How to view the page source of your site

How to view the page source of your site

Most SEO data is output behind the scenes in the source code for your site. So, how do you know if [XYZ] feature is working? Check the source code by following the steps below.

You can, also, check the source code of your sitemaps, admin pages, and pretty much every page that your browser can display.

Table of contents

Chrome
Safari
Firefox
Other browsers
How do I search in the source code?

Chrome

As with most things on a desktop, there are a number of ways to get to the same spot. So if the steps below don’t work, try these alternate options.

View the page for which you want to see the source code.Right-click the page and click on ‘View page source’ in the drop-down menu. 

Safari

Click on Safari menu > Preferences > Advanced. Check ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar’. Close the Preferences window. Go to the Develop menu > Show Page Source.

Firefox

As with most things on a desktop, there are a number of ways to get to the same spot. So if the steps below don’t work, try these alternate options.

View the page for which you want to see the source code.Right-click the page and click on ‘View Page Source’.

Other browsers

Please contact the support team for your browser for information on how to view page source.

How do I search for a specific tag in the source code?

Once you are viewing the source code, sometimes you may need to search for a tag. You can do this by finding the search function of your different browsers below:

ChromeFireFox

We know it can be hard to get the technical part of SEO right. Did you know we have a training subscription to help you master this subject? Check out our Technical SEO training subscription.

How to use the Yoast internal linking blocks

How to use the Yoast internal linking blocks

Yoast SEO features four Premium blocks that make internal linking easy for you! Using the hierarchical structure of your website, you can link your pages together with the Subpages block, the Siblings block and the Related links block. In addition, you can add structure to your posts and pages with the Table of content block! In this article, we’ll explain how to use these internal linking blocks.

Related articles

Make content findable with our internal linking suggestions toolInternal linking for SEO: Why and how?How to use the Yoast SEO internal linking toolRelated posts in WordPress: make sure to suggest the bestParent and child pages: Linking hierarchical post types for SEO

What are the Yoast internal linking blocks?

Subpages block

The Subpages block will automatically add a list of all the underlying posts or pages related to the parent page. For example, if you have a website about different countries, you might have a general page about France. Then, you could have subpages that cover the food, the capital, and the people of France. After reading up on France, you might like your visitors to click through to the subpages, to read more about these specific topics. That’s easy with the subpages block! By adding the block, this page automatically shows the subpages related to this parent page.

Siblings block

Now, let’s take a look at the Siblings block. Someone interested in the information about Paris, is probably also interested in the other pages about France. To make it easy for them, you can add a Siblings block to your posts and pages. The Siblings block automatically adds a list of all the pages that have the same parent page as the post or page you’re adding the block to.

Related links block

Yoast SEO Premium comes with a sophisticated internal linking suggestions tool. It gives you real-time internal linking suggestions that you can use to add to your post or page and improve the structure of your site. You can, of course, add the links through the text, where you see fit. But, what if you wanted to add them all as a list of suggested reading? You can, very quickly, with the Related links block. Just add the block, and you will see all the related links automatically appear in a list format! Watch the video below to learn how the block works!

Table of contents block

A table of contents is a great way to make a post or a page scannable. It does not matter if a post is long or short. A table of contents is almost always welcome. With Yoast SEO, adding one just got super easy. All you need to do is add the Yoast Table of Contents block. That’s it. The plugin will automatically generate the Table of contents based on your headings and their hierarchy.

As a bonus, this block allows Google to add jump links right in the search pages! To learn more, watch the short screencast below.

How to add the Yoast internal linking blocks

Follow the steps below to add the Yoast internal linking blocks to your post or page. Log in to your WordPress site. When you’re logged in, you’ll be in your WordPress Dashboard. Go to the editor of the post or page you want to add internal links to. You can access the post or page editor through the menu on the left-hand side by clicking Posts > All Posts > Edit (when hovering over the post you want to edit), or by clicking Pages > All Pages > Edit (when hovering over the page you want to edit). Click ‘Add block’ and scroll down to ‘Yoast Internal Linking Blocks’. Select ‘Subpages’ (only for pages) , ‘Siblings’ (only for pages), ‘Related links’ or ‘Table of contents’. To automatically show all subpages related to your post or page, select the ‘Subpages’ block. To automatically show a list of the posts or pages that have the same parent page as the post or page that you’re adding the block to, select the ‘Siblings’ block. To add the list of links you see in the Internal linking suggestions, select the Related links block. Use the Table of contents block if you want to add a table of contents to your page.

