=== Yoast SEO ===
Contributors: joostdevalk
Donate link: https://yoast.com/
License: GPLv3
License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
Tags: SEO, Google, xml sitemap, google search console, google webmaster tools, canonical, meta description, meta title, noindex, snippet preview, redirects, focus keyword, seo copywriting, content marketing
Requires at least: 4.3
Tested up to: 4.5
Stable tag: 3.3.4

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

== Description ==

WordPress out of the box is already technically quite a good platform for SEO, this was true when Joost wrote his original [WordPress SEO](https://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/) article in 2008 (and updated every few months) and it's still true today, but that doesn't mean you can't improve it further! This plugin is written from the ground up by Joost de Valk and his team at [Yoast](https://yoast.com/) to improve your site's SEO on *all* needed aspects. While this [Yoast SEO plugin](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/) goes the extra mile to take care of all the technical optimization, more on that below, it first and foremost helps you write better content.  Yoast SEO forces you to choose a focus keyword when you're writing your articles, and then makes sure you use that focus keyword everywhere.

> <strong>Premium Support</strong><br>
> The Yoast team does not always provide active support for the Yoast SEO plugin on the WordPress.org forums. One on one email support is available to people who bought the [Premium Yoast SEO plugin](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo-premium/) only.
> Note that the Premium SEO plugin has several extra features too so it might be well worth your investment, including the option to have multiple focus keywords and a redirect manager!
>
> You should also check out the [Yoast Local SEO](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/local-seo/), [Yoast News SEO](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/news-seo/) and [Yoast Video SEO](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/video-seo/) extensions to Yoast SEO, these of course come with support too.

> <strong>Bug Reports</strong><br>
> 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.

= Write better content with Yoast SEO =
Using the snippet preview you can see a rendering of what your post or page will look like in the search results, whether your title is too long or too short and your meta description makes sense in the context of a search result. This way the plugin will help you not only increase rankings but also increase the click through for organic search results.

= Page Analysis =
The Yoast SEO plugins [Page Analysis](https://yoast.com/content-seo-wordpress-linkdex/) functionality checks simple things you're bound to forget. It checks, for instance, if you have images in your post and whether they have an alt tag containing the focus keyword for that post. It also checks whether your posts are long enough, if you've written a meta description and if that meta description contains your focus keyword, if you've used any subheadings within your post, etc. etc.

The plugin also allows you to write meta titles and descriptions for all your category, tag and custom taxonomy archives, giving you the option to further optimize those pages.

Combined, this plugin makes sure that your content is the type of content search engines will love!

= Technical WordPress Search Engine Optimization =
While out of the box WordPress is pretty good for SEO, it needs some tweaks here and there. This Yoast SEO plugin guides you through some of the settings needed, for instance by reminding you to enable pretty permalinks. But it also goes beyond that, by automatically optimizing and inserting the meta tags and link elements that Google and other search engines like so much:

= Meta & Link Elements =
With the Yoast SEO plugin you can control which pages Google shows in its search results and which pages it doesn't show. By default, it will tell search engines to index all of your pages, including category and tag archives, but only show the first pages in the search results. It's not very useful for a user to end up on the third page of your "personal" category, right?

WordPress itself only shows canonical link elements on single pages, Yoast SEO makes it output canonical link elements everywhere. Google has recently announced they would also use `rel="next"` and `rel="prev"` link elements in the `head` section of your paginated archives, this plugin adds those automatically, see [this post](https://yoast.com/rel-next-prev-paginated-archives/ title="rel=next & rel=prev for paginated archives") for more info.

= XML Sitemaps =
Yoast SEO plugin has the most advanced XML Sitemaps functionality in any WordPress plugin. Once you check the box, it automatically creates XML sitemaps and notifies Google & Bing of the sitemaps existence. These XML sitemaps include the images in your posts & pages too, so that your images may be found better in the search engines too.

These XML Sitemaps will even work on large sites, because of how they're created, using one index sitemap that links to sub-sitemaps for each 1,000 posts. They will also work with custom post types and custom taxonomies automatically, while giving you the option to remove those from the XML sitemap should you wish to.

Because of using [XSL stylesheets for these XML Sitemaps](https://yoast.com/xsl-stylesheet-xml-sitemap/), the XML sitemaps are easily readable for the human eye too, so you can spot things that shouldn't be in there.

= RSS Optimization =
Are you being outranked by scrapers? Instead of cursing at them, use them to your advantage! By automatically adding a link to your RSS feed pointing back to the original article, you're telling the search engine where they should be looking for the original. This way, the Yoast SEO plugin increases your own chance of ranking for your chosen keywords and gets rid of scrapers in one go!

= Breadcrumbs =
If your theme is compatible, and themes based on Genesis or by WooThemes for instance often are, you can use the built-in Breadcrumbs functionality. This allows you to create an easy navigation that is great for both users and search engines and will support the search engines in understanding the structure of your site.

