Yoast SEO 18.9: Updating the first-time experience

We’re launching an updated first-time experience for new Yoast SEO users. In Yoast SEO 18.9, we’re making it easier for users to set up the essentials that search engines need to make sense of your site. The first-time configuration takes you by the hand and guides you in properly setting everything up.

A new first-time experience to help you get started

It can be daunting to install a new WordPress plugin. Some plugins work out of the box without any configuration, but some need a little help to make the most of it. For Yoast SEO, we always try to improve the first experience users have with the plugin. In today’s release, we’ve improved that first-time experience and moved to a spot where it makes more sense.

We keep working on this because we notice that not everyone fills in the basic information about themselves and their sites. This is important as we use these settings to correctly output structured data for Google and other search engines to understand, among other things. Failing to fill this in makes it harder for search engines to figure out who you are and what your site does.

So, don’t forget to run that first-time configuration and fill in everything correctly! You can also do this if you’ve already been running your site for a while.

Bug fixes and enhancements

Of course, we do fixes and enhancements for every release. This release is no different, with several more minor bug fixes that help improve the stability of the SEO plugin. In addition, we’ve improved compatibility with the upcoming release of WordPress 6.0 You can find the complete list on the changelog page for Yoast SEO.

Update to Yoast SEO 18.9 now

In Yoast SEO 18.9 and Yoast SEO Premium 18.5, we’ve enhanced the first-time experience for users. In addition, we fixed several bugs and added a couple of enhancements.

That’s it for today, see you in two weeks!

Yoast SEO 19.0 is available now. Check it out!