Using the Yoast SEO Extension
The extension's job is to make SportsPress data available to Yoast templates. Day-to-day usage is in Yoast's interface; you'll rarely interact with the extension itself.
Setting up event SEO templates
A common goal: every event page should have a meta title that includes the league and season.
Go to SEO → Search Appearance → Content Types and click the Events tab.
In the SEO title field, enter something like:
%%title%% — %%league%% %%season%% | %%sitename%%
In the Meta description field, enter:
%%title%% on %%date%% at %%venue%%. %%league%% %%season%% match results and box score.
Save.
Now every event page will produce a title like Tigers vs Lions — Premier League 2025/26 | My Sports Site and a description that pulls in the venue and date automatically.
Setting up team SEO templates
Go to SEO → Search Appearance → Content Types → Teams.
Configure the title to include the league:
%%title%% — %%league%% | %%sitename%%
Configure the description to summarise:
%%title%% squad, results, fixtures, and statistics in %%league%% %%season%%.
Setting up taxonomy templates
For league archive pages (e.g. yoursite.com/league/premier-league/):
Go to SEO → Search Appearance → Taxonomies → League.
Set the title:
%%term_title%% — %%sitename%%
Set the description:
All teams, fixtures, and results in %%term_title%%.
Per-post overrides
For one-off pages where the template doesn't fit:
Edit the event, team, or player.
Scroll to the Yoast SEO meta box.
Override the SEO title and description for that specific post. Variables still work in overrides.
Troubleshooting
Symptom | Likely cause |
Variables show as raw | The taxonomy is not assigned to the post; assign a league term and re-save the post |
| The event has no teams selected in the SportsPress meta box; assign teams first |
Variables missing from the dropdown | Yoast SEO or SportsPress is inactive; check both are running |
Custom taxonomy variables not appearing | Custom taxonomies must be registered through |