WordPress SEO 2.0: focus on what matters

26 March 2015 | 111 Comments | Tags Software releases and updates, WordPress, Yoast SEO

We’re proud to announce the availability of WordPress SEO 2.0. This release adds new features for Google’s Knowledge Graph and improves the design, layout & usability of the WordPress SEO plugins admin screens in many ways.

Google Knowledge Graph

Google recently introduced new features for their knowledge graph, allowing you to highlight yourself in the search results as either a company or a person. This includes you or your company’s name, if your site is for a company, the logo:

google knowledge graph info

And it includes your social profiles (this is the list of social networks Google supports in their social markup):

Social Profiles tab in WordPress SEO 2.0

If Google has picked this all up and shows a Knowledge Graph block for you or your company (note that we can’t force it to do that), it would look like this:

Google Knowledge Graph example

Simplified the admin menus

We’ve decided to move several admin pages under one “Advanced” page, and several tools to a new “Tools” page. This makes our entire admin structure a lot cleaner (note the screenshots are for WordPress SEO premium), compare the old (left) versus the new (right):

wordpress seo admin menu changes

While this might seem mostly a superficial change, it’s very important in how we think you should perceive our plugin. The most important thing you can do in SEO is write good content; the most important section of the plugin is thus the metabox on the edit post / pages. While the features hidden under the Advanced menu are very useful, they’re not going to make your ranking go from poor to awesome. By moving them all to one advanced page, we hope to make that emphasis more obvious.

WordPress SEO Premium changes

Speed improvement

Not a feature, but a very welcome change: we’ve made WordPress SEO Premium much, much faster in this release. You’ll notice this in the admin of your site almost immediately.

Updated videos

Because we’ve changed all the admin screens, all the videos had to be redone, so in WordPress SEO Premium 2.0 you’ll find a completely new set of 13 videos made by Shawn Hesketh of WP101. This is the first of these 13 videos you’ll get with WordPress SEO Premium:

Version number changes

With this release we’ve also made the version number of WordPress SEO and WordPress SEO premium the same. They’re both called 2.0. We will keep them the same throughout future releases, so we only have to communicate one version number.

Go update!

Go update your WordPress SEO and let us know what you think!

Joost is an internet entrepreneur and the founder of Yoast. He has a long history in WordPress and digital marketing. On our blog, he has written a lot about SEO in general, technical SEO and important topics related to SEO.

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111 Responses to WordPress SEO 2.0: focus on what matters

Susanne • 9 years ago

Great work. I love Google’s Knowledge Graph but wish they would also link to a companys newsletter.
Linda Allen • 9 years ago

I love to do that i will try it now thanks i was searching for google knowledge graph can i use it personally?
steve • 9 years ago

I love that with Yoast,how you have always kept up with what Google likes and doesn`t like , most seo plug-ins that start out improving seo for you end up being the very cause of your downfall later down the line . Not Yoast . Fair play to the whole team there .
Ratchaphol @SMMTIPS • 9 years ago

Great update Yoast! I’ve been using Yoast for more than 2 years since i entered the world of internet marketing.

:) I’m here to support, a big fan of Yoast SEO!
Chris • 9 years ago

this release was awesome..i love it..best seo plugin ever.. Keep It Up Yoast team
kksilvery • 9 years ago

I think yoast has done the job that blogger and other platforms couldn’t do.
Edward • 9 years ago

Great new features, Yoast!
What is the recommended size for the logo?
sev • 9 years ago

two versions before was working fine, in this version is still messed-up -in posts, every title if one char per line
-like:
H
E
L
L
O
will u fix that ever ??, regardless of supported user or not is a bug…
Sandeep • 9 years ago

Can you add this feature metadata scheme like – something like that in new version?
Bas Holtzer • 9 years ago

