=== Yoast SEO ===
Contributors: yoast, joostdevalk, tacoverdo, omarreiss, atimmer, jipmoors
Donate link: https://yoa.st/1up
License: GPLv3
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
Tags: SEO, XML sitemap, Google Search Console, Content analysis, Readability
Requires at least: 4.9
Tested up to: 5.0.3
Stable tag: 9.6.1
Requires PHP: 5.2.4

Improve your WordPress SEO: Write better content and have a fully optimized WordPress site using the Yoast SEO plugin.

== Description ==

### Yoast SEO: the #1 WordPress SEO plugin

Need some help with your search engine optimization? Need an SEO plugin that helps you reach for the stars? Yoast SEO is the original WordPress SEO plugin since 2008. It is the favorite tool of millions of users, ranging from the bakery around the corner to some of the most popular sites on the planet. With Yoast SEO, you get a solid toolset that helps you aim for that number one spot in the search results. Yoast: SEO for everyone.

Yoast SEO does everything in its power to please both visitors and search engine spiders. How? Below you’ll find a small sampling of the powers of Yoast SEO:

#### Taking care of your WordPress SEO

* The most advanced XML Sitemaps functionality at the push of a button.
* Full control over site breadcrumbs: add a piece of code and you’re good to go.
* Set canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content. Never have to worry about Google penalties again.
* Title and meta description templating for better branding and consistent snippets in the search results.
* **[Premium]** Expand Yoast SEO with the News SEO, Video SEO, Local SEO and WooCommerce SEO extensions.
* **[Premium]** Need help? Yoast SEO Premium users get 1 year free access to our awesome support team.

> Note: some features are Premium. Which means you need Yoast SEO Premium to unlock those features. You can [get Yoast SEO Premium here](https://yoa.st/1v8)!

#### Write killer content with Yoast SEO

* Content & SEO analysis: Invaluable tools to write SEO-friendly texts.
* The snippet preview shows you how your post or page will look in the search results - even on mobile. Yoast SEO Premium even has social media previews!
* **[Premium]** The Insights tool shows you what your text focuses on so you can keep your article in line with your keyphrases.
* **[Premium]** Synonyms & related keyphrases: Optimize your article for synonyms and related keyphrases.
* **[Premium]** Automatic internal linking suggestions: write your article and get automatic suggested posts to link to.

#### Keep your site in perfect shape

* Yoast SEO tunes the engine of your site so you can work on creating great content.
* Our cornerstone content and internal linking features help you optimize your site structure in a breeze.
* Integrates with Google Search Console: See how your site performs in the search engines and fix crawl errors.
* Manage SEO roles: Give your colleagues access to specific sections of the Yoast SEO plugin.
* Bulk editor: Make large-scale edits to your site.
* **[Premium]** Social previews to manage the way your page is shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
* **[Premium]** Redirect manager: It keeps your site healthy by easily redirecting errors from Google Search Console, deleted pages and changed URLs.

### Premium support

The Yoast team does not always provide active support for the Yoast SEO plugin on the WordPress.org forums, as we prioritize our email support. One-on-one email support is available to people who [bought Yoast SEO Premium](https://yoa.st/1v8) only.

Note that the [Yoast SEO Premium](https://yoa.st/1v8) also has several extra features too, including the option to have synonyms and related keyphrases, internal linking suggestions, cornerstone content checks and a redirect manager, so it is well worth your investment!

You should also check out the [Yoast Local SEO](https://yoa.st/1uu), [Yoast News SEO](https://yoa.st/1uv) and [Yoast Video SEO](https://yoa.st/1uw) extensions to Yoast SEO. They work with the free version of Yoast SEO already, and these premium extensions of course come with support too.

### Bug reports

Bug reports for Yoast SEO are [welcomed on GitHub](https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo). Please note GitHub is not a support forum, and issues that aren’t properly qualified as bugs will be closed.

### Further Reading

For more info on search engine optimization, check out the following:

* The [Yoast SEO Plugin](https://yoa.st/1v8) official homepage.
* The [Yoast SEO Knowledgebase](https://yoa.st/1va).
* [WordPress SEO - The definitive Guide by Yoast](https://yoa.st/1v6).
* Other [WordPress Plugins](https://yoa.st/1v9) by the same team.
* Follow Yoast on [Facebook](https://facebook.com/yoast) & [Twitter](https://twitter.com/yoast).

== Installation ==

=== From within WordPress ===

1. Visit 'Plugins > Add New'
1. Search for 'Yoast SEO'
1. Activate Yoast SEO from your Plugins page.
1. Go to "after activation" below.

=== Manually ===

1. Upload the `wordpress-seo` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
1. Activate the Yoast SEO plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
1. Go to "after activation" below.

=== After activation ===

1. You should see (a notice to start) the Yoast SEO configuration wizard.
1. Go through the configuration wizard and set up the plugin for your site.
1. You're done!

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

You'll find answers to many of your questions on [kb.yoast.com](https://yoa.st/1va).

== Screenshots ==

1. The Yoast SEO plugin general meta box. You'll see this on edit post pages, for posts, pages and custom post types.
2. Example of the SEO analysis functionality.
3. Example of the readability analysis functionality.
4. Overview of site-wide SEO problems and possible improvements.
5. Control over which features you want to use.
6. Easily import SEO data from other SEO plugins like All In One SEO pack, HeadSpace2 SEO and wpSEO.de.

== Changelog ==

= 9.6.0 =
Release Date: February 12th, 2019

Content analysis recalibration (beta):

* As there are already a lot of users who are participating in testing, we currently have enough input to start preparing for the release of the improved analysis.
  * Removes the ability to enable beta testing for new installations.
  * When the feature is disabled, the ability to re-enable it will disappear.

Enhancements:

* Removes schema (JSON+LD) output from 404 pages.
* Improves the Google Search Console table accessibility by removing a duplicate button.
* Improves the code to better comply to the coding standards.

Bugfixes:

* Fixes a bug where an empty feed would be available for non-existing pages. Props [stodorovic](https://github.com/stodorovic).
* Prevents `vendor_prefix/j4mie/idiorm/demo.php` from being included in the release.

Other:

* Props to [Kingdutch](https://github.com/Kingdutch) for helping improve our open source content analysis library.
* Improves the redirect upsell when creating redirects in the search console overview.

= 9.5.0 =
Release Date: January 22nd, 2019

Enhancements:

* Completes the readability analysis for Swedish by adding the transition words, sentence beginnings and passive voice assessments.
* Improves the transition word assessment for German.

Bugfixes:

* Fixes a bug where the Ryte endpoint would be called when the Ryte feature has been disabled.
* Fixes a bug where the 'Show archives for authors without posts in search results?' toggle would be shown when the 'Show author archives in search results?' toggle was disabled in the search appearance settings.
* Fixes a bug where the front page would be shown in the page sitemap. Props to [stodorovic](https://github.com/stodorovic).
* Fixes a bug where errors would be thrown in the classic editor when Gutenberg assets were enqueued without Gutenberg being active.
* Fixes a bug where the editor would not be loaded when clicking the ‘edit’ button for a child page in the page overview. Props [mondrey](https://github.com/mondrey).

Deprecated:

* Deprecates the methods WPSEO_Utils::get_user_locale() and WPSEO_Utils::get_language().

Other:

* Adds a Courses Page showing an overview of the available online courses offered by Yoast Academy.

= Earlier versions =

For the changelog of earlier versions, please refer to [the Yoast SEO changelog on yoast.com](https://yoa.st/yoast-seo-changelog)
