Error: Yoast SEO cannot create database tables

For Yoast SEO to work, it needs to be able to create tables in your database. Yoast SEO will show you an error message when we are unable to create tables automatically.

For the health and safety of your site, we recommend making a backup of the database before making changes. If possible, you may prefer to set up a test or so called “staging” environment to limit the downtime for your live website. Some popular hosts offer quick setups for a staging site. So, please contact your host for assistance.

Ask your host

You don’t have to fix this yourself. Instead, you can ask your host to fix this for you. Yoast SEO runs on literally millions of sites without a problem, so your host really should not have a problem fixing this. We created an example mail below, that you can use when contacting your host:

Hi,

For Yoast SEO to work, Yoast SEO needs to be able to create new tables in our database. Yoast SEO automatically tries to create these tables but failed to do so. Could you fix the database permissions so it can in fact create those tables?

Yoast SEO requires the following permissions: ALTER, CREATE, DELETE, INDEX, INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE and DROP.

Yoast suggested I’d contact you on this page. If you have questions for them, feel free to reach out to them through email.

Thank you!

We’re happy to help them understand why this is needed.

What if my host provider won’t change the database permissions?

If you hosting provider is unwilling or unable to change these permissions for your website, we really only have one piece of advice: get a different host. Here is a list of reputable WordPress hosting companies you won’t have this problem with.