Yoast SEO changelog

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug in WordPress itself where script concatenation was causing JavaScript errors, which in turn led to Yoast SEO malfunctioning. This bug was introduced in WordPress 5.5. We’re fixing it by disabling script concatenation entirely.

Get ready for a brand new version of Yoast SEO! In this version you'll find new Schema functionality, an improved readability analysis for Portuguese & Indonesian, and improved keyword recognition for right-to-left languages. Read more about those changes in our release post!

Say hi to Yoast SEO 14.7, chock-full of enhancements to help you with your site's SEO. Have you heard about the addition of XML sitemaps in WordPress 5.5? The Yoast SEO plugin is completely prepared for this. We also have some great news for users of the Web Stories plugin. Read more about those changes in our release post!

Other​

• Reverts the change for social media titles to pick the post/page/term title, as this could inadvertently lead to low quality titles for some archives and other page types.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the where all methods were removed from xmlrpc.php due to incorrect usage of add_action as opposed to add_filter.

We have a new release for you: Yoast SEO 14.6. This release has some pretty cool enhancements. For example, we’ve added another helpful indicator in the editor that shows you your scores for a particular post quickly. Read more about those changes in our release post!

Yoast SEO 14.5 is out today! In this release, we made some changes regarding our use of XML sitemaps. We decided to disable the new WordPress core XML sitemaps in favour of our own. Also, we fixed a number of bugs. Read more about those changes in our release post!

Enhancements​

• Disables the WP Core sitemaps as introduced in WordPress 5.5.
• Adds an abstract class to easily add dynamic blocks in Yoast SEO / add-ons.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the SEO title and meta description for posts that have a custom title and/or description would not be displayed in the posts overview.
• Fixes a bug where the WordPress dashboard was slower for very large sites, by caching the number of unindexed posts, terms and post type archives.
• Fixes a bug where inline link functionality in custom blocks could be missing.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where existing links were no longer editable with Yoast SEO active.
• Fixes a bug where the editor wouldn't remember rel values set on a link after refresh.

Sometimes, you have releases that start out small and end up with a substantial improvement. Yoast SEO 14.4 is one such release. Initially planned as a bug fix release, this turned into something that markedly improves the publishing workflow in WordPress. Plus, you can now mark your external links as nofollow or sponsored. You see, Yoast SEO 14.4 is a chockfull release! Read more about those changes in our release post!

In every release of Yoast SEO, we fix bugs and find other ways to enhance our code. For instance, we’re always working on quality assurance, code style and other behind the scenes work. In Yoast SEO 14.3, you’ll find many of these improvements plus some bugfixes. Read more about those changes in our release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the FAQ schema list item's position would start at 0 instead of 1.
• Fixes a bug where the filters wpseo_metadesc and wpseo_title weren't called with the right argument, which could lead to errors.
• Fixes a bug where our global CSS variables could conflict with global CSS variables of themes.

In today's release, we’ve fixed several issues with breadcrumbs. One of these bugs turned the order of breadcrumbs on its head, which is not something we like. Things should work as expected now. We’ve also changed how we check if a focus keyphrase was used before. We currently run this against our indexable table, making the process more efficient. Read more about those changes in our release post!

Despite weeks and weeks of testing Yoast SEO 14.0, there were still some people running into issues. In Yoast SEO 14.1, we’re improving things to help stabilize the plugin. Read more about those changes in our release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where robots meta values defaulted to 0 instead of null because of a bug in WPDB. This could result in incorrect values for noindex, nofollow , noarchive, noimageindex and/or nosnippet. In order to purge the wrong data, we need to truncate our tables again. This means you will have to go through the indexing process again. We’re very sorry. For sites with more than 10,000 posts, we advise using the WP CLI command to do the indexing on the server.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where running the migrations could cause fatal errors on sites where plugins are installed remotely. Some remote plugin installers don't remove files that are removed in an update. Since our migration runner goes through all migrations on the server, this could lead to fatal errors.
• Fixes a bug where the pre_get_document_title filter could be skipped when other plugins were using this filter as well.
• Fixes a bug where an error would be thrown when the name of an indexable table had been converted to a different case.
• Fixes a bug where a taxonomy parent would not be present in the breadcrumbs even though it was set in the breadcrumbs settings.

