What is off-page SEO?

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Off-page SEO is everything you do outside of your website to help it rank better in the SERPs. On-page SEO focuses on content, site structure, and technical improvements, but off-page SEO looks at building credibility from outside. There are many ways to get there, from link building to social media to earning those coveted brand mentions.

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What does off-page SEO mean to you? 

With off-page SEO, you try to gain trust and credibility for yourself or your business. A big part of this strategy concerns link building, which involves getting other websites to link back to yours. Doing this shows search engines that your content is helpful and worth looking at. 

Remember that it’s about the quality of links, instead of the quantity. A few high-quality links from trusted websites will help more than lots of links from low-authority ones. But links aren’t the only signals that matter. 

Mentions of your brand name or domain from other websites also help build authority. Even without direct links, consistent references in articles and forums show that people are engaging with your brand.  

Social media builds on that exposure. Sharing content where your audience spends time can boost visibility, which in turn can lead to more mentions, traffic, and backlinks. 

Local SEO is another area of off-page SEO. Using tools like Google Business Profile and getting reviews helps your business appear in location-based searches. It’s especially useful for service businesses or companies with physical locations. 

You can also experiment with creating content for different audiences to naturally attract attention. Reusing content in different formats, like videos, blog posts, or infographics, keeps your reach wide. You can also work with experts or influencers, as these can introduce your brand to new audiences and help build visibility. 

Why off-page SEO matters for your site 

Search engines want searchers to see trustworthy content. With off-page SEO, you can prove your site is dependable, and the quickest way to do this is when others refer to or recommend it. Good links from strong websites act like references, building confidence in your content’s value. 

Even unlinked brand mentions help. When your name keeps coming up across the web, algorithms pick up on it. A strong digital presence makes a difference, whether that’s engaging with others online, through media coverage, partnerships, or content sharing.  

While not directly tied to rankings, increasing your online visibility can lead to more searches, shares, and links, which can lead to increased traffic. 

All these efforts support the broader goal of demonstrating that your website is run by real people with knowledge and experience. They help search engines judge how much they can rely on your content. 

Link building is a big part of off-page SEO 

Links from other websites tell search engines that your content is worth showing. That’s why link building is one of the key parts of off-page SEO, but not every link is equal. 

Search engines find links from high-authority, topic-relevant sites more important. Getting those kinds of links usually means creating content that people want to reference, such as guides, studies, or tools. 

Outreach plays a role, too. You can connect with other websites, offer guest posts, or share original insights. Over time, this builds relationships and can lead to higher-quality backlinks. 

PR and content marketing also help, whether you contribute expert opinions to news outlets or create something worth citing. It’s more effective than mass emailing or buying links, the latter of which you shouldn’t do anyway. 

Part of your job should be managing your existing links. SEO tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush can monitor broken or lost links and help fix or replace them. 

If you are successful, link building can be more than just a tactic. It can show that others recognize your site as trustworthy, and that recognition, measured through linking, can improve rankings and drive traffic. 

Social media’s impact 

Social media doesn’t directly affect ranking, but it helps people discover and share your content. That kind of exposure can lead to links, searches, and increased brand familiarity. 

Platforms like LinkedIn, X, Reddit, and Instagram let you speak to your audience and encourage interaction. When people find value in what you publish, they tend to share it or come back to it. 

In time, these interactions build brand recognition. While this might not have a clear SEO metric attached, it does support and improve your visibility. Collaborating with influencers expands your audience even more. If they share something you’ve created, it can get picked up and linked to by others. 

Video is playing an increasingly important role in this. Research from BrightLocal shows that many U.S. consumers are drawn to video content directly from businesses discussing their products or services. Over a third of consumers prefer this type of video, even more than those shared by friends, influencers, or typical social media reviewers. Additionally, 31% of individuals find value in watching videos from regular social media users. 

Use insights from these platforms to spot what your audience cares about. That helps shape better content, which can trigger organic shares and mentions. 

Local SEO as an off-page SEO strategy 

For locally oriented businesses, off-page SEO means being easy to find and well-reviewed locally. Start with accurate business info across online directories, so make sure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent. Search engines use this to match your business to search results. 

Your Google Business Profile needs regular attention, so photos, updates, and timely responses to reviews all help. In that same BrightLocal research, 89% of respondents say they expect merchants and business owners to reply to all types of reviews. 

Encourage satisfied customers to leave public reviews. New reviews show search engines and potential visitors that your business stays active and involved. A complete, active listing stands out to local customers and improves your chances of appearing in map results. 

Try building links from other local businesses or organizations. These carry weight in local SEO. Sponsoring events or working with local publications can lead to mentions and coverage. 

Being visible in your area is not just about what local content you have on your site, but also about how your local audience views your business online. 

Carefully replying to your reviews manages your online reputation

Expertise and trust 

With off-page SEO, you have many opportunities to show your expertise. Sharing your knowledge can build trust, which in itself can create useful input for search engines. 

Guest posting on reputable websites reaches people already interested in what you have to say. If those sites link back, it’s a plus for SEO, except when shady things happen, of course. 

You can also take part in forums and Q&A sites. Offering useful, relevant insights gets your name out and sometimes leads to mentions from others who find your content helpful. 

Podcasts, webinars, and speaking events work the same way. Participating in discussions in your space helps establish expertise and can result in new traffic or backlinks from media coverage or event promotions. 

Collaborating with other professionals through research or shared content introduces your work to their audience and can lead to more recognition and links over time. 

You shouldn’t just focus on creating more content, but try to actively lead in your field. If your business is perceived as the go-to place, this builds trust with both your audience and search engines. 

How off-page SEO impacts AI-driven search 

Search is changing quicker than ever. Beyond the classic search results, people are now using AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and chat assistants like ChatGPT to find answers. These tools use large language models (LLMs) to pull information from across the web, and off-page SEO plays a role in how your content shows up. 

When your brand or website appears on high-quality, trusted sites, it increases the chances that AI tools recognize your content as reliable. Structured citations, strong backlinks, and consistent brand mentions all help LLMs “see” your site as a good source. This can lead to your content influencing or being featured in AI-generated summaries and answers. 

Authority, trust, and topic alignment are all important. The more your content is referenced or quoted by reputable sources, the more likely it is to appear in conversational search results or be used to answer common questions. Find out how to optimize content for AI LLM comprehension using Yoast’s tools.

Off-page SEO now supports not just link-driven visibility, but also discoverability in AI search and chat tools. It helps improve your overall presence, so it doesn’t matter whether someone uses Google, social media, or an AI chatbot to find information about you. 

Off-page SEO helps widen the scope 

Off-page SEO works together with on-page work to strengthen your website’s reputation across the web. First, it helps your users, but it also helps search engines and AI tools recognize your content as trustworthy and relevant. 

Whether you’re earning backlinks, encouraging brand mentions, engaging on social platforms, or building local visibility, each off-page signal adds to your authority. Collaborations, reviews, and expert participation show real experience behind your site. 

These strategies now also influence how content surfaces in AI-generated results. That means off-page SEO doesn’t just support traditional rankings, but it also helps your brand stay discoverable in new, AI-powered ways. 

The more consistent, trusted, and present your brand is across the web, the more likely it is to show up wherever people are searching, even if they’re not using a classic search engine. Build trust, stay visible, and let your off-page efforts work across search formats, now and into the future. 

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Mid-year SEO checkup: What’s working, what’s not? 

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Midway through the year is a good time to see how your SEO is holding up. Search habits shift, rankings change, and AI is reshaping how people find information. A mid-year SEO checkup isn’t about starting over. It’s a check-in to spot what’s working, what’s not, and what to adjust going forward.

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Traffic and rankings: What’s changed since January? 

Start your mid-year SEO review by checking how your site is performing, not just on the surface level, but deeper down. Look beyond overall traffic and into individual pages and search queries. What’s still working? What’s losing visibility? The goal is to spot slow shifts early, before they turn into bigger problems. 

Organic traffic trends 

Start with a traffic check in GA4. Compare your organic numbers from January to now, then narrow in on which landing pages have gained or lost ground. After that, use Search Console to see how impressions and clicks line up with the shifts. Look across different devices and locations, as you might notice mobile traffic dropping while desktop stays level. 

As you review, think about what’s changed. Are certain types of content sliding? Is the homepage steady while deeper articles get less visibility? Has something in the layout or search results changed how people interact with your site? These patterns will help you figure out where to adjust. 

Keyword movement and SERP features 

GA4 won’t show you how keywords are doing. For that, use Search Console or Semrush, if you want a more detailed view. It gives you a clearer view of how your top queries are performing and whether their positions are trending up or down. Focus on terms sitting somewhere between positions five and fifteen. These are close to the edge and can shift either way with the smallest change. 

Keep an eye out for new queries your site is now appearing for. Also, check if your content is showing up in features like video carousels, People Also Ask, or AI Overviews. These placements affect clicks, even if rankings stay flat. 

If CTR is dropping, it might be because the answer’s already visible in the search result. That’s common with broad questions or terms that Google can answer directly with a snippet or summary. Some of these shifts started with recent algorithm updates. If you saw a change around that time, that might explain it. 

Being on page one isn’t always enough now. What matters more is how your page shows up and whether it stands out next to everything else. 

Where’s the gap? 

Ranking alone doesn’t mean a page is performing well. Some are still showing up in search but aren’t pulling their weight anymore. Take a look at your top pages from Q1 and compare them to what’s performing now. If something dropped, check for changes. Did the URL structure shift? Was the copy updated? Did anything break during a migration or redesign? 

Segmenting traffic helps spot patterns during your mid-year SEO checkup. Blog content might be holding steady while product pages quietly slip. Or maybe a location page that once performed well is now buried. Sorting traffic this way makes it easier to see where things are improving and where they’ve gone quiet. 

