Say hi to a brand new version of Yoast SEO! As it’s summertime, our hard-working developers went out on a collective bug hunt. Together with the community – we’re so happy to be part of – they’re giving their all to make our plugin work better for everyone using it. For instance, to make the various sections of all Search Appearance tabs collapsible, so they’re easier to scan and edit. On top of that, we’re preparing for exciting times to come! What about Gutenberg? And further development of our best-known feature, the content analysis?
Less scrolling in Search Appearance
The Search Appearance section of Yoast SEO is a true power tool. It allows you to control which sections of your site should appear in the search results and what they will look like. For instance, you can choose to hide certain archives from the search results or to set a template for SEO titles for your product pages. If you have an extensive website though, all different sections and options could create a long list on a tab. On the content types tab, you could already collapse the various content types. Now, we added this functionality to the other tabs as well, for example the archives tab:
This way you’ll have a better overview, making it easier to select and edit the section you want to work on. Also, we’ve improved the accessibility of these collapsible sections, as they should work for everyone.
Bugs killed
When working on this release, we again realized how fortunate we are to be part of the WordPress community. No fewer than 4 voluntary contributors went together on this bug hunt with us. A big thanks to schurig, bainternet, dawnbirth, mikeschinkel to help us fix stuff. Mad props to all of you!
One of the issues we fixed was a residue of our 7.7 release. In that update we introduced the new snippet variables in the snippet preview and templates of the Search appearance tab. In some instances, templates would not be saved correctly though, causing the default template to show under a post or page. This is one of the issues we resolved in Yoast SEO 7.9. Did this bug – or any of these annoy you? Update and get rid of them now!
Preparing for Gutenberg
Slowly but surely Gutenberg is heading our way. Not sure what Gutenberg was again? Check Edwin’s post about Gutenberg here. Gutenberg will have an impact on everyone using WordPress. Whether you’re a copywriter, editor or plugin developer.
Of course our own plugins need to be ready to integrate seamlessly with the Gutenberg editor when it’s there. Not something to take lightly! So we have a special team that’s fully dedicated to make sure we’re ready when Gutenberg is. They’re completely rebuilding all parts of the Yoast SEO plugin in the JavaScript library React, amongst others. Soon we’ll be able to tell and show you more on this. So make sure to keep an eye on our updates.
Working towards a more complete content analysis
Our 7.8 release was all about adding synonyms and keyword distribution in Yoast SEO Premium. Our plugin is now able to recognize synonyms of your focus keyword in English and sees how you’ve distributed them throughout your copy. This was just the first step to a more complete content analysis and understanding of the topic of a text. Apart from identification of synonyms we’re working on morphology (other forms of the same word) and related words recognition and an entire recalibration of our SEO analysis. Curious about the changes that lie ahead? Marieke sheds light on them here.
February 20 - 22, 2025
Team Yoast is at Attending, Sponsoring, Yoast Booth Wordcamp Asia 2025! Click through to see who will be there, what we will do, and more!
See where you can find us next »
16 January 2025
Learn how to start your SEO journey the right way with our free webinar. Get practical tips and answers to all your questions in the live Q&A!
All Yoast SEO webinars »
30 Responses to Yoast SEO 7.9: Getting rid of bugs in the summer
Jennifer • 6 years ago
Since updating WordPress and Yoast, Yoast will not load in the editor. I can’t assign the focus keyword. All i get is a Yoast is loading message at the top. It also will not load the Yoast information in the dashboard.
ChrisK2 • 6 years ago
Hi There,
Talking about Bug resolution and “Bugs killed” what about this one:
“Unable to tokenize”
Reported on February 2017 (and probbaly even before by other users)
I still receive emails like the one copied at the end of this post (received yesterday June 26, 2018) regularly since then.
Do you have an official status on this bug?
—————————————————————
Re: [Yoast/YoastSEO.js] Unable to tokenize ‘<' (#840)
Path: Inbox
From: rmarcano
To: Yoast/YoastSEO.js
CC: CKRMK; Comment
Please inform the customer of conversation # 405225 when this conversation has been closed.
