WordPress SEO Plug-ins
Plug-ins are small files of code, considered "hacks," that can add fun and useful features to your blog.
There are vast numbers of open source plug-ins available. You can usually choose from two or three that will do essentially the same thing. You may have to try several plug-ins before you
find the one that works for you.
Generally, adding a plug-in to your blog after it is set up and running isn’t a problem, but sometimes you can run into issues. We suggest researching what you want your blog to do and finding the right plug-ins to make it happen. Take a look at our recommended list of plug-ins for SEO and then search the WordPress Codex for more ideas.
SEO Title Tag
Since page titles are very powerful in the Search Engines, this plug-in really helps your WordPress blog’s optimization. It allows you to give each post its own unique title tag – one that is uncoupled from the title of the post. This enables you to write a title tag that’s good for the Search Engines while keeping a post title that will appeal to humans.
SEO Title Tag was built by the developers at NetConcepts. Don’t forget to follow their instructions for modifying the code in Theme Editor or it won’t work exactly right.
Ultimate Tag Warrior
This plug-in creates a tag cloud for your blog by enabling you to group posts together based on "tags" you include when you write your posts. Tag clouds help your SEO by creating internal links to relevant pages using good keywords.
Ultimate Tag Warrior is not compatible with WordPress 2.0 BY ITSELF – so be sure you download the Compatibility Thing here. This one’s from Neato.co.nz Caution: This plugin may be a bit difficult for non-coders to get working right.
Add-Meta-Tags
This add-on makes it easy for you to add meta keywords and meta descriptions to each post and page on your blog. While these may not help in Google, they do still have some influence in other Search Engines.
Follow URL
By default, every link placed within the WordPress comments section is automatically no-followed. Although this makes it much easier to control spam comments, it also discourages legitimate comments on your blog. Allowing those who share good information to gain a link from your blog encourages more good comments and will likely attract links to your site.
Contextual Related Posts
This plug-in will display five contextually related post titles at the end of your post. It shows readers where they can find more information about the topic they’re already reading about. This can prompt your visitors to spend more time on your site, viewing more pages.
It’s also a great way to theme your blog and to direct the Search Engines, via good link text, to other pages on your site about the same topic. Some of these may be old posts that are now buried deep within your blog and linking to them from a new post can bring the attention of your readers and the Search Engines back to them.
Social Bookmarking
There are quite a few plug-ins available to enable social bookmarking on your WordPress blog. This one from Apostolos Dountsis is fairly comprehensive.
However, the easiest way to add buttons to just the sites you want to your sidebar is with a text box widget. Many of the newer WordPress themes have easy widget selection built right into them and offer several text boxes you can place in your sidebar(s).
Once the text box is enabled, you can go to your favorite social sites, grab the code for the displays you prefer, and add them in the box.
Plug-ins and Updates
After a major WordPress update is released, we recommend waiting before upgrading. This gives the coders time to make sure there are no bugs in the update. Also, some plug-ins may need to be reconfigured to work properly, and it gives plugin programmers time to update their code hacks to work with the latest version.
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