Enhancements​

• Adds a missing index to the new indexables table. Props to @pagelypete.

Other​

• Adds the wpseo_frontend_presentation filter that can be used by third-party plugins to easily alter all our meta output with 1 single filter.

Because we’ve changed the underlying framework of our Indexables technology, we’ve chosen to rebuild the table. This means you will have to go through the indexing process again. We’re sorry. For sites with more than 10,000 posts, we advise using the WP CLI command to do the indexing on the server.

Today is a special day. Today, a project we’ve been working on for a year sees the light of day. Yoast SEO 14.0 rewrites the playbook on how a WordPress SEO plugin can work. Thanks to an approach we call indexables, we bring you a much faster experience and a new foundation that helps us get ready for an exciting future! Read more about this release in our release post!

While we’re working on getting Yoast SEO 14.0 ready for the world, you can enjoy today’s release of Yoast SEO 13.5. Read all about Yoast SEO 13.5 in our release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where a fatal error would be thrown when saving a post while the type was no longer WP_Post due to filtering.
• Fixes a bug where .xsl site map files would not be cached correctly.

Other​

• Sets minimum supported WordPress version to 5.3.

Bugfixes​

• Replaces the use of the deprecated category_link filter by term_link. Props to Chouby

In Yoast SEO 9.0, we launched an innovative new way to analyze your English language text using word forms. In Yoast SEO 10.1, we added word form support for the German language. Today, we’re glad to announce word form support for Dutch. You can read why this is such an awesome addition in our 13.4 release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the host part of URLs could contain reserved characters, like spaces and brackets. Props to stodorovic.
• Fixes a bug where form fields were validated inconsistently.

Our current string of releases focusing on improving our code is continuing with Yoast SEO 13.3. In this release, we have a Schema structured data addition and several improvements to how Yoast SEO handles URLs. Read on in our 13.3 release post!

Enhancements​

• Makes sure all URL fields show an unencoded URL after saving, even when the user input was encoded.
• Requires all URLs in URL input fields to begin with either ‘/’ or ‘http(s)’. Props to stodorovic.
• Adds a potentialAction entity to the WebPage and Article Schema pieces.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where social URLs containing international characters could not be saved. Props to stodorovic.
• Fixes a bug where encoded characters would be stripped from canonical URLs. Props to stodorovic.

Other​

• Changes the cURL Health Check category from recommended to critical.

In Yoast SEO 13.2, you’ll find a number of checks moved to the WordPress Site Health tool. Site Health was introduced in WordPress 5.2 as a way to help site owners and managers get a sense of how their site is doing, technically speaking. Find out more about these changes in our 13.2 release post!

Yoast SEO 13.1 is out today! In this plugin, you’ll find several fixes and enhancements, mostly focused at improving our Schema.org structured data implementation. Learn more about the latest versions of Yoast SEO in our 13.1 release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the HowTo schema name was incorrectly set to the page title.
• Fixes a bug where the "force rewrite titles" option would remove the title tag in svg tags. Props to stodorovic

Enhancements​

• Sets the Schema HowTo name and Article headline to the post title with a fallback to "No title".
• Adds the inLanguage property to the schema CreativeWork pieces.
• Removes a duplicate directory from the composer autoload classmap configuration. Props to szepeviktor
• Improves the copy for the paginated comments Site Health check.

Other​

• Removes the Search Console item from the admin menu and the toolbar menu.

Today, we’re releasing Yoast SEO 13.0. This release is one in a series of releases focusing on improving our code and fixing issues — most of them behind the scenes. Read more about those changes in our 13.0 release post!

Enhancements​

• Hides the Facebook settings when Open Graph is disabled.
• Adds a success state to the paginated comments Health Check. This means the paginated comments check will also be shown when the paginated comments are set up correctly.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where a notification would be shown that Gutenberg was outdated when the latest version of Gutenberg was already installed.

