If you use or manage a website that runs off of a self-hosted WordPress.org instance, you’re probably using (or have used in the past) a plugin developed by Joost de Valk. He developed and maintains the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, which has been downloaded over 1.4 million times.
Joost (pronounced “yoast”, like “toast”) is a 28-year-old web developer, SEO and online marketer. The excellent bookmarklet Quix is Joost’s creation.
In the WordPress community, in addition to being a developer superstar, Joost is also known as the co-host of the WordPress Podcast (which he hosts with Mashable’s Frederick Townes).
Mashable had a chance to talk with Joost about his newest plu gin, WordPress SEO by Yoast.
WordPress SEO is still in beta, but it is extremely impressive. In many ways, WordPress SEO is the culmination of work started by Joost with his other plugins, like the indispensable Robots Meta, Canonical URLs and Permalink Redirect for WordPress.
Beyond just combining these features into one admin interface, the plugin is also designed to help writers learn what makes good SEO. The real “wow” feature — to me as a writer — is the snippet preview addition. This feature lets users get a preview of how a post will appear in Google directly from the WordPress post screen.
How do you handle SEO for your blog or website? What are some of your favorite plugins and tools? Let us know in the comments.
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