YOAST SETTINGS
You can break Yoast down into 3 steps: configuring the settings, creating a keyword list, and optimizing content. We’ll configure Yoast and make on-page SEO suggestions so you can create perfectly optimized pages.
- Settings configuration
- Research focus keywords
- Analyze keyword competition
- High opportunity keyword list
- On-page SEO recommendations
GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
Once Search Console is setup, we’ll make some basic optimizations like submitting your sitemap to Google, Bing, and Yandex. We’ll go over broken URLs, redirects, and any errors in your Search Console report.
- Sitemap submission
- Analytics (rankings + CTR)
- Crawl errors (broken pages)
- Mobile, security, sitemap errors
- International targeting (hreflang tags)
CLICK-THROUGH RATES
Learn which pages have low CTR and how to optimize them so more people click your results. Snippets are literally the forefront of your SEO, and we’ll do everything we can to provide you with the right enhancements.
- Permalinks
- Breadcrumbs
- Rich snippets
- Publish dates for blog posts
- SEO titles + meta descriptions
FAQ RICH SNIPPETS
Google released inclusion of FAQ rich snippets which makes your snippets stand out even more. If you’re not using them and want to, we will install the FAQ rich snippets plugin and show you how to add your FAQs.
- Recently released
- Easy-to-use plugin
- Can increase your CTRs
- Makes snippets stand out
- Results can be monitored
SERVER RESPONSE TIME
If you have a slow server response time in Google PageSpeed Insights, lightening the load on your server can make your website faster while saving on hosting costs. Google suggests a server response time of <200ms.
- Adding Cloudflare
- Offload to other CDNs
- Keeping the database clean
- Optimizing high CPU plugins
- Blocking unwanted bots from site
FOCUS KEYWORD RESEARCH
Guessing keywords doesn’t work. We use tools like Google Autocomplete, Ahrefs, and competitor websites to create a list of data-driven keywords. These are used to optimize your current content, or create new content.
- Send us your ideas
- Long-tail keywords
- Competitor keywords
- Keyword competition research
- Keyword list + competition score
GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Get actionable recommendations based on your data, like which pages have poor bounce rates and average time on page. If you want to know specific metrics, get in touch with us. Our team will have their certification soon.
- Exclude your IP from GA
- Suggestions based on your data
- Top pages that need improvement
- Identifying your “typical audience”
- Setting up scheduled email reports
LINK OPPORTUNITIES
Links are still the #1 factor of SEO. We’ll identify linking opportunities based on your keywords, content, and competitors. We also worked with a team of white-hat link builders if you would like a link building campaign.
- List of websites to get links from
- High trust score, low spam score
- Relevant websites in your industry
- Existing spammy links to your site
- A template to reach out to bloggers
FEATURED SNIPPETS
Featured snippets highlight your content in Google and awards you 2 results on the first page (what they call the “number 0” result). This can easily double traffic to that page, and we can help you optimize for those snippets.
- 3 types of featured snippets
- Gives you a “number 0” result
- Adding an HTML table of content
- Make items in your TOC actionable
- Question keywords with concise info
PUBLISH DATES
Adding publish dates to blog posts makes your content look fresh and can significantly increase click-through rates. This is done by adding post modified dates to your posts, then enabling publish dates in your snippets.
- Date in snippet preview
- Adding post modified dates
- Updating posts to keep freshness
- Keeping track of outdated content
- Automatically refreshing to current day
ON-PAGE SEO
There’s more to it than Yoast green lights. We can help you add an HTML table of contents, optimize images to format on Facebook + Twitter, add FAQ rich snippets, and disable unused plugins from loading on the page.
- Align keywords with content
- Permalink structure (if needed)
- Optimizing click-through rates
- Creating an HTML table of contents
- Items from my on-page SEO checklist
SPEED OPTIMIZATION
Striving for that 100% report? We’ve done it for our own website and can get yours in the right direction. However, most people prefer to hire us for speed optimization as it’s own separate service since they just want it done.
- Hosting migrations
- Cache plugin configuration
- Cloudflare + CDN configuration
- Plugins, images, external scripts
- Items from our WordPress speed guide
RICH SNIPPETS
Enhance your search results and increase click-through rates with rich snippets. Depending on which rich snippet type(s) is applicable to your site, we’ll show you how to markup pages using a rich snippet plugin.