And don’t ignore branded versus non-branded search. If branded terms are down, it may reflect lower awareness. If non-branded terms fell off, that usually points to stronger competition or a shift in search demand. Either way, those are signs to act on, not ignore. 

What to do next in your mid-year SEO review 

As you review performance, note content that’s lost traffic and look at how it aligns with current keyword trends. Some pages may need updates, while others might be better merged or repurposed. If certain pages are still ranking but getting few clicks, flag those, too, as there may be issues with title tags, metadata, or how the content is framed.  

Also, look for signs of new search interest or shifts in consumer behavior that are driving unexpected traffic. Those insights can help guide your Q3 and Q4 planning. A detailed mid-year SEO checkup now helps prevent bigger issues later. Small drops or mismatches in intent can add up over time, especially if you miss the early signs. Use your data to make informed decisions, not just to complete a report. 

Audit and refresh your content 

Not all content holds its value over time. Some pages stop performing due to outdated content, and others never performed well to begin with. A mid-year SEO audit helps you figure out what’s worth updating, combining, or removing altogether. 

Focus first on content that’s lost traffic or rankings. Use Google Search Console to spot declines in impressions and clicks, then compare that with GA4 engagement metrics. If a page ranks but no longer drives real value, or doesn’t match what users are looking for, it likely needs attention. 

Google wants people-first content. So if your site relies on thin tutorials, vaguely rewritten definitions, or pages written more for search engines than real users, those pages may be dragging down your overall SEO performance. 

When refreshing content, lead with clarity. Remove fluff, update stats, and make sure your answer matches the search intent. Don’t just rewrite, make the page genuinely better. In some cases, the fix might be cutting it entirely. If a page hasn’t contributed value or activity recently, rethink why it’s there. 

Diversify and focus on video 

Search results are more visual than they used to be. Video clips now show up in carousels, featured snippets, and AI responses. If your site is still relying on just blog posts, you’re missing opportunities to be seen. 

Short videos, especially how-tos, demos, and explainers, can increase visibility on Google, YouTube, and Discover. They also help with engagement, keeping visitors on your site longer. 

Start by turning high-performing articles into videos. Post them to YouTube, embed them on your site, and add basic schema markup. Just a few clear, well-structured videos can increase your presence in search results and help reach users who don’t want to read through long text. 

Video doesn’t need to be expensive or overly produced. What matters is that it’s useful, focused, and easy to watch. During your mid-year SEO checkup, you might need to improve your video strategy.

Adapting to AI and zero-click searches 

More users are getting answers directly on Google, without clicking anything. With AI Overviews becoming more common across search results, especially for question-based queries, your content needs to work even when there’s no obvious incentive to visit your page. 

That means clear structure, clean markup, and highly readable content that makes it easy for Google to understand the core answer quickly. Place key information high on the page and use a strong title, meta description, and subheadings. Organize your content with scannable sections so it’s more likely to appear in featured results. 

Don’t ignore FAQ or how-to formats, as these can still help Google identify your page’s purpose. Structured data reinforces clarity for both traditional search and AI-generated summaries. 

Zero-click doesn’t mean zero opportunity. Content that’s referenced in AI answers or shown in SERP features can strengthen brand visibility, build trust, and lead to familiar users returning via other channels later. 

What AI Mode means for search visibility 

In addition to AI Overviews, Google is adding a feature called AI Mode. This is a new search experience built for more complex, multi-part queries. It pulls information from several sources and delivers a conversational response with helpful links. 

Instead of listing links, AI Mode breaks down the query, runs multiple related searches, and returns one detailed answer. There’s less space for traditional rankings, but a chance for useful, well-structured content to be included. If your impressions are rising but clicks aren’t, your content may already appear in these summaries. 

While AI Mode is still rolling out, it shows where search is likely headed. And it’s not just Google, as tools like ChatGPT (Search) and Perplexity show that AI-powered discovery is already expanding. As this grows, you might have to rethink how you see content. Learn how to optimize for LLMs using Yoast SEO’s tools.

Refresh your keyword strategy 

Midway through the year is a good time to check if your keyword strategy still aligns with how people are searching. Start with Search Console and any SEO tools you use, and look for shifts in rankings, drops in CTR, or signs that user intent has changed. Some keywords may still rank but deliver less value, while others may be gaining traction. 

Take another look at the SERPs. Are AI Overviews, snippets, or video results pushing your links down? If your content no longer fits the query, it may need a rewrite or a new format. 

Also consider what’s surfaced since Q1. Seasonal queries, comparison searches, and longer questions might now be worth targeting. Even if they bring less volume, they often convert better. Use what you find to adjust your focus for the second half of the year.

Technical SEO clean up

Great content alone isn’t enough if your site’s technical side is holding it back. A mid-year SEO checkup is a good time to inspect the foundation. See how your site loads, how it’s crawled, and whether pages are being properly indexed. 

Start with speed. Use Google’s Core Web Vitals tools to review page load performance. Fix common issues like oversized images, unnecessary scripts, or layout shifts that hurt usability. These things don’t just impact rankings; they also affect how users experience your site, especially on mobile. 

Look at crawlability. Search Console can show you which pages aren’t being indexed, where crawl issues are popping up, or if valid content is being skipped. If strong content still isn’t performing, this could be why. 

In your mid-year SEO checkup, you should also see your internal linking. Important pages should be easy to reach. If key articles or landing pages are buried under layers of clicks or orphaned entirely, Google’s crawlers (and readers) may never find them. 

Finally, check out your structured data. Schema still gives your content a better chance of being understood by search engines. 

A light technical review every few months helps keep things healthy. You don’t need to fix everything at once, but leaving small issues unsolved can turn into long-term performance headaches. 

Monitor competitors and trends 

Search isn’t static, and neither are your competitors. Even if your strategy hasn’t changed much since Q1, theirs might have. A mid-year SEO checkup is a smart idea to see who’s gaining ground, what kind of content is outperforming yours, and what shifts are happening in your space as a whole. 

Start by checking who’s around you in the search results, especially for your highest-value keywords. Are the same domains showing up? Has a competitor overtaken you with fresher content, a better format, or a new angle? Sometimes it’s less about Google’s algorithm and more about someone else simply doing it better. 

Use ranking and backlink tools to identify newer content that’s climbing. What’s different? Is it shorter, clearer, or more visual? Has it earned links or been widely shared? These observations can shape not just what you publish next, but how you structure and present it. 

Whether you’re in an aggressive or stable position, awareness is part of strategy. Without reviewing what others are doing, you don’t have a clear view of what winning looks like right now or how quickly that picture is changing. 

Set clear goals for the rest of the year 

After reviewing performance, updating content, tightening technical issues, and refreshing keywords, the next step in your mid-year SEO checkup is setting focused goals for the rest of the year. 

Keep them specific. A goal like “get more traffic” is too vague to drive clear action. Use what you’ve learned, whether that’s from rankings, audit results, or crawl reports, to define outcomes that are tied to your time, resources, and business needs. 

Look for low-effort wins and long-term improvements. Fix pages that rank but don’t get clicks. Update content that dropped after an algorithm change. Strengthen internal links to help strong posts on the edge of page one move up. These small changes can improve results with less time than starting from scratch. 

If AI features are reducing your traffic on top queries, consider focusing more on visibility than clicks. That might mean leaning into content formats that stand out in summaries, like FAQs or short-form video. 

You can also set process goals: publish more consistently (maybe using workflow improvements from Yoast SEO’s Google Docs add-on), clean up old content, reduce crawl waste, or make reporting easier. These are just as important as traffic-focused targets, and they’re often easier to maintain over time. 

Your goals don’t need to be dramatic. Often, refining what already exists brings more gains than chasing something new. Revisit your targets regularly and track your progress without overthinking it. Most importantly, stay flexible heading into Q4, when search activity and competition both tend to spike.

Yoast SEO for Google Docs add-on SEO analysis feature
Workflow improvements also help, for instance, by integrating Google Docs and Yoast SEO

Do your mid-year SEO checkup

Search has changed a lot since January, and it’s not slowing down. A mid-year SEO strategy review gives you the chance to course-correct, refocus your efforts, and keep momentum going into the back half of the year. 

You don’t need to overhaul everything. Just fix what’s broken, improve what matters, and make better decisions with what you know now. Stay consistent, track what shifts, and keep building. 

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Redesigning onboarding for impact: A service design approach 

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First impressions stick, especially in UX. When we saw that new users of our Yoast SEO for Shopify app were skipping key steps or dropping off early, we knew our onboarding wasn’t working. Using journey mapping and service blueprints, we redesigned the experience to be faster, clearer, and more supportive from the start. Here’s how small, well-timed changes made a big difference. 

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Launching an improved onboarding experience 

We recently launched a redesigned onboarding experience to help Shopify merchants set up for success. Behind that update is a bigger story: how thoughtful UX decisions, team-wide alignment, and service design methods reshaped the user experience. And we mean that in the broadest sense, from discovery to giving users the feeling that the app is working for them and helping them succeed. 

In this interview, we spoke with our UX designer, Tom Ottjes, who led the project to unpack that process. His answers will offer a closer look at the problems we needed to solve, the tools he used to communicate across teams, and the omnichannel changes that made the biggest difference. 

Before you start reading, here’s a quick animation showing the various parts of the service blueprint we worked on. Of course, there’s much more, but we cannot show you everything.

From patterns to priorities 

Before redesigning a single screen, the team needed a way to understand and communicate what wasn’t working. They needed to uncover what had to change to fix the experience for people in a way that also helped us achieve our company goals. That’s where service design tools, particularly customer journey maps and service blueprints, came in. 