Other​

• Renames the 'Snippet preview' to 'Google preview'.
• Replaces the Google preview mode switcher toggle with radio buttons.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the Yoast SEO metabox would not be shown on custom post types and taxonomies when the settings of our plugin were never saved before.
• Fixes a bug where the default titles for custom post types and taxonomies were not shown in the Search Appearance settings when the settings of our plugin were never saved before.

Welcome to another year of helping you achieve your goals with your site! Today, it’s time for the first in a long line of releases planned for 2020: Yoast SEO 12.8. In this release, you’ll find a number of bug fixes and performance enhancements. Find out more about this release in [our 12.8 release post](https://yoa.st/release-12-8" rel="nofollow)!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the metabox would be broken when a relative URL was configured as WP_CONTENT_URL. Props to FPCSJames.

Yoast SEO 12.7 is out today — signaling the last release of 2019. This release is all about cleaning up and fixing bugs. Since we have a two-week release schedule, we can quickly respond to any bug we might find. Find out more about this release in our 12.7 release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where sub-sitemaps were rendered for non-public custom post types. Props to @stodorovic.
• Fixes a bug where nested gallery images were not included in the image count in the sitemap. Props to @stodorovic.
• Fixes a bug where the notification center 'dismiss' and 'restore' buttons had no focus style.

Other​

• Improves security by adding output escaping.

Other​

• Removes the Black Friday banner.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where a fatal error would be thrown when Yoast SEO was used in combination with another plugin or theme containing a class named Date_Helper.
• Fixes a bug where a fatal error would be thrown when an empty string would be passed to the WPSEO_Date_Helper->format method. Props to @mpolek.

In Yoast SEO 12.6, we’re activating our new beacon for help documentation. This tool helps answer the questions you might have about using Yoast SEO. It’s easy to use and very friendly. Just hit that big purple question mark and search! Other improvements in Yoast SEO 12.6 includes a number of fixes and enhancements. Find out more in our 12.6 release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the time in the article:published_time and article:modified_time meta tag output and in the datePublished and dateModified schema output was incorrect.

These last couple of months here at Yoast SEO HQ have all been about building better things. Behind the scenes, we’re making good progress at getting our flagship plugins ready for the future. While we’re busy building the future, we also stick to our regular two-week release schedule, which means it’s time to introduce Yoast SEO 12.5. Find out more in our 12.5 release post!

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug for terms where keywords and snippet preview data would be synced across all languages in a MultilingualPress multisite environment.
• Fixes a bug where the visually hidden text in the snippet preview was misplaced.

Other​

• Deprecates the Google Search Console.

After releasing several updates to our snippet preview in previous releases, Yoast SEO 12.4 now shows an image for your post in the mobile snippet preview, just like Google would. We have several other improvements and fixes for you in store with Yoast SEO 12.4. Find out more in our 12.4 release post!

While some of our checks are independent of languages, Yoast SEO has special skills to adapt the various content analyses to different languages from around the world. In Yoast SEO 12.3, we’re taking the first steps to add another language to the list: Hungarian. In addition, this release features a number of enhancement and fixes. Read our 12.3 release post to find out more!

Yoast SEO 12.2 is a release full of the regular bug fixes and enhancements, but also a new addition to meta robots. Last week, Google announced a new way to give publishers more control over what the search engine can show in the results. This change, however, seems not driven by customer demand, but rather by law. Find out what this is all about and why we chose to automatically opt sites in for this in our 12.2 release post!

Yoast SEO 12.1 is out today! It features a couple of changes in order to match the design of Google’s search results pages, this includes those shiny new favicons. In addition to this, we added a number of new filters for our Schema implementation. See what else is new in the latest release of your favorite SEO plugin in our 12.1 release post!

Contrary to what the version number might suggest, Yoast SEO 12.0 isn’t a huge release. It’s simply the next release in our current release schedule, but after hitting 11.9 a couple of weeks ago we had no choice but to go for 12.0. That’s how it goes! But don’t worry, there’s enough interesting stuff in this release, including two new checks for the Portuguese language. Read more about Yoast SEO 12.0 in our 12.0 release post!