I tried to install the plugin on our website, but it generated strange effects in the admin. The screen with your tracking-question pop-ups everywhere and the ‘All pages’-page is completely blank. That’s probably conflicting javascript. We’re using the X-theme from Themeco with some of the X-plugins installed. Do you know of any issues with this theme?
Thanks, Bas
- Bas Holtzer • 9 years ago
  
  Just installed the .01-update, but it didn’t solve my problem. Any tips are welcome.
  Bas
  - Bas Holtzer • 9 years ago
    
    Just deactivated some plugins: that did the trick!
    Thanks,
    Bas
parrainage boursorama • 9 years ago

very nice update ! congrats !
Peter Larsen • 9 years ago

Brilliant update. Everything is nicely compact and the use of tabs for the options just make it cleaner. One problem i found is the rss footer option is gone? I cannot change my previous text which is still showing in my rss feed.
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Nope, it’s under Advanced → RSS now :)
  - Peter Larsen • 9 years ago
    
    Thanks. I spent ages looking but couldn’t find it. :)
David • 9 years ago

Been looking forward to an update – the knowledge graph additions are a nice touch!

David
Beni Iskandar • 9 years ago

Hi brother, something happen when i activated Strip the category base.
I am using 2 level category base like this /tutorial/something.
when i try to access category archive the list of post did not show.
Thanks before, so far this plugin is great for seo and serp optimization (y)
- Beni Iskandar • 9 years ago
  
  Oh it fixed now, (y) not 404 again thanks.
sekhar • 9 years ago

Hi yoast team,really you are doing great, I saw so many people are using your plugin.More than 1 1/2 year onwards i am using your plugin,simply superb ..thanks
- 94% Solution • 9 years ago
  
  yeah , all plugins of yoast team are great
94% Solution • 9 years ago

is there any update for the premuim plugin ?
Matthew Wayne Selznick • 9 years ago

Until the loop issue on the welcome screen is fixed, can you provide a link to the previous version of the premium plugin? Thanks.
- Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Actually, the loop issue seems to be a bug with certain hosts that are caching options to hard. Are you hosted on WP Engine by any chance?
  
  We’ve prepared a workaround so you only get redirected to the welcome screen once every 24 hours that we’ll release on Tuesday, but the issue really seems to be with your host and not in our code…
  - Humanovation • 9 years ago
    
    I have the same problem … and, only with v2.0 of your premium plugin. There was no problem with the last version of your plugin … therefore, the issue IS with your new code. Putting it on WP Engine is a cop out. However, regardless of where the issue lies, it is ultimately MY problem. So, it either gets fixed or I simply do not renew my premium multisite subscription … simple as that ;-)
    - Nick Ho • 9 years ago
      
      I have the same issue – I am with siteground.. I am using the free version and I cannot get back to any of my other admin tasks.
      
      How do I get this fixed? – I cannot post or manage my website. It was not happening to the previous version.
  - Mauro Stupato • 9 years ago
    
    I have the same problem: loop on the welcome screen. I’m hosted on siteground. Can you help me? Give me, at least, the possibility to reinstall previous version. Thanks
Tim Dugan • 9 years ago

Great job on the upgrade – loving the idea of faster speed + knowledge-graph data – thanks Yoast Team!
Claudiu • 9 years ago

Great new features. Nice to see you are keeping up with what search engines demand from websites these days, especially from social media.
Thanks for this update
Doug Smith • 9 years ago

Is there a reason you chose to include the new Google Knowledge graph script in the header rather than down at the end of the page? Always trying to push what I can to the bottom for better page loading performance. Google says it can go in the head or body of the page.
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Hi Doug,
  
  I thought about it briefly but to be honest, as there is no external scripts nor any executable code, the tradeoff of having to add more code to output something in the bottom didn’t seem worth it.
Hamid Roshaan • 9 years ago

Whoah! This is a whole bunch of new features especially social ones, I am going to try them now.
Lis • 9 years ago

This is awesome, guys! Seems a bit more intuitive and streamlined, and it’s just in time for my site relaunch. ;) I look forward to seeing it in action – thanks for being my #1 resource.
Barry Myers • 9 years ago

Since I’ve updated, I am getting some issues related to post SEO. The page analysis tab in the post editor is inaccurately reporting and so it is telling me all of my SEO scores are “poor”. Specifically, it is telling me:

–There are 0 words contained in the body copy. This is far too low and should be increased.
–The keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy, make sure the topic is clear immediately.
–No outbound links appear in this page, consider adding some as appropriate.

