SEO Plugin Updates – Yoast 6.3

Updated January 11, 2023

New Updates are Available

If you follow our blog you’ll already know that Yoast is one of our favorite plugins. Their SEO plugin for WordPress is a great way to make sure your pages and posts have the right amount of on-page SEO on them. So, news that Yoast has just updated their plugin to 6.3 has got us a bit excited.

Yoast 6.2 is Dead, Long Live Yoast 6.3!

Yoast 6.3 is packing some new features and has also killed off a few of the older ones that aren’t needed anymore.

Here’s the rundown of what’s changed:

Meta Keywords are no more – If you regularly use your Yoast plugin you’ll notice the “meta keyword” box below the “focus keyword” box, with some text, basically telling you that you don’t need to fill it in. Well, Yoast has now removed the box from the interface. Meta keywords have been ignored by Google for some time now, so while many users found the box useful as a place to note a secondary keyword, there was no real practical purpose to it.

No no-index subpages – Another feature that’s been ditched is the no-index subpages option. In short, Google has improved to the point where the feature is no longer needed. Before Google might have accidentally sent users from the SERP to the second, or third page in a series, but now it’s much better at sending people straight to the start.

Spring Cleaning

Removing these options makes the plugin more streamlined, which has allowed Yoast to add more information to the limited space they have. They have also added a number of new “advanced” features that you can toggle on, or off, in the settings section of the plugin. With a lot more information on what they do, and when they should be used, for users who might need a bit more assistance.

In addition to these new features, the tech bods at Yoast HQ have also cleaned up a few bugs and made some other fixes that you can read about in their changelog. So what are you waiting for? Update to Yoast 6.3 now!

Photo credit – Top: Sean MacEntee