Setting Up Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress
Yoast SEO is the most common WordPress SEO plugin. Manages meta tags, sitemap.xml, schema.org markup, breadcrumbs, social media settings.
Initial Setup
After installation, run Configuration Wizard (Yoast SEO → General → Configuration Wizard). Go through steps: site type (blog/e-commerce/news), organization or person, social profiles, content type visibility.
Main Sections
Search Appearance → General:
- Title separator: choose separator for title (dash or pipe)
- Site name: company name, used in titles
Search Appearance → Content Types: For each content type (Posts, Pages, Products, CPT) configure:
- Show in search results: Yes/No (hide policy pages, thank-you, etc.)
- SEO title template:
%%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%% - Meta description template:
%%excerpt%%
Search Appearance → Taxonomies:
For categories and tags: configure visibility. Tags with 1–2 posts—hide (noindex).
Search Appearance → Archives: Author archives—hide if single author. Date archives—hide.
Sitemap
Yoast automatically generates sitemap at https://site.com/sitemap_index.xml. Includes: posts sitemap, pages sitemap, categories sitemap.
Exclude individual posts or pages from sitemap: in post editor → Yoast SEO metabox → Advanced → Allow search engines to show this Post in search results: No.
Register sitemap in Google Search Console.
Schema.org Markup
Yoast automatically adds structured data. For organization:
Yoast SEO → Search Appearance → Schema → Organization Type: choose type (LocalBusiness, Restaurant, MedicalBusiness, etc.). Specify logo, address, phone for LocalBusiness.
WooCommerce Setup (Yoast SEO + Yoast WooCommerce)
Install Yoast WooCommerce SEO add-on ($79/year):
- Adds Product schema with price, availability, rating
- Configures breadcrumbs for product pages
- Excludes cart/checkout pages from indexing
Breadcrumbs
// Breadcrumbs output in theme template
if (function_exists('yoast_breadcrumb')) {
yoast_breadcrumb('<nav class="breadcrumbs" aria-label="breadcrumb">', '</nav>');
}
Setup: Yoast SEO → Search Appearance → Breadcrumbs → enable.
Custom Meta for Content Types
// Override title for custom content type
add_filter('wpseo_title', function (string $title): string {
if (is_singular('product')) {
$product = wc_get_product(get_the_ID());
return sprintf('%s — buy for %s ₽ | %s',
get_the_title(),
$product->get_price(),
get_bloginfo('name')
);
}
return $title;
});
Timeline
Basic Yoast SEO setup: meta tags, sitemap, schema—2–3 hours. Full setup with WooCommerce add-on and custom templates—4–6 hours.