Are you ready for another exciting release to round up the Yoast SEO 11 cycle? Because we are! In Yoast SEO 11.9 we have improvements for security and accessibility. Read more about Yoast SEO 11.9 in our 11.9 release post!

Enhancements​

• Improves security by adding output escaping.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the image from the configuration wizard notification was missing an empty alt attribute.
• Fixes a bug where some translations would be missing in the metabox, sidebar, configuration wizard and the help center.

Release history tells us that the releases in the months of July and August are usually very quiet and not 'that notable'. Due to vacations from team members, the focus is usually on fixing bugs and cleaning up. Not for Yoast SEO 11.8! This new release gives us an enhanced metabox, bug fixes and the help of contributors from outside the company! Find out all about Yoast SEO 11.8 in our 11.8 release post!

By now you probably know the 11.x releases of Yoast SEO are all about Schema. In this release, we’ve enabled the possibility to use a subset of HTML tags in the FAQ and HowTo blocks! Find out all about Yoast SEO 11.7 in our 11.7 release post!

Enhancements​

• Allows a subset of HTML tags in FAQ answer, HowTo description and HowToStep description schema output: <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>, <br>, <ol>, <ul>, <li>, <a>, <p>, <b>, <strong>, <i>, <em>, and their closing counterparts.
• Remove the noindex from feeds as this causes issues for podcasts and other feeds.
• Improves the accessibility of the horizontal tabs in the metabox by implementing an ARIA tabbed user interface.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the avatar in the knowledge graph settings would incorrectly overwrite the default user profile picture.

Yoast SEO 11.6 is out today. Of course, we did the regular round of bug fixing, but the focus of this release is two-fold: a new, much easier to use tabbed interface for the meta box and an updated HowTo structured data content block for WordPress. Find out all about Yoast SEO 11.6 in our 11.6 release post!

Yoast SEO 11.5 is out today. This release features a big change that gives you a better idea of how searchers see your snippets on mobile. Yep, we’ve overhauled the mobile snippet preview and brought it up-to-date with Google’s latest changes. And that, of course, includes that shiny favicon. Find out what Yoast SEO 11.5 is all about in our 11.5 release post!

Enhancements​

• Updates the Mobile Snippet Preview.
• Moves the primary image for a page out of the WebPage piece into its own graph piece.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes missing trailing slash for the homepage on post sitemap. Props to stodorovic.

Yoast SEO 11.4 is out today. This release features loads of structured data improvements. We’ve improved the way Yoast SEO Schema works with AMP, plus we’ve enhanced our FAQ blocks and added them to the graph. Find out what Yoast SEO 11.4 is all about in our 11.4 release post!

High-time for another release, namely Yoast SEO 11.3. This release features enhancements and bug fixes aimed at improving the way your favorite SEO plugin performs. Read more about the release in our 11.3 release post.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the metabox would be empty on WordPress versions below 5.0.
• Fixes a bug where the metabox would be empty when both the classic editor plugin as well as the Gutenberg plugin were installed.

Other​

• Introduces a notification that encourages updating to the latest WordPress version.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where an empty width and height would be outputted in the image schema when there was no retrievable width and height.
• Fixes a bug where using the $context argument in the deprecated wpseo_json_ld_output filter would result in a fatal error when using PHP 7.1 or higher.

Other​

• Adds a notification to explain why users’ Google Search Console reports are no longer showing any entries. Read more about the reasons behind this.
• Removes the Google Search Console step from the configuration wizard.

Enhancements​

• Improves how we generate the image parts for the Schema output. Read more about the ImageObject output.
• Adds filesize to whitelisted properties on $image. Props to cmmarslender.
• Optimizes the code to avoid an unnecessary DB query to remove notifications storage when it's already empty. Props to rmc47.
• Improves the breadcrumbs accessibility by adding aria-current to the active item.

Bugfixes​

• Fixes a bug where the position of the buttons in the FAQ and How-To structured data blocks was compromised when running the development build of Gutenberg.
• Fixed a bug where social profile settings would be empty because it was relying on the user choosing whether the site represents a company or a person.