22.6-RC2

Changes compared to: 22.6-RC1

Bugfixes:

• Fixes a bug where a PHP notice in the settings would influence the styling of some of our inputs. #21323

22.5

= 22.5 =

Release date: 2024-04-16

Yoast SEO 22.5 brings general maintenance updates across the plugin, improved guidance around best practice for taxonomies and a more effortless user experience overall. For more details about the release check out the release post for 22.5.

Enhancements

• Prevents image formats other than JPG, GIF, PNG and WEBP to be used for the twitter:image meta tag.
• Recalibrates the recommended length of the text on taxonomy pages for the text length assessment.

Bugfixes

• Fixes an incompatibility with ES_WP_Query library used by the WordPress VIP Enterprise Search.

Other

• Renames all user-facing Twitter references to X, including the X profile's sameAs schema output URL.
• Adds an "AI for SEO" course card to the Academy page.
• Removes the link to the now-retired Google Mobile-Friendly Test from the admin bar menu.
• Renames the leiCode fields to LEI code in the plugin's settings.
• Resolves a typo in the list of German transition words. Props to magnusmartin85.
• Deprecates unused method is_image_url_valid.

22.6-RC1

Changes compared to: 22.5

Enhancements:

• Improves performance on the users' metadata, most visible in the author sitemap creation. #21307
• Improves the keyphrase detection in SEO title for Arabic and Hebrew. For example, when the keyphrase is "باندا حمراء" and the SEO title starts with "الباندا الحمراء", we now recognize this as an exact match and give a good result for the Keyphrase in SEO title assessment. #21150
• Adds helpful error messages in case of plugin/theme conflicts in the Yoast sidebars and metabox, avoiding leaving them or, in the worst case, the entire page blank. #21288

Bugfixes:

• Fixes a bug where there would be a fatal error when deleting post meta in PHP 8.1 and higher. Props to @izzygld. #21306
• Fixes a bug where the inserted variables in the search appearance would not show correctly when using Elementor. #21301

Other:

• Introduces a notice on the WordPress dashboard and the Yoast SEO dashboard to let users know we are dropping support for PHP < 7.4 starting November 1st, 2024. #21014

Non user facing:

• Updates upgrade_36 upgrade routine and its integration tests to accomodate for the new options autoload behaviour that will be introduced in WordPress 6.6. #21297
• Merges the feature branch feature/lingo-fixes into trunk. #21316
• Removes unused translator function parameters and improves translator comments for the previously used keyphrase assessment strings. #21146
• Release new package versions. #21310
• Code QA/consistency #20973
• Schedules the usermeta cleanup further into the future, more specifically 24 hours after the Free upgrade. #21319
• Update dev dependencies #21299

22.5-RC2

Changes compared to: 22.5-RC1

Enhancements:

• Adds an "AI for SEO" course card to the Academy page. #21291

22.4

= 22.4 =

Release date: 2024-04-03

Yoast SEO 22.4 brings optimizations and bug fixes. Our customers who use Elementor can wave goodbye to that unnecessary redirect when saving a post for the first time. Find more about Yoast SEO 22.4 in our release post!

Enhancements

• Removes a duplicated database query on author pages with internal images.
• Removes two unnecessary database queries on pages where external images are of SEO interest, like author pages with Gravatar author images.

Bugfixes

• Fixes a bug where an unneeded redirect would be created when a post was first published in Elementor.

Other

• Deprecates the slug of the _dependencies property of the private $plugins property in the WPSEO_Plugin_Availability class.
• Fixes the width of the Page type dropdown field in the Settings page.
• Replaces .substr() with .substring() in JS files since it's deprecated.
• Stops showing deprecation warnings when retrieving data for paid add-ons goes wrong.
• Stops showing notifications about incompatibility with the WooCommerce's new beta product editor, after WooCommerce is deactivated.
• Stops showing a notification prompting to install Yoast Woo SEO, after WooCommerce is deactivated.

22.5-RC1

Changes compared to: 22.4

Enhancements:

• Recalibrates the recommended length of the text on taxonomy pages for the text length assessment. #21259
• Prevents image formats other than JPG, GIF, PNG and WEBP to be used for the twitter:image meta tag. #21260

Bugfixes

• Fixes an incompatibility with ES_WP_Query library used by the WordPress VIP Enterprise Search. #21241

Other:

• Renames all user-facing Twitter references to X, including the X profile's sameAs schema output URL. #21248
• Resolves a typo in the list of German transition words. Props to magnusmartin85. #21266
• Renames the leiCode fields to LEI code in the plugin's settings. #21246
• Removes the link to the now-retired Google Mobile-Friendly Test from the admin bar menu. #21231
• Deprecates unused method is_image_url_valid. #21260

Non user facing:

• Properly reports increase in test coverage in the WPSEO_Suggested_Plugins class. #21249
• Updates the toolings in yoastseo package. #20651
• Fix hyperlinks to our documentation. #21263
• Re-instates the original checks in the get_term_id method to ensure API backward compatibility. #21264

22.4-RC3

Changes compared to: 22.4-RC2

Non user facing:

• Revert Mockery related CI changes #21262

22.4-RC2

Changes compared to: 22.4-RC1

Non user facing:

• Fixes the failing unit tests by preventing Mockery from being updated to the buggy 1.6.10 version. #21253

22.3

= 22.3 =

Release date: 2024-03-19

Yoast SEO 22.3 is out today. In this release, you’ll find various fixes and improvements for a better user experience. Find out more about what's new in Yoast SEO 22.3 in our release post!

Enhancements

• Removes an unnecessary query relating to breadcrumb schema generation on the homepage.

Bugfixes

• Adds x.com as a possible domain for the Twitter validation in our first time configuration social profiles settings.
• Fixes a bug where the Or go to your SEO dashboard link in the final step of our first time configuration would not be focusable using tab.

Other

• Removes the autofill for taxonomy keyphrases.
• Sets the WordPress tested up to version to 6.5.

22.4-RC1

Changes compared to: 22.3

Enhancements:

• Removes a duplicated database query on author pages with internal images. #21178
• Removes two unnecessary database queries on pages where external images are of SEO interest, like author pages with Gravatar author images. #21178

Bugfixes:

• Fixes a bug where an unneeded redirect would be created when a post was first published in Elementor. #21182

Other:

• Stops showing a notification prompting to install Yoast Woo SEO, after WooCommerce is deactivated. #21198
• Replaces .substr() with .substring() in JS files since it's deprecated. #21196
• Fixes the width of the Page type dropdown field in the Settings page. #21201
• Stops showing deprecation warnings when retrieving data for paid add-ons goes wrong. #21219
• Stops showing notifications about incompatibility with the WooCommerce's new beta product editor, after WooCommerce is deactivated. #21198
• Deprecates the slug of the _dependencies property of the private $plugins property in the WPSEO_Plugin_Availability class. #21198

Non user facing:

• Improves the performance of the content analysis. #20925
• Fixes the new way of asset building for Windows environments #21199
• Refactors the way we send data to the front-end, to be more future proof. #21160
• Adds integration tests covering the queries in the upgrade routine that will be rewritten with placeholders. #21109
• Fixes the Fix GH actions' JS tests when not needing to run yoastseo tests. #21195
• Make use of %i placeholders to prepare WordPress queries. #21148
• Optimizes development processes for building JavaScript. #20874
• Adds click to buy data attributes to redirect manager upsell button. #21244