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.