanne–Thanks for the good wishes. If you have a pitch, go ahead and send it. 🙂
Anne—*You* call them the elves. I have a much ruder name but I try to keep it clean. lol
This is a great elf analysis. You’re now the official Sigmund Freud of elves. I hope they know that—and keep that fact in mind next time they decide to mess with us.
Your health issues sound nightmarish but let’s hope steroids come to the rescue! Actually, I have confidence in steroids. Yay, steroids! 🙂
Ruth–You know how hard it is to deal with those pesky pixies. They keep ruining your beautiful prose. Yeah. Steroids. Haven’t kicked in yet, but I’m asking for a higher dose on Monday.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Anne. Pointing several authors who have just launched blogs to this great information.
Thinking of you, from now on, as being out of pain, feisty once again and beating the elves at their own game. Blessings, m’dear…
Maria–Yes, do share. I wish I’d known all this when I wrote my Author Blog Book. Maybe there will have to be a second edition. Thanks for the good thoughts!
I still have the Yoast SEO Plug-in but I stopped using it since it was killing my writing and it was annoying. Your post gave me some understanding.
Now you have me wondering it it will be worth reactivating it.
Still, great post. Feel better soon.
~Ingmar Albizu
Ingmar–It might be worth it to put up with the elves. I just know they really boosted our traffic. By being really annoying. 🙂
Yowza, reading “1000 words” is best is a head banger after all the years being told short-is-best. As a reader, I find such windy posts off-putting, sub-headers placed “correctly” or not. As a writer, I love a higher word count in which to elaborate my profound learnings (cough). So, once again, it’s a game, the rules have changed and we either board the train & the post numbers rise (cross fingers) or we write short and pithy and the world passes us by. Yikes! Just when I was getting quasi-comfy with this.
Melanie–Google does seem to change the rules all the time. I wish they had some kind of online handbook to tell us about the changes. The problem I see is that most readers skim, and a long post is daunting. If you write for your readers rather than Google, you may have a smaller readership, but a more engaged one.
Nice post! I’d add that content length depends on ‘search intent’ and isn’t the same in ALL niches or keywords. It’s not Yoast’s fault either. Google shows more and more answers and they match certain ‘search intent’ better than other. So their content preferences vary according to that. It can be seen how much content specific keywords have in the top 10. It is beneficial to browse all top results and see what they do.
And very sorry to hear about health issues! Get better soon!!
Adrijus–Sounds as if you’re way more educated in this field than I am. Thanks for the helpful info.
Happy to contribute! SEO has brought 60-70 percent of my clients for cover design so I do keep an eye on it. 🙂
I feel your pain, Anne! I get dinged all the time for writing long sentences and assuming my audience can read at a more advanced level than 7th grade. Sigh. Love the plugin, but it drives me batty, too. It also dings me for articles I wrote years ago, pre-Yoast. Who has time to go back and change all those articles? But by not doing it, my alexa rating suffers. Ah…writer’s life.
Sue–Sounds as if you fought the elves and the elves are winning. But sometimes you have to stand up for your muse!
I’m sorry to hear about your polymyalgia rheumatica. I hope you’re able to put it into remission sooner rather than later.
You know, I thought I was getting the basics of SEO down before I read this post. Invaluable info! Thank you for writing it in spite of what you’re going through.
Great article, Anne,
My blog is elf-free, which, I suppose, may have some causal relationship my weekly number of visitors.
Be well!
Anne your blog post are always so interesting and helpful. Thanks for this great article to improve Blog traffic. i wish you all the best and hope you feel better sooner than later.
Anne – Terrific post. I learned a great deal, though it’s daunting. So sorry about your on-going pain.
Asking for healing energy for you, Anne, with much love and prayers for your remission. <3 Thank you for this helpful article. I just switched to WP.org and installed Yoast and had my first run-in with the elves. Not my finest moment. I am allowing myself time to get the hang of what they are saying. The coloured faces are very annoying, as I feel like I'm back at school!
Get better, Anne! <3
Oh, Anne, I’m so sorry!! I hope the steroids work and things start looking up for you. Take care of yourself!!!
Thanks for the description of the elves. I hate to admit I got in over my head when I started looking into it a few months ago. It’s so convoluted! And not intuitive! Thanks for the shortcut lessons!
This is the most useful post on SEO I’ve read, and I’ve been trying to understand all this for a few months now. I realize these tips are all moveable, depending on the elves. Nevertheless, what you offered is exactly what I want to know now. Thank you very much for pulling it all together, .
Hi Anne, YOAST was my ally for SEO on the BW blog but i’ve only ever used the free version so there’s still more finesse to acquire. Enjoyed your piece and hope that you are out of pain and in remission soon!
Anne, I’m so sorry you’re in pain and the doctor said it’s incurable. I wonder how this occurs. I’m hoping he’s wrong or there is something you can do. Bummer! Sending hugs and positive energy for you to get better. At the same time, stay safe.
Some of this was new to me – meta description, alt description. Getting up to 7 keyword is tough when posting poetry or fiction, but it’s something to keep in mind for informational posts. Thanks for sharing Anne.
So Sorry you are sick, Anne. A friend of mine has polymyalgis rheumatica and I know how painful and debilitatIng it can be.
Thank you for the post. It’s most helpful, even without the elves!
Don’t you think someone would have updated the Flesch reading test to somerhing a bit better than a reading manual for the army!
This post, like all your others, is excellent. I don’t often comment, but I’m here lurking in the shadows. I want to comment today to thank you for writing this very helpful post despite not feeling well and to tell you that I wish you a speedy route to remission. I’m so sorry to hear you haven’t been well.
I’ve heard about the YOAST plugin, but never in so much detail as what you’ve given it in this post, Anne.
The trouble I have with installing any plugin on my blog is that I lose the ‘follow’ and reblog buttons if i install any Now that may not be a problem to some, but I can’t get over the thought of not having them on my blog.
Meta descriptions are great, and I’m glad that WordPress gives its users the option of using them. The trouble with not using them is that WordPress will only display the first 55 words of your post as the introduction to the post. That’s likely to mean the description being cut off midway through a sentence, which I don’t think gives a blog post credit.
Anne, I’m wishing you well and hope that you’ll son start feeling better. Take good care of yourself.
Informative to read. Thanks!