All of these I know to be inaccurate. ???
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Hi Barry,
  
  I don’t think any of these issues are related to this update in particular as we didn’t change anything in that section of the plugin.
  - Barry Myers • 9 years ago
    
    FYI: it may be relevant to know I’m running the Genesis Framework (also latest version).
  - Barry Myers • 9 years ago
    
    Do you have any recommendations, then, on where I can begin to dig into this issue? It is still going on. Using the latest versions of WP and SEO plugin.
Zoli Erdos • 9 years ago

Stopped generating Google News Sitemap. First I thought I’d just repeat setup, fill out all fields, hit Save Settings – and voila! all settings cleared out, Enable XML News sitemaps functionality is NOt checked, and in fact it no longer generates the news sitemap
- Zoli Erdos • 9 years ago
  
  Just seeing now that my WordPress SEO News plugin is rel 1.1.1 – did not realize it stopped updating. Is that the problem, i.e. it no longer works with 2.0?
  Thanks.
  - ^ Post author
    Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
    
    Hey Zoli,
    
    if you’re a paying customer, please email our support desk. Our News SEO extension was updated to work with this update of WordPress SEO. It’s current latest version is 2.2.3.
    
    If you hadn’t switched over to the paid version of News SEO; we’ve made that a paid extension about a year ago…
Brice Emry • 9 years ago

You are undoubtedly the best! Well done for the shot work!
Marcus • 9 years ago

Hey Yoast, great work as ever. The knowledgegraph / social elements are awesome. Time to go premium!
Manos • 9 years ago

I just did the update, looks much better, thanks for the update. Can’t wait to see the “company” and “person” changes in action! :)
Irek • 9 years ago

Hi,

After udpate to 2.0 my WooCommerce shop stopped reporting e-commerce data and one of the goals – sales based on the part of the URL.

What is going on???

Is there a chance to move back to previous version untill this bug is fixed?

Rgds Irek
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Hey Irek,
  
  I highly doubt this issue is related to our WordPress SEO update. Did you upgrade any other plugins in the process?
Jim • 9 years ago

Works great, except the data in the schema markup is different than what I’ve entered on the Company Info tab. I can’t figure out where this other data is pulled from! Also, the url schema tag doesn’t include https:// so it throws an error in Google’s schema tester.
- Jim • 9 years ago
  
  My mistake! Please disregard, I sorted it out :)
  - ^ Post author
    Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
    
    Good to hear Jim :)
Joern • 9 years ago

Do we also have to update the sitemap for the Google webmaster tool generated by your plugin, or will the new content being added automatically to the existing sitemap?

Anyhow, powerful update!

Cheers!
Joern
RahulB • 9 years ago

The new update about Google Knowledge Graph is quite interesting. Yoast SEO Plugin is my best SEOplugin from last 3 years.

Thanks
Chris McCarron • 9 years ago

New toys to play with! Thanks guys.
Omar Belkadi • 9 years ago

Nice and very powerful update. Your update spoke mind. Thank you for the efforts.

Regards
Giovanni • 9 years ago

I just upgraded my sites to version 2.0 but on http://www.paolorecchia.it I have this error:
Fatal error: Call to undefined method stdClass :: canonical () in/web/htdocs/www.paolorecchia.it/home/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/inc/wpseo-non-ajax-functions.php on line 235.