Customer journey mapping helped visualize what users were experiencing from discovery through installation and first use. It highlights not only the steps customers take but also where they become confused, hesitant, or drop off. Based on support conversations, surveys, and analytics, the journey map revealed several issues. One of those issues was a lack of early guidance, which led to missed configuration steps, among other things. 

Before we moved on to action, we wanted to define success by determining KPIs. This is an essential step. It will help shape the direction of the service and experience you will be designing. Instead of viewing onboarding as just a UI problem, the service blueprint mapped every user action alongside the systems, processes, and people behind them. This included content, customer support, notifications, and working within Shopify’s own platform constraints. 

Because it connects what’s visible to the user with what happens behind the scenes, a service blueprint became central to the project. It gave every team, from UX to development, support, and marketing, a shared reference point. By mapping each phase as its own blueprint, the team could prioritize quick wins while keeping an eye on a longer-term onboarding vision. 

It turned a complex, cross-functional issue into something everyone could contribute to. The blueprint helped make improvements easier to design, build, and test in smaller, clearer parts. 

A real example: Turning uncertainty into reassurance for larger stores 

One of the more surprising and important insights from our service blueprinting process was about scale. We discovered that while the app felt fast and responsive for smaller Shopify stores, larger ones had a very different experience. For shops with tens of thousands of products and pages, the initial processing and indexing step could take anywhere from several minutes to a few hours. 

The problem? We weren’t telling users that. Small stores would see their data reflected almost instantly. Large stores would land on a blank dashboard, with no indication that the system was still working in the background. From the user’s perspective, it looked like nothing was happening. 

We addressed this with a series of small but intentional changes. First, we introduced a proper loading state with messaging acknowledging what was happening. Then, we added an email field to that screen, giving users the option to be notified when setup was complete. When they enter their email, they receive a confirmation message once everything is ready. 

It’s a small detail, but one that shifts how the experience feels. Instead of confusion or doubt, users now get feedback, a sense of transparency, and a way to re-engage later. And for us, it’s a concrete example of why aligning the front-end and back-end through service design actually matters. 

Meet the designer

Meet the UX designer: Tom Ottjes

This interview is with Tom Ottjes, one of Yoast’s UX designers. He led the onboarding redesign for our Shopify app and was co-responsible for designing the Yoast AI features. With several years of experience working across product and marketing, his approach centers on translating user behavior into actionable design. Much of his work focuses on simplifying complex flows, improving user guidance, and helping teams understand the customer journey. 

Tom, what problem were you seeing that made this project a priority? 

With our Yoast SEO for Shopify app, we strive to deliver real, tangible value to our users. That starts with understanding their experience from the moment they install the app. Through a combination of user surveys, interviews, support request analysis, and product analytics, we began to see clear patterns emerge. 

There were three main friction points we kept hearing and seeing: 

  1. A lack of guidance: Many users simply didn’t know how to use the app effectively. They installed it but weren’t sure what to do next to optimize their store. 
  2. Unclear value delivery: We noticed that crucial steps, like completing the ‘Site representation’ settings, which unlock immediate SEO benefits, were often skipped. That told us users weren’t seeing the connection between setup actions and real results.  
  3. Hesitation to engage with the free trial: Users were wary of testing the app, unsure of what the trial included or whether it was truly risk-free. 

All of these insights pointed to one thing: the onboarding experience wasn’t doing its job. It wasn’t guiding, reassuring, or demonstrating value early enough. We visualized all these issues in a detailed customer journey map, helping us to zoom out and see broader patterns. We found different user types, where they dropped off, and what confused them. That map became a key alignment tool and helped us frame the onboarding redesign as a top-priority project. 

What would success look like for you from the user’s perspective? 

From the user’s point of view, success meant feeling confident and supported from the very first interaction with our app. We wanted users to land in the onboarding flow and immediately understand two things: how the app can help them improve their Shopify store’s SEO, and what steps to take first to see results. 

That meant offering a smoother, more intuitive experience. An experience that clearly communicated value upfront, provided improved guidance around initial setup steps, and highlighted key features. It should also assure users that trying the app was safe and worthwhile. 

First, we wanted to help users quickly understand the full value of the app. In addition, we wanted users to complete key onboarding actions such as filling out their ‘Site representation’ settings and exploring core features relevant to their store. Emotionally, we aimed for a sense of clarity, trust, and motivation to continue. 

Ultimately, if a user could say, ‘I know exactly what this app does, what I need to do, and I can already see it working for me,’ then we knew we were on the right track. 

The new onboarding helps introduce the app and guides the user through the set up

Can you explain your service design process and how it helped the teams? 

After mapping the current onboarding journey and identifying the key pain points, we knew we didn’t just need a better UI. We needed a more holistic service experience. That’s where service blueprinting came in. 

We started by defining clear KPIs to measure the impact of our changes, such as completion rates for critical onboarding steps, time to value, and feature discovery. These metrics gave us a shared definition of success and helped shape the direction of the user experience. 

Then we used the service blueprinting method to reimagine onboarding as a complete service. A service blueprint maps the relationships between people, processes, and touchpoints tied to a customer journey. It helped us visualize both what the user sees and everything happening behind the scenes to support that experience, from content strategy to customer support workflows to engineering requirements. 

This systems-level view was essential in aligning multiple teams, like UX, development, marketing, and support. Everyone could see how their work connected to the user’s experience and where coordination was needed. It also helped us identify internal gaps, inefficiencies, or dependencies early, so we could design around them. 

To move quickly and deliver value incrementally, we broke the optimized onboarding journey into phases, prioritizing what would have the most immediate impact for users. That approach lets us ship improvements faster while staying grounded in a long-term vision for the onboarding experience. 

We approached the whole effort using a service design mindset. We zoomed out to understand the system users interact with, not just the screens they see. Service blueprinting helped us take what users were experiencing (empathy and insight), identify internal blockers, and structure releases around clear hypotheses. It wasn’t just about delivering onboarding, but about improving the service behind it. 

How are you tracking whether it’s helping users get started faster? 

From the start, we knew that redesigning onboarding wasn’t just about launching something new. We wanted to prove it made a difference. So, we defined clear KPIs to measure the impact of our changes. To make this measurable, we built the tracking infrastructure needed to monitor user behavior at each step. 

But we didn’t stop at numbers. We also incorporated qualitative customer listening tools, things like in-app feedback, support conversations, and interviews. As we wanted to understand how users feel as they move through onboarding. 

Are there still improvements to make? 

Absolutely, because onboarding is never truly ‘finished.’ It’s an evolving experience, and we see it as a continuous opportunity to better support our users. 

The next phase of our optimized onboarding journey will focus on deepening the guidance we provide, helping users go beyond setup and start making more meaningful improvements to their store. We’re looking at how we can better surface insights, suggest next steps based on context, and empower users to unlock even more value with confidence. 

While I can’t share all the details just yet, I can say this: we’re not stopping at getting users through the door. We’re focused on helping them thrive once they’re inside. 

Good things are coming. As always, we’re listening closely to our users to make sure what we build truly meets their needs. 

Pro tips for getting started with service blueprinting 

Thinking of using service blueprinting in your own work? Here are a few things that helped us: 

  • Start with a real journey: Mapping is most useful when it’s grounded in actual user behavior. Use support data, interviews, and analytics to anchor the blueprint in real problems. 
  • Define what “success” means upfront: Before mapping, align your team on what outcomes you’re working toward (e.g., faster time to value, fewer drop-offs). 
  • Map front-end + back-end: Don’t just track what users see. Include internal systems, support workflows, engineering dependencies, and anything that influences the experience. 
  • Keep roles visible: Show which team is responsible for which process. It keeps conversations focused and collaboration smoother. 
  • Don’t overcomplicate: A blueprint doesn’t need to be a polished artifact. Start simple. The value is in getting teams aligned, not in how it looks. 

Blueprinting doesn’t replace good UX research or design, but it’s a powerful way to connect them to the broader experience. If you’re working on anything cross-functional, it’s absolutely worth trying. 

A shared understanding drives real change 

This project wasn’t just about shipping a new flow. We wanted to design with a clear, shared understanding of our users and the processes that support them. 

Our service blueprint turned out to be a great tool to align teams around a single goal: helping users quickly see the value of the Yoast SEO for Shopify app. Along the way, we uncovered friction, mapped dependencies, and built toward something more consistent, supportive, and effective. 

Thoughtful onboarding is the start of everything that follows. By making those early minutes feel clear, calm, and grounded in real outcomes, we’ve not only improved setup times and reached our KPIs but also changed how we work, design, and listen together. 

The work continues, focusing on feature onboarding, improved guidance, and even future WordPress experiences. Together, we’ll apply these lessons from now on. We’ll design by putting users first, build teamwork on transparency, and create experiences that guide, not just onboard. 

The post Redesigning onboarding for impact: A service design approach  appeared first on Yoast.

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Redesigned Shopify onboarding: thoughtful UX, real impact 

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Today we’ve launched a redesigned onboarding experience for Yoast SEO for Shopify, built to guide, support, and empower every user from the moment they install. Customer-centric marketers and designers know, first impressions matter, and thoughtful onboarding is the first step to long-term success. 

A new onboarding, designed with care 

We’ve simplified the setup process, removed unnecessary steps, and introduced a guided, narrative-style welcome experience that makes it easier to get started and harder to get stuck. 

Whether you’re new to SEO or scaling a large store, our goal is the same: help you feel confident from the first click. 

“We wanted users to land in the onboarding flow and immediately understand two things: how the app can help them improve their Shopify store’s SEO, and what steps to take first to see results.” Tom Ottjes, UX Designer at Yoast 

Behind the scenes: Service design in action 

This onboarding redesign isn’t just a UI refresh, it’s the result of a service design approach that included: 

  • Journey mapping based on real user behavior 
  • Cross-functional collaboration across UX, development, support and marketing using service blueprints
  • Strategic improvements to both front-end and back-end processes 

Want to learn how a single blueprint helped align our teams and reshape the onboarding experience? 

