readme.txt

=== Yoast SEO ===
Contributors: yoast, joostdevalk, tdevalk
Donate link: https://yoa.st/1up
License: GPLv3
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
Tags: SEO, XML sitemap, Content analysis, Readability, Schema
Tested up to: 6.7
Stable tag: 23.9
Requires PHP: 7.2.5

Improve your WordPress SEO: Write better content and have a fully optimized WordPress site using the Yoast SEO plugin.

== Description ==

## YOAST SEO: THE #1 WORDPRESS SEO PLUGIN

Since 2008, Yoast SEO has helped millions of websites worldwide to rank higher in search engines.

Yoast’s mission is **SEO for Everyone**. Our plugin’s users range from the bakery around the corner to some of the most popular sites on the planet.

Yoast SEO Free contains everything that you need to manage your SEO, and the [Yoast SEO Premium](https://yoa.st/1v8) plugin and its extensions unlock even more tools and functionality.

### HANDING YOU THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

SEO is the most consistent and cost-effective website traffic source, but it can be a challenging and complex maze. Whether you're just starting out, or an advanced user you don’t have to do this alone. We’re here to help!

You haven't time to learn and keep up with SEO best practices? You aren't alone. Keeping Yoast SEO up-to-date with the latest version means you automatically receive all of the 'under the hood' updates to schema markup and technical SEO fundamentals. We also guide you through optimizing your on-site content with our signature traffic lights approach. 

Empower search engines to fully understand your website using our Schema.org structured data integration.

Yoast SEO offers comprehensive analysis tools that help elevate your content's SEO and readability. Get powerful insights and actionable recommendations to craft helpful content that resonates with readers and search engines.

**Premium Yoast AI features** Get suggestions for your titles and descriptions at the click of a button. The [Yoast AI features](https://yoa.st/51c) save you time and optimize for higher click-through-rates.

* Yoast AI Generate enables users to generate meta descriptions and titles for your pages, blog posts and social posts. Great! Even better, when you also have [Yoast WooCommerce SEO](https://yoa.st/3rh), you can receive suggestions for product SEO titles and descriptions too! The best part, if you don't like the 5 suggestions, you can generate five more at a click.
* Yoast AI Optimize helps you optimize existing content for search engines. Optimize three of the assessments in the Yoast SEO Analysis; Keyphrase in introduction, Keyphrase distribution and Keyphrase density, with easy dismiss or apply options.


#### QUICK AND EASY SETUP TO GET YOU STARTED

Setting up Yoast SEO is smooth, hassle-free, and doesn't require any advanced knowledge! Our step-by-step configuration walks you through the essentials, helping you get up and running quickly.

You'll be prompted to fill in details about your site during the setup. This enables Yoast SEO to translate all this information into structured data, which helps search engines better understand your content and website!

Are you already using another SEO plugin? Transitioning from other plugins to Yoast SEO is a breeze. We've designed it to be seamless, ensuring you don't lose critical data.

Our export and import option makes it a breeze to take the SEO settings from one Yoast SEO-optimized website to another. 

#### TAKING CARE OF YOUR TECHNICAL SEO NEEDS

Although technical optimization is a big part of SEO, it's not easy. We understand that only some people who work on SEO are experts or have the time to dive into the technical aspects of a website. That's why Yoast SEO handles much of the technical optimization, freeing up your time to work on other parts of your website, like writing helpful content.

* **Get automated technical SEO improvements**, like optimized meta tags, right out of the box.

* **Add canonical URLs** to tell search engines which content they should show when you have pages with similar content.

* Get **advanced XML sitemaps**, making it effortless for search engines to understand your site structure and index your web pages effectively.

* **Get best-in-class Schema.org structured data integration**, significantly increasing your chances of getting visually rich search results that attract more users.

* **Take complete control over your site's breadcrumbs**, allowing visitors and search engines to navigate your website seamlessly.

* **Significantly improves your website's loading times**, courtesy of our innovative data management techniques tailored for WordPress.