Making your theme compatible isn't hard either, check [these instructions](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/breadcrumbs/).

= Edit your .htaccess and robots.txt file =
Using the built-in file editor you can edit your WordPress blogs .htaccess and robots.txt file, giving you direct access to the two most powerful files, from an SEO perspective, in your WordPress install.

= Social Integration =
SEO and Social Media are heavily intertwined, that's why this plugin also comes with a Facebook OpenGraph implementation and will soon also support Google+ sharing tags.

= Multi-Site Compatible =
The Yoast SEO plugin, unlike some others, is fully Multi-Site compatible. The XML Sitemaps work fine in all setups and you even have the option, in the Network settings, to copy the settings from one blog to another, or make blogs default to the settings for a specific blog.

= Import & Export functionality =
If you have multiple blogs, setting up plugins like this one on all of them might seem like a daunting task. Except that it's not, because what you can do is simple: you set up the plugin once. You then export your settings and simply import them on all your other sites. It's that simple!

= Import functionality for other WordPress SEO plugins =
If you've used All In One SEO Pack or HeadSpace2 before using this plugin, you might want to import all your old titles and descriptions. You can do that easily using the built-in import functionality. There's also import functionality for some of the older Yoast plugins like Robots Meta and RSS footer.

Should you have a need to import from another SEO plugin to Yoast SEO or from a theme like Genesis or Thesis, you can use the [SEO Data Transporter](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-data-transporter/) plugin, that'll easily convert your SEO meta data from and to a whole set of plugins like Platinum SEO, SEO Ultimate, Greg's High Performance SEO and themes like Headway, Hybrid, WooFramework, Catalyst etc.

Read [this migration guide](https://yoast.com/all-in-one-seo-pack-migration/) if you still have questions about migrating from another SEO plugin to Yoast SEO.

= Yoast SEO Plugin in your Language! =
Currently a huge translation project is underway, translating Yoast SEO in as much as 24 languages. So far, the translations for French and Dutch are complete, but we still need help on a lot of other languages, so if you're good at translating, please join us at [translate.yoast.com](http://translate.yoast.com).

= News SEO =
Be sure to also check out the premium [News SEO module](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/news-seo/) if you need Google News Sitemaps. It tightly integrates with Yoast SEO to give you the combined power of News Sitemaps and full Search Engine Optimization.

= Further Reading =
For more info, check out the following articles:

* The [Yoast SEO Knowledgebase](http://kb.yoast.com/category/42-wordpress-seo).
* [WordPress SEO - The definitive Guide by Yoast](https://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/).
* Once you have great SEO, you'll need the [best WordPress Hosting](https://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-hosting/).
* The [Yoast SEO Plugin](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/) official homepage.
* Other [WordPress Plugins](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/) by the same author.
* Follow Yoast on [Facebook](https://facebook.com/yoast) & [Twitter](http://twitter.com/yoast).

= Tags =
seo, SEO, Yoast SEO, google, meta, meta description, search engine optimization, xml sitemap, xml sitemaps, google sitemap, sitemap, sitemaps, robots meta, rss, rss footer, yahoo, bing, news sitemaps, XML News Sitemaps, WordPress SEO, WordPress SEO by Yoast, yoast, multisite, canonical, nofollow, noindex, keywords, meta keywords, description, webmaster tools, google webmaster tools, seo pack

== Installation ==

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. Configure the plugin by going to the `SEO` menu that appears in your admin menu

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

You'll find the [FAQ on Yoast.com](https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/faq/).

== 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. Some of the sites using this Yoast SEO plugin.
3. The Yoast SEO settings for a taxonomy.
4. The fully configurable XML sitemap for Yoast SEO.
5. Easily import SEO data from All In One SEO pack and HeadSpace2 SEO.
6. Example of the Page Analysis functionality.
7. The advanced section of the Yoast SEO meta box.

== Changelog ==

= 3.3.4 =

Release Date: June 30th, 2016

* Fixed a bug in the 3.3.3 release that caused the release folder to not have a fix.

= 3.3.3 =

Release Date: June 30th, 2016

* Bugfixes:
	* Fixes a bug where the focus keyword is not shown for posts created using WordPress SEO 2.x.
	* Fixes a bug where changing the title in the bulk editor could be used to trigger JavaScript for the current user.

= 3.3.2 =

Release Date: June 21st, 2016

* Enhancements:
	* Removes non-minified files. This makes the download a lot smaller which will result in less cases of an incomplete or failed download.
	* Add setting and user option to disable the content analysis; The SEO analysis will still be present.
	* Change the overall content analysis bullet to be more lenient in non-English languages. This means it will be easier to get a green bullet for non-English languages.

* Bugfixes:
	* Fix issue where the settings export zip file could be read from the uploads folder after doing an export.