Read the full story behind the update: Redesigning onboarding for impact 

What’s next? 

We’re already working on the next phase of improvements designed to improve our customers’ experience, including smarter in-app guidance and contextual feature onboarding.   

Thanks to everyone who shared feedback along the way. Keep it coming, we’re listening, learning, and building better together.  

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10 tips to streamline your blog content workflow

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Content production seems quite simple, in principle. You develop an idea, write about it, do SEO checks, and click publish. Simple, right? It never turns out that way, especially when working with a team. Miscommunications, last-minute changes, and confusion about what needs to happen when. We’ve all been there! Try these ten tips to streamline your digital content workflow and eliminate much stress.

Table of contents

Before we start

Before we start, remember that the ‘perfect’ content workflow probably doesn’t exist. After all, every piece of content is unique, so a one-size-fits-all process is unlikely to produce the highest quality results. If your high-quality, unique content is taking forever to finish, you might struggle to meet deadlines or keep to a schedule. If that sounds like you or your organization, take a look at our tips and see how you can improve.

1. Start the process with clear goals

Whether you’re working alone or as part of a bigger team, it’s important to have a clear idea of all the steps involved and how long each step might take. Not every digital content process is the same. For instance, social media posts don’t need to be optimized for search engines, while blog posts targeting organic traffic do. Regardless of your end goal, the first step is always to start with clear goals.

Want to cover all your bases? Try to answer as many of these questions as you can, as clearly as you can:

  • What topic are you focusing on? How in-depth will you go?
  • Who are you writing for? Who is your audience?
  • What are you trying to achieve? More website visits, increased sales, and more social shares?
  • How will people be able to find your content? Where will you share it, and when?

If you specify your ideas and plans clearly at the beginning, it can help you and your team align your plans. It also helps you to stay on track, which can save you a lot of back-and-forth later on!

Read more: Audience research: how to analyze your audience »

2. Identify contributors and stakeholders

If you’re working in a team, our next tip is as important as the first. Why? Even if you’re clear about your goals, does everyone involved agree with your action plan? That’s why you need to identify your essential contributors and key stakeholders.

Depending on how big your organization is and how well-developed your process is already, making a list of contributors and stakeholders could be a lot of hard work, or a total no-brainer. If you sometimes find that your digital content workflow reaches a bottleneck (or descends to total chaos) because blockers arise from unexpected sources, it could be a sign that you need to do more work in this area.

Once you’ve come up with your plan, it’s a good idea to share it with any essential colleagues who need to give approval in the end before you start doing the real work. If you can get these people to agree with your initial plan, you can refer back to this later to explain creative choices and decisions you might need to make. When you let key parties know what to expect, you can avoid a lot of “What is this? What were you thinking?” kind of conversations.

3. Visualize your content workflow

It can be beneficial to visualize your content workflow, even if it seems daunting. At a minimum, you should write out the basic steps. If you add boxes and arrows to link the steps together, this can help to make the journey through the steps clearer (especially if there are moments when you need to loop back and repeat an earlier step). You can create this however feels comfortable to you — you could choose basic office software like Microsoft Word or Google Docs (Yoast SEO has a handy Google Docs add-on), you could try more advanced software like Visio or Lucidchart, or you could sketch it out on paper. It’s up to you!

For instance, your workflow could look like the first example written out in steps, or like the image below if you use a visualization tool. If, like us, you’re working in WordPress or Google Docs with the Yoast SEO plugin enabled, you can incorporate the features that you use into your workflow too.

Use Yoast SEO in Google Docs

Optimize as you draft for SEO, inclusivity, and readability. The Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on lets you export content ready for WordPress, no reformatting required.

Get Yoast for Google Docs add-onOnly $5 / month (ex VAT)

 

Content workflow example 1

  1. Create a content brief with the agreement of any necessary colleagues
  2. Carry out keyword research using Google Trends and the Semrush keyword data tool in Yoast SEO Premium
  3. Create an article outline using a title and headings that relate to your keywords and the expected search intent
  4. Check if your stakeholders agree with the article outline: If yes, then continue; If no, go back to steps 1-3
  5. Write your draft in WordPress or Google Docs, taking the readability and SEO optimization suggestions from the Yoast SEO plugin into account
  6. Add a featured image in the Post Settings tab and a social image in the Social media appearance tab
  7. Make sure the SEO title, meta description and slug are all a suitable length and describe the content well
  8. Use the Public Preview option in WordPress to share a preview of the post with everyone who needs to give feedback or approval
  9. If feedback needs to be implemented, then implement it! If you’ve made any important changes, go back to get feedback and approval again!
  10. Once everyone who needs to has approved it, your post is ready to publish.

Content workflow example 2

An example of a content workflow made with Jira software
An example of a Jira workflow for tracking blog projects

Read more: How to optimize a blog post for search engines: a checklist! »

4. Assign activities and responsibilities to team members

Even if you have a solid content workflow on paper, it’s important to ensure that each time you go through it, everyone is clear about who is doing what. Not only that, but how and when will different team members communicate with each other to hand over tasks or ask questions? Clearing these kinds of things up in advance can save a lot of hassle for everyone involved.

If these tasks aren’t a regular part of your team’s working day, they’ll also need to manage their own schedule to accommodate the tasks. If so, make sure that they have time to work on your planned content. It’s also worth checking what other priorities your contributors are juggling, as these could prevent progress if they become too demanding. Maybe you have the authority to make your planned content a top priority. If that’s your intention, make sure everyone involved knows that this should be #1 on their to-do list!

5. Set sub-deadlines and contact moments

Naturally, you’ll want to set a deadline for when your content is going to be published. But if you think you can just send out an initial set of instructions, with one final deadline for all the tasks, and nothing concrete in between… Then things are quite likely to go wrong.

To achieve a much more reliable plan of action, you should include sub-deadlines and contact moments at key points in the content process. These help to keep everyone’s work aligned as the piece of content is developed, and can help you to avoid process bottlenecks by identifying issues early on. It’s also wise to schedule your own internal deadlines to have your content ready at least a week before you intend to publish it. That way, you can avoid last-minute changes (and all the mistakes that are likely to come with them). We’ll come back to this point later.

6. Agree on standards and priorities

So at this point, if you’ve followed all of our tips, you might be planning in sub-deadlines like ‘rough draft is ready’ or ‘final draft for approval’. Before you build all your hopes and dreams around these mini-deliverables, you’ll need to clarify how rough this rough draft can be! After all, you don’t want to end up disappointed because you only received a basic article outline and a few bullet point lists when you were expecting something almost finished.

If you’re using tools like Yoast SEO, you’ll also want to make it clear what results are acceptable to you: for instance, do you expect the readability analysis to always be green, but the SEO analysis doesn’t have to be when it’s not written for ranking purposes? Do you expect the internal linking suggestions to be added as a requirement, or are these just to be used as suggestions? Make sure everyone agrees about how you use your tools and what the end goal is.

7. Allow time for final checks and changes

If you have a regular content publishing schedule that you want to keep to, it’s a good idea to prepare your drafts with a decent amount of time to spare. That way, you can avoid stressing about deadlines and last-minute changes. Here are a few things that really ought to be on your pre-publication checklist, especially if they’re not already incorporated in your content development process:

  • Check the SEO of your post using the Yoast SEO analysis. Is it good enough?
  • Check the readability of your post using the readability analysis. Is it good enough?
  • Have you added a featured image?
  • Have you added an OG image and title for optimized social sharing?
  • Is the slug short and descriptive?
  • Have you added internal links to and from other relevant pages on your site?
  • If you use tags/categories, have you selected all the right options?
  • Are comments enabled/disabled according to your preferences for this post?
  • Is the correct date/time set for your post?
Yoast SEO for Google Docs add-on
Using Yoast SEO in Google Docs makes it much easier to work across teams

As you can see, there’s quite a lot to do even after a post is written, so don’t underestimate how long these checks will take.

Got a good basic content process, but still having issues? This is what to check:

8. Do you create unnecessary work?

Sometimes tasks become more complicated than they really need to be. Are there times when one small change causes a cascade of new issues to deal with? This can be a sign that you need to rethink the order of your steps and who is involved. Small changes should be easy, right?

Often, it’s obvious who should be doing what and how the process should continue. But it’s not always. For instance, if you have a graphic design team, do they need to make every change themselves? Can you make things easier by enabling your writing team to change text and background colors themselves, for instance?

Another type of problem can arise if you don’t have a clear decision-maker in place. Sure, there might be lots of people who should have a say about the content in the end. But who makes the final decisions? If it’s not clear who is responsible for which decisions, you might end up with all your best experts trying to reach an agreement about every little thing. That can be tricky, and it can waste loads of time! Make it easier by giving specific individuals ownership of specific aspects of the process.

9. Are things not going according to plan?

Sometimes things go wrong, in spite of your best efforts. But if things are often going wrong in your content production process, you should investigate the cause of your problems. It’s always a good idea to reach out to the people involved in the steps that are going wrong. What challenges are they facing? Does the existing process make things easier for them or more difficult? And very importantly, ask if they have any ideas to improve the process!

Don’t be afraid to try something new if what you’re doing isn’t working. Even if your new idea doesn’t work out any better, you can always learn from it and try something different next time! Or put it this way: trying anything is better than burying your head in the sand and continuing with a broken content development process.

