Yoast’s New Local SEO Plugin

Updated January 12, 2023

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Making the Internet Local

If you follow our blog, you’ll probably know by now that we’re fans of Yoast. The local SEO plugin is one tool we use to optimize our pages and blog posts. So when we saw they were releasing an app specifically designed to help with local SEO, we wanted to check it out. It’s no surprise that localization is important to small businesses. Beyond optimizing a Google My Business account, there are other ways to let Google and other search engines about your location(s) and related services. Read on if you want to further enhance your WordPress website to gain local traction.

New Local SEO Plugin

The Yoast plugin helps your site provide Google with the information it needs to create local listings or display local websites. By putting the information into an easily digestible format, Yoast helps push your site toward the top of the local pack.

The features of the plugin help increase the usability of your pages for local searchers by including:

• Insert Google Maps – This extra function makes it easier for your customers to (physically) navigate to your company’s location by displaying your store’s Google Map location and allowing visitors to click directly through to Google Maps.
• Address(es) of your company—Their plugin makes it simple to display your address(es) in a clear format, also adding the necessary technical markup for search engines so they can read the address and rank it accordingly. We highly recommend that your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) be consistent across the Web to the smallest detail (e.g., abbreviations). This will help software recognize all of your business listings across multiple directories (e.g., Yelp, Google My Business, etc.).
• Opening hours—Again, their plugin makes it easy to show your opening hours clearly to users while also ensuring that Google can read when you’re open to customers.
• Store locator—The store locator will allow customers to easily find your company’s nearest location. Customers can fill in their home address, and a list of your company’s nearest locations will appear.

The local SEO plugin is basically a map with directions in two languages: one that your customers can read to find your store and another that Google can use.

While the Yoast NAP plugin helps simply add pertinent local details to your website, it is important to remember that it will NOT update your company information across the web. We recommend manually reviewing each of your listings to ensure that profiles throughout the internet are consistent with the NAP data found on your website.

Always start with Google My Business, as your company website should have the exact same NAP syntax found within Google Maps. Identifying where your company has listings, documenting your findings, claiming profiles, and maintaining updated NAP details allows for proper management of your Local Listings. It also helps to send the right local signals to search engines.