I have been using Yoast since 2017. Yoast was my first premium plugin. I wrote about why I bought it in this post. But today I have to write about a problem I was facing.In case you want the entire list of my free and paid tools I use for blogging check out this 24 Free Blogging Tools, and Resources for 2024 .

My premium Yoast SEO plugin is not updating!

Yoast gives regular updates of their plugin. For the last several months, I was unable to update from my WordPress dashboard. In fact, since the version 11 updates came, I was stuck. I searched the net and haunted several forums but didn’t get any great answers.

Why was I worried?

I was busy and kept forgetting. But Yoast sends these newsletters, which help keep you updated. One such email talked about the rich snippet feature of the new Yoast. I was stumped. I was missing out on dangerous SEO magic by missing on updates Plus it was dangerous with all the weird website hacking stuff going on.

Who helped?

Mission: research.

But this time I wrote to Yoast support. They sent me a reply. Some strange unknown bugs were preventing the automatic update, and I will have to update manually. This, in short means  I have to deactivate my installed Yoast premium and upload a new updated Yoast zip file. I was in two minds.

Why was I afraid?

What if the update didn’t happen?What if it made my website go all weird? Did I have the brain wavelength to unscrew a mess like that? I am brave, and I can pray like a professional prayer person. All the time I kept postponing the updating, I was worried. I hated the plugin update needed notification for my Yoast. Not doing anything didn’t give me peace of mind. I decided that if things did g wrong, I could just reinstall the older Yoast version and again contact support. I was brave!

How do I update Yoast premium SEO?

• This went on for a few weeks and one brave Saturday I prayed,  took a backup of my site.
• Then signed into the Yoast dashboard and downloaded a zip version of the 11.3 version of Yoast premium. This part was easy.
• Next, I deactivated my premium Yoast and uploaded the zip folder of the new updated Yoast. Just use add a new plugin, and they will ask to give you an option to upload a plugin in .zip format.
• With a heavy heart, I waited and then came an alert.
• There already a folder with the same name. Plugin installation failed.
• With a sinking heart, I realized I would need to delete the old Yoast premium to install the new one.
• While deleting, they asked me whether I was sure about removing the plugin and all the precious data. Yikes, I was not sure at all. But this was a brave day, and I said a quick prayer.
• Deleted the old plugin version and uploaded the new updated Premium Yoast. Voila, installation and activation were quick. I Checked the Yoast settings, in the dashboard, and everything was updated. Thank you, Yoast, once again.

In case I didn’t do something right, I will find out soon enough. But till then I am giving myself a few pats. Being on a blogging journey and learning the tech part is a gift I gave myself Five and a half years ago. This thing with my blog gives me so many challenges. But the good part is its always an experience and I answer to myself. The best part, I am creating something which makes me happy every day.

Do you do something to challenge your brain and make you happy every day? Let me know in the comments below. Did you subscribe to my once a month and sometimes twice a month newsletter? Do it now and send me a message on Whatsapp to let me know what you want me to write more about.