10. Doing extra tasks that aren’t part of the plan?

Last but not least: are you making life harder by adding in ‘nice-to-have’ extras that weren’t part of the plan? It’s an easy mistake to make! After all, when you really care about the content you’re creating, your natural instinct is to keep improving and make it the best that it can be. Even though that means making a whole new infographic. Even though that infographic wasn’t a part of the original plan. Your team can make it happen, right? Or else you can just push the deadline back…

It’s great to aim high when it comes to making quality content. But if you’re ambitious, late-arriving ideas become a burden to the process, you might want to start categorizing them into “must-have” and “nice-to-have” content elements. That way, everyone knows which parts to prioritize and which parts can be left out if they’re too difficult to achieve within the original plan. And don’t forget that one of the biggest advantages of publishing digital content is that you can continue to improve it and share it again whenever you want!

Streamline your content workflow, but don’t let it rule you!

Those are our ten tips! It can be really worthwhile to streamline your content workflow, especially if you’re experiencing issues and bottlenecks in the process. Naturally, every situation is different, and each piece of content comes with its own opportunities and challenges, too. So you need to think about what works for you and what doesn’t in order to adapt your content process.

Try to keep a balance and avoid making a content process that’s too strict or inflexible. You don’t want to set up a rigid process that dictates your editorial decisions and rules your creative output. It’s a creative process, after all! So it’s always good to keep some room for flexibility, but just how much is up to you.

Remember: whatever your content workflow looks like, WordPress, Google Docs, and the Yoast SEO plugin can help you! From your main topic and focus keyphrase, through to the final touches you add just before publishing, the tools can form checkpoints to easily align your team and your goals.

Read more: Adapting your content SEO strategy »

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12 AI tools that will elevate your SEO game

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In the last few years, we have seen loads of exciting developments in AI. New tools are popping up left and right, helping with a wide range of tasks. AI is finding its place in every market, from writing to keyword research to fact-checking. The rise of this phenomenon is undeniable. Let’s explore a few AI tools that can support your SEO efforts.

We’ve listed 12 tools that can help you with your SEO in different ways. That said, it’s important to maintain a healthy balance between AI support and human input. AI can help us greatly, especially with getting started and saving time on easy tasks. Authenticity and trustworthiness still matter, both for your audience and SEO.

Don’t let AI take over entirely or erase your unique perspective.. Don’t underestimate your importance in this process and always stay critical of the output. Check the tone of voice and the facts, and rewrite anything that feels off. In the end, this human element will get you to the top of the search results.

1. ChatGPT (Plus)

Let’s start with a tool you’ve probably heard of: ChatGPT. This is a text-based AI model that interacts with you in a conversational way to answer any question you have. Or fulfill any content request you have. This means ChatGPT can assist with a broad range of tasks.

Another great feature is the ability to tweak your request as you go. So if you ask ChatGPT to write an introduction for a blog post on a specific topic and the answer it comes up with is too long, you can then ask it to shorten it and it will do so. If you’re not happy with the tone of voice, you can ask it to change that. Or if you don’t like it at all, you can ask ChatGPT to rewrite it altogether. You can also craft more specific prompts to get better results from the start. This allows you to keep tweaking the text until you’re satisfied with it.

Screenshot of AI tool ChatGPT
Screenshot of ChatGPT and the model options showing

 If you use ChatGPT plus, which is the paid version, you can also use the dropdown at the top left corner to select a model fitted to your needs. As you can see, these other models give you more options. But the free version of ChatGPT can still handle most basic content requests.

2. Yoast SEO & WooCommerce SEO

Yoast SEO comes with several AI features. The most recent one is Yoast AI Optimize, which helps you improve your content based on the feedback you get—inline, where you are working. Yoast AI Optimize highlights suggested changes for certain assessments in the Yoast SEO Analysis, allowing you to easily apply or dismiss them. This ensures that the final decision always remains in your hands.

Yoast AI Optimize gives you inline suggestions and a one-click solution to improve your content

The second AI feature generates SEO titles, meta descriptions, and social snippets for you. It looks at the content already there and gives you a few options with the click of a button. This saves you the hassle of doing it manually and provides you with relevant titles, meta descriptions, and social snippets to increase your click-through rates.

screenshot of AI tool Yoast SEO
Screenshot of the AI meta description generator in Yoast SEO Premium

The AI features are part of our paid plugin, Yoast SEO Premium. This comes with a yearly subscription plan, but an affordable one. We want to make our features available to as many people as possible.

Unlock AI features in Yoast SEO Premium

Get this feature and much more for your WordPress site with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin!

Get Yoast SEO Premium Only $99 / year (ex VAT)

We’ve also added this feature to Yoast WooCommerce SEO a short while back. This helps you make your products stand out on the search result page and get those clicks to your website. So if you have an online shop and are looking to optimize your product pages, it’s worth taking a look at that product as well.

3. Jasper

Another tool you can use to produce content is Jasper. But it is more focused on producing marketing content like blog posts, social posts, email and website copy. Where ChatGPT targets a wider audience, Jasper focuses on people working in marketing and entrepreneurs who do their marketing themselves. Utilizing the AI tool works pretty similarly, where you put in a request and Jasper provides you with content specifically created for a newsletter or post (or something else).

It also allows you to upload a style guide or examples of your content so that it can learn your preferred tone of voice. In addition, you can also give it information about your company like the products or services you provide, your audience and even a campaign brief. Jasper uses all of this to understand the goal of the content you’re requesting and to create content that is on-brand and detailed. What’s cool about this tool is that it also comes in the form of a browser extension. Allowing you to use it while you’re working on your content in WordPress, Gmail and other places.

screenshot of AI tool Jasper used in Gmail
Screenshot of Jasper browser extension being used in Gmail

It’s good to know that Jasper works with a monthly (or yearly) subscription plan, so this is a paid tool. They have a few options you can check out and a free trial if you want to give it a try before subscribing.

4. Keyword Insights

A vital but time-consuming part of SEO is keyword research. That’s why one of the AI tools we’ve picked is focused on that specifically. You can use Keyword Insights to find new keyword ideas and cluster them. By filling in a keyword it gives you loads of related keywords and their search volumes. Keyword Insights also helps you categorize keywords by clustering them properly and it allows you to upload other files to get those keywords in there as well. It gives you a nice overview of all your keywords per cluster and all the relevant data to figure out which ones you want to work on. The tool actually uses an algorithm to quickly show you which keyword is the best choice at the moment.

screenshot of AI tool Keyword Insights
An overview of related keywords in Keyword Insights

After you’re done with that, you can actually use the writing assistant to get started with writing. What’s cool about this writing feature is that it gives you an overview of the top headings of other websites that rank high on that keyword. Or it can even generate an outline for you. Which can be great inspiration to get started with the structure of your text. It also helps you write the text by suggesting relevant content for the article you’re working on.

Keyword Insights is a paid tool, that has several pricing options depending on your needs. A few of those options also enable team sharing, which comes in handy when you have multiple people working on your SEO. It has loads of interesting features to do keyword research in an organized way. But a very important sidenote is that it can be tempting to let the tool also do all the writing for you. Which might result in content that is far from original and authentic and will not get you that top result in Google. As it will be mainly based on what’s already out there. So make sure to check out the keyword features, but be mindful of how you use the writing assistant.

5. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant

Another writing tool powered by AI is the SEO Writing Assistant you can find in Semrush. This tool analyzes your text in terms of SEO, readability, originality and tone of voice. It gives you suggestions based on this analysis and also comes with a few features to optimize your text, such as the Rephraser, Compose and Ask AI. What’s great about the Originality section is that this helps you create content that’s not like everyone else’s, something you risk when using AI in your content creation. This can help you figure out whether you need to change your angle and it also checks your content for plagiarism.

screenshot of AI tool Keyword Insights
The SEO Writing Assistant in Semrush

Another reason we’re mentioning this tool is because Semrush in general is a great tool for SEO. So having this option in there is a great addition to their set of tools. The SEO Writing Assistant is part of Semrush’s Content Marketing Platform, which is included with two of their three subscription plans. You can also sign up for a free trial to give it a whirl.

6. MarketMuse

When looking at AI tools that can help you elevate your SEO, MarketMuse is another one we want to mention. In short, MarketMuse is content planning and optimization software that comes with loads of SEO and automization features. The idea is that it puts everything you need in one place and automates content audits for you. Helping suggest what to work on next instead of guessing or speculating what does or doesn’t work.

screenshot of AI tool MarketMuse
The Topic Navigator section in MarketMuse

It can help you do keyword research, plan your content and write. All based on personalized data, as they analyze your website and also look at competitors in your field. Which can save you loads of time and help you make informed decisions. Without having to switch between different tools and documents or sheets. It’s all in one place. As most AI tools discussed so far, MarketMuse works with a monthly subscription plan and gives you a few options to choose from.

7. Originality.ai

The name might already be an indicator of what this AI tool can do for you. Originality.ai helps you fact-check your text and also checks it for plagiarism. Being trustworthy is an important factor in SEO right now, and will probably remain important, so you need to get your facts straight. And make sure you’re not accidentally committing plagiarism, a growing risk in today’s AI-heavy landscapes.. Funnily enough, it also comes with an AI Content Detector which is pretty good in detecting content written by AI. Even if it has been paraphrased.

screenshot of AI tool Originality.ai
The fact checker in Originality.ai

Originality.ai comes with a monthly subscription option and a pay-as-you-go option which gives you a bunch of credits to get started. Unfortunately, there is no free trial, but if you go to their website you can find loads of information (and some examples) of how the features work. There’s also a demo of their fact checker if you want to give that a try!

8. Grammarly

Grammarly is a tool that’s quite popular with the writers here at Yoast. It shows you when you’ve made an error when it comes to spelling and grammar, and works on different platforms and in different places. Which is very helpful when you write a lot of online text. Now that Grammarly also comes with the power of AI, it can do even more for anyone who writes online content.

