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SEO – Yoast
Featured Image
Taxonomy
Scheduling, Review and Publish

First, we need to address WordPress’ content settings that must be applied to all content, including blog posts, pages and events. This section will cover:

  • SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
  • Featured Image
  • Taxonomy
  • Scheduling, Reviewing & Publishing

SEO – Yoast Premium

Increase your reader’s engagement and ensure your article is optimised for Google by following Yoast’s SEO checklist.

It’s important to fill Yoast out first so you keep SEO in mind while writing your content and you can refer back to the checklist at the bottom of the page as you go.

How to fill out the Yoast Premium SEO checklist

  1. Enter your page/article/event focus keyword and supporting keywords (these are the terms you want the page to rank for)
  2. Edit the SEO title (this is the blue page title that will show in Google search results)
  3. Edit the Meta Description (this is the short description located under the SEO title in Google’s search results)
  4. Review the traffic light system & aim for a green score
    1. Yoast will bring back a colour coded traffic light system to show you the areas that are well optimised, suggestions for improvement and areas that need attention. 

Refer to Yoast’s beginner guide for more information.

A featured image represents the contents, mood, or theme of a post or page. Posts and pages can have a single featured image, which many themes and tools can use to enhance the presentation of your site.

E.g your featured image may be presented as a banner at the top of the page or post, displayed as the thumbnail image when the link is shared on social media, or displayed in a blog feed on your homepage.

  1. Locate the Featured Image drop down, under the Page tab, in the right hand sidebar.
  2. Click the small arrow on the right hand side to expand this section.
  3. Click the grey tile titled Set Featured Image.
  4. Upload a new image or select an existing image from your Media Library.

Changing image sizes to save bandwidth

Important Reminder: 

Ensure that the images you upload to the site are:

  • Resized (the correct dimensions – Recommended maximum size of 2500px on the tallest side and less than 72 ~ 150dpi (density of pixel per inch).
  • Compressed (smallest file size, to keep page load time down)
  • Titled with SEO in mind (you can edit the title in the Media Library. Keep your keywords in mind)
  • Given ALT attributes (ALT tags explains the contents of the image to Bots. You can edit Alt tags in the Media Library. Keep your keywords in mind)

Taxonomy Selection – Categories & Tags

Taxonomy refers to the selection of categories and tags you can apply to pages and posts.

Categories and tags are the two primary ways to group content on a WordPress site. In simple terms, categories are general labels, while tags are more specific (describe your posts in more detail).

While categories and tags are primarily useful for users who want to filter and search for specific content on your website, they can also be used for internal filtering purposes in WordPress (e.g – to see how many blog posts you have for a certain category)

For more information, see this WordPress article about Categories vs Tags

How to categorise Events, News, Pages & Resources

You will need to categorise and label events, news, pages and resources differently to reflect the content on them. See the categorisation guide below:

Events:

  • Topic (Scientific Topic – this category is shared by all content types)
  • Location (List of countries – this is specific to this content type)
  • Type (Webinar, Congress – this is specific to this content type)

News:

  • Topic (Scientific Topic, this category is shared by all content types)
  • Categories (such as Press Releases, News, Community, Profile, Features and Opinion)
  • Tags – for any other keywords

Pages:

  • Topic (Scientific Topic, this category is shared by all content types)

Resources:

  • Topic (Scientific Topic, this category is shared by all content types)
  • Purpose (Promotional, Guide) 

Reviewing, Drafting, Scheduling & Publishing 

Before your page or post is ready to publish, head down to the bottom of the page and review the Yoast SEO Checklist to ensure all best practices are in place.

Then, head over to the Settings Toolbar on the right hand side and ensure the following are correct:

  • Permalink (the URL – usually the page title. Ensure your focus keyword is included)
  • Featured Image 
  • Category & tags

How to save as draft:

To save your page or post as you’re working, to save a draft version to come back to later or for a moderator to review, follow the step below:

Simply click the Save Draft button (blue text) in the top right of the WordPress toolbar.
(See example image below)

The Preview button (blue text) lets you view your page or post on the site, so you can see how it will appear to visitors on Desktop or mobile devices.

How to use the schedule feature:

  1. Click on the blue Publish button at the
    Top right hand corner of the page (example image to the right).
  2. Set the Visibility setting (leave this as public so it is visible to everyone. You may want to set a post or page to Private is you are creating an upcoming event and want to see the live page on the site, without users being able to find it, then save it as public when you are ready).
  3. Select the Publish time by clicking the drop down menu and entering the specific date and time.

How to publish immediately:

  1. Click the blue Publish button at the
    Top right hand corner of the page.
  2. Set the Visibility setting.
  1. Click the blue Publish button again to instantly publish to the site.