= 3.3.1 =

Release Date: June 15th, 2016

* Enhancements:
	* Adds help center to google search console page when not connected to google search console.
	* Adds video to the Yoast SEO dashboard to explain it.
	* Ships the production version of React instead of the development version.

* Bugfixes
	* Fixes a bug where the primary category wouldn't be in the permalink if `get_permalink` was called outside the loop.
	* Fixes a compatibility issue where we set `$` to `jQuery`.
	* Fixes a bug with redirects on a subsite in a multisite installation, props [nicholas-eden](https://github.com/nicholas-eden).
	* Fixes a bug where invalid HTML would throw a warning.
	* Fixes a bug where reading server variables using `filter_input` returns an empty result.
	* Fixes a bug where the passive voice and transition words would be shown on non-english language

= 3.3.0 =

Release Date: June 14th, 2016

* Features:
	* Added a dashboard under the SEO menu item and moved all persistent notifications to this dashboard.
	* Added an indicator to the menu and admin bar about pending notifications and SEO problems.
	* Splits the analysis into content and keyword analysis.
	* Adds a ton of content feedback about the following properties:
		* The length of subheadings.
		* The length of text following a subheading.
		* The length of paragraphs.
		* The length of sentences.
		* The presence of transition words.
		* The presence of the passive voice.
	* Adds a marker button for specific properties to mark these in the editor:
		* The length of paragraphs.
		* The length of sentences.
		* The presence of passive voice.
		* The presence of transition words.
		* The presence of links with the focus keyword as link text.
	* Adds slug transliteration for the following languages, this means that we now match with both the non-transliterated keyword and the transliterated keyword:
		* Spanish, Polish, German, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Swedish, Finnish,
		* Danish, Turkish, Latvian, Icelandic, Faroese, Czech, Russian,
		* Esperanto, Afrikaans, Catalan, Asturian, Aragonese, Aymara,
		* English, French, Italian, Dutch, Bambara.
	* Adds a search box in the help center to search in the [Yoast knowledge base](https://kb.yoast.com).

* Enhancements:
	* Adds missing alt tags to banners.
	* Adds a 50.000 URL hard limit to the sitemaps, this is what google recommends.
	* Moves social tab above settings tab in the metabox.
	* Adds live updating to the score indicator in the admin bar on the post edit page.
	* Optimize multiple sitemap cache clears by waiting until the end of the pageload to actual clear the cache.
	* Improved title separator radio buttons accessibility.
	* Removed Alexa verification from the plugin as it no longer works.

* Bugfixes:
	* Fixes a bug where a quote inside an attribute in the XML sitemaps would cause to create invalid XML.
	* Fixes a bug where using a custom posts table would not result in correct output in the XML sitemaps.
	* Fixes an issue where canonical URLs didn't always correctly have a trailing slash, thanks you for your input [MatthewMi11er](https://github.com/MatthewMi11er).
	* Fixes a bug where we didn't match a focus keyword correctly if it contained a slash.
	* Fixes a bug where the content analysis would be executed too many times when typing in the snippet preview.
	* Fixes a bug where the `wpseo_title` filter couldn't change the opengraph and twitter titles, props [Xavi Ivars](https://github.com/xavivars).
	* Fixes a bug where the focus keyword wouldn't be saved when saving the post instantly after changing the focus keyword.
	* Fixes a bug where retrieving terms in the breadcrumbs wouldn't be cached, props [Jonny Harris](https://github.com/spacedmonkey)
	* Fixes a bug where the help center wasn't properly styled in Safari.
	* Fixes an XSS issue, props [Hristo Pandjarov](https://twitter.com/pandjarov).

* Removed:
	* Removes the ability to sort on the post score column, because the scores aren't meant to be sorted.
	* Removes recalculation because there were too many issues with integration missing that can only be added on the actual post edit admin page.
	* Removes `json_encode` wrapper, it was only necessary for older WordPress versions.

= 3.2.5 =

Release date: May 6th, 2016

* Bugfixes:
    * Fixes a bug in the text analysis when there are more images, the alt tags are not analysed as expected.
    * Fixes a fatal when the BCMath component has been disabled in the host environment.
    * Fixes a fatal in wp-admin when certain plugins which hide the login are activated.
    * Fixes a warning in the sitemap index when no post types are shown and a last modified date is being requested.
    * Adds missing capability checks in AJAX request responses.

= 3.2.4 =

Release date: April 28th, 2016

* Bugfixes:
	* Fixes a regression where the post URL would be numerical when no post title was set.
	* Fixes an issue that would cause notifications not to be dismissed even though they should be.
	
= 3.2.3 =

Release Date: April 21th, 2016

* Bugfixes:
	* Fixes a bug where the update notification cannot be dismissed
	* Fixes a bug where the notifications can be shown multiple times

= 3.2.2 =

Release Date: April 21th, 2016

* Bugfix:
	* Fixes a bug where the text analysis was broken in certain languages in certain cases.

