There are a lot of reasons to launch your blog or business website with WordPress. After all, not only does it serve as an easy-to-use content management system, but it has a number of built-in features that make adding and editing content a breeze.
One thing that WordPress can't do automatically for you, however, is handle one of the biggest ongoing challenges for any kind of commercial or e-commerce site – improving your search engine optimization.
To earn one of the top spots on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, you're still going to have to come up with a steady stream of high-quality, keyword-optimized content. Once you are committed to doing that, though, you can use some handy and high-powered WordPress plug-ins to get more out of your efforts.
Here are eight of the very best SEO WordPress plug-ins for your blog or business website:
All in One SEO. This simple tool can be installed in minutes, and is straightforward enough to be used by novices and experts alike. By doing things like adding meta-tags and allowing you to fine-tune your content settings, it makes your site much easier for search engines to find.
Redirection. One thing that hurts your search engine ranking – and greatly annoys visitors to your website or blog – is missing links or pages. This plug-in makes sure that moved or deleted items on your WordPress site get updated links.
Robots Meta. Did you know that your site’s search engine positioning can be hurt by having "duplicate content" that is shared between pages? This plug-in illuminates that problem by telling automated search engine spiders where to look on your website, and which parts to ignore.
SEO Smart Links. Most small business owners and bloggers aren't getting nearly as much return from their internal links as they could be. This plug-in automatically adds links to other posts and pages within your site – based on keywords you specify – so that you don't have to do it manually each time.
SEO Friendly Images. If you use images on your posts and pages – and you should – then this plug-in is invaluable, since it helps you to create the right kinds of tags and links to attract attention from Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Google Positioner. Ever wonder which of your keywords is attracting traffic? With this plug-in, you won't have to ever again. That's because it tells you where you’re succeeding – and where potential customers are coming from – so you can emphasize your strengths or pursue a new strategy.
Permalinks Moved Permanently. There may come a time when you have to change the permalink structure of your WordPress business site or blog. If and when that happens, this plug-in will help to ensure that you get the maximum search engine benefit from your new structure.
SEO Slugs. Did you know that most of your pages and posts have so-called "stop" words in them that are useless to search engines? This plug-in removes them from your permanent links entirely, making your most important words and phrases more visible to Google and the other major engines.
In many ways, search engine optimization can be a process of taking small, incremental steps day by day and week by week. By using these valuable plug-ins, however, you can cut down some of the time and frustration a good SEO campaign requires, and skip ahead to all of the online marketing benefits.
