The Best WordPress Plugins for SEO and Marketing
WordPress is one of the most widely used blogging and publishing platforms on the Internet. WordPress has a wide variety of plugins that gives sites a much-needed boost in the search rankings.
Plugins (or add-ons) are software modules that add special features or services to a larger system. These plugins are geared specifically for SEO and marketing functions.
WordPress is easy to use and is popular for its blogging features. Plugins are great SEO tactics but don’t forget to utilize other “on site” SEO techniques.
• Keyword Optimized Content – Pick a few keywords that will rank high in search engines. Don’t “stuff” keywords into your content or you’ll get low ranking or bumped out of search engines altogether. Keep posts to at least 250 words. Lengthy content will lose your readers.
• Find Your Niche – Pick a niche and stick with it. Another key SEO strategy is to keep your sites consistent – a niche blog covering ONE topic is going to rank higher than a “general” site covering hundreds of topics.
• Site Design – Make sure your sites are easy to navigate and are validated (get rid of bad code!) Search engines don’t like a lot of Flash or JavaScript so keep sites simple and clean. Get rid of dead links (update on a regular basis!)
The following sites feature BEST WordPress plugins for SEO and marketing purposes:
1. WP Post Ratings – Ratings filtered by different groups such as: popular by author, month, year, category, all-time, etc.
2. Google XML Sitemaps – Informs search engines (Google) about pages on sites that are readily available for “crawling.”
3. All in One SEO Pack – Automatically optimizes titles and meta descriptions for search engines.
4. Twitter Tools – Integrates Twitter accounts to WordPress blogs
5. FeedBurner FeedSmith – Track stats, clickthroughs, subscribers, etc.
6. Easy Tube – Takes control of video content (YouTube, etc.) by using one tag
7. Lightbox 2 – Changes settings (background colors, etc) and add “lightbox” effect to blog posts
8. Google Analytics for WordPress – Tracks and segments links from posts; tracks image search queries and Adsense clicks
9. Wordpress Global Translator Plugin – Automatically translates your blogs into 41 different languages (includes 4 translator engines such as Babelfish)
10. WP-Cache 2.0 – Efficient page caching system that makes your site FASTER and more responsive.
11. WP-PageNavi 2.20 – Adds advanced paging navigations to blogs
12. Spam Karma 2.3 – Automatically blocks spam on blogs
13. Subscribe2 – Notifies subscribed members each time a new post is made
14. Target Blank In Posts And Comments – Opens links in blog posts and opens comments in new windows – keeps visitors on your pages
15. cforms – Powerful form building plugin. Allows you to have multiple forms on same page
16. Popular Posts – Lists “most popular”/most visited posts on blogs – usually found on the sidebar
17. Subscribe To Comments – Commenters can sign up for email notices of entries– allows them to unsubscribe to certain posts or change notifications
18. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Gives lists of pages or posts related to current entry – subscribers are directed to other related entries/content
19. ShareThis – A simple way for users to add blog posts to social bookmarking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. or share via email
This is a Guest Post by Zeke Camusio who is a serial entrepreneur, Internet Marketing expert and founder of The Outsourcing Company, an Internet Marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York. Let’s Do It!, his blog, is read by thousands of people all over the world.