* [Advanced] Yoast SEO comes with crawl settings that **optimize how search engines crawl your site** and reduce its carbon footprint. This lowers your site's environmental impact and contributes to a sustainable web.

#### WRITE AWESOME CONTENT THAT USERS AND SEARCH ENGINES LOVE

Unlock the full potential of your content with Yoast SEO's **state-of-the-art content analysis**. Crafting compelling content becomes easier with features designed to help you increase your website's performance.

* **Leverage detailed SEO analysis** that guides you toward creating SEO-friendly content, allowing you to target the right keywords and boost your visibility in search results.

* **Drive engagement and enhance readability** with the integrated readability analysis. Ensure your content is clear, concise, and effortlessly readable by humans and search engines alike.

* Preview your content as it appears in SERPs, even on mobile devices. This helps you to **fine-tune your meta titles and descriptions to maximize click-through rates**.

* Enable your HowTo content to be displayed in search results by using the **innovative Schema structured data blocks** for the WordPress block editor

* **A dedicated breadcrumbs block** ensures your users always know their location within your website.

* **Embrace inclusivity in your content creation process with the inclusive language analysis**. This optional feature analyzes your text and provides suggestions to make your content more considerate of different audiences. By using inclusive language, you’ll ensure your content resonates with diverse groups of people.

* **Keyword research within the plugin** with the Semrush integration. Find out what related keywords people are searching for, so you can optimize your content to reach more audiences.

* **Track your rankings in Yoast SEO** with the Wincher integration. Yoast SEO and Wincher show how your content and keywords rank in Google.

* Are you using Elementor to build your website? No worries because **Yoast SEO integrates with Elementor**. Take advantage of all Yoast SEO's benefits within your favorite website builder!

* **Advanced AI features in Yoast SEO Premium**, write titles and meta descriptions at a click of a button and receive suggested edits to your content to take it over the 'SEO' finish line.

#### KEEP YOUR SITE IN PERFECT SHAPE

Whether you are an entrepreneur, blogger or content creator, a developer or a business owner, Yoast SEO helps you keep your website in perfect shape by:

* Fine-tuning the engine of your website, so you can work on creating great content! With Yoast SEO, **technical optimization becomes effortless**, allowing you to prioritize what truly matters.

* **Structure your website's content easily** using Yoast SEO's cornerstone content features, enabling search engines to understand and index your most important pages effectively.

* **Translate valuable content into structured data**, allowing search engines to fully comprehend your website's meaning and context.

* Yoast SEO includes a **powerful front-end SEO inspector** that lets you preview and fine-tune the SEO settings directly on your front end. With this intuitive tool, you can easily optimize elements such as meta titles, meta descriptions, URL slugs, robots meta tags, and structured data by seeing their appearance in real-time.

Helping you manage your team: with our SEO roles, you can give colleagues access to specific sections of the Yoast SEO plugin.

* **Yoast SEO has a regular 2-week update cycle**, ensuring you always stay up-to-date with the latest development and updates from search engines.

#### POWERFUL INTEGRATION WITH OTHER TOOLS

Yoast SEO seamlessly integrates with various themes, plugins, and tools to enhance the user experience and improve your WordPress SEO workflow.

* Utilize the full potential of the [Advanced Custom Fields](https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/) plugin when combined with the [ACF Content Analysis for Yoast SEO](https://wordpress.org/plugins/acf-content-analysis-for-yoast-seo/) plugin, and reap the benefits of Yoast SEO's powerful analysis.

* Seamlessly integrate Yoast SEO with the [Elementor](https://wordpress.org/plugins/elementor/) website builder, empowering you to optimize your stunning designs effectively.

* Elevate your site search quality with [Algolia](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-search-with-algolia/) integration, ensuring users can effortlessly find the content they want.

* Combine Yoast SEO with Semrush, a leading online marketing tool. Access comprehensive keyword data directly within Yoast SEO, empowering you to supercharge your SEO strategy with data-driven insights.