Grammarly now comes with a generative text feature, which allows you to give it a prompt and get a draft right away. It also includes a rewrite feature to adjust the tone of your content. You can also teach it what your personal tone of voice is, so that it can give you specific suggestions that fit your communication style. Lastly, it can help you with brainstorming and outlines by giving suggestions based on your task at hand. It’s a neat little AI tool that you can use on the go.

screenshot of AI tool Grammarly
Screenshot of Grammarly functionality, showing some of its AI features

Grammarly has a free plan, which gives you access to their basic AI assistance and 100 AI prompts per month. They have a few paid monthly subscription plans if you need more and want access to more prompts and advanced features.

9. Gemini

Gemini is Google’s generative AI chatbot. It’s designed to handle a wide range of tasks including text generation, image analysis, coding, and data processing. Integrated into tools like Google Docs and Gmail, Gemini provides users with loads of options to improve their content on the spot. It also integrates with Google’s AI Studio for prototyping and testing.

Gemini is designed to serve both casual users and developers. Through the Gemini web app (formerly Bard), users can interact conversationally with the model, ask complex questions, or get help writing code and documents. This app also offers Gems, premade or custom prompts that can be saved for future use and help you with specific needs.

Screenshot AI tool Gemini by Google
The Gem manager in Gemini

Gemini offers a free and paid subscription. The free version of the Gemini web app gives users access to Gemini Flash, a fast and cost-efficient model suitable for everyday tasks. For more advanced capabilities, Google offers Google AI Pro, which provides access to Gemini Pro, integrations in Google apps, and a few other more specific features.

10. Perplexity

Perplexity AI is a free AI-powered search and answer tool. It presents direct answers backed by real-time web sources, making it especially useful for research, current events, and factual information. It uses a conversational interface similar to a chatbot, allowing users to ask follow-up questions and refine their search naturally. 

One of Perplexity’s standout features is its focus on citations and transparency. Each answer is accompanied by linked sources, allowing users to verify information or explore the topic further. This makes it a valuable tool for professionals, students, and writers who need trustworthy results quickly. The platform also includes features like “Research,” allowing deep research on any topic.

Screenshot of AI tool Perplexity
Example of answer provided by Perplexity, showing the sources at the top.

Perplexity offers a free option that provides access to fast and accurate answers using its standard models, along with web-sourced citations. For users who need more powerful tools, Perplexity offers different plans depending on your needs. Pro is aimed at individuals looking to use a more powerful and up-to-date version of the tool. Sonar API gives developers API access for any custom applications or automations they might want. Finally, Enterprise Pro is the choice recommended for organizations looking to use this tool within the team.

11. Claude

Claude is a conversational AI designed with a focus on safety and transparency. Named after Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, this model excels at tasks involving text comprehension, summarization, creative writing, and code generation. What sets Claude apart is its training method that aligns the model’s behavior with human values by using a set of ethical guidelines.

Users can interact with Claude through a chat-style interface. It also supports uploads of various file types (like PDFs or CSVs) for direct analysis, making it a powerful tool for research, document review, and data interpretation. Anthropic’s Claude includes three variants, Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus. Opus being the most advanced, particularly strong in reasoning and complex problem-solving tasks. Sonnet is also a great option for coding tasks.

AI tool Claude
Example of Claude being used to visualize data.

Claude comes with a free option and several paid options. The free version gives users access to Claude’s chat and allows them to generate code, create content and analyze text and images. When it comes to their paid plans, there are options for individuals looking to integrate Claude into their terminal or workspace. But also options for organizations or developers or businesses looking to get access to the API. I would recommend having a look at the options to see what would be a good fit for you.

12. NotebookLM

NotebookLM is an AI-powered note-taking and research tool developed by Google. It was designed to help users interact with their own documents using generative AI. It allows you to upload sources such as PDFs, Google Docs, YouTube-video’s or audio files, and then ask questions or generate summaries based on that content. Unlike other AI tools, NotebookLM uses the user’s uploaded material, which makes its responses more contextually accurate and personalized. 

One of the standout features of NotebookLM is its ability to create structured summaries, highlight key themes, and generate helpful outlines based on the uploaded sources. You can interact with the model by asking detailed questions, getting explanations of terms, or generating content like FAQs or briefing docs. This productivity tool blends note-taking, research, and brainstorming in one interface.

Screenshot of AI tool NotebookLM
The NotebookLM interface showing sources, the chat and other options.

As of now, Google offers NotebookLM for free. The tool is available to users in supported regions through their Google accounts and is still positioned as an experimental product.

Read more: Generative AI and SEO: Revolutionizing content creation »

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How to create a good meta description

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The meta description summarizes a page’s content and presents it to users in the search results. It’s one of the first things people will likely see when searching for something, so optimizing it is crucial for SEO. It’s your chance to persuade users to click on your result! This post will show you the characteristics of a good meta description and how Yoast SEO can help you get it right.

Table of contents

Did you get a red traffic light for the keyphrase in the meta description check in Yoast SEO? Read what this check does, and how to turn this traffic light green. Yoast SEO also checks the length of your meta description. Read about how that check works and how to write a concise meta description.

What is a meta description?

The meta description is an HTML tag you can set for a post or page of your website. In it, you can use roughly 155 characters to describe what your page is about. If you’re lucky, Google will show it beneath your page’s title in the search results. It allows you to convince search engine users that your page will offer what they are looking for.

In Google’s search results, this is where it can be displayed:

an example of a meta description showing the yoast site structure ultimate guide
A meta description from yoast.com as seen in the search results

And this is what it looks like in the HTML code of the page:

<meta name="description" content="Your site structure is vital for users and SEO. Our complete guide will guide you through all the steps to create a sound site structure." />

Why set a meta description?

The purpose of a meta description is simple: it needs to get someone searching with a search term on Google to click your link. In other words, meta descriptions are there to generate click-throughs from search engines.

Search engines say there is no direct SEO benefit from the meta description – they don’t use it in their ranking algorithm. But there is an indirect benefit: Google uses click-through rate (CTR) to determine whether you’re a good result. If more people click on your result, Google considers you to be a good result and will, based on your position, move you up the rankings. This is why optimizing your meta description is important, as is optimizing your titles.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that Google will display the description that you’ve written. But, as there is a chance it will, adding it to your post or page is always worth the effort.

What does a good meta description contain?

Here’s a list of elements you need to write a good meta description:

  1. Keep it up to 155 characters
  2. Use an active voice and make it actionable
  3. Include a call to action
  4. Use your focus keyphrase
  5. Show specifications when needed
  6. Make sure it matches the content of the page
  7. Make it unique

Let’s go over them in detail!

1. Keep it up to 155 characters 

The right length doesn’t exist; it depends on the message you want to convey. You should take enough space to convey the message, but keep it short and snappy. However, if you check the search results in Google, you’ll mostly see snippets of 120 to 156 characters, like in the example below. Google says you can make your meta descriptions as long as you want, but there is a limit to what we can see in the SERPs — and that’s around 155 characters; anything longer will get truncated.

an example of a meta description showing one on puppy training, including review ratings
This search result from a Yoast SEO user shows a succinct meta description in Google

Unfortunately, you can’t fully control what Google displays in the search results. Sometimes, it shows the meta description, and sometimes, it just grabs some sentences of your copy or generates something itself. Either way, your best bet is to keep it short. That way, if Google does decide to show the description you’ve written, it won’t be cut short. 

2. Use active voice and make it actionable 

If you see the meta description as an invitation to visit your page, you have to think about your user and their (possible) motivation to visit your page. Ensure your description isn’t dull, difficult, or too cryptic. People need to know what they can expect to find on your page.

The example in the image below is the description you should strive to write. It’s active, speaks to you, and addresses you directly. You know what you’ll get if you click on the link!

an example of a meta description with an attractive writing style
Make people want to click your search result

3. Include a call-to-action

“Hello, we have a new product, and you want it. Find out more!” This overlaps with what we said about the active voice, but we wanted to emphasize it again. The meta description is your sales text. In this case, the “product” you are trying to sell is the linked page. Invitations like Learn more, Get it now, Try for free come in handy, and we use them too.

an example of a meta description with a call to action
Get people to click on your link

4. Use your focus keyword

If the search keyword matches a part of the text in the meta description, Google will be more inclined to use it and highlight it in the search results. This will make the link to your site even more inviting. Google sometimes even highlights synonyms. In the example below, both the Academy Awards and Oscars are highlighted. Getting your results emphasized like that makes them stand out even more.

The image shows a meta description for the Wikipedia page about the Academy Awards. The words 'Academy Awards' and 'Oscars' are shown in bold text.
A listing for the Academy Awards on Google

5. Show specifications, where possible 

If you have a product in your Shopify or WooCommerce store aimed at the tech-savvy, it can be a good idea to focus on the technical specs. For example, you can include the manufacturer, SKU, price, etc. If the visitor specifically seeks that product, you won’t have to convince them. Can the watch help us stay fit? Sign us up; that’s all we need to know. Note that to optimize your result in this manner, you should work on getting rich snippets.

Google search result describe the Apple Watch SE
Make it spark

6. Make sure it matches the content of the page

This is an important one. Google will find out if you use meta descriptions to trick visitors into clicking on your results. They might even penalize you if you do it. But besides that, misleading descriptions will also increase your bounce rate. Which will also lower people’s trust in your company. It’s a bad idea for that reason alone. That is why you want the meta description to match the content on the page.

7. Make it unique 

Adding the date to the snippet preview

People often ask questions about the date shown in the Google preview of our Yoast SEO plugin. We’ve added this because search engines may display a date with your snippet. So it’s important to factor it in when you decide on the right length of your meta description. Unfortunately, there’s no way to directly control whether this date is shown or not, but you can try to manage the dates they use in the search results.

If your meta description is the same as those for other pages, the user experience in Google will be hampered. Although your page titles might vary, all pages will appear the same because all the descriptions are identical. Instead of creating duplicate meta descriptions, you’d better leave them blank. Google will pick a snippet from the page containing the keyword used in the query. That being said, writing a unique meta description for every page you want to rank is always the best practice.

