Updated January 7, 2023
Reading Time: 2 minutes
Can You Define That?
If you’ve followed our blog for a while you’ll already know that Yoast is one of our favorite WordPress plugins. So, we’re happy to talk about the newest SEO offering from the Dutch company. Yoast 7.8 is now here and ready to plug into your website.
Same Difference
The headline change to Yoast 7.8 is that they now include a “Synonym” section for keywords to help with on-page optimization. AI and machine learning are continually improving the keyword matching process, to the extent that now Google (and other search engines) are able to add some context to your blog posts or web page content. For example, if you’re writing a web page for a pet store and you’re talking about “puppies”, the search engine can now make a deductive leap and assume that if you’re talking about puppies, you are, in turn, also talking about dogs.
This advance is not entirely a new thing, but as time goes on it seems that the search engines are refining their matching algorithms, so Yoast has now reacted. Yoast 7.8 allows you to enter your main keyword, and then also enter a number of related keywords (or synonyms) that the search engine would also be interested in. So, if you’re not already a premium Yoast customer, you should be now!
Spread It Out
Another useful feature is their Keyword Distributor. In an attempt to avoid any accusations of keyword stuffing and also to promote readability the keyword distributor will see….. how distributed your keywords are. Sometimes if you’re trying to optimize a piece of writing for one keyword you can become a little snowblind. This tool will help you make sure that you’re not just spamming one paragraph, or section of a post, with your keyword, by highlighting them to you.
Keeping Up To Date With Yoast 7.8
With these extra innovations, it’s clear to us that Yoast is still pushing things forward with Yoast 7.8. What tools do you use to keep your on-page SEO in line? We’d love to hear about your favorite SEO plugins or tips.
Photo credit – Top: Maxpixel
Photo credit – Bottom: Joe the Goat Farmer
