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Yoast SEO 15.9: Performance improvements

23 February 2021 | 15 Comments | Tags , , , , | By Edwin Toonen

Today sees the release of Yoast SEO 15.9 and Video SEO 13.7. In Yoast SEO 15.9, we focussed on performance improvements and general enhancements. In addition, we made Video SEO available in Elementor. Find out more!

Performance improvements

Improving the performance of our plugins is always on our radar. Sometimes, we do big changes that enhance the performance and other times they are small. But, like they say, from the tiny acorn, grows the mighty oak. For Yoast SEO 15.9, we picked two changes that might not seem huge but that do have an effect on overall performance.

For one, we limit the database queries for indexing the homepage. As a homepage doesn’t typically change that often, we don’t need to fetch it all the time. This saves a request. Two, in the redirects section of Yoast SEO Premium, we changed the order in which we load a piece of code. This simple fix prevents two extra queries that are not needed on every page load.

Structured data visual guide

Have you seen the rich results, structured data and Schema visual guide we launched recently? It helps you understand a complex topic in an easy to understand format. Check out the structured data visual guide!

Visual enhancements

In various places in Yoast SEO, you can upload images to use in your meta data. Up until now, we didn’t always show you a preview of that image. For instance, in the Search Appearance settings, we wouldn’t show you the image you uploaded in Knowledge graph section. In Yoast SEO 15.9, we’ve fixed that and you’ll now see the image you uploaded.

You now see the uploaded logo in all its glory

Video SEO: Now compatible with Elementor

A couple of weeks ago, we updated our Video SEO plugin. We cleaned up the UX and added a new way of handling YouTube videos. You can now tell the plugin to only load YouTube videos once a user interacts with it. This keeps the page from loading heavy JavaScript that might not be necessary — thus, keeping the page quick to load.

In Video SEO 13.7, we added another cool feature to bring it in line with Yoast SEO. Video SEO now works in our Elementor integration. Elementor user can now seamlessly optimize their videos and work on their video SEO!

That’s Yoast SEO 15.9 for you!

Yoast SEO 15.9 comes with a couple of nice improvements. In addition, we’ve updated our Video SEO plugins with a cool new Elementor integration. Happy updating and thanks for using Yoast SEO!

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.

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15 Responses to Yoast SEO 15.9: Performance improvements

  1. Akash Golder
    Akash Golder  • 4 years ago

    I was really confused about is it really SEO plugin matter for ranking or not?
    some pepole say yoast is the game changer, some pepole say, nope rank math is just better then yoast!
    actually i need to know from you guys, what the best options for me?

    • Camille Cunningham
      Camille Cunningham  • 4 years ago

      Hi Akash! Our Yoast SEO plugin fixes a lot of the technical SEO stuff for you and helps you write great content. So it can definitely help you with your rankings. To help you make a decision, I would recommend going to https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/ where you can read what you’ll get when you choose Yoast SEO :)

  2. vinay
    vinay  • 4 years ago

    why even after doing all seo( when green signal is showing)…page is not getting hits……does it mean that Yoast not good or more or less it does not make any impact on the website ranking or visitor visits

    • Edwin Toonen
      ^  Post author
      Edwin Toonen  • 4 years ago

      Hi Vinay. Having all bullets green doesn’t mean you automatically get traffic to your site. Have you just started doing SEO? It might take a little time to get going. Please keep working on your site and improve it in any way you can. Good luck!

      • Gentleman
        Gentleman  • 4 years ago

        Hi. I read the features of the plugin “Rank Math” recently; while I’m using Yaost SEO Premium for years, it seems you are going much behind them, especially due to their integrations and ease of use. Do you have any near plan for that which we can hope? Thanks

        • Edwin Toonen
          ^  Post author
          Edwin Toonen  • 4 years ago

          Hi! Thanks for being a valued customer for years. We love going out of our way to make Yoast SEO better for you and all our users. We’ve been working hard at new features and other enhancements that’ll help keep Yoast SEO the number one WordPress SEO plugin out there. Stay tuned!

          • Gentleman
            Gentleman  • 4 years ago

            Thanks for your reply and your great effort and support for years. We look forward to hearing great news about the enhancements as soon as possible.

  3. Vincent Wondra
    Vincent Wondra  • 4 years ago

    When is Beaver Builder integration coming?

    • Camille Cunningham
      Camille Cunningham  • 4 years ago

      Hi Vincent. Thanks for your comment! Unfortunately, we don’t have any news to share regarding a possible integration with Beaver Builder. Sorry about that :)

  4. Garry
    Garry  • 4 years ago

    I have the free version,
    Is it worth investing in the paid version for my small blog / review site

    • Camille Cunningham
      Camille Cunningham  • 4 years ago

      Hi there, Garry! I think this article on why you should buy Yoast SEO Premium can help you figure that out :) Let us know if you have any additional questions!

      • Don Omajemite
        Don Omajemite  • 4 years ago

        You people should add JobPosting schema in the Editor

        • Camille Cunningham
          Camille Cunningham  • 4 years ago

          Hi there! Thanks for your suggestion, it’s on the list :)

  5. Jesus
    Jesus  • 4 years ago

    Very good optimization regarding database queries. Especially for those websites that have a static cover. Thank you for continually improving Yoast Seo. :)

    • Camille Cunningham
      Camille Cunningham  • 4 years ago

      Thank you for that lovely comment :)