Top-5 WordPress SEO Plugins
Earlier today, I was storming through the blogosphere and reading many different top-5 and top-10 list of SEO and SEM Plugins for Wordpress. It occurred to me that none of the articles I was reading had the exact combo that I liked. There are many great examples of good SEO planning out there, but I felt it would only be right to begin postings explaining my own. I'm not sure how long it will take to place my plan into post format, but over the course of the next few entries, I will explain how we've kept a customer on the first page for some time now, with barely any site maintenance. Please join us in this, the first of many in this discussion.
To begin with, let's discuss what I would think are the Basic Fundamentals of Wordpress SEO... (no, not content, I do realize it's number one on the list). Beyond content, we have to consider what needs your site will have in being indexed easily by crawlers and bots. For that, I suggest building a foundation with these Five Plugins for Wordpress.
- All in One SEO Pack - For those reading this article who are familiar with Wordpress SEO, it will be no surprise that the All In One SEO Plugin is at the top of the list. This Plugin has turned some of the most mundane code into one of the easier experiences involved with developing and maintaining a Wordpress Blog.
- Google XML Sitemap– The biggest benefit of using wordpress is the manual labor you save because the software already knows where all of your content is. This Plugin submits a comprehensive index of your site to Google, Yahoo, MSN Live, and Ask.com (BING as well) every time you update your site. It’s a huge boost to your site’s SEO. The Sitemap also allows for some, not very much, but some control over the frequency with which the crawlers come by.
- Google Analyticator - Ok, so what's the point of generating lots and lots of content, if you have no idea who's reading it? There are many ideas out there about why to use the Google Analyticator or Analyticor; most of those are dependent on what community you have to reach. The benefit of knowing who you're reaching is that you can diversify your content/SEO Model for the demographics you wish to reach. With the Google Analyticor, you'll have a constant gauge of how well you reach the target audience.
- All Category SEO Updater - This Plugin offers more than just its SEO power. While it offers the ability to stuff extra Meta into the category list, it has another added quality. Have you ever had the nasty issue of attempting to add Category specific information to each Category Page? If so, you've likely run into a bit of a headache. This Plugin allows for a custom paragraph to be placed at the top of the content for each individual Category Page. For those of you as long-winded as myself, this is an incredible bonus and makes for heightened customization of each CAT Page.
- SEO Friendly Images - SEO Friendly Images is a Wordpress optimization Plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set. Additionally this makes the post W3C/XHTML valid as well. ALT attribute is important part of search engine optimization. Whatever images are not viewed by the crawler bots can easily be substituted with ALT Tags. This Plugin simply takes the hassle out of writing those Tags within the actual code (those of you who have know what a tedious experience it can be).