I see this error only on firefox, chrome or not on IE
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  On what URL do you see that error? I don’t see it live on your site now and it looks like the canonical is output fine?
  - Giovanni • 9 years ago
    
    I see the error only on mozilla firefox, you can see the string at bottom of page.
    http://www.paolorecchia.it
Tadley Acres • 9 years ago

I love this plugin but it has consistently blocked the ability to add links to my wordpress site for some time. I just updated to v2.0, hoping it would resolve the issue but it still happens.

When i click the hyperlink button, the screen flashes briefly but the pop-up window fails to appear and from this point the page is no longer responsive until I refresh.
I’m running the latest plugin and latest wordpress.

Any ideas?
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Hey, you probably have another plugin that clashes with our JavaScript. Are you able to open the JavaScript console and see if there are any errors there?
Craig Riley • 9 years ago

Great update Yoast. always informative and love your plugin. Works the best.

Cheers
Pete • 9 years ago

Love the update for the new features in the knowledge graph, great work (as always)!
Anh Tran • 9 years ago

Glad that you add Knowledge Graph to the plugin. I’ve just tested it and it works nicely. I would love if you can add more info to this feature like contact point and contact person.

Thanks for the great work!
Mukul • 9 years ago

The new plugin is just awesome and i am really grateful to yoast team as yoast has become a really great seo solution for me. But I want to ask you whether it will be possible to install the old pluings backup to the new one.
Deependra Chaudhary • 9 years ago

Thanks for these awesome features in new update! Cheers!!
Lorenzo • 9 years ago

You have increased the speed of the plugin premium because first it was slow compared to the free version , or just buy the premium version I can have a plugin faster ?
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  The redirects backend in premium was slow. We’re not (and will never) keep performance improvements from going into the free plugin :)
Marco • 9 years ago

Best WordPress SEO-Plugin ever! Thx!
Peter • 9 years ago

Thanx Yoast + team!
Vikas Singh Gusain • 9 years ago

Wow awesome update guys, great feature in Google Knowledge Graph and now I use this. Thanks for sharing this kind update, this update very useful.
Torben Grue • 9 years ago

Excellent update, especially looking forward implementing the social profiles
Joe • 9 years ago

Could you tell me if we are talking about the free and premium edition or only the premium edition.
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Hi Joe, I already did in the post, this is for both free and premium :)
  - Amy Shojai, CABC • 9 years ago
    
    For the “free” version it’s eliminated any ability to post title/meta description on individual blogs. NOT happy! Will roll back to previous version if possible…
Giuseppe Lanzetta • 9 years ago

Great! I’m looking forward to update all the websites I admin
Jan Mareš • 9 years ago

Looks good! Thank you for the update and for this great plugin in general. It’s my favourite.
Nigel Abery • 9 years ago

Knowledge graph feature – did not see that coming. Interesting addition. Thanks guys!
Wedding photographer Milton keynes • 9 years ago

Awesome update… Thanks!
Chad Musgrove • 9 years ago

Awesome updates. Makes me glad I paid for the premium.. :)

Feature Request for Yoast SEO 3.0

Add the ability to change image title and alt tags from the bulk editor.
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  That’s pretty hard to do as there can be dozens of images in a post.
Travis Pflanz • 9 years ago

Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see the Social Media markup being inserted. I don’t see the “sameAs” schema markup when viewing the source. Yes, I’ve cleared cache, etc.

Per Google – https://developers.google.com/structured-data/customize/social-profiles
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  It only shows on the homepage!
  - Travis Pflanz • 9 years ago
    
    I got it! I missed the new “Your Info” tab in “General Settings”
Jurnal Teknisi • 9 years ago

Realy nice update,,,
Very useful for newbie like me,,
Thanks a lot team,, you the one only for my small web
john • 9 years ago

I’m in that same loop – the welcome screen has taken over and I can’t get into the plugin area to disable this HELP!
Humanovation • 9 years ago

Premium SEO 2.0 not working on my site … seems to be stuck in some kind of loop and I can’t access any of the features ;-(
- Matthew Wayne Selznick • 9 years ago
  
