I am using the WordPress REST API (wp-json/wp/v2/posts) to publish posts. The request works, but when I analyze the post in Yoast SEO, it says I need to add a meta description and a focus keyword (target query). I couldn’t find any documentation on how to include these in the API request body.
Here is my current API request body:
{
"title": "My Post Title",
"content": "The content of my post"
}
How can I include the Yoast SEO meta description and focus keyword in this request so that they are correctly recognized by Yoast SEO?
I expected to include meta description and focus keyword fields directly in the API request, similar to how other post data (title, content) is added.
I tried adding custom fields like yoast_wpseo_metadesc and yoast_wpseo_focuskw inside the metadata or meta fields but it didn’t work, and Yoast SEO still says those fields are missing. How can I properly include the meta description and focus keyword when creating a post via the WordPress REST API?
You need to provide data of yoast_wpseo_metadesc and yoast_wpseo_focuskw using meta_input which is the standard for most custom fields.
I believe including these to your current API request body should fix the issue.
{
"title": "My Post Title",
"content": "The content of my post",
"meta_input": {
"yoast_wpseo_metadesc": "This is the meta description for the post.",
"yoast_wpseo_focuskw": "this is the focus keyword."
}
}
You can try this code:
'body' => array(
'title': 'My Post Title',
'content': 'The content of my post',
'meta' => array(
// note the beginning underscore
'_yoast_wpseo_metadesc' => 'The SEO description',
'_yoast_wpseo_focuskw' => 'The SEO focus keywords',
),
),
Note the underscore at the beginning of the meta_key. So, they are _yoast_wpseo_metadesc instead of yoast_wpseo_metadesc, and _yoast_wpseo_focuskw instead of yoast_wpseo_focuskw.