Installing and inputting Yoast SEO fields is pretty easy. But there’s more to great search engine optimization than just that! Data structuring, Search Console data… What’s important, what’s not, and how will WordPress SEO change with Gutenberg? We’ll go into it all from strategy to execution tips.

1. Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marketing | jake@zenfires.com | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull
More Than Yoast
SEO Beyond the Yoast
Plugin… & the Future
A presentation for
WordCamp ATL 2018

2. More than Yoast
SEO beyond the Yoast plugin… & the future
Schema/Rich Snippets, Mobile Optimization/AMP,
GoogleSearchConsole & the future with WordPress Gutenberg
Installing and inputting with Yoast fields is pretty easy. But there’s more to great search
engine optimization than just that! Data structuring, Search Console data…
What’s important, what’s not, and how will WordPress SEO change with Gutenberg?
We’ll go into it all from strategy to execution tips.
Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marketing | jake@zenfires.com | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull

3. Contents
! The “Plugin Multiplier Effect”
! Specific plugins pros & cons
! Back up: What are the “extra tricks” of SEO & 3rd party plugins?
! Deep Dive: Schema/Rich Snippets
! Extra SEO effects: Are they worth it?
! About Mobile First
! What can be done outside of WordPress?
! Let’s back up: Strategy first
! Gutenberg & the future
Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marketing | jake@zenfires.com | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull

4. The Plugin Multiplier Effect
! This is a big balancing act; the more SEO “tricks” and types of
results you want, the more plugins you have to use (or the more
coding you have to do).
! So on the one hand, you can achieve a lot with a lot of different
SEO plugins. The problem? Your website has too many plugins
which can conflict with each other or not get updated, etc.

5. The Plugin Multiplier Effect
! On the other hand, you do
hand coding. For example,
installing full Google tracking
codes, coded into the header
or footer of the website (rather
than using a plugin like the
Google Analytics plugin). The
concern? That updating the
theme may wipe out your
tracking coding.
! All-in-One SEO has
successfully installed Google
Analytics code into sites,
avoiding an additional plugin.

6. The Plugin Multiplier Effect
! But Yoast is the big player; so often we receive websites with
Yoast already installed and being used.
! There are plugins that are supposed to transfer all SEO
properties from one plugin to another, but it’s hard to QA all of
that. (we typically work with whichever plugin is already
installed on the site, but 85% of the time that’s Yoast)

7. Specific Plugin Pros & Cons
! Because Yoast is the big player, 3rd party
SEO plugins are set to be compatible
with that
! e.g., we have used:
! Google Analytics,
! WP Rich Snippets,
! Simple 301 Redirects,
! AMP for WordPress
! (because even when Yoast or All-in-
One say they can do these things, our
experience is that they don’t do them
as well as 3rd party plugins).

8. Specific Plugin Pros & Cons
! Cons of Yoast? Traffic light suggestions
(you don’t want to do them all; keyword
stuffing)
! Cons of All-in-One? No free taxonomies
controls (and my research has proven
more 3rd party plugins compatible with
Yoast, such as Yoast SEO AMP Glue
Plugin)
! I hear good things about SEO
Framework but haven’t tried it
(here are some comparison blog posts:
https://createandcode.com/best-wordpress-seo-plugins/
and https://imwz.io/yoast-seo-vs-seo-framework/ )

9. Specific Plugin Pros & Cons
! Besides 3rd party plugins, another aspect to look for in your SEO plugins
is taxonomies; you want to noIndex your extra taxonomies (such as
Archives or Tags; and don’t include in sitemap.xml) because those posts
should already be indexing, and you don’t want duplicate content across
multiple URLs. For example, the “Advanced” features of Yoast enable
this control well.

10. BACKUP: WHAT ARE THE ‘EXTRA’ TRICKS OF
SEO & 3rd PARTY PLUGINS?
! Redirects
! Location SEO & directories
! Schema/Rich Snippets
! Video SEO
! Social Media integrations/SMO
! Google tracking coding for AdWords, Search Console, etc.
! AMP

11. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS

12. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS
! What are rich snippets?
! SERP growth beyond past simple text listings & ancient
‘GooglePlaces’ (GoogleMaps) results
! synonyms:
! schema.org
! schema markup
! rich content
! microdata
! structured data
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 12

13. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS
! Rich content traditional elements:
! GoogleMyBusiness/GoogleMaps/GoogleReviews
! Sitelinks
! YouTube videos
! Effects on sitelinks
! Effects on ratings & reviews in SERP
! Images
! The transformation from the old text listings in Google to the
richer display of varied content seen in the SERP today
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 13

14. !
14
Source:https://www.tnooz.com/article/google-brand-name-hotel-searches/

15. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS
! What’s the value of rich snippets?
! Modern approach to SEO gets away from keyword ranking
results,
! & into coverage, qualitative results, social media results such
as “Follows” or “Likes” or “Shares.”
! & growth in (quality) traffic.
! Emphasizing more real estate on the SERP;
! Heatmaps show eyes gravitate toward ‘dazzle/pizzaz’ on the
SERP (not just 3-pack or text listings)
! This is what rich snippets give you; & can achieve a 30%
increase in CTR!
! (source: http://searchengineland.com/how-to-get-a-30-increase-
in-ctr-with-structured-markup-105830)
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 15