  I’m experiencing this problem, too. JUST updated; the plugin is looping on the welcome screen and won’t let me go anywhere else in the WordPress backend.
- Humanovation • 9 years ago
  
  I also can’t switch to any of the other admin panels, it keeps instantly switching back to the SEO plugin panel … I’m hosed ;-(
  - Humanovation • 9 years ago
    
    It won’t deactivate either … I’m going to try to FTP in and just delete the whole plugin folder.
    - Humanovation • 9 years ago
      
      Deleted the folder via FTP and was able to regain access to my WP backend. Switched to the non-premium version of the plugin until they get it fixed and the non-premium version is generating a sitemap error according to GWT. I think that, for now, the only solution is to roll my entire website back to yesterday’s save point ;-(
Ram Gupta • 9 years ago

I personally think it is an Good feature. Adding company details is too important. Thanks WP SEO 2.0
Jagdish Bhatia • 9 years ago

Thank you Yoast,

I learned many new things in SEO just by using this plugin. Many of pages are placed highest in SERP because of it.
- Jagdish Bhatia • 9 years ago
  
  ….Many of my pages….
Quentin Moore • 9 years ago

Thanks for the update and thanks for making the best, most important WordPress plugin available!
Brian Jackson • 9 years ago

Wow awesome update guys! I wrote a tutorial on my blog on how people could add social to knowledge graph with Google Tag Manager… Now I will have to update it. Much easier to use Yoast to deploy knowledge graph items :) Time to update all my sites. Kudos!
Ryan Hellyer • 9 years ago

This looks like a good step in the right direction.
Fakhrul Alam • 9 years ago

what a awesome feature, just saw your update on facebook and got chance to read your post.. is this going to come or already available for user..

How it actually works in codes?

Do we have to give it on every page and post?
Kushal Azza • 9 years ago

Google Knowledge graph is totally cool feature. Looking forward for more such awesome updates in future. Yoast Team thanks a lot !
Rana Waqar • 9 years ago

i use types custom post type plugin and i got this error in my feed page. screenshoot http://snag.gy/pY0lh.jpg
This page contains the following errors:

error on line 29 at column 25: Input is not proper UTF-8, indicate encoding !
Bytes: 0x07 0x05 0x06 0x52
Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.
please take a look
Wilton Calderon • 9 years ago

Like, nice work now we have more tools and more optimization for our site. Yoast how we do it, we have to update the plugin, or we need to download the new version?
Siraj Mahmood • 9 years ago

We truly appreciate this plugin performance. Is this plugin is free with all features ? May be some features is locked and will be enable only for premium members. :)
Ritu • 9 years ago

Clean Interface and only options which matters,no unnecessary options.
Bartek • 9 years ago

This release was so awaited! Thanks. Keep go this way : )
Mohamed Oka • 9 years ago

awesome update .. thank you Joost de Valk and others yoast team
Rich Owings • 9 years ago

So glad to see the social markup! Question though…Do you have any suggestions on what to do if a business has two locations and two Google + pages?
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  That’s exactly what our Local SEO plugin is for :)
  - Rich Owings • 9 years ago
    
    Thanks for the clarification!
    - mike oliver • 9 years ago
      
      Sorry to hijack your question Rich :)
  - mike oliver • 9 years ago
    
    Glad you commented! I was always under the assumption it was single location based, now I know. Thank you.
- mike oliver • 9 years ago
  
  I was just thinking the exact same thing when reading this. One of my clients has 3 locations, and we are currently using 3 Moz local plans for them, which each have their own G+ page.
Ahmad Awais • 9 years ago

Looks all promising. Good luck with this upgrade; Team Yoast. Social part is much needed feature to say the least.
Natan • 9 years ago

“Makes sure the user is redirected to the last active settings tab after saving.”

This was a really annoying thing about configuring the plugin on new sites, so I’m very grateful that you’ve changed it.

Thanks!
- ^ Post author
  Joost de Valk • 9 years ago
  
  Yeah that annoyed me all the time too :)