by Search Engine Optimization is important for any content that goes on the web. On-site optimization is one of the most important factors of Search Engine Optimization. WordPress is a wonderful platform that can handle three quarters of the techniques of SEO as per Matt Cutts, Spam Chief at Google. However, the truth is this is further enhanced through SEO plugins that help optimize your site. Of the several SEO plugins available, most need to be researched thoroughly. Here are a few great SEO Plugins for WordPress that are worth checking out.
WP SEO by Yoast
This is a popular WordPress plugin that has many options and can serve as a one-source plugin for all your needs. It has several useful features like sitemap for XML, verification tools for webmaster, Optimization for RSS feeds, Social Integration, page analysis, breadcrumbs, and rich snippets. Of these the snippet lets you have a sneak peek of how your post will appear during a search result. You don’t have to worry about the images in your post as page analysis will take care of that. It will also tell you if the post is too short and whether you have missed out the Meta description. It will remind you if you have forgotten the sub-headings.
Headspace2
This is another popular and powerful plugin that comes with several options like the one that enables writing Meta titles, and describes the category in detail. It also describes your archives for custom taxonomy and analytics and helps to optimize the pages better. You may find Headpsace2 a bit complex in the beginning, but that is only till you get used to it. It tells you in detail about Global Settings that is applied to all and the settings of the home page and front page respectively. It also deals with the archives, Posts, Author pages, search pages, etc.
All-in-one SEO pack
One of the most popular yet simple plugins, it is not without power. This is a great plugin for the inexperienced as it works off the shelf. However, the experienced people can tweak a lot of options that are available and make use of the special guidelines that help make the titles exclusive. Most of the popular and successful websites never forget to use this plugin as it is an essential part of effective SEO for them. Try it out and learn the difference.
Google Site Verification
As the name signifies, this is a great plugin, which helps in verifying the site on Google’s webmaster, and you can forget other forms of verification on Webmaster’s Central. You will need to first log into your account with Google, click on verify and go to grant success and you are done. It is important to have your site verified and submitted to Google’s Webmaster Tools before proceeding further.
SEO Smart Links
It is not enough to have your article linked to other sites or blogs. Internal linking or linking to another article that features in your site is a smart move. SEO Smart Links helps you do just that each time you post content. The users get additional information that they never thought of asking and will be really happy and thankful for the link that gave it to them. It is smart enough to recognize similar keywords that figure in the other articles on your site and ensure that the user gets linked to a relevant article.
Thanks for the plugins, I will install them on my new blog.