The Yoast SEO plugin is a cornerstone of WordPress website optimization, empowering users to enhance their site’s visibility in search engine results. While many users are familiar with the core features like readability analysis and meta description editing, the Advanced tab often remains unexplored. This comprehensive guide delves into the Yoast SEO Advanced tab, explaining its location, functionality, and how to leverage its settings for optimal SEO performance. We’ll cover everything from accessing the tab to understanding each setting and its implications, ensuring you can confidently fine-tune your website’s search engine presence.
Understanding the Role of Advanced SEO Settings
Before diving into the specifics of the Advanced tab, it’s crucial to understand why these settings exist. Most of the time, the default settings within Yoast SEO are perfectly adequate for a well-optimized website. However, the Advanced tab provides granular control for specific scenarios. These scenarios include preventing indexing of certain pages, managing canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content issues, and customizing how search engines crawl and index your site. Essentially, the Advanced tab is for users who need to go beyond the basics and exert precise control over their SEO. It’s a powerful tool, but one that should be used with careful consideration. Incorrectly configuring these settings can negatively impact your search rankings.
Locating the Advanced Tab Within Yoast SEO
Finding the Advanced tab isn’t always straightforward, as it’s not immediately visible to all users. By default, access to the Advanced tab is restricted to Administrators and Editors. This security measure prevents less experienced users from inadvertently making changes that could harm the site’s SEO.
Here’s how to access the Advanced tab:
- Navigate to Yoast SEO: In your WordPress Dashboard, locate the "Yoast SEO" menu item.
- Select Settings: Click on "Settings" within the Yoast SEO menu.
- Access Features Tab: Within the settings, click on the "Features" tab.
- Enable Advanced Settings Pages: Locate the "Advanced settings pages" option and toggle it to the "Enable" position.
Once enabled, the "Advanced" tab will appear within the Yoast SEO meta box when editing individual posts or pages. It’s located below the other tabs like SEO title, meta description, readability, and social media.
Core Settings Within the Advanced Tab
The Advanced tab houses several critical settings that control how search engines interact with your content. Let's examine each one in detail:
- Allow search engines to show this Post in search results?: This setting determines whether a specific post or page will be indexed by search engines like Google. Setting this to "No" effectively hides the page from search results. This is useful for pages under development, thank you pages, or content you don’t want publicly accessible through search.
- Should search engines follow links on this Post?: This setting controls whether search engines will follow links on the page. Setting this to "No" prevents search engines from crawling the linked pages, which can be useful for affiliate links or links to untrusted sources.
- Breadcrumbs title: This allows you to customize the title displayed in breadcrumb navigation. Breadcrumbs help users understand the site's structure and improve user experience.
- Canonical URL: This setting is crucial for managing duplicate content. If multiple URLs point to the same content, the canonical URL tells search engines which version is the preferred one. This prevents search engines from penalizing your site for duplicate content.
A Deep Dive into Canonical URLs
Canonical URLs are arguably the most important setting within the Advanced tab. Duplicate content can severely harm your SEO, leading to lower rankings and even penalties from search engines. Here’s a breakdown of why canonical URLs are essential:
- Preventing Duplicate Content: When the same content is accessible through multiple URLs (e.g.,
example.com/pageandexample.com/page?utm_source=facebook), search engines see this as duplicate content. - Consolidating Ranking Signals: The canonical URL tells search engines which version of the page should receive all the ranking signals (e.g., backlinks, social shares).
- Improving Crawl Efficiency: By specifying the canonical URL, you help search engines crawl your site more efficiently, focusing on the most important content.
If you’re unsure whether to use a canonical URL, it’s generally best to leave it blank. Yoast SEO will often automatically suggest a canonical URL based on the page’s content.
Comparing Yoast SEO Tab Functionality
To better understand the scope of the Advanced tab, let's compare its functionality with other key tabs within the Yoast SEO meta box:
| Tab | Primary Function | Key Settings | User Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO Title | Optimizing the title tag for search engines | Title template, SEO title | All users |
| Meta Description | Crafting a compelling meta description | Meta description template, SEO meta description | All users |
| Readability | Analyzing content readability | Sentence length, paragraph length, transition words | All users |
| Social | Configuring social media appearance | Facebook title, Twitter title, Open Graph image | All users |
| Advanced | Fine-tuning search engine indexing and crawling | Allow indexing, follow links, canonical URL | Administrators & Editors (by default) |
This table highlights that the Advanced tab offers settings that are more technical and require a deeper understanding of SEO principles.
Utilizing the Advanced Tab for Specific Scenarios
Here are some practical examples of when to use the settings within the Advanced tab:
- Preventing Indexing of Thank You Pages: Thank you pages typically don’t offer unique value to search users. Setting "Allow search engines to show this Post in search results?" to "No" prevents them from appearing in search results.
- Managing Affiliate Links: If you use affiliate links, setting "Should search engines follow links on this Post?" to "No" can prevent Google from associating your site with potentially untrusted affiliate websites.
- Resolving Duplicate Content Issues: If you have multiple URLs pointing to the same content, use the "Canonical URL" setting to specify the preferred version.
- Customizing Breadcrumb Titles: If the automatically generated breadcrumb title isn’t accurate or descriptive, use the "Breadcrumbs title" setting to customize it.
Security Considerations and User Permissions
As mentioned earlier, access to the Advanced tab is restricted to Administrators and Editors by default. This is a security measure to prevent accidental misconfiguration. However, you can modify these permissions if needed.
To change user permissions:
- Navigate to Yoast SEO: In your WordPress Dashboard, go to "Yoast SEO".
- Select Team: Click on the "Team" tab.
- Configure Access: Adjust the access levels for different user roles to determine who can access the Advanced tab.
It’s crucial to carefully consider the implications of granting access to the Advanced tab to less experienced users.
Finding Your Sitemap URL and Submitting to Search Consoles
While not directly within the Advanced tab, the Yoast SEO plugin automatically generates an XML sitemap, which is essential for helping search engines discover and crawl your website. You can find your sitemap URL in the Yoast SEO general settings. The default URL is typically yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml.
Once you’ve located your sitemap URL, submit it to search consoles like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This ensures that search engines are aware of your sitemap and can efficiently crawl your website.
Final Thoughts
The Yoast SEO Advanced tab is a powerful tool for experienced WordPress users who want to fine-tune their website’s SEO performance. While the default settings are often sufficient, the Advanced tab provides granular control over indexing, crawling, and canonicalization. By understanding each setting and its implications, you can optimize your website for search engines and improve your online visibility. Remember to use these settings with caution and always back up your website before making any significant changes.