How to set custom Twitter meta tags

How to set custom Twitter meta tags

Related Articles

Enable​ Twitter​ meta tags
Troubleshooting

Yoast SEO includes the option to set custom Twitter images, titles and descriptions on a page by page basis after you have enabled Twitter meta data. The social tab of the meta box allows you to set a custom image, title and description on each post, page or taxonomy. Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’. Edit the post, page or other custom post type you’d like to exclude. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, navigate to the post, page or other custom post type you’d like to exclude. Scroll to the Yoast SEO metabox and click on the social share settings. Scroll to the Twitter heading. Enter the custom Twitter title, description and/or image.

Twitter Preview

One of the Yoast SEO for WordPress Premium features is the ability to see what your post will look like when sharing on Twitter.

Changing The Twitter Metatags

Changing the Twitter URL Metatag

If you want to change the Twitter URL metatag, you will need to use the filters we have for OpenGraph tags, as Twitter uses the og:url to display it in Google. You can view the filters here.

Changing the Twitter:Image Metatag

To change the Twitter:image tag use the filer: wpseo_twitter_image instead of the wpseo_opengraph_type filters we have here.

How to set custom Facebook OpenGraph tags

How to set custom Facebook OpenGraph tags

Yoast SEO includes the option to set custom Facebook images, titles and descriptions on a page by page basis. In this article, we’ll explain how to set custom Facebook OpenGraph tags for your homepage.

In Yoast SEO Premium, you get full control of your Facebook and Twitter shares! There is no guesswork with the social preview feature. By seeing exactly what your posts look like when you share them, you get the chance to improve your social media presence.

Related articles

Enable​ Facebook​ meta tags
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Add Facebook author tags
Facebook sharing not working
No image when sharing

Check your WordPress homepage type

Setting custom Facebook OpenGraph tags depends on the homepage type of your WordPress site. WordPress has two options for your homepage: ‘Your latest posts’ or ‘Static’. You can check your WordPress site’s homepage type by following the steps in this article about WordPress homepage types.

Homepage displays your latest posts

If your homepage displays your latest posts, you can follow these steps to set custom Facebook OpenGraph tags:

Log in to your WordPress website.When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’.Click on SEO.On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on ‘SEO’. The ‘SEO’ settings will expand providing you additional options.Click on Search Appearance. The Search Appearance settings will appear In the General tab, scroll down to the Homepage settings (outlined in the image below).Use the Social settings section to add an image, title and a description.The Title is already pre-filled with the variable Site title. That means that the title of your site will appear as the title of the social post when your homepage gets shared on social media by you or someone else. You can, of course, edit the pre-filled title if you wish to do so. Click ‘Save Changes’.

Static homepage

If you have a static homepage for your WordPress site, you can set a custom image, title, and description for each post, page (including the static front and blog pages) or taxonomy.

To set custom OpenGraph tags for a post, page or taxonomy, follow the steps below. Edit the post or page in WordPress. Go to the Facebook preview tab in the Yoast SEO sidebar. Set an image, title and description. If you are using Yoast SEO Premium, the fields in the Facebook preview tab will be pre-filled with the defaults you’ve set for all Pages in the Search Appearance settings. You can, of course, edit them and add different content. In Yoast SEO Premium you can also see what your post will look like when it gets shared on Facebook.

There are a number of filters documented in the plugin code for developers to programmatically change OpenGraph output. Here are some examples.

How to modify default snippet templates in Yoast SEO

How to modify default snippet templates in Yoast SEO

An important function of Yoast SEO (both free and premium) is that it allows you to automatically add snippet templates to your pages. Want to know more about what these snippet templates are and what you can do with it? Check out this post about snippet variables.

Yoast SEO includes default templates that are SEO-friendly but you can modify these default templates to meet your specific needs by following the steps below.

If you want to know how to enter meta descriptions on a page, please refer to this guide on creating SEO titles and meta descriptions.

Modify default templates

Yoast SEO automatically adds default snippet templates to all the different pages across your site. You can change your title and meta description templates by going to the admin of your WordPress installation and clicking ‘SEO’ → ‘Search Appearance’. Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’. Click on ‘SEO’. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on ‘SEO’. Click on ‘Search Appearance’. The ‘SEO’ settings will expand, providing you with additional options. Click on ‘Search Appearance’. Create templates for the various pages within your site. Under each tab, you can use these variables to create templates for various pages within your site. You can use the defaults that Yoast outputs automatically or click on ‘+ Insert snippet variable’ to add more.

You can use the variables from this list of snippet variables to create your own templates for the titles and meta descriptions.

How to select a primary category

How to select a primary category

To help visitors find their way on your site, you can use breadcrumbs. They are the clickable links you usually see on the top of the page. They can easily be implemented using the Yoast SEO breadcrumbs block. Now, why are they important for the primary category?