—
You are receiving this because you commented.
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.
^ Post author
Willemien Hallebeek • 6 years ago
Hi Chris! We’re sorry you’re suffering from this bug for so long already. Unfortunately there’s not a simple fix possible. At the moment were fixing some underlying issues that need to be solved first to tackle this one too. It’s expected to be fixed this fall though.
Lee-Anne • 6 years ago
I’ve just updated my Yoast plugin to version 7.9 and having a serious issue. My site runs on Divi and when I type the letter ‘o’ it opens the Divi Builder Settings window, when I type the letter ‘p’ it opens a Divi Portability window. I can’t type the letters ‘h’ or ‘s’. I’ve deleted the plugin and reinstalled but still the same issue. Not sure if it’s a Divi/Yoast or Yoast/Divi compatibility issue. Never been a problem before this new version though. Any advice you can provide would be awesome :)
Still seeing these issues even with the update. It almost looks like some form of js isn’t loading but I’m getting no errors in Chrome Developer Toolbar.
^ Post author
Willemien Hallebeek • 6 years ago
Hi Jen, Sorry you’re experiences difficulties! What issue are you referring to exactly? If you need support please check out this page https://yoa.st/support or email our support team if you’re on Premium.
Ste • 6 years ago
Hi, i have a question if the meta description has a bug? in older version, it was possible – that the meta-description was generated automaticly from the product shortdescription. Now i can only place a variable (but there isn´t a variable for shortdescription from the product) or make a manual meta description by the product.
hi, thank you for reply. this is strange, cause i have insert the variable (%%wc_shortdesc%%) by meta-description in the settings yoast > illustration of the search > by product. If a make a description in the field shortdescription by an product, > i see only the variable by yoast meta description %%wc_shortdesc%%. But i don´t the the written text for the shortdescription. i use the version 7.9.1
the site is at maintenance mode. i have test it by an complete new product, too. But i also see in the yoast field by meta-description the code variable %%wc_shortdesc%%.
jitender pal singh • 6 years ago
i love this plugin, this plugin is very useful for me.
technical writing training pune • 6 years ago
This is another nice article from willemien. but i have one doubt. yoast gives too much of plugin update how can i stop this? and when we stop this. is it good for me or not?
^ Post author
Willemien Hallebeek • 6 years ago
Thanks! We update our plugin every 2 weeks to make sure it works the best way possible and to release new features. If you stop updating you might miss out on new functionalities or a bugfix. So we’d recommend to update regularly :-)
roartutu • 6 years ago
Sounds great!
Do I have to do anything to get 7.9, or do I get it automatically?
Nicely explains it. It helps me a lot to understand content is so good and images as well.
Thank you
Anh Tran • 6 years ago
I love the Yoast SEO plugin so much. But sometimes, it gives me bad feelings. After the minor updates, there are often hotfixes come after just 1-2 days. That makes me feel it’s not stable yet, and pause me from auto-updates.
Iris Guelen • 6 years ago
Hi Anh! I understand your worries, but we try to keep our plugin functioning as well as it can at all times, so that sometimes means we have to bring out a patch release to fix bugs immediately. We also update our plugin every two weeks, to keep it as up to date as possible. Hope this explains! Glad you love it!
Sunil Tiwary • 6 years ago
I liked the new updated version of Yoast SEO. Developers are doing very good. Keep it Up
^ Post author
Willemien Hallebeek • 6 years ago
Thanks, Sunil!
Jay D Rogers • 6 years ago
ABOUT THE BUGS – I notice two things:
1. Under Analysis, I still get a Red Dot indicating “the focus keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy. A focus keyword now starts off the first paragraph on just about all of my pages but it never gives them credit, and I still get the Red Dot
2. Under Insights – Prominent Words. In doing page and website updates, I have rewritten content and the original prominent words are no longer prominent but they are still listed as such in the Insight section.
Are these bugs or something that can be corrected?