= 3.2.1 =

Release Date: April 20th, 2016

* Bugfix:
	* Fixes bug where settings of the Advanced tabs "permalinks" and "rss" were no longer saved.

= 3.2.0 =

Release Date: April 20th, 2016

* Features:
	* Adds an option to disable post format archives.
	* Adds template function to retrieve the primary term. The functions are yoast_get_primary_term_id and yoast_get_primary_term.
	* Enables primary term for every taxonomy by default.
	* Adds a primary category replacement variable: `%%primary_category%%`.
	* Adds a Yoast help center to every settings page with a screencast explaining that specific page.
	* Introduces new help buttons in place of qtip, which makes these descriptions much more accessible.

* Enhancements:
	* Adds pinterest icon to the pinterest settings tab.
	* Clarifies the text on the pinterest settings tab.
	* Improves searchability of select inputs by using select2.
	* Adds filters to customize sitemaps' <urlset>, props [Mark Walker](https://github.com/mnwalker).
	* Uses `wp_register_script` and `wp_register_style` on init so other plugins can customize our assets.
	* Changes minimum text length content analysis check for terms to require 150 words instead of 300.
	* Removes analyses from the term analysis that weren't applicable to terms.
	* Improves code architecture of sitemaps.
	* Moves the OnPage.org settings to the webmaster tab.
	* Improves performance when importing or migrating posts, thanks [sun](https://github.com/sun).
	* Adds caching to empty sitemaps.
	* Adds parsing of shortcodes before recalculating all posts.
	* Improves detection of static xml sitemaps.
	* Makes sure external links in the metabox open in a new window, props [Borja Abad](https://github.com/mines).
	* Makes the descriptions on the archives tab of the titles and meta's more clear.
	* Removes noydir setting since Yahoo! directory doesn't exist anymore.
	* Removes other tab from the import screen, these plugins have all been deprecated.
	* Removes all settings to hide specific tags inside the head.
	* Improves accessibility of add keyword modal.
	* Improves accessibility of metabox.
	* Switches all yoa.st links to be HTTPS.
	* Removes Google+ specific post and term meta fields since Facebook and Google+ metadata were conflicting.
	* Moves the replace vars help docs to the help center module on the titles and meta's settings page.

* Bugfixes:
	* Fixes a bug where the breadcrumbs title field was hidden even though the theme supported breadcrumbs.
	* Fixes a bug where underscores in like queries weren't correctly escaped, thanks [Konstantin Kovshenin](https://github.com/kovshenin) and [Damian Hodgkiss](https://github.com/damianhodgkiss)
	* Fixes a bug where text inside a [caption] shortcode wouldn't be removed correctly in auto generated meta descriptions, props [Kevin Lisota](https://github.com/kevinlisota)
	* Fixes a bug where a message to add headings to the text would only be shown if a keyword was set.
	* Fixes a bug where a message to add links to the text would only be shown if a keyword was set.
	* Fixes compatibility issues with plugins that included mootools or prototypejs.
	* Fixes a bug where the 404 page didn't correctly have a noindex and a nofollow set.
	* Fixes a bug where internal taxonomies would be shown in the sitemap exlusion settings.
	* Fixes a bug in the activation and deactivation where we would execute our code for every network, props [Felix Arntz](https://github.com/felixarntz).
	* Fixes a bug where the primary category wasn't taken into account when calling `get_permalink` on the frontend.
	* Fixes a compatibility issue with MultilingualPress, props [Thorsten Frommen](https://github.com/tfrommen).
	* Fixes compatibility issues with Easing Slider and WooCommerce Variation Swatches and Photos.
	* Fixes a bug where a JavaScript template wasn't included when the dependent JavaScript was, props [Darren Ethier](https://github.com/nerrad).
	* Fixes a bug where the descriptions for removing the stopwords and the ?replytocom were merged.
	* Fixes a bug where the recommended Facebook image dimensions weren't the same as the Facebook documentation.
	* Fixes a bug where the dashboard widget wasn't cached correctly, props [Marko Heijnen](https://github.com/markoheijnen)
	* Fixes a bug where the sitemaps weren't cached correctly on 32 bit systems.
	* Fixes an issue where multi term archives didn't have a noindex set.
	* Fixes a bug where we would do an AJAX request on every keystroke in the focus keyword field.
	* Fixes a bug where we would check for shortcodes on every keystroke in the content field.
	* Fixes a bug where rewrite rules wouldn't be flushed correctly on plugin activation.
	* Fixes a bug where the GlotPress banner wouldn't load on HTTPS sites.

= Earlier versions =

For the changelog of earlier versions, please refer to the separate changelog.txt file.
