Top SEO Plugins For WordPress

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Not so long ago I have decided to move from Blogger to WordPress. I have to admit that as of today I am glad that I made that move as I am completely satisfied with WordPress and its ease of use. Although I have not yet tried these plugins for Thelonious, I have done some research and it appears that all of them work. For blogger dot com users, don’t get me wrong, I still recommend its use provided you set it up properly, and it is an excellent platform that is getting better and better considering the new features that Google has been adding constantly.

Anyway, I am not here today to compare blogging platforms, but rather respond to a comment that I got when publishing the tutorial I had prepared for Moving Blogger to WordPress. The comment that caught my attention was “I would love to know what plugins you have decided to use here”, from Ms Ileane Speaks.

So What SEO Plugins Have I Decided To Use Here?

First, I want you to know that there are countless plugins available for WP. Just like anything else, you should choose your plugins wisely and caution very much applied. The plugins that I will be sharing with you today are SEO related and have been proven reliable. After this, I will share other plugins on future posts to come.

Top SEO Plugins On iBlogZone

Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin generates automatically a XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. to better index your blog. Sitemap is a lists of URLs which allows webmasters to include additional information such as, when it was last updated, how often it changes, and the importance each URL has in relation to other URLs in the site. This information allows search engines bots to crawl the site more intelligently.

Permalink Finder: You all have seen a 404 error, right? A 404 error is returned when a page is not found. This normally occurs when you or someone links to a post that is later deleted or permalink altered (e.g. moved). Using this plugin will avoid returning a 404 error as it will first try to locate any posts with similar words by searching through the database, trying to find any of the word values from the bad link. It takes the best match and then, rather than issuing a 404 error it sends back a redirect to a correct page. Users will see the page that they are looking for, and search engine spiders will see the 301 redirect and update their databases so that searchers will be linked to the correct page.

SEO Slugs: This plugin was introduced to me by my good buddy Dave of website-in-a-weekend. What it does is that it removes common words from post slugs (permalink) to improve SEO. For example: the best plugins for wordpress will look something like “best plugins wordpress”.

SEO Smart Links: One of my favorites. SEO Smart Links automatically links keywords and phrases in your posts to corresponding related posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog. This is called “deep linking” or “inner link”, a tactic used to provide more relevance to a post or page. It also allows you to set up your own keywords and set of matching URLs and more. While inner linking is best done manually, SEO Smartlinks is a time saver and works well.

NOTE: For your information, I also use the All-In-One SEO pack on other WP powered blogs. The only reason I do not use it here is because the Thesis Theme that I am using has its own SEO features built-in. If your theme does not support this, I highly recommend using this plugin, or better yet, buy Thesis 🙂

These are the SEO plugins for WordPress that I have been using. Obviously they are many other SEO plugins out there and for this reason I would like to ask you if there is something you would recommend aside from those that I have provided here. To better rankings 🙂

DiTesco

DiTesco is a Business and Inbound Marketing Consultant, and founder of iBlogzone.com. iBlogzone's main objective is to help startups and small business owners achieve success in their online ventures. | More About Me and my Digital Marketing Services in SP Brazil.

70 thoughts on “Top SEO Plugins For WordPress”

  • DiTesco,

    Great Article. WordPress is the way to go. So much more flexibility and options. You hit the nail on the head with these SEO plugins.
    I do have some others, but I will have to send them to you when I get to my home PC.

    Thanks,
    Scott

    • Hi there Scott. I’ll take your word for it and wait patiently for you to arrive home and send those recommended SEO plugins my way 🙂 Thanks

  • Excellent round up of plug-ins, might want to warn readers that if they plan on doing sponsored posts for online companies, you are often not allowed to link to other posts (even within same blog) in same “sponsoed post” this makes using SEO Smart Links or similar plug-ins a problem for you. SocialSpark will reject any post that uses embedded linking like this, same reason you can’t use Kontera or Infolinks on sponsored content for companies as well.

    I hadn’t thought to use the SEO Slugs plug-in, it removes them before WordPress sets the permalink when you create the post?

    • Hi Justin. The issue your brought up about the “sponsored links” is definitely something that should be taken into consideration. SEO smartlinks can be controlled by limiting the amount of links within inner post. If for some reason it still gets in the way of a sponsored post, just reset the link within the post and it should be good to go.

      SEO Slugs is awesome. It bypasses wordpress settings and is editable prior to being published. It won’t affect any permalink that has already been published. What it does it sort of “suggest” a slug for you and you can either accept it by hitting publish or edit it before that. Good to see you here

      • Thanks, I just installed SEO-Slugs on all 3 of my blogs and will start testing it pretty soon.

        • Great Justin. I hope you find the plugin useful. Let me know how it goes

  • Excellent resource!

