Here at Yoast, we want to ensure your carefully-crafted content is well-received by the widest possible audience. Yoast SEO 22.2 brings more enhancements to our inclusive language analysis feature. You can expect to see more accurate keyphrase recognition, to ensure your keyphrase strategy is spot on every time! Additionally, we’ve introduced fresh translation enhancements for Yoast News SEO.
Enhanced inclusive language analysis
Our commitment to inclusivity takes center stage in our Yoast SEO 22.2 update with enhancements to our inclusive language analysis feature. We understand the importance of language sensitivity in today’s diverse online landscape. So, we’ve been fine-tuning our inclusive language analysis in Yoast SEO for WordPress and Yoast SEO for Shopify to further empower our customers to navigate these challenges seamlessly. When a phrase or word is identified as potentially non-inclusive, our feature steps in with constructive suggestions, offering you the opportunity to adjust your content for a wider audience. Another benefit of improved inclusivity is that it can contribute to a positive user experience, which is becoming more important to ranking highly in the SERPS.
More accurate keyphrase recognition
In Yoast SEO 22.2, we’ve focused on upgrading our keyphrase recognition prompts, resulting in a better-refined and more accurate tool for optimizing your content’s keyphrase density. You can now benefit from more contextual keyphrase matching when a phrase contains special characters such as hyphens. For instance, let’s say your keyphrase is ‘tips for training dogs,’ and your content mentions ‘dog-training tips’. We now highight the entire relevant phrase for you. This means that you can effortlessly spot and assess the full context in which you use your keyphrases. This helps you improve the overall effectiveness of your keyword strategy.
Enhancements and refinements in Yoast News SEO
This release also introduces new translation enhancements for Yoast News SEO, personalized to each user’s setup. These smaller plugin updates result in faster downloads for our users and are optimized for reduced file size, making them more server-friendly for our customers.
User experience improvements in Yoast SEO Premium
We’ve also been busy in the background focusing on our customers’ user experience. We’ve made it even easier for you to access and locate our features within the Yoast SEO Premium plugin.
Update now to Yoast SEO 22.2
Make the most of our improved inclusive language analysis and keyphrase recognition configurations by updating to Yoast SEO 22.2.
Beth is the Product Marketer at Yoast. Before joining the company, she honed her digital marketing and project management skills in various in-house and agency environments.
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2 Responses to Yoast SEO 22.2: Fine-tune your content for maximum impact
James King • 9 months ago
I have issues with ‘inclusive language’. If I am not competent enough to write an article using the correct language to describe the content, then I won’t write it. Using offensive langauge is of course not acceptible. But using language in the right context is important. For example, you single out to avoid using coloured people, which is ridiculous. How does one then refer to South African Cape Coloured people? I would be laughed at if I said South African Cape people of colour, because it not only sounds ridicululous but is not correct. Are you suggesting we writers will be penalised by Google if we do not follow some of the ludicrous suggestions put forward? If so that will mean avoiding certain subject matter altogether, not writing in an obtuse fashion. Obesity is a complex medical condition. Why would someone writing about it avoid using the word obese? And seniors is a commonly used respectful term used to refer to older adults or elderly individuals, typically those who are in their retirement years or beyond. I am a senior and proud of it.
Cindy Paul • 8 months ago
Thanks for your comment, James! We definitely agree that context is important. And we already try to take this into account. For example, for the word ‘seniors’, we specify in the feedback that it’s inclusive to use it for someone who self-identifies with it. We acknowledge that there are many people who, like you, identify as seniors and are proud of it. At the same time, there are research studies that found that this word may evoke stereotypes and suggest that older adults are not part of society but outside of it. That’s why we recommend to use this word with caution.
As for the use of ‘coloured’, we double-checked and we don’t actually flag ‘coloured’ (with an u). So we wouldn’t suggest any alternatives if you use the phrase “South African Cape Coloured”. Having said that, our analysis is not perfect and there are definitely some context sensitivities we overlooked. That’s why we will continue to work on this analysis.
I have issues with ‘inclusive language’. If I am not competent enough to write an article using the correct language to describe the content, then I won’t write it. Using offensive langauge is of course not acceptible. But using language in the right context is important. For example, you single out to avoid using coloured people, which is ridiculous. How does one then refer to South African Cape Coloured people? I would be laughed at if I said South African Cape people of colour, because it not only sounds ridicululous but is not correct. Are you suggesting we writers will be penalised by Google if we do not follow some of the ludicrous suggestions put forward? If so that will mean avoiding certain subject matter altogether, not writing in an obtuse fashion. Obesity is a complex medical condition. Why would someone writing about it avoid using the word obese? And seniors is a commonly used respectful term used to refer to older adults or elderly individuals, typically those who are in their retirement years or beyond. I am a senior and proud of it.
Thanks for your comment, James! We definitely agree that context is important. And we already try to take this into account. For example, for the word ‘seniors’, we specify in the feedback that it’s inclusive to use it for someone who self-identifies with it. We acknowledge that there are many people who, like you, identify as seniors and are proud of it. At the same time, there are research studies that found that this word may evoke stereotypes and suggest that older adults are not part of society but outside of it. That’s why we recommend to use this word with caution.
As for the use of ‘coloured’, we double-checked and we don’t actually flag ‘coloured’ (with an u). So we wouldn’t suggest any alternatives if you use the phrase “South African Cape Coloured”. Having said that, our analysis is not perfect and there are definitely some context sensitivities we overlooked. That’s why we will continue to work on this analysis.