* Connect your Yoast SEO plugin with Wincher, a powerful SEO tracking tool. Monitor your keyword rankings, and track your website's visibility in search results.

#### TRUST THE EXPERTS

Yoast is powered by expert developers, testers, software architects, and SEO consultants. They work constantly to stay at the cutting edge of WordPress SEO and to improve the plugin with every release.

#### WE ARE THERE FOR THE LONG RUN

We're here to help you succeed with your SEO goals because empowering our users is at the core of our philosophy! 

If you're looking for a structured learning path, our [Yoast SEO academy](https://yoa.st/3ri) offers free and paid online courses. Any of our paid plans provides access to all the courses at no extra charge. We also have a treasure trove of information in our SEO blog, regular newsletter and webinars to keep you up-to-date with all the latest industry news.

### THE PREMIUM ADVANTAGE

Not only do you get many additional benefits by upgrading to [Yoast SEO Premium](https://yoa.st/1v8), but you'll also get 24/7 personalized support that takes away your worry.

* Unlock our [AI features](https://yoa.st/51c); Yoast AI Optimize and Yoast AI Generate. Perfect for marketing professionals, freelance writers, and content strategists, Yoast AI features enable customers of all technical levels to apply SEO best practice to their content at the click of a button.

* Optimize for up to five keyword synonyms by adding variants. Add up to four related synonyms of your keyword to expand your possibilities. You get the full SEO analysis for each.

* Optimizes your articles for different word forms, singular and plural variations, different verb forms, synonyms, and related keyphrases, thanks to the semantic understanding technology in Yoast SEO Premium.

* Seamlessly handle URL changes or page deletions with our redirect manager. Automatically create redirects to prevent "404: page not found" errors and retain valuable traffic and backlinks.

* Get internal linking suggestions in real-time. The WordPress SEO plugin enhances your article's depth and authority by recommending related posts to link to.

* Gain precise control over your page's appearance on social networks like Facebook and X with social media previews. Customize your social presence and entice users to engage with your content effectively.

* Simplify your SEO workflows and get guidance to work on time-consuming SEO tasks, like finding unlinked content, with the Yoast SEO workouts.

* Get actionable feedback on using inclusive vocabulary to enhance your writing and make it accessible to a broader audience. (Note: This feature is currently available in English and beta.)

* Take advantage of the IndexNow integration, which instantly pings search engines like Microsoft Bing every time you publish or update content to ensure timely indexing.

* Easily create optimized SEO titles and meta descriptions at the touch of a button, thanks to generative AI. Crafting optimized and engaging SEO titles and meta descriptions has never been faster and easier.

* Avoid your content being used to train AI bots: Effortlessly safeguard your intellectual property, uphold data privacy, and maintain control over content by blocking AI bots from scraping it. These AI web crawlers include OpenAI's GPTBot, Common Crawl's CCBot and Google-Extended, used to train Google Gemini.

### EXTEND YOUR WORDPRESS SEO

Take your WordPress SEO to new heights with these powerful Yoast SEO add-ons:

* [Yoast Local SEO](https://yoa.st/1uu): Optimize your website for a local audience, drive foot traffic to your stores, and establish a strong presence in local SERPs.

* [Yoast Video SEO](https://yoa.st/1uw): Improves the performance of videos and ensures that Google fully understands its content. This helps you rank your videos higher in video search results.

* [Yoast News SEO](https://yoa.st/1uv): Amplify your visibility and performance in Google News, allowing your news website to reach a broader audience.

* [Yoast WooCommerce SEO](https://yoa.st/3rh): Enhance your ecommerce store's discoverability with extra tools designed specifically for online stores, helping you drive more targeted traffic and dominate the search results for your products. It has generative AI tools to help you write great titles and meta descriptions for your products! Also, use WooCommerce SEO to easily import and export global identifiers like GTIN8, UPC, and ISBN for your products.

### BUG REPORTS

Find a bug in Yoast SEO? We welcome your bug reports! Please report bugs in the WordPress SEO [repository on GitHub](https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo). Note that GitHub is not a support forum but an efficient platform for addressing and resolving issues efficiently.