^ Post author
Willemien Hallebeek • 6 years ago
Hi Mike, Jay, and Chris, First of all, sorry you’re all having trouble with this issue! We’d love to be able to pick up and fix every bug out there immediately. Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to do this. I’ve checked with our developers, and this issue, although it might seem simple is a bit harder to solve than you’d say. The first paragraph keyword matching is very sensitive to conflicts with other plugins or themes. But here’s the good news: We are currently working on improving it. If all goes well, it should be fixed by the end of the summer. So please hang in there! You can follow the progress here: https://github.com/Yoast/YoastSEO.js/issues/994.
Mike Clayton • 6 years ago
On 1, that is my biggest annoyance too. It’s such an obvious bug that you can see, and it undermines confidence in everything that you can’t.
And people have been complaining about it for ages. It’s time for Yoast to nail it, or rewrite that part of the code from scratch.
Every time I think of becoming a paid customer, I pull back because of this, and it feels like moderators just ignore comments about it.
ChrisK2 • 6 years ago
Same thing here for months if not years!
“The focus keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy”
Was thinking it was because my first paragraphs were missing but no.
How can we trust Yoast semantic analysis if it is not even manage this?
Chris
Up SEO • 6 years ago
Thanks for your hard work!
Mike Clayton • 6 years ago
I love that you keep developing functionality, thank you. Please tell me one of the bugs you’ve crushed is the all too frequent ‘keyword not in the opening sentence’ alert.
sm2 • 6 years ago
Hi there,
Thanks to your helpful tips, we have managed to increase the number of our monthly users on our Mediterranean blog from 3,000 to 20,000 within 6 months.
195 contributions are at Google between position No. 1 and 2 ;)
from Berlin, Germany
^ Post author
Willemien Hallebeek • 6 years ago
That sounds awesome! Glad you like our tips and put them to practice so well :-)
Drake • 6 years ago
Thank you for resolving the templates bug! Greatly appreciated!
Since updating WordPress and Yoast, Yoast will not load in the editor. I can’t assign the focus keyword. All i get is a Yoast is loading message at the top. It also will not load the Yoast information in the dashboard.
Hi There,
Talking about Bug resolution and “Bugs killed” what about this one:
“Unable to tokenize”
Reported on February 2017 (and probbaly even before by other users)
I still receive emails like the one copied at the end of this post (received yesterday June 26, 2018) regularly since then.
Do you have an official status on this bug?
—————————————————————
Re: [Yoast/YoastSEO.js] Unable to tokenize ‘<' (#840)
Path: Inbox
From: rmarcano
To: Yoast/YoastSEO.js
CC: CKRMK; Comment
Please inform the customer of conversation # 405225 when this conversation has been closed.
—
You are receiving this because you commented.
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.
Hi Chris! We’re sorry you’re suffering from this bug for so long already. Unfortunately there’s not a simple fix possible. At the moment were fixing some underlying issues that need to be solved first to tackle this one too. It’s expected to be fixed this fall though.
I’ve just updated my Yoast plugin to version 7.9 and having a serious issue. My site runs on Divi and when I type the letter ‘o’ it opens the Divi Builder Settings window, when I type the letter ‘p’ it opens a Divi Portability window. I can’t type the letters ‘h’ or ‘s’. I’ve deleted the plugin and reinstalled but still the same issue. Not sure if it’s a Divi/Yoast or Yoast/Divi compatibility issue. Never been a problem before this new version though. Any advice you can provide would be awesome :)
Hi Lee-Anne, Sorry you’re experiencing troubles! This issue is fixed now. https://github.com/Yoast/wordpress-seo/issues/10152#issuecomment-400659551 Just update Divi and you should be good to go!
Still seeing these issues even with the update. It almost looks like some form of js isn’t loading but I’m getting no errors in Chrome Developer Toolbar.
Hi Jen, Sorry you’re experiences difficulties! What issue are you referring to exactly? If you need support please check out this page https://yoa.st/support or email our support team if you’re on Premium.
Hi, i have a question if the meta description has a bug? in older version, it was possible – that the meta-description was generated automaticly from the product shortdescription. Now i can only place a variable (but there isn´t a variable for shortdescription from the product) or make a manual meta description by the product.