How Yoast SEO helps you write meta descriptions

Adding a meta description is easy if you’re on WordPress or Shopify and using Yoast SEO. Firstly, you can write it in the Search appearance preview section of Yoast SEO. But Yoast SEO also gives you feedback on it in the SEO analysis. The plugin checks the meta description length and whether you’ve used your focus keyphrase. So, let’s see how the plugin helps you and what you can do with it. 

Using AI to generate meta descriptions in Yoast SEO Premium

Yoast SEO Premium has our Yoast AI Generate features, which include AI-powered meta description generation. This meta description generator brings the power of generative AI to your fingertips, producing engaging and SEO-optimized meta descriptions with just one click. Using advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques, it generates creative and appealing meta descriptions, captivating your audience while meeting search engine standards.

yoast seo's ai tool can generate relevant titles and meta descriptions for you
Creating meta descriptions with a little help from generative AI in Yoast SEO Premium

This feature simplifies your meta description optimization process and fully complies with best SEO practices. It enhances user experience, amplifies your website’s visibility, and effortlessly directs high-quality, organic traffic to your site. With this outstanding AI generator, effortlessly elevate your SEO performance and generate outstanding meta descriptions that set you apart.

You can edit your meta description in Yoast SEO
You can edit your meta description in Yoast SEO for Shopify

What does the keyphrase in meta description assessment in Yoast SEO do?

This check is all about using the keyphrase in the meta description. A focus keyphrase is the search term you want a page to rank for. When people use that term, you want them to find your page. You base your keyphrase on keyword research. After your research, you should end up with a combination of words that most of your audience will likely search for. We’ve already discussed that when you use your keyphrase in the meta description, Google will likely highlight it. That makes it easier for people to see they’ve found what they are looking for. 

Yoast SEO checks if and how often you use the words from your focus keyphrase in the meta description text. In addition, if you use Yoast SEO Premium, it also considers the synonyms you enter. If you overdo it, the plugin advises you to limit the use of your focus keyphrase.

What a green bullet looks like in Yoast SEO
What a green bullet looks like in Yoast SEO for Shopify

How to get a green traffic light for the keyphrase in meta description

You’ll get a red traffic light if you don’t mention the keyphrase in the meta description. So, make sure to write one. But don’t stuff your meta description with your keyphrase because that will also get you a red traffic light. And make sure to mention all the words from your keyphrase near each other. Search engines are pretty smart nowadays, but you must clarify what your page is about. 

Yoast SEO Premium plugin considers the synonyms you’ve added when it performs its analysis. This allows you to write more naturally, resulting in a more pleasant text. Moreover, it’s easier to score a green traffic light this way. Use it to your advantage!

Unlock all features in Yoast SEO Premium

Save time on your SEO and get access to all of our SEO courses.

Get Yoast SEO Premium Only $99 / year (ex VAT)

What does the meta description length assessment do?

This meta description length assessment measures whether your description is too short (less than 120 characters) or too long (more than 156 characters).  You’ll get a green traffic light when your meta description has the right length. If it’s too long or too short, you’ll get an orange traffic light in the SEO analysis of Yoast SEO (or red if you’ve marked your article as cornerstone content).

What the check looks like in the Yoast SEO sidebar
A green bullet in the Yoast SEO for Shopify app

How to write a concise meta description

A good meta description convinces people that your page offers the best result for their query. But, to be the best result, you must know what people seek. What is their search intent? Are they looking for an answer to a question? If they are, try to give them the most complete answer. Are they looking for a product? Write down what makes your product stand out and why they would best buy it in your store. Be concise and convincing!

You get real-time feedback on the meta description length in the Search appearance section in the Yoast SEO sidebar or meta box. Click “Search appearance” in the Yoast SEO sidebar to write a meta description. This will open the snippet editor, and you’ll see input fields for editing the SEO title, the slug, and the meta description. When you start typing in the meta description input field, the snippet preview at the top of the Search appearance editor will immediately show your new text. Underneath the input field, there is a bar. It’s orange when you start typing and will become green when you’ve added enough information. When you add too much text, it will turn orange again.

The bar will change color when your go over the limit
Checking the Google preview in Yoast SEO for Shopify

Writing or editing your meta description in the Yoast SEO meta box underneath your post editor is also possible. Go to the SEO tab in the meta box (if it’s not on this tab by default), and you can start typing in the field under Meta description immediately.

What to do if you need meta descriptions for a lot of pages?

After reading this, do you need to change all your meta descriptions? But are you not sure how to fit that into your schedule? Google has the answer:

“If you don’t have time to create a description for every single page, try to prioritize your content; at the very least, create a description for the critical URLs like your home page and popular pages.“

Advice from Google Search Central documentation

You can check which of your pages ranks highest with Google Search Console. Take it from there. It’s also possible to optimize your meta descriptions with variables in Yoast SEO. This allows you to speed up this process without worrying about duplicate descriptions.

If you prefer to write a unique description for each page and have much to get through, you can use the Bulk editor tool in Yoast SEO for WordPress. Head to the Tools page, click ‘Bulk editor’, then select the ‘Description’ tab. You’ll be able to see any meta descriptions already set for your pages, and you can quickly add new ones without opening each page individually. However, with this tool, you won’t get warnings if your description is too short/long, or if the focus keyword is missing.

Preventing snippets with Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO provides an easy way to control search result snippets using the nosnippet meta tag feature. This setting lets you prevent Google from displaying any snippet for particular pages, giving you control over what appears in search results. It’s especially useful when you want to prioritize privacy or ensure that content is not shown without its full context. With the nosnippet tag, you have another way to manage snippet creation and to align everything with your content strategy.

in the advanced section of yoast seo, you can prevent snippets from appearing by activating no snippet
Yoast SEO lets you easily add the nosnippets robots tag in the Advanced settings

Meta descriptions for social sharing

Do you have Yoast SEO? Check the Social media appearance in the Yoast SEO sidebar or social tab in the Yoast SEO meta box below your post or page. You can add a separate description for your social media channels there. In Yoast SEO Premium, you even have social previews that show you what your post or page will look like when shared on social media.

Conclusion to meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are a crucial yet often underestimated component of SEO — even if these are not fully in your control. It serves as a brief advertisement for your content in search results, influencing click-through rates and user engagement. Crafting clear, compelling, and keyword-rich meta descriptions can significantly enhance your online visibility. In return, it could attract more targeted traffic to your website. While they may not directly impact rankings, their role in driving clicks and conversions is undeniable.

A well-crafted meta description is not just about SEO; it’s about creating a better user experience by providing searchers with a clear, concise preview of what to expect on your page. Of course, Google might think it knows better than you, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put your best foot forward!

Read on: How to use the Google preview in Yoast SEO »

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Optimize your content directly in Google Docs with Yoast SEO

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Optimize your content directly inside Google Docs. Yoast SEO’s new Google Docs add-on provides real-time SEO and readability analyses in your writing environment, eliminating the need for multiple apps or CMS logins. You’ll produce fully optimized content faster, collaborate smoothly, and deliver content your audience and search engines love.

Here’s why you’ll love it:

  • Speed up your content workflow by collaborating and optimizing seamlessly in your existing Google Docs environment, reducing back-and-forth revisions.
  • Eliminate unnecessary CMS access, ideal for freelancers and agencies managing multiple client relationships without extra logins.
  • Easily export WordPress-ready content or quickly copy optimized text to your CMS, instantly ensuring your content is publish-ready.
    Gain immediate visibility into your content’s performance with clear, actionable insights for SEO and readability, saving you valuable time.

Yoast SEO Google Docs Add-on features:

Alongside the ability to work across multiple accounts on the same document and export in WP-compatible format or copy to your own CMS, you’ll get:

Yoast SEO Analysis:

Yoast SEO analysis helps you easily optimize your content so search engines can understand and rank it better. The Yoast traffic light system scans your texts, providing practical feedback on your keyword usage, content structure, and overall optimization. This gives you actionable insights on optimizing your content for better SEO.

Yoast Readability Analysis:

Yoast Readability analysis ensures you create content that your audience loves. It checks key readability aspects such as sentence length, paragraph structure, use of headings, and more. This gives you a straightforward insight into improving readability, making your content accessible to wider audiences, and keeping your audience engaged and on your page for longer.

How to get Yoast Google Docs add-on

Visit our Yoast SEO Google Docs add-on product page and follow the steps.

Already a Yoast SEO Premium user?

You get one free linked Google account! You can directly add a Google account to MyYoast and download the Yoast SEO Google add-on. Learn more at by visiting our help article how to get started with the Google Docs add-on.

Pricing

Yoast SEO Premium includes access to one Google account, with additional accounts available for just $60 per year (or $5 per month) per account.

Activate the Google Docs add-on today and streamline your content optimization instantly.

The post Optimize your content directly in Google Docs with Yoast SEO appeared first on Yoast.

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Update on Yoast AI Optimize for Classic Editor 

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Recently, we announced the rollout of Yoast AI Optimize for the Classic Editor in WordPress. We’re excited to see the positive response and engagement with this new feature. 

During the initial rollout, we discovered a technical issue where unintended classes were being added to content for some users. While these added classes are harmless and do not impact the functionality or appearance of your content, they should not have been added, that’s on us.

We take this seriously, and to maintain the quality you expect, we’ve been actively working on a solution. We’re pleased to share that a fix has now been released, and the issue has been resolved. For users already affected, we are automatically cleaning up the unintended classes as part of the fix, no action is needed on your part.

As part of our commitment to delivering reliable and thoughtful features, we have also temporarily disabled the AI Optimize feature for the Classic Editor. This will give us time to reconsider our approach and develop an improved solution. We’ll keep you updated and reintroduce the feature as soon as we’re confident in its performance.

