Hey everybody welcome to another
WordPress Wednesday my name is Kori
Ashton here WebTegrity in San Antonio
and you have found a youtube channel
solely dedicated to all things WordPress.
We expand upon that though with some
searches engine optimization inside of
your WordPress website and some social
media marketing inside your WordPress
website, so this channel is kind of a
little bit of everything and we've got
stuff for all levels. Total beginners to
some really cool advanced nerdy stuff.
So, stick around with us. Be sure to
subscribe. Today we are going to be
continuing our series on search engine
optimization. Last week I spoke
specifically on how to find keywords
inside your WordPress website and the
week prior to that we spoke on
optimizing your google snippets. Super
important that you do both of these. So
check those videos out. I'll put the link
to this whole playlist in the
description box below because this
playlist has 28 videos. Some that i've
done some that I've resourced around
YouTube and brought in for my clients to
watch and I think it's super important
that our YouTube fans watch these as
well. So, take time to check out that
playlist. Also I have a Yoast playlist and
that is the plug-in that we're going to
be talking about today. Specifically
looking at the readability tab. How
important is that green light? What does
it even mean? Should I be trying to get a
green light and readability? So take time
if you want you to look through these
other Yoast videos. They're really a great
resource as well so let's look at it.
Y'all the green light. How important is
the green light when it comes to
readability? What is that area even mean?
Inside of the Yoast plug-in so you know
if you're using the Yoast plug-in that
as you activate it and start using it on
your articles and pages, you have the SEO
option to get to the green light. That's
really exciting because it's analyzing
your content letting you know that
Google can clearly understand what this
page is about; however. there's a
secondary tab that talks about the
readability. Now the readability
certainly is a second level of kind of
concern if you will; however I think it
is something that we should pay
attention to. Now should we strive to get
to the green light? I know there's a
temptation for everybody to say "well I
must must must be to the green light". well
specifically readability.
Different concern to it. What they're
looking at is perhaps some more grammar
issues, or maybe just how how simple is it
to kind of read down your paragraph.
Let's analyze a few and get some ideas
of exactly what they're complaining
about when they're giving us a green or
red light. Rather let's go in and see
this article. One thing I want you to
note right away is it's fantastic when
it comes to the SEO side of things.
It has over 800 words in this
particular article and he has optimized
his google snippet as well. So all this
looks fantastic; however we've got a big
old red light over
here for readability. So coming in here
it allows us to understand a little bit
more why they're grading us like this.
It's telling us that 31.3 percent of
sentences contain more than 20 words.
Which is more than recommended of 25% so
try to shorten the sentences. So
basically it's just saying "hey you know
you might be a little wordy". You got
maybe some run-on sentences. Take a look
and try to shorten them out just a
little bit. That's a nice little tip.
Alright so twenty percent of the
sentences contain passive voice which is
more than recommended. Try using their
active counterparts. So again these are
things that your grammar teacher back in
fifth grade would have had her red
ink pen out circling your paper.
Giving you the same feedback and I know
that's irritating at times; however,
it's going to help overall your user
have a better experience when reading
down these longer articles. Here are some
other things that they're kind of asking
us to pay attention to. So I'll put the
link to this article in the description
box below, as well because this is
directly from the Yoast website. I'm
going to scroll down here to the
readability tab issue and it tells us
the different things that it is
analyzing on your page and that again is
sentence length, paragraph length. So if
there are paragraphs that are little too
lengthy they're going to kind of gripe
at us there and I think that's what this
little orange concern is telling us. That
it has more than 150 words in this one
paragraph. Can you consider possibly
shortening it? So good advice. There's a
passive voice again. Oh here's this. I
don't want to miss this because this is
important. They want to see those
subheadings kind of break up the
paragraphs as you scroll down the page.
It's important to allow our eyes to rest
for a minute and subheadings do that.
Transition words like 'however' and
'therefore', those are great to read. And
then also the reading ease. So this is
talking basically about the reading
level of the average person in the U.S.,
so we're looking at seventh and eighth
grade reading level these days. That's
the average reading level. What this is
basically doing, though, and here's what I
want you to note, this is a very broad
general overall. Hey you should be
writing to this age level or this
readability level. What I want you to
understand though is something that this
particular client even struggles with, is
the fact that sometimes he has to get a
little technical and he knows that his
audience is ok with that because that's
what they're researching. So depending
upon what you're writing about and who
you're writing to, I want you to always
be aware that content is first. I know
there's a temptation TO get to this
green light . We want to see these green
lights everywhere; but the truth is
content is first. So be sure to write to
your audience and then go back and allow
this little system here, this readability
tab, to kind of grade you and and steer
you and maybe some corrections that you
can move toward to getting a green light.
Does that make sense? It is important. I
want you to take time to understand how
to get green lights and so because of
that i will put this link, as well as a
few others, in the description box below.
but i am also going to put an awesome link to this the
sensation of green bullet in the big
Yoast SEO plugin, because they to speak
to the fact that a lot of people are so
anxious about getting everything
possible to green, and what's the reality
of it. what's the importance of it? So
accountability is great and having those
green lights are fantastic. I challenge
all my clients to take a screenshot of
their green lights and send them to me
as they've worked hard to earn those;
however understanding what your audience
is looking for, is even more important. So
be sure to have a healthy balance. If you
have questions about this give us a
shout out over on Twitter. Come over to
WegTegrity. Come give me an email. Put it
to put a comment in the thread below,
however I can help. I'd love to be your SEO
nerd. Alright have a great Wednesday
and I will see y'all next WordPress
Wednesday. Bye, everyone.