### THERE'S MORE TO LEARN ABOUT SEO

For a comprehensive resource on search engine optimization and Yoast SEO, please explore our [website](https://yoast.com), which is rich with insights and inspiration. Seek guidance in our extensively curated help center, designed to help you provide the knowledge to optimize your website effectively.

Take your SEO skills to new heights with "[WordPress SEO - The Definitive Guide](https://yoa.st/1v6)" by Yoast - a must-read for WordPress SEO enthusiasts. Discover more exceptional plugins and solutions by Team Yoast, tailored to enhance your digital presence and achieve unparalleled success.

== Installation ==
Starting with Yoast SEO consists of just two steps: installing and setting up the plugin. Yoast SEO is designed to work with your site’s specific needs, so don’t forget to go through the Yoast SEO first-time configuration as explained in the ‘after activation’ step! For the most up-to-date guidance on how to install Yoast SEO products, [please visit our help center](https://yoast.com/help/yoast-installation-manuals/#h-yoast-seo-and-yoast-seo-premium-for-wordpress). 

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= How do the XML Sitemaps in the Yoast SEO plugin work? =

Having an XML sitemap can be beneficial for SEO, as Google can retrieve essential pages of a website very fast, even if the internal linking of a site isn’t flawless.
The sitemap index and individual sitemaps are updated automatically as you add or remove content and will include the post types you want search engines to index. Post Types marked as noindex will not appear in the sitemap. [Learn more about XML Sitemaps](https://yoa.st/3qt).

= How can I add my website to Google Search Console? =

It is straightforward to add your website to Google Search Console.
1. Create a Google Search Console account and login into your account.
2. Click ‘Add a property’ under the search drop-down.
3. Enter your website URL in the box and click ‘Continue’.
4. Click the arrow next to ‘HTML tag’ to expand the option.
5. Copy the meta tag.
6. Log in to your WordPress website.
7. Click on ‘SEO’ in the dashboard.
8. Click on ‘General’.
9. Click on the ‘Webmaster Tools’ tab.
10. Paste the code in the Google field and click ‘Save Changes’.
11. Go back to Google Search Console and click ‘Verify’.

If you want more details steps, please visit [our article on our help center](https://yoa.st/3qu).

= How do I implement Yoast SEO breadcrumbs? =

The steps below are a temporary solution as manual edits made to theme files may be overwritten with future theme updates. Please contact the theme developer for a permanent solution. We’ve written an article about the [importance of breadcrumbs for SEO](https://yoa.st/3qv).

To implement the [breadcrumbs](https://yoa.st/3qw) function in Yoast SEO, you will have to edit your theme. We recommend that prior to any editing of the theme files, a backup is taken. Your host provider can help you take a backup.
Copy the following code into your theme where you want the breadcrumbs to be. If you are not sure, you will need to experiment with placement:

<code>
<?php
if ( function_exists( 'yoast_breadcrumb' ) ) {
    yoast_breadcrumb( '<p id="breadcrumbs">','</p>' );
}
?>
</code>

Common places where you could place your breadcrumbs are inside your `single.php` and/or `page.php` file just above the page’s title. Another option that makes it really easy in some themes is by just pasting the code in `header.php` at the very end.

In most non-WooTheme themes, this code snippet should not be added to your `functions.php` file.
Alternatively, you can manually add the breadcrumb shortcode to individual posts or pages: `[wpseo_breadcrumb]`

If you need more details or a step by step guide, read our [Implementation guide for Yoast SEO breadcrumbs](https://yoa.st/3qx).

= How do I noindex URLS? =

Yoast SEO provides multiple options for setting a URL or group of URLs to noindex. [Read more about how to do this in this guide](https://yoa.st/3qy/).

= Google shows the wrong description, how do I fix this? =

If you’ve crafted nice meta descriptions for your blog posts, nothing is more annoying than Google showing another description for your site completely in the search result snippet.