16. !
WordPress Meetup | Rich Snippets &
Schema | Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital
Marketing
16
The desktop SERP has been said to
have migrated from the “golden
triangle,” to the “F” – & these days
heatmaps are all over the place – a
problem for search predictability.
Isn’t this because rich content
listings, wherever their place on the
SERP, are grabbing attention? What’s
more: Isn’t Google’s design to keep
you interested in the entire SERP?
(Including the ads at bottom?)
Source: Machdigital.com

17. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS
! Where to see this on the SERP:
! Google KnowledgeGraph (sidebar)
! Google Answer Box
! Third-party or non-Google site listings don’t count
(e.g., ratings on Yelp or Facebook or Wikipedia results)
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 17

18. DEEP DIVE:
SCHEMA/
RICH SNIPPETS
Google Answer Box
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 18

19. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS!
RICH SNIPPETS IN BRANDNAME RESULTS FOR WEBSITE:
! Brand name Google search
! GoogleMyBusiness results in KnowledgeGraph
! Yelp results with ratings rich snippets
! Website brand name results don’t show rich snippets
19

20. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS
Choose your category (schema.org has good reference for categories):
! The death of rel = author & GoogleAuthor & Google+
! Product – Information about a product, including price, availability, and review ratings.
! Recipe – Recipes that can be displayed in web searches and Recipe View.
! Review – A review of an item such as a restaurant, movie, or store.
! Event – An organized event, such as musical concerts or art festivals, that people may attend at a particular
time and place.
! SoftwareApplication – Information about a software app, including its URL, review ratings, and price.
! Video – An online video, including a description and thumbnail.
! News article – A news article, including headline, images, and publisher info (note ties to old “GoogleAuthor”
strategies & coding).
! Science datasets
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 20

21. DEEP DIVE:
SCHEMA/
RICH SNIPPETS
“News” category
rich snippets
results
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 21

22. DEEP DIVE: SCHEMA/RICH SNIPPETS
! Test after publishing: After your schematic markup
(with code, plugin - whichever), Google has a testing tool;
Google “Structured Data Testing Tool.”
! https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool
! Be aware of rich results you would have gotten anyway; i.e.,
sitelinks, GoogleMyBusiness/GoogleMaps/GoogleReviews (in
other words watch for results in the category you tried for).
! & of course you can search Google Incognito for the brand name
(3rd-party & non-Google listings don’t count).
! Don’t do anything black-hat (attempt to do schematic markup of
invisible content, or pick categories irrelevant to the page); you
can be penalized by Google.
! Example: WooCommerce platform for a product catalog site with
everything except prices = “no sale.”
Jake Aull, ZenFires Digital Marketing 22

23. BACK UP: EXTRA SEO EFFECTS & PLUGINS,
ARE THEY REALLY WORTH IT?

24. ARE THEY WORTH IT?
Q: But how important are the “extras?” Are they worth extra plugins?
A: How many different kinds of SEO results do you want?

25. ARE THEY WORTH IT?
! Location-based SEO gets great results. Video SEO gets great results. In
this day and age, if you’re doing SEO you need to do something with
schema.
! Schema is important because it expands your real estate on the SERP (it’s
not about being #1 anymore in ranking; every user gets a unique SERP
experience; you want to best cater to their content and location).
! Want to be on the Knowledge Graph? Do schema.
! AMP is important as we move into “Mobile First” search.

26. ABOUT “MOBILE FIRST”
! Google isn’t there fully yet
! WordPress should be good
because of it’s responsive
structures
! When submitting a new website
to Google Search Console for
indexing, have Google crawl
both the desktop and mobile
versions of the website
! The biggest thing I would watch
for is image size and website
speed

27. ABOUT “MOBILE FIRST”
! And experiment with AMP to make Google happy (a lot of mobile-
friendly best practices apply to AMP also)
! Don’t just watch for desktop errors in Search Console, also check the
mobile errors
! (a good blog post about mobile first:
https://moz.com/blog/mobile-first-indexing-seo )

28. WHAT CAN YOU DO OUTSIDE OF WP?
! Location directories
! Social media
! Social backlinks/social search engines/content curation sites
! YouTube/video SEO
! Google Search Console
! Disavows
! AdWords/PPC

29. LET’S BACK UP: STRATEGY FIRST
! Keyword research
! Competitive research
! Tools like: SpyFu.com, SEMrush.com,
MOZ.com, SEOBook.com/tools, etc.
! Strategy questions include:
! How important is location?
! How important is blogging/news?
! What kind of website is it; brochureware, eCommerce, etc.?

30. GUTENBERG & THE FUTURE
! Almost 60% of searches are on mobile
( https://searchengineland.com/optimize-voice-search-273849 )
! Think mobile-first keywords and voice-search keywords (they’re
different; voice keywords are conversational and question-based)
! For voice-search, some recommendations include tools Answer the Public,
Question Samuri and StoryBase
( https://neilpatel.com/blog/seo-for-voice-search/ ).
! Almost a quarter of voice searches are local searches; so get GMB and
other location directories right!

31. GUTENBERG & THE FUTURE
! Yoast is definitely onboard with and
planning to properly integrate to
Gutenberg
! The danger is when themes update (or
don’t update) and plugins (think about
not having too many plugins per
above…)
! (BTW, search Google for ‘wordpress
SEO Gutenberg’ and almost every result
is related to Yoast. Some good articles
by Yoast about Gutenberg:
https://yoast.com/gutenberg-integration/
and https://yoast.com/writing-with-gutenberg/ )

32. Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marketing | jake@zenfires.com | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull
More Than Yoast
SEO Beyond the Yoast
Plugin… & the Future
A presentation for
WordCamp ATL 2018