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Here’s another article in our SEO Matters series, — let’s see how WordPress can be optimized for SEO using some key plugins (in addition to the things it does naturally to assist the SEO effort).

by Scott Frangos

Once you install WordPress and start posting regularly, you can sit back and relax — WordPress will do the rest of the SEO work, right? Wrong. Sure, WordPress will automatically does some things automatically like sending out pings, and creating RSS feeds. But there’s more work to be done to take your Search Engine Optimization to the max, and thankfully there are a handful of excellent plugins to help. Let’s take a look at three great plugins to maximize your WordPress site for SEO. These three are part of the package of plugins I use for our “Max-SEO” service at WebFadds.com.

While I’m going give you tips on using three WordPress SEO plugins in this post, you also need to research the right keywords/keyword phrases and learn to insert them into your Title, Headlines, Copy, and in the “Alt” tags of your images. A good place to start looking is the Google Keyword Tool, and here’s a quick screenshot with a tip in the caption on how to use it:

Above, the Google Keyword tool has generated a number of actual search terms related to the two I typed in at top right. If you’re a real estate agent in the Lake Tahoe area, you want to find search terms people use to look for homes there. “Homes for sale in lake tahoe” shows some activity in the “search volume” column, though not as much as generic terms like “real estate.” You want people who are looking to buy in your area, so you use the Google Keyword tool to find search phrases with some volume of activity, then pick a good phrase and work in throughout your post.

HeadSpace… the Comprehensive SEO Plugin

I like this plugin because it does the work of several plugins, and offers many key ways to optimize your site for search. You can read a couple longer tutorials about Headspace at WebHelperMagazine.com, so here I’m just going to give you a time saving tip using a special tag to optimize all of your posts and pages:

Above, you should use the “special tags” to automate your SEO effort. The example shows that HeadSpace will automatically insert insert the Title of your post in the Page Title meta-tag, and the Excerpt of your post in the description meta-tag. You do that by simply copying and pasting the code shown at bottom.into the appropriate field.

Google XML SiteMap Generator …

This great plugin automatically creates the sitemaps that Google likes to see (not one for your visitors to see). This helps you get more attention from Google… and other search engines:

Above, the controls for your Google XML Sitemap plugin show that it can also be configured to notify Microsoft, Yahoo, and Ask.com for updates to your map.

Sociable to Enable Social BookMarking…

Here’s another way to increase your impact — make it easy for people reading your articles to “social bookmark” them… that is, share and recommend them on sites set up for that:

Above, the Sociable plugin enables social bookmarking of your posts… and also the ability for a reader to send your post via email (red arrow). The idea is the reader enjoys your content (create good content), and thinks enough of it to either recommend it on another social venue, or send it along to friends via email.

TIP: There are over 90 choices for social bookmarking icons you can have Sociable place beneath your posts. One of them, “Sphere it”, when clicked returns a search list of similar stories and posts. Visit those, make good comments related to those posts on those other blogs and give a link back to your own related story.

So… the three components of great SEO for your websites? Get WordPress. Configure strong SEO plugins. And, number three? You. You write great content. You follow up with comments on other blogs with related stories. And we know what Larry the Cable Guy would say: “Get er done.”

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