Yoast SEO Settings: WordPress Setup and Verification

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Setting up Yoast SEO in WordPress? Start with the settings that affect what search engines can find and how your pages are described. The old configuration wizard screenshots in this article referred to an earlier Yoast interface, including a discontinued Google+ integration. This guide uses Yoast’s current settings structure and explains where to make decisions rather than promising a ranking boost from turning everything green.

Scope: the instructions below are based on Yoast’s published documentation, not a test of every theme or SEO configuration. Menu labels may change as the plugin evolves.

Verify output after changing SEO settings

Open a representative public post, category archive and page while logged out. Inspect their title, meta description, canonical URL and robots directives. Then inspect the XML sitemap and confirm it lists the URLs you intend to make discoverable.

Use one primary SEO plugin for overlapping metadata tasks. Running Yoast and Rank Math together without a deliberate migration can create duplicate tags or conflicting settings. The instructions here explain Yoast; they are not a recommendation to add it beside an existing working Rank Math setup.

Keep descriptions specific to each page and use a clear primary topic. A green plugin indicator is not evidence that the page satisfies search intent. For link handling, see nofollow and sponsored attributes.

Your first five checks

  1. Run first-time configuration.
  2. Set the correct person or organization details.
  3. Review which content types can appear in search.
  4. Check categories, tags and archive usefulness individually.
  5. Confirm XML sitemaps and inspect important pages in Search Console.

Open Yoast’s current setup guide →

1. Install the plugin and complete first-time configuration

Install Yoast SEO from WordPress.org using Plugins → Add New. Then open Yoast SEO → General → First-time configuration if your version shows that route. According to Yoast’s setup instructions, this process covers SEO data optimization, site representation, social profiles and preferences. It is not the old twelve-screen wizard shown in 2018 tutorials.

2. Set your site’s identity accurately

Under Yoast SEO → Settings → Site representation, identify the site as a person or an organization and provide accurate names, logo or avatar, and relevant social profiles. Yoast uses these inputs in structured data. Adding them is not a guarantee that Google will display a knowledge panel or particular rich result.

Check Site representation fields →

3. Review site features and XML sitemaps

Site features include SEO and readability analysis, schema-related features and XML sitemaps. Check which features are already enabled and whether another plugin generates the same sitemap or metadata. An XML sitemap helps search engines discover URLs; it does not guarantee indexing. Keep your staging site out of public search and verify that the live site is indexable before launch.

4. Decide which content types belong in search

Navigate to Yoast SEO → Settings → Content types and inspect Posts, Pages and any custom post types. Choose suitable title templates and descriptions, and decide which types deserve searchable public URLs. For example, a useful product or portfolio entry may merit indexing, while a private or thin internal record may not. Do not bulk-noindex content just because it uses a custom post type.

See Content types settings →

5. Review categories, tags and archives separately

The previous version of this guide said to noindex all categories. That is not a universal SEO rule. A curated category archive can be valuable to readers and searchers; an empty tag archive or near-identical archive may not be. Review archive quality, internal linking and index settings individually. Yoast’s category and tag documentation explains the available controls.

6. Write useful page titles and descriptions

Use the plugin’s post-level SEO panel to describe the page’s actual content. A sensible title identifies the topic and why the page helps; a description summarizes it without inventing deals or claiming first-hand tests you did not perform. Search engines can rewrite displayed titles and snippets, so a good plugin preview is a writing aid, not a guarantee of appearance.

7. Check social sharing and breadcrumbs

Set an appropriate social preview image and inspect how the page looks when shared. If breadcrumbs are useful for your site’s hierarchy, enable them in the plugin and make sure your theme actually displays them. Avoid assuming turning on a setting inserts visible breadcrumbs everywhere.

8. Validate the result outside Yoast

  1. Open a public article and inspect its title, canonical and robots directives.
  2. Open the XML sitemap and verify it includes the intended public pages.
  3. Use Google Search Console to check indexing and queries; it is a separate Google tool, not the old Yoast authorization-code screen.
  4. Review site content for accuracy, original insight and useful comparisons. Green plugin indicators alone do not establish quality or rankings.

For an alternative workflow, compare Rank Math and Yoast SEO. If you manage affiliate articles, also read Google’s guidance on substantive reviews and mark compensated outbound links appropriately.