Popular WP Plugin Yoast SEO To Offer Live Indexing for Bing & Google

In a recent Yoast Con, Joost de Valk declared a new feature for Yoast SEO, an all-time popular plugin among Wordpress users. This feature – a live indexing mechanism for search engine giants Google and Bing - will officially launch next month.

There is not enough information about this program, however. The tech community is scratching their heads, wondering how this collaboration will turn out. Google has its own indexing system and no one knows for sure what role Yoast’s live indexing feature will play. Perhaps it’s easier with Bing since the top 2 search engine is currently renovating its URL submission API.

New Yoast SEO Feature

The Yoast team shared on their blog that they have not yet “entirely determined” the details concerning Google. To activate this feature, though, a Google Search Console account may likely be indispensable.

There is apparently a lack of clarity. The team could still be negotiating with Google on this. Experts say the live indexing program may leave Google’s Indexing API out of the picture because it only covers specific content.

According to Joost, if you connect your website to MyYoast, you will activate a command that will enable it to send messages. When you delete, update or publish content or elements on your website, such a message will be sent to Bing. Within 60 seconds from the time the message was sent, Bing will automatically process the changes.

Google’s John Mueller said Yoast is not the pioneer of live indexing. And even if Google does collaborate with Yoast, the plugin won’t be the only one they’ll work with.

Guessing Game

The vagueness baffles more people. So if this has nothing to do with Indexing APIs, maybe this is about Google sitemap submissions? At the moment, everything’s just guesswork. The tech community is hoping that more light will be shed on this matter soon.

In a response to other techies, Christi Olson from Bing posted this tweet:

Implications for SEO

Joost clarified through a blog post that this joint venture with Google and Bing will "allow live indexing" for all users of Yoast SEO. The feature will come in free and premium packages and you have the leeway to choose either. The team will keep you in the loop from time to time but the next update will not happen until the end of March.

Towards the end of next month, you can start connecting your website through MyYoast - Yoast SEO's client portal. Following this, the live indexing will begin its implementation stage. "Live indexing," in this regard, means your website or a page from your site will automatically appear in Bing and Google respective index databases after you publish, update or delete it.

The Process

Users should note that there is no need to connect their website to Bing Webmaster Tools to carry out the live indexing process. As far as Bing is concerned, everything will be automatic.

For Google, on one hand, there are not enough details for the time being. But the process for Google live indexing will differ from Bing. This may require users to have a Google Search Console account (so activate one as early as you can).

Joost adds that Yoast SEO does recommend having a Bing Webmaster Tools account along with a Google Search Console. Having both can give the plugin better insights into why your website is not doing great in the SERPs. You will also know why your site isn't performing as well as you hope it would.

The Yoast SEO Live Indexing feature is expected to make an impact on every user's web optimisation efforts. If all goes well, you can improve your indexing strategies and gain a wider understanding of your website's strengths and weaknesses.

For more Yoast SEO updates, visit yoast.com. Featured image on this blog post is originally from Yoast. Digital Muscle does not claim ownership of such an image. All credits go to the owner.

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