Hi Ste! If you use Yoast SEO for WooCommerce there is a variable for product short description. You can find all WooCommerce variables that you can use here: https://yoast.com/help/yoast-wordpress-seo-titles-metas-template-variables/#woocommerce-variables We’ve quickly tested it for you and it should still work!
hi, thank you for reply. this is strange, cause i have insert the variable (%%wc_shortdesc%%) by meta-description in the settings yoast > illustration of the search > by product. If a make a description in the field shortdescription by an product, > i see only the variable by yoast meta description %%wc_shortdesc%%. But i don´t the the written text for the shortdescription. i use the version 7.9.1
the site is at maintenance mode. i have test it by an complete new product, too. But i also see in the yoast field by meta-description the code variable %%wc_shortdesc%%.
i love this plugin, this plugin is very useful for me.
This is another nice article from willemien. but i have one doubt. yoast gives too much of plugin update how can i stop this? and when we stop this. is it good for me or not?
Thanks! We update our plugin every 2 weeks to make sure it works the best way possible and to release new features. If you stop updating you might miss out on new functionalities or a bugfix. So we’d recommend to update regularly :-)
Sounds great!
Do I have to do anything to get 7.9, or do I get it automatically?
Thanks, Chuck
Great to hear! :) It depends on your settings, but this article should help you find out what it is you need to do: https://yoast.com/help/how-can-i-update-my-free-plugin/. Happy updating!
Nicely explains it. It helps me a lot to understand content is so good and images as well.
Thank you
I love the Yoast SEO plugin so much. But sometimes, it gives me bad feelings. After the minor updates, there are often hotfixes come after just 1-2 days. That makes me feel it’s not stable yet, and pause me from auto-updates.
Hi Anh! I understand your worries, but we try to keep our plugin functioning as well as it can at all times, so that sometimes means we have to bring out a patch release to fix bugs immediately. We also update our plugin every two weeks, to keep it as up to date as possible. Hope this explains! Glad you love it!
I liked the new updated version of Yoast SEO. Developers are doing very good. Keep it Up
Thanks, Sunil!
ABOUT THE BUGS – I notice two things:
1. Under Analysis, I still get a Red Dot indicating “the focus keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy. A focus keyword now starts off the first paragraph on just about all of my pages but it never gives them credit, and I still get the Red Dot
2. Under Insights – Prominent Words. In doing page and website updates, I have rewritten content and the original prominent words are no longer prominent but they are still listed as such in the Insight section.
Are these bugs or something that can be corrected?
Hi Mike, Jay, and Chris, First of all, sorry you’re all having trouble with this issue! We’d love to be able to pick up and fix every bug out there immediately. Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to do this. I’ve checked with our developers, and this issue, although it might seem simple is a bit harder to solve than you’d say. The first paragraph keyword matching is very sensitive to conflicts with other plugins or themes. But here’s the good news: We are currently working on improving it. If all goes well, it should be fixed by the end of the summer. So please hang in there! You can follow the progress here: https://github.com/Yoast/YoastSEO.js/issues/994.
On 1, that is my biggest annoyance too. It’s such an obvious bug that you can see, and it undermines confidence in everything that you can’t.
And people have been complaining about it for ages. It’s time for Yoast to nail it, or rewrite that part of the code from scratch.
Every time I think of becoming a paid customer, I pull back because of this, and it feels like moderators just ignore comments about it.
Same thing here for months if not years!
“The focus keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy”
Was thinking it was because my first paragraphs were missing but no.
How can we trust Yoast semantic analysis if it is not even manage this?
Chris
Thanks for your hard work!
I love that you keep developing functionality, thank you. Please tell me one of the bugs you’ve crushed is the all too frequent ‘keyword not in the opening sentence’ alert.
Hi there,
Thanks to your helpful tips, we have managed to increase the number of our monthly users on our Mediterranean blog from 3,000 to 20,000 within 6 months.
195 contributions are at Google between position No. 1 and 2 ;)
from Berlin, Germany
That sounds awesome! Glad you like our tips and put them to practice so well :-)
Thank you for resolving the templates bug! Greatly appreciated!
You’re welcome, Drake!