    Of course, the “SEO Smart Links” is one of my favorites!

    While I am reading I thought that you didn’t talk about what main SEO plugin you are using on your blog, and that you actually don’t need the ” All-In-One SEO pack” anymore if you are using Thesis because it has it’s built-in pack, but now I knew 😉

    • Hehe, Hesham. That is absolutely right. Who needs the SEO all In One Pack if you are running your blog on the best framework ever, lol. I do use it on other blogs and it works nicely. Thanks for dropping by.

  • Francisco, this is a great article. I have been struggling with SEO and understanding how to optimize my blog. Thanks for your tips.

    • Hi Lindsay. Welcome to my blog. That was quick 🙂 (just kidding). Anyway, these are real time savers and if implemented will basically take care of your SEO needs (at least 95% of it). That should be more than enough until you get to improve your SEO skills if needed. Don’t forget though, you now have the tools, it is up to you to take action and implement them 🙂 Good luck

  • That is an outstanding list of SEO Plugins. The one I haven’t tried yet is SEO Smart Links and I thank you for sharing it.

    With regard to the All-In-One SEO pack, I have used it in the past but I recently came across one that I feel is even better. The one I’m referring to is the Platinum SEO pack. It does everything that All-in-One does plus more. If you want to take a look at the features, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/platinum-seo-pack/

    Thanks again for sharing these great resources.

    • Hi Robert. As always it is good to see you here. I have heard about the Platinum SEO pack and I had the initial impression that the plugin was not for free. Thanks for reminding me about it. Will check it and install it on one of other blogs to see how it performs.

  • I’m also using Thesis, so I don’t need all-in-one SEO, plus I’m using all the plugins except Permalink Finder. That’s one I’ll check out. Thanks for the share — much appreciated.

    • Hi John. I can see now that you are a wise man 🙂 Using Thesis has its advantages and one of them is not having the need to install additional plugins. It is not just the SEO, there are other stuff that I find absolutely a must… I’ll live that for later.

      Permalink finder is pretty good and it does the job. Try it and see if you like it. To see if it works well for you, before installing it, check your “crawl issues” if any on Google’s webmaster tools. then install it and say after week, check it out again.

      • Thanks for the added advice about Permalink finder. I’ll investigate it soon.

  • Thanks for the great round up. I just install 2 plug-ins for SEO on my blog, which are Platinum SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps. Other plug-ins you referred in this post will be very useful for me in the future as I can do all it works manually at this point.

    • Hi Tek3D. Sorry for the delay in the response. I have tried Platinum SEO too in one of my other website and it also works well. Don’t know exactly why but my preference is still goes for all-in-one. Thanks for dropping by

  • Hi DiTesco,
    Thanks for the shout out. I think maybe I sparked a great idea for a post that it seems everyone is benefiting from. I’ll be sure to share the info with some other WordPress users.

    • Hi Ileane. You certainly did spark a great idea that generated this post and some other future ones as well. Thanks for dropping by, its always good to see you here

  • I am currently using All in One SEO Plug-in, Smart Links and Google XML Sitemaps. Really useful for SEO.

    I want to ask about SEO Slugs. Will this change the permalink of already published posts too? Does it really improve SEO? What percentage of improvement you saw.

    • Hi Deepak. No, the plugin won’t change a previously published post. It will only suggest new slugs for you while you are on draft mode. If it was already published, then nothing will change. as far as how it is helping or not, I could not tell right there and then as to its performance as I have not yet enough stats for that. When I do I’ll let you know. Let’s put it this way, it won’t hurt and it can only be beneficial, how’s that sound??

  • i use a few of those plug-ins ,but haven’t tries seo slugs and permalink finder…will see what it does…i use platinum seo in place of all in one seo…

    • Hi. good to know that there is another one here that uses Platinum. Is it really that much better than All-In-One? In what sense is it actually different? Will appreciate your feedback and thanks for dropping by

  • Read about the SEO SmartLinks Plugin from @ditesco in Top SEO Plugins For WordPress http://bit.ly/dD0BKK

  • DiTesco,

    this is a great article. There’s so many plug-ins available it becomes a bit overwhelming. I recently ventured into the Twitter plug-ins and found a couple that i like. There’s Twitter Tools (don’t know if i should post a link or not), Twitter Tools – Bit.ly URLs, Twitter Tools – Exclude Category, and Twitter Tools – Hashtags. Great posts! You’ve got a new reader!

    • Thanks Todd for the Twitter plugins. I use some of them myself on other blogs. Thanks for dropping by

  • I use all of the plugin mentionsed except Permalink Finder because it never would work with my theme. But it looks good and I will try it once I get a new theme