Possible causes could be:
1. wrong description in code
2. Google cache is outdated
3. Search term manipulation
4. Google ignored the meta description

You can [read more here on how to solve the issue with the wrong description](https://yoa.st/3qz).

= How often is Yoast SEO updated? =

Yoast SEO is updated every two weeks. If you want to know why, please read [this post on why we release every two weeks](https://yoa.st/3q-)!

= How do I get support? =

As our free plugin is used by millions of people worldwide, we cannot offer you all one on one support. If you have trouble with the Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin, you can get help on the support forums here at [wordpress.org](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo/) or by checking out our help center at [yoast.com/help/](https://yoa.st/3r1).

The plugins you buy at Yoast are called ‘premium plugins’ (even if Premium isn’t in its name) and include a complete year of free updates and premium support. This means you can contact our support team if you have any questions about that plugin.

[Read more on how to get support](https://yoa.st/3r2)

= What happens to my data if I enable usage tracking? =

[This page on yoast.com explains what data we collect to improve Yoast SEO](https://yoa.st/4w7). We only collect data when you explicitly opt in. Read more about how we handle your data in [our Privacy Policy](https://yoa.st/4w8).

= I have a different question than listed here =

Your question has most likely been answered on our help center: [yoast.com/help/](https://yoa.st/1va).

== Screenshots ==

1. The modern interface makes Yoast SEO easy to work with.
2. Easily manage how your posts and pages appear in SERPs.
3. Yoast SEO Premium has extra crawl optimization options.
4. Yoast SEO integrates with tools like Semrush and Wincher.
5. The famous SEO and readability analyses in Yoast SEO.
6. See what your post looks like in Google.
7. The First-time configuration helps you get started quickly.
8. The inclusive language analysis in Yoast SEO.

== Changelog ==

= 24.0 =

Release date: 2024-12-03

#### Enhancements

* Allows to set OpenGraph image `width`, `height `and `type` HTML metadata to `null` in order to don't show them. Props to [GiovanniMounir](https://github.com/GiovanniMounir).
* Improves the _transition words_ assessment for Portuguese and English by updating the relevant lists of transitions words. Props to [BrunoAseff](https://github.com/BrunoAseff).
* Shows an error message in the Yoast _General_ page in case of JavaScript errors.
* Updates the design and translations of the country selector in the related keyphrase suggestion modal.

#### Bugfixes

* Fixes a bug where the first step in the _First time configuration_ would not be considered finished unless the _Site representation_ step would be finished as well.
* Fixes a bug where the settings for a post type are inaccessible when the permalink structure includes special characters that require encoding, e.g., when WooCommerce products are set to use the \"Shop base with category\" permalink structure.
* Fixes a bug where the Yoast _General_ page would not reflect the active menu item properly if using a fallback.

#### Other

* Improves the documentation for `wpseo_enable_tracking` filter. Props to [kkmuffme](https://github.com/kkmuffme).

= 23.9 =

Release date: 2024-11-19

Yoast SEO 23.9 brings enhancements to the Yoast SEO Semrush integration and various bug fixes. Find more about Yoast SEO 23.9 in [our release post](https://yoa.st/release-19-11-24)!

#### Enhancements

* Adds a maximum width to the problems and notifications sections on the _General_ page.
* Adds _Intent_ and _Difficulty_ to the metrics shown in the Semrush integration.
* Improves the compatibility of the Yoast blocks with WordPress 6.7.

#### Bugfixes

* Fixes a bug where a fatal error is triggered in PHP 8.x when a user's additional contact methods have been improperly set to `null`. Props to [PhilETaylor](https://github.com/PhilETaylor).
* Fixes a bug where the _First time configuration_ would have a double separator for the title and content.
* Fixes a bug where the _First time configuration_ would not resize properly on smaller width screens.

#### Other

* Stops PHP notices on WordPress 6.7 about `_load_textdomain_just_in_time` loading incorrectly.

= Earlier versions =
For the changelog of earlier versions, please refer to [the changelog on yoast.com](https://yoa.st/yoast-seo-changelog).