Yoast SEO plugin is undoubtedly one of the widely used SEO tools for WordPress websites. The beauty of the tool is that you don’t even need hardcore technical abilities or hire WordPress developer to use this WordPress plugin.
Recently Yoast has released its new Update called Yoast 18.4 to enhance the capabilities of its plugin. Unfortunately, the results are not as per expected and websites had to rollback to the previous version due to problems.
Today we will try to understand the problems that persisted with the use of Yoast 18.4 update and its significance for wordpress website owners and wordpress development companies.
Before we jump on that, let’s explore more about the Yoast and what makes it one of the leading tools for maximizing search visibility.
What is Yoast and why is it popular in the WordPress universe?
Optimizing your websites for the search engines can become a daunting thing especially for the website owners with less technical know how. Though most people prefer to hire WordPress developers, SEO Plugins can turn into a great relief.
Yoast is one such SEO plugin that has been helping the WordPress community since 2007. In past years it has gone through several updates to match the changing course of search engine algorithms and growing competition for higher rankings.
Until 2012, Yoast didn’t have any paid subscriptions or premium tools. The first premium tool launched by Yoast was for Video SEO and since then there are many other premium add-ons available for it. The plugin has gone through many updates to increase its efficiency and use among WordPress website owners.
There are more than a million websites that use this tool and it might be making you curious about its babies. Below are some of the features that make it crucial for professionals providing wordpress development services to add these plugins to the websites.
Why Yoast is one of the trusted tool for WordPress development services?
- Yoast helps optimize the content for both search engines and users of your website. It provides SEO and readability analysis for producing better content.
- Yoast SEO adds schema.org data to facilitate faster indexing and rich results for your web pages.
- It accounts for the related keywords and synonyms to extend your search engine visibility.
- It helps you get notifications for the pages that are not updated for more than a fixed period to cater fresh content for users.
- Yoast is capable of providing a preview of how your pages will look on the search engines.
- Yoast suggests the pages that you can interlink for better search results using internal linking.
- You can check about the deleted pages so that they redirect to the new pages. WordPress development services can help you with the redirection of pages.
- They offer 24/7 support to help & resolve the issues you encounter with this plugin.
- It allows exporting the CSV file to overview the data like keywords. Web Page URLs, readily, and much more.
What are the Problems that Persisted with Yoast 18.4 Plugin update?
Every Yoast update has its importance, and the plugin has seen numerous updates since its introduction in 2007. These updates are vital for improving the worth of Yoast for your websites. Though the WordPress community and companies offering WordPress development services were excited about it, things turned another way around.
There was distress among WordPress website owners after updating the plugin to the 18.4 version. The problems were so imminent that most of them had to revert to the previous version of the plugin.
The problem has made a dent in the reputation of Yoast. The company has to apologize for the shortcomings faced by the WordPress community after implementing the update. Below are some of the problems reported by people after updating the Yoast plugin on their WordPress websites:-
- Many users reported that WordPress starts sending a notification about Yoast Plugin error the moment they update to Yoast 18.4.
- In some cases, the XML sitemap starts showing all content types. It created a problem for WordPress websites as the privacy of private content gets compromised.
- Some users start getting a Fatal error message after updating the plugin.
- The search appearance setting tab on the Yoast SEO plugin was completely blank after implementing the update.
Issues reported by the WordPress community after implementing the update
- One user posted that WordPress 5.2 caught an error with Yoast SEO. WordPress 5.2 has inbuilt features to notify the problems whenever any plugin or theme causes a fatal error.
- We found a plea for help by a user on the public Yoast support page. He posted that the REST API encountered a performance error when he updated his plugin from the 18.3 version to the 18.4 version.
- Another user posted that he can’t edit the posts and pages when the plugin is active. The moment he disables the plugin, the problem disappears.
- According to one user, his website started displaying the blank pages after updating his Yoast SEO plugin.
What does Yoast have to say about the problem in the 18.4 updates?
Well, the problem is indeed a great embarrassment for the Yoast team, and they have apologized publicly for the inconvenience caused by it.
In its official statement, Yoast has said that it is unfortunate that users are experiencing troubles with Yoast SEO 18.4 despite extensive testing done by their team before the release. They also said that they have acted on it and rolled back the update.
The company has introduced a new Yoast 18.4.1 update which is believed to be stable. However, the websites using PHP 8.0 may experience problems as the update is not tested for the 8.0 version of PHP.
The company also recommended staging the website for testing the functions after implementing the new Yoast update.
Conclusion
We have not heard the complaints from users applying the new Yoast SEO 18.4.1 versions to their websites. Maybe the WordPress community and companies providing WordPress development services Are still exploring the update. Hire WordPress developers from a reputed WordPress agency to ensure the efficient working of WordPress plugins including Yoast SEO 18.4.1.