Please update your Yoast SEO plugins to the latest version where available. Should you have any concerns, feel free to contact our support team.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

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How to find the perfect SEO-friendly WordPress theme

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We’ve seen it happen so often. You have a great blog or site, and at some point, you decide to go for a new look and feel. There are a couple of things you’ll look at, usually in the order: layout/look and feel, usability, and optionally, room for advertising. If the theme meets your needs in all three of these points, you might download and install it. If that sounds familiar, this post describes how to find the perfect SEO-friendly WordPress theme!

Table of contents

Finding the right SEO-friendly WordPress theme

An SEO-friendly theme has quite a few things to take care of, and a lot of themes miss out on these. This overview should help to keep you out of trouble when you’re looking for a new theme. If you’re thinking of installing a new theme, please give the following points some thought. Keep in mind, your new theme should be accessible, compatible, customizable, integrable, and standards-compliant.

Define your needs

Whether you are in the market for a free theme, a premium theme, or want to hire a developer to build one especially for you, the first step is always the same: define your needs. Write down what the theme should do, now and in the future. You might not need an eCommerce option at this time, but what about in a year from now? What should your site look like? Which pages do you need? What types of content are you planning to publish? Once you have a clear picture of the requirements, you have a better chance of finding your dream theme.

Find a trusted reseller or developer. How’s the support?

Should you build a theme yourself? Or will a general free theme do? The discussion on whether a premium theme is better than a free theme continues to rage on. Both sides have their merits. There are loads of crappy free themes, but there are just as many crappy premium themes. What you should do is find a reseller or developer that you trust. Look for social proof; how many reviews does a theme get? Is there an active message board? When did it receive its last update?

While themes on WordPress.org undergo initial scrutiny for safety, it remains crucial to perform your own thorough checks. Also, vetting doesn’t mean they’re awesome. Theme resellers offer loads of premium themes in varying degrees of awesomeness. But just because you pay for them, doesn’t necessarily make them better than free themes. In addition to that, since you only receive the files when you pay for a theme, there’s no way to check the quality upfront. Despite social proof, it’s still a leap in the dark.

How flexible is the theme?

A static theme won’t do you any good when you want to change the page layout in a couple of months. Make sure to choose a theme that is flexible in its appearance as well as its functionality. Be sure that it supports blocks so you can use the block editor to fill the design. Don’t choose a design that screams for full-width images when you only need a well-presented place to write your poetry. Check what happens to a theme when you turn off all massive images; does it still function? And is it possible to change colors, fonts, and other visual elements? Many themes, like Total or GeneratePress, come with a number of demo examples that give you an idea of all the different styles they can handle.

Your SEO-friendly WordPress theme should have room for widgets, plus it should support featured images and offer multi-language support. Lots of themes have a page builder on board; these help you construct your bespoke layout. But, this is something you should be careful with because these could generate less than stellar code that hinders your SEO. Do check if your theme works well with site builders like Elementor. Also, modern themes like the Twenty Twenty-Five default theme work with block patterns that let you fine-tune your design.

Make sure your WordPress theme plays nicely with third-party plugins to boost your site’s functionality and SEO. Themes often come with built-in features, but these can sometimes clash with essential plugins. Make sure your chosen theme is flexible and well-coded to work smoothly with popular plugins like Yoast SEO, WooCommerce, and Elementor. This compatibility lets you enhance your site without dealing with conflicts or performance dips. Checking for plugin support makes sure that you can easily add features while keeping your site running securely and efficiently.

Which post and page templates does the theme support?

Another way to keep things flexible is for an SEO-friendly WordPress theme to offer multiple posts and page templates. That way, you could start off using a basic template with a main content area and a left sidebar, but have the flexibility to change to a full-width content area or one of the many other options. If a theme has only two choices, that might become problematic in the future. Pick a theme with enough sensible templates.

Does it function as a parent/child theme?

Parent and child themes are a great combo. If you use any of the theme frameworks like heavy-hitter Genesis, you know how powerful these are compared to regular themes. A child theme gets its functionality from a parent theme. So if you’re making changes to your child theme, the parent won’t see these. You won’t break the parent theme if you make a mistake. The same goes for updates; if you update your parent theme, which happens often, it won’t wipe the changes you’ve made to your theme because it’s a child and doesn’t contain the functionality.

Whether you need a theme framework depends on your needs. Almost all WordPress projects will benefit from a theme framework, but it might be overkill if you only need a tiny amount of its functionality and you know exactly what kind of theme you need.

Watch out for theme bloat

Many themes are bloated, which increases loading time. If the developer of a particular theme included everything but the kitchen sink, you might get a feature-complete product but an extremely complicated one as well. Try to find a theme that offers everything you need instead of everything there is. Your theme should be lean and mean.

Prioritize security

When choosing a WordPress theme, don’t overlook the importance of security. It’s important to select a theme that is well-maintained and regularly updated to fix vulnerabilities. Check if the theme has a solid security reputation by reading user reviews and checking update logs. Make sure it complies with secure coding standards and supports two-factor authentication and other security measures. Using themes directly from the official WordPress repository or trusted marketplaces adds an extra layer of assurance. Always test the theme with security plugins like Sucuri to identify potential issues before going live.

Check site speed and mobile-readiness

Your website should be mobile-friendly from the start. Its theme should load swiftly and provide an excellent page experience, reflected in strong Core Web Vitals scores. Opting for a lightweight, efficient theme could help you achieve this.

Begin by evaluating the theme’s responsiveness. Use tools like the Google Lighthouse to verify compatibility across various devices. Additionally, input the theme’s demo site URL into Google PageSpeed Insights to uncover any loading issues that might affect performance.

Remember, these tests offer a starting point, but they only provide part of the picture. For a complete assessment, test the theme’s speed on your actual server setup, as server performance can significantly influence load times.

Is the theme really SEO-friendly?

While Yoast SEO fixes a lot of WordPress’s SEO issues, a good theme helps a lot. Most WordPress themes will claim that they are SEO-friendly, but make sure to check them. One of the good examples is Twenty Twenty-Five, which offers a clean design that performs really well. Find out if the theme’s code is nice and clean or an intangible mess. Has it been updated recently? And will it be supported in the future? How many JavaScript libraries does the theme depend on? Does it support Schema.org structured data? If you’re eyeing a free theme, make sure there are no hidden links to the developer’s website, as this can hurt your SEO efforts. In general, keep Google’s Search Essentials documentation in mind when hunting for SEO-friendly WordPress themes.

Is the theme’s code valid?

Some theme authors are more designers than coders, and thus, they sometimes hack around until it finally looks the way they want without bothering to check whether the code they’ve written is valid HTML. If it’s not, current or future browsers might have issues rendering the content correctly. You can check whether the code is valid by using the W3C’s validator.

Test, test, and test again

Once you’ve chosen your favorite new SEO-friendly WordPress theme, it’s time to kick it into gear. Start with a development setup to test your new theme through and through. Run every type of test you can think of. This might be a security check with the Sucuri plugin or a theme check with the Theme Check plugin. Load your site with dummy data from wptest.io to see if every element is represented and functioning. Run pagespeed and mobile-friendliness tests to see if problems arise. Fix the issues, or find a new theme.

Bonus checks

That’s just to get you going. There’s a lot of stuff you can check before you install your brand-new theme. Start with these three checks, if you will:

Hooks

WordPress plugins use so-called “hooks” to be able to perform their designated tasks. These hooks allow, for instance, to add extra output, tracking codes, etc. A lot of issues with plugins will arise for you when a theme author forgets to add these hooks. This is how to check for them:

1. In header.php, it should have a small piece of PHP code that looks exactly like this wp_head(); or this do_action('wp_head');, usually just before a piece of HTML that looks like this: </head>.

2. In footer.php, it should have another small piece of PHP like this wp_footer();, or this do_action('wp_footer');

3. In comments.php and/or comments-popup.php, there should be a piece of code like this: <?php do_action('comment_form', $post->ID); ?>, just before the </form> HTML tag.

Template files

Another wise thing to do when you’re changing themes is to compare theme files. If, for instance, your current theme has an author.php file, which contains the template for your author profiles, and your new one doesn’t have that, that might be an unpleasant surprise when you install the theme. The files you should be checking for in your old and new themes:

  • home.php: the homepage template.
  • single.php: the template for single posts.
  • page.php: the template for pages.
  • category.php: the template for category indexes.
  • author.php: the author template, used when someone wants to find all posts by a certain author.
  • date.php: the date template, used when someone tries to look at, for instance, a certain month of posts on your blog.
  • archive.php: this template is used when either category.php, author.php, or date.php isn’t there.
  • search.php: used when someone searches on your blog, a very important template to look at if you’re concerned about usability, and whether people can find posts on your blog.
  • 404.php is used when WordPress can’t find a certain post or page. It’s a very important template file to have!

How is your theme handling titles?

It’s essential to modernize how your theme manages page titles. While older practices involve directly altering the <title> tag in header.php, consider utilizing add_theme_support('title-tag'); in your theme’s functions.php. This setup allows WordPress and plugins like Yoast SEO to handle titles optimally, ensuring a flexible and SEO-friendly title structure.

// Add to your theme's functions.php
add_action('after_setup_theme', function() {
    add_theme_support('title-tag');
});

Now, Yoast SEO can take care of all the titles. We have a great article on crafting good titles if you want to learn more.

A guide to finding SEO-friendly WordPress themes

If the theme you are looking at fits your goals and the points made in this article, you should be quite okay. For those of you with more tech skills, it’s also an option to go headless with WordPress if you want more flexibility. Good luck with your new theme!

Read more: Need help with WordPress? 10 tips to avoid common mistakes »

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