Thread: WordPress SEO by Yoast | XML Sitemaps - Post titles and meta descriptions

WordPress SEO by Yoast | XML Sitemaps - Post titles and meta descriptions

Just started using Wordpress-SEO from - http://yoast.com/wordpress-seo-plugin-beta/ - and it seems the most comprehensive + simple SEO plugin available, and Joost de Valk is the Wordpress SEO guru...
Nick Garnett
NB. it's probably been released to the Wordpress repository by now

WordPress SEO by Yoast | XML Sitemaps - Post titles and meta descriptions

WordPress SEO Plugin feature list


Check out the feature list:

1. Post titles and meta descriptions
2. Robots Meta configuration
3. Canonical
4. Breadcrumbs
5. Permalink clean up
6. XML Sitemaps
7. RSS enhancements
8. Edit your robots.txt and .htaccess
9. Clean up head section

Post titles and meta descriptions

WordPress SEO let's you set templates for titles and meta descriptions for all types of pages, so you could come up with a template and not have to think about it, or you could use the WordPress SEO meta box to completely optimize your post title and meta description, using the snippet preview functionality to see what it would look like in Google. Add to that the chance to enter a focus keyword, which is used to show you how it would bold in your search results, and you have the chance to control everything you want about your listing in Google:


WordPress SEO with snippet preview

As you can see, the plugin automatically tests the important area's of your content for usage of the focus keyword, so you can truly optimize your page for the term you need.
Robots Meta configuration

Whether you want to keep a single post or page out of the index, or you prefer to keep entire sections of your site unfindable: the WordPress SEO plugin has your back. Hidden by default under the "advanced" button is a meta robots settings block that allows you to choose any setting you want on a per page basis:

But you could also choose to noindex a certain category, tag or custom taxonomy (or give it a unique title and meta description):


Category noindex or Title and Meta Description

This works for all tags, categories and custom taxonomies. As you can see there are two other yet unexplained features there, canonical and breadcrumbs. Let's touch on those:
Canonical

When Google introduced the canonical link element, to distinguish the "original" page from derivative pages within your site carrying the same content, they reached out to me to develop a WordPress plugin for it, and I did. Later on, canonical link elements were added to core. They work fine, with one caveat: they only work for single posts and pages, not for categories and tags, not for the homepage. The WordPress SEO plugin fixes that, and sets the correct canonical on each of those pages.
Breadcrumbs

The Yoast Breadcrumbs code has been powering many (premium) themes breadcrumbs for ages. Using the same code, the WordPress SEO plugin now gives way more granular control over this breadcrumb. You get to determine, for each post type, which taxonomy to show. You get to determine for each post, page and taxonomy, what title to use for that specific entity in the breadcrumb paths it appears in. Full control, that's what this entire WordPress SEO plugin is about.
Permalink clean up

Don't you hate it when someone adds /2 to the end of a link towards you? Or links with all weird variables at the end of the URL? You have a solution now! Just checking one box will redirect all that stuff away, and make sure that your content is always found under the URL you want it to be found under. If you use a Google Custom search engine, checking another box will prevent that from breaking down while using this function.
XML Sitemaps

XML Sitemaps are an essential part current day SEO, and can thus not be excluded from a complete WordPress SEO plugin. While there are other WordPress XML Sitemap Generators out there, they don't talk to your SEO plugin. Meaning that if you noindex a page, preventing it from showing up in Google, it might still be in your sitemap. They also don't allow you to keep certain taxonomies out of your sitemap. This plugin does. And, to boot, it makes your XML Sitemaps look good by using an XSLT stylesheet on them, so humans can read them too.
RSS enhancements

My RSS Footer plugin used to allow you to add a piece of content to the beginning or the end of posts in your RSS feed. The WordPress SEO plugin goes one step further and allows you to add content to both of them, allowing you to link back to your blog and the specific blog post, which is very helpful when you have a lot of people scraping your blog.
Edit your robots.txt and .htaccess

Editing your robots.txt and .htaccess files has never been this easy: you can edit them straight from the Files menu of the WordPress SEO plugin, so you can easily check and or update those files and keep it all nice and clean.
Clean up head section

NOTE: this plugin is still in beta. While you can download it, there are absolutely no guarantees and you should back up before you use it.

Get an error on when the xml is created so think i will wait for it to come out of beta but it does look good so thanks for the suggestion

Reading around on the internet this error looks like an issue with the zip xml file creation, have raised a bug with the developer but after a bit of configuration this does look like a great tool and my sitemap is listing all the pages on my site which is much better than some of the other plugins i have tried

And the import tool is dead handy if you have been using a different plugin to manage your SEO tags etc..

Yoast's WordPress SEO is a damn fine plugin. I've been migrating from All in One to only Yoast's.

wp-admin/admin.php?page=wpseo_titles&updated=true

Could you share the title settings on your site?

I made the following settings.

-------------------------------------
Singular pages
For some pages, like the homepage, you'll want to set a fixed title in some occasions. For others, you can define a template here.

Homepage
Title template: %%sitedesc%% | %%sitename%% %%page%%
Meta description template: Description of your site.
Meta keywords template: Keywords in your site


Post
Title template: %%title%%
Meta description template: %%excerpt%%
Meta keywords template: %%tag%%


Ad_listing
Title template: %%title%% | %%sitename%%
Meta description template: %%excerpt%%
Meta keywords template: Keywords in your site


Taxonomies
Category
Title template: %%term_title%% | %%sitedesc%% %%page%%
Meta description template: %%category_description%%
Meta keywords template: Keywords in your site


Post_tag
Title template: %%term_title%% | %%sitedesc%% %%page%%
Meta description template: %%tag_description%%
Meta keywords template: %%tag%%


Ad_cat
Title template: %%term_title%% | %%sitedesc%% %%page%%
Meta description template: %%category_description%%
Meta keywords template: Keywords in your site


Ad_tag
Title template: %%term_title%% | %%sitedesc%% %%page%%
Meta description template: %%tag_description%%
Meta keywords template: Keywords in your site



Special pages
Author Archives
Title template:
Meta description template: Description of your site.
Meta keywords template: Keywords in your site


Date Archives
Title template:
Meta description template: Keywords in your site


Search pages
Title template: Search for %%searchphrase%% | %%sitename%% %%page%%

404 pages
Title template: %%sitename%% | Page not found

Thank you Barukar,
Yoast wordpress seo is better than all in one seo.
Time to change

I copy the following settings - barukar

what is the best way to configure the sitemap?

I have a multisite installation

Except that I use on site only. Most know that the plugin support multi break sites.
Take a look at the author's website: WordPress SEO Plugin - Yoast

I used this configuration: