Skip to content

Yoast SEO 11.6: HowTo Schema update and UI changes

Edwin Toonen 9 July 2019 34 , ,

Yoast SEO 11.6 is out today. Of course, we did the regular round of bug fixing, but the focus of this release is two-fold: a new, much easier to use tabbed interface for the meta box and an updated HowTo structured data content block for WordPress. Find out all about Yoast SEO 11.6!

UX improvements to the meta box

This summer, we’re steadily improving the user interface and user experience of the Yoast SEO meta box. As this is the spot where you probably spend quite some time, we have an obligation to make it easy to use and discover.

After moving the focus keyphrase field to the top of the meta box in Yoast SEO 11.3 and introducing the new mobile snippet preview in Yoast SEO 11.4, you’ll now find a new menu at the top of the box, including a new set of tabs. As of today, this is how the meta box looks in the Classic Editor:

In Yoast SEO 11.6, you’ll notice that we’ve changed the old vertical alignment of menu items to a horizontal one. This makes it easier on the eyes and improves the findability of the features.

In addition, you’ll notice that the old content optimization tab in the meta box is now two tabs: one called SEO and the other Readability. Both have smiley icons that light up showing you the status of that particular post. The naming of the tabs should be self-explanatory, but inside the SEO tab you’ll find the snippet preview and SEO-related checks. The Readability tab has everything related to improving the language of your post.

Look forward to more graphical changes soon!

Revamped HowTo structured data implementation

The free Yoast SEO structured data content blocks for the WordPress block editor make it incredibly easy for you to add specific content with automatically attached Schema structured data. Want to build an FAQ and get those cool new featured snippets from Google? Use our FAQ content block. Want to enhance your how-to guides with valid structured data and build a page without breaking a sweat? Use our HowTo Schema structured data content blocks.

In Yoast SEO 11.6, you’ll see that the new HowTo blocks are nicely following Google’s latest changes. In addition, all the structured data code generated will now also end up in the graph of your website. This tells search engines that your how-to page is connected to the rest of your site. For more information on this, please see the Yoast SEO 11.0 release post or read our Schema documentation.

An empty HowTo content block in the block editor. Just fill in the fields to get going

Schema fixes

The updated HowTo content blocks are the star of this release, but we’ve also fixed several Schema related bugs. For instance, we fixed a bug where the Schema @id for Person turned out to be incorrect on posts when author archives where disabled, or the one where the Schema would contain WebPage instead of CollectionPage for a latest posts homepage and the static posts page type. Another one concerned a bug where the Organization and Article Schema nodes outputted incorrectly when a website didn’t set the name and/or logo of the organization.

Security fix

Yoast SEO 11.6 also fixes a security issue regarding term pages in WordPress. Unfiltered code was allowed in some fields. This, however, does not pose a problem for single user sites. In specific cases, on multisite installs, this might become an issue because of the way user roles function.

Update to Yoast SEO 11.6

Yoast SEO 11.6 brings more structured data enhancements, including a much improved HowTo structured data content block. We’re continuing our work on the Schema standard and hope to have more to show soon. Don’t forget to check out the blocks.

Avatar of Edwin Toonen
Edwin Toonen

Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.

Discussion (34)

  • As soon as I updated to 11.6 I got an error message across the top of my site: Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /home/wholegre/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/frontend/schema/class-schema-utils.php on line 25

    I deactivated it and reactivated it but it’s still there. Any idea how to fix this? Thank you!

  • I presume the block editor is the Gutenberg? If Gutenberg is being forced upon us, then as much as I’m enthusiastic about Yoast and WordPress, I’ll have to move elsewhere. Believe me I don’t want to, but I tried the block editor. Apart from the the fact it’s infernally complicated (we’re not all web masters), it messed up my whole site. Fortunately I was able to install a disable Gutenberg plugin which set things back to normal. I’m not the only one with this problem. Take a look at the overwhelming negative reviews here. https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/gutenberg/reviews/
    I live in hope that a solution will be found. Kindest regards, Sergio.

  • Please how do I update to the latest 11.6
    Will there be option to update on my dashboard or how

  • Hi

    after upgrade to version 11.6, post type schema type is WebPage inested Artice. How to Fix this problem?

  • Is there any plugin for schema update also?
    I bought Local SEO from Yoast for my website but still confused how to implement that for multiple locations.
    Please help!

  • My WP says that it has updated to 11.6 but it looks the same. Cleared all the caches but no difference.

  • Any chances of the new Schema feature coming to Classic Editor? I don’t see it there.

  • Could you give the users the option to choose between tabs and accordion?
    I appreciate this UI gives you more focus on the task, but I’d rather click once to open the accordion and see everything at a glance than having to click click click click click to jump back and forth between tabs.

    I adjust while writing so to me the single view was a lot more useful, but since it’s subject to everyone’s taste, just add it as an option. Please.

    Thanks!

  • My blog crashed after this update ?

  • Appreciated changes, especially in regard to schema. It’s also great to see UX getting attention as more features are added.

    Thanks for the update!

  • Greatly appreciated the improved UX … thanks!

  • Sounds like another great update just one quick question. If I have existing Yoast How To blocks on my blog will they update to the new version or do I have to add a new block and transfer the data?

  • Really, the new interface looks awesome!

  • My website pages and post was gone all on Google in version 11.5.

  • The only reason I moved from Rank Math to Yoast in my personal blog is because of the way you guys handle schema. At first I was having issue to understand the hooks, but now I love it. So much flexibility, great job folks.

  • The new interface looks great, I will update as soon as possible.

    One question regarding the new snippet preview: Our site gets almost only traffic from desktop computers. Is there a way to select the desktop preview as default?