- FAQ rich snippets
- Event rich snippets
- Recipe rich snippets
- Review rich snippets
- Other types of rich snippets
LOCAL SEO / CITATIONS
Local SEO has it’s own set of ranking factors. We’ll help you find localized keywords and create geo-targeted pages, then optimize your citations (online profiles) like Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, and Superpages.
- Google My Business
- Local keyword suggestions
- Geo-targeted landing pages
- Reviews + NAP consistency strategy
- Citation problems + new opportunities
KEYWORD RANKINGS
You might have a few high priority keywords you’re ranking for, but not on page 1. If you would like us to hyper-focus our attention on those, let us know and we will customize the SEO audit according to those keywords.
- Send us your priority keywords
- We’ll customize the audit for them
- Should ideally be long-tail (specific)
- Possibility of other keyword variations
- Make sure you choose good keywords
If you’ve read my guides, you know my instructions are solid.
I can’t thank you enough for the awesome post. I have always pondered over the ‘Good’, ‘Ok’ and ‘Poor’ ratings of Yoast. Most times I tried to stuff keywords just to turn that orange to green and I regret it now ! This post changed my perspective on how to use it and I will be using it more intelligently.
Arpit
Wow, you certainly over delivered on this SEO Yoast out line, certainly needed to tweak some things in my previous settings. Great, great stuff my friend, and I will join your list. Found your YouTube video, but seen that you had an updated version on this blog, glad I came across this blog. All the best.
Ralpheal
Thank you Tom! After hiring twice someone to do this job without a good result I decided to to it by myself. This would not have been possible without your guidance. From Pagespeed 88%, Yslow 77% and page load time 6,4s to Pagespeed 96%, Yslow 94% and page load time 2,5s!
Bas
Just finished ALL your recommendations:
– I went from 6-8s Loading Speed…
… to ***0.5s** !?!Amazing is an understatement…
Thanks Again :)
Retro Man
Specific Things We Can Help With
- Keyword list for services
- Keyword list for blog posts
- Keyword ideas from competitors
- Analyzing keyword competition
- Optimizing existing content
- Creating new, optimized content
- Configuring the Yoast SEO settings
- Migrating your SEO Plugin to Yoast
- Optimizing content for social sharing
- Optimizing images for SEO / site speed
- Creating an HTML table of contents
- Crafting article (blog post) titles
- Reducing bounce rates
- Improving clickthrough rates
- Identifying duplicate content
- Fixing duplicate content issues
- Website speed recommendations
- Resizing images to fit dimensions
- Setting up Google Analytics
- Excluding IP addresses from Analytics
- Segmenting data/metrics in Analytics
- Using Analytics to improve website
- Setting up Google Search Console
- Submitting sitemap to Search Console
- Identifying crawl errors (broken pages)
- Permalinks, redirects, broken links
- Targeting SEO to a specific country
- Identifying mobile + security issues
- Google My Business optimization
- Fixing your top 15 citations
- Deleting duplicate citations
- Getting you listed on more citations
- Configuring Yoast’s Local SEO Plugin
- Sending you ongoing SEO reports
- Answering specific questions you have
- Building a long-term SEO partnership
How It Works
COLLABORATION
Send us your website URL and any other important details about your SEO through the contact form. Next, we’ll collaborate through email or schedule a phone call.
ENTRY AUDIT: $900
For smaller websites that need to get in the right direction. This audit is more of an SEO strategy since you’re in the beginning stages of SEO. Since most people don’t do SEO right the first time, this will make sure you do.
AUDIT
The audit is about 10-30 pages in a Google Doc depending on which plan you choose. It is not created using automatic software – it is hand-typed and personalized for your site.
MID LEVEL AUDIT: $3k+
For established websites that aren’t getting results you were hoping for. You already have a decent amount of content, but it’s not ranking and you need our expertise to show you what is wrong, and how to get on page 1.
WALKTHROUGH
We will walk you through the audit step-by-step and answer questions, making sure you are 100% satisfied and comfortable making changes. The audit is your SEO strategy.
PRO AUDIT: $5k+
For larger websites and those committed to carrying out a full SEO strategy. This SEO audit encompasses nearly everything from keywords to on-page SEO, links, speed, citations, and fixing errors in Search Console.
Talk To Cole
Cole handles all WordPress SEO audits and is based out of Newport, California. His email is cole@onlinemediamasters.com. Please include your website and any specific things you need help with in regards to WordPress SEO or speed optimization.