Yoast SEO is a

search engine optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of Web traffic, website traffic to a website or a web page from web search engine, search engines. SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as "natural" or "Organ ...

(SEO) tool plug-in for

WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

History

Yoast SEO created its first WordPress SEO plugin in 2007 - originally named WordPress SEO: it was developed as a WordPress plugin by SEO consultant Joost de Valk. In 2012, the plug-in was renamed Yoast SEO. In 2015, Yoast hosted the first YoastCon conference, which was hosted at the Lindenberg Nijmegen Culture House in

Nijmegen, Netherlands Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about ...

. In 2015 a flaw was discovered in version 1.7.3.3 and earlier versions. The flaw could have left users of Yoast SEO open to hackers and was discovered by a security consultant.

Company

Yoast SEO can trace its origins to 2005 when Joost de Valk launched a website named "joostdevalk.nl". After moving to and eventually selling the domain "css3.info", de Valk created the Yoast platform in 2009, launched the first version of WordPress SEO in 2010 and founded the company Yoast BV in 2010. Initially, Yoast focused on SEO consultancy and developed both the Yoast SEO plugin and a Google Analytics plugin, both for WordPress. In 2012, a premium version of the plug-in was launched. In April 2016, Yoast BV sold the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin. In 2018, Yoast had a total turnover of €10 million. According to Yoast, as of September 2018, they had almost 100 employees, of which 85 are based in their HQ in

Wijchen Wijchen () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the province of Gelderland, in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Population centres Number of residents per population centre per 12 December 2009: Source: Statis ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In June 2020, Yoast acquired the Duplicate Post plugin, which had over 3 million users. Also, the original developer of Duplicate Post, Enrico Battocchi, joined Yoast as a senior developer and remains one of the leading developers on the plugin. Yoast was acquired by Newfold Digital (the company that owns the hosting provider Bluehost) in August 2021.

Reception

The software has amassed over five million downloads. Michael David, the author of ''WordPress Search Engine Optimization'' (2015) book, referred to it as "the granddaddy of all SEO plugins". Brian Santo, editor of

EE Times ''EE Times'' (''Electronic Engineering Times'') is an electronics industry magazine published in the United States since 1972. EE Times is currently owned by AspenCore, a division of Arrow Electronics since August 2016. Since its acquisition ...

, uses Yoast for estimating the ranking of articles on Google by using analysis results (e.g. keyphrase,

keyword density Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. In the context of search engine optimization, keyword density can be used to determine whether a web page is rel ...

, links,

readability Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content (the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax) and its presentation (such as typographic aspects that a ...

), but criticizes the negative effects SEO has had on journalism and suggest Google use more human or artificial intelligence to improve search.

Sponsorship

In September 2020, Yoast announced it became the main sponsor of a professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

club

Yoast United Yoast United is a Dutch basketball club based in Bemmel, Gelderland. Established in 2020, the team plays in the BNXT League, the highest level of basketball in the Netherlands. Home games are played at De Kooi, which has a capacity of 650 people. ...

, which plays in the

BNXT League The BNXT League, for sponsorship reasons the betFirst BNXT League, is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the Dutch Basketball League, DBL a ...

History

Company

Reception

Sponsorship

See also

References

Further reading