Depending on the structure of your site, some of your posts may belong to several categories. So what happens to the breadcrumbs if you have a post that belongs to three categories? It can get messy. But we have a solution. In Yoast SEO, you can select a primary category. In that way, we make sure that your permalinks and breadcrumbs remain clean, which is good for SEO.

An impeccable site structure makes your content easy to find. Yoast SEO Premium contains several features that help you structure your site. By giving your website a structure boost, you get benefits for your SEO, your visitors, and search engines!

You need to implement breadcrumbs to your site for them to work. After you have implemented them, you can also edit the breadcrumbs pathway to include the primary category.

How to select a primary category

With Yoast SEO, you can easily select the primary category when you are editing a post.  Go to the Categories setting in the sidebar of the post editing screen. Click on the dropdown menu under Select the primary category. The menu expands. Select the primary category from the menu.

How to disable the primary category feature from Yoast SEO 

In some cases, you might want to disable the primary category feature. We have added a filter and written a short guide on how to use it.

How to noindex individual author pages

How to noindex individual author pages

You can let search engines know you want to keep your individual author pages out of the search results. To do this, you can ‘noindex’ your individual author pages in the WordPress settings. Let’s explore how to go about this.

If you don’t want author archive pages on your site at all, you can also choose to disable the author archive pages on your site.

Related articles

How do I noindex URLs?Why noindex a page or nofollow a link?How to keep your page out of the search resultsHow to noindex an entire site

To noindex individual author pages, follow these steps: Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’. Click on ‘Users’. On the left-hand site, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on ‘Users’. Go to ‘All Users’ Select the right user to edit in the Users overview. On the profile editing page, check ‘Do not allow search engines to show this author’s archives in search results’ in the Yoast SEO settings. Once you get on the profile editing page, scroll down and find the Yoast SEO settings. There, you check the box for ‘Do not allow search engines to show this author’s archives in search results.’ This will tell Google not to index that author page.

I don’t see the Yoast internal linking meta box

I don’t see the Yoast internal linking meta box

Requirements

REST API Required
Languages
Custom Post Types

Problems?

Blinking Yoast Logo
Analyze Content Button Remains
Wrong Internal Links
Site-wide Analyze Content Fails

REST API Required

The Yoast internal linking meta box was introduced in Yoast SEO for WordPress Premium 4.0 and requires WordPress 4.7 or higher which includes native support for the REST API. You can check your current WordPress version by clicking on the WordPress logo in the top-left corner of your WordPress installation.

Language

The link suggestions in the internal linking meta box are available for all languages.

Custom post types

Custom Post Types created by both plugins and themes are expected to be supported. After a short period of time, the link suggestions meta box is expected to show up when content is added. If the internal linking box fails to show up please contact support through the appropriate channel here.

I don’t see the internal link count columns

I don’t see the internal link count columns

To make sure all the links in your texts are counted, we need to analyze all your texts and check for internal links. This check is automatically ran every time you edit a post or page. Instead of having to manually open every post or page, we offer an option to bulk check all content that has not been checked. This is helpful when you first install the plugin or if you’ve made bulk changes like importing content.

Bulk Analyze Internal LinksSupported LanguagesError: The Yoast Link Statistics Feature Is Currently Disabled

NOTE: If you are on a multisite you will need to go to each subsite and follow the steps below for each one to count the internal links.

How To Bulk Analyze Your Content For Internal Links In Yoast SEO

Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’. Click on ‘SEO’. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on ‘SEO’. Click on ‘Tools’. The ‘SEO’ settings will expand providing you with additional options. Click on ‘Tools’. Click on the “Start SEO data optimization” button

Supported Languages

You may not see the internal count or the button to analyze the text because you are using a language that is not supported by this feature. This guide explains more about which languages are supported with which features: Features Per Language.

Error: The Yoast Link Statistics Feature Is Currently Disabled

In order for the feature to work correctly, it needs to create two database tables. Some may see an error message: Error: The Yoast Link Statistics feature is currently disabled in the SEO-Tools section while others may not see the button to click on.

We suggest contacting your host provider and verifying that the two tables exist. This guide explains more: The Yoast Link Statistics Feature Is Currently Disabled.

I didn’t change the content, yet my SEO score changed

I didn’t change the content, yet my SEO score changed

In Yoast SEO 10.0 we recalibrated the SEO analysis. This changed several assessments which may now give a slightly different SEO score for the same content. You can read all about the recalibrated analysis here: https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-10-0/.

Keep in mind that the SEO score will only be recalculated when the post or page is updated, with or without changing anything.

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Yoast SEO Premium also comes with a multiple keyword functionality and premium support so be sure to check out all features of Yoast SEO Premium.