YOAST : set up your site for SEO and social media cards

The platform allows you to configure how links to your site appear in search results and on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal, and also appearance in emails. 

You need to set these up for all pages on your site – not just the Home Page.

A general metadescription should be done for the Home Page, and then tailored metadescriptions should be done for every sub-page depending on the different content on each of the pages.

For the social cards : you could either use a single universal card that represents the entire site and pages, or you could try tailored cards for some/all of the sub pages.

Set up search page meta descriptions (for SEO)

To set up the description which appears for your home page in search results (Image 1):

1. Click the ‘Pages’ button in the left sidebar.
2. Look for the page with ‘Front Page’ to the right of the tile and click ‘Edit’.
3. If you can’t see the right settings sidebar, click the red and green ‘Yoast SEO’ button on the top right toolbar. 
4. Enter your site description in the ‘Metadescription’ box (up to 155 characters, perhaps 20 words as a rough guide).
5. ‘Save/Update’ in the top right to save your changes.

Image 1: how the ‘Help for Households’ home page link appears on search results. It shows the page’s name and your site’s name (title) with the meta description in smaller text below.

1)Set up a card to be used on X (formerly Twitter)

If you paste your url into X you can set this up to display an image, link and description

The image you use must be:

• in .gif, .jpg or .png format
• at least 600 by 335 pixels
• a maximum of 800 by 418 pixels (recommended)

To set up a card for your home page with an image and a text summary (Image 2):

1. Click the ‘Pages’ button in the left sidebar.
2. Look for the page eg ‘Front Page’ and click ‘Edit’.
3. If you can’t see the right settings sidebar, click the red and green ‘Yoast SEO’ button on the top right toolbar. 
4. In YOAST, choose the 4th tab (Social), ‘Select Image’ and upload
5. Enter a title
6. Enter a description
7. ‘Save/Update’ in the top right to save your changes.

Image 2: how the ‘Help for Households’ home page link appears on X with an image, title and description.

2)Set up a card to be used on other social media or digital pages

If you paste your url into other social media like Facebook or WhatsApp, or even email, you can set this up to display an image, link and description.

The image you use must be:

• in .jpg or .png format
• at least 200 by 200 pixels
• a maximum of 1200 by 630 pixels (recommended)

To set up an OpenGraph card for your home page with an image and a text summary (Image 3):

1. Click the ‘Pages’ button in the left sidebar.
2. Look for the page, eg ‘Front Page’ and click ‘Edit’.
3. If you can’t see the right settings sidebar, click the red and green ‘Yoast SEO’ button on the top right toolbar. 
4. In YOAST, choose the 4th tab (Social), ‘Select Image’ and upload
5. Enter a title for your Facebook card
6. Enter a description for your Facebook card
7. ‘Save/Update’ in the top right to save your changes.

Image 3: how the ‘Help for Households’ home page link appears on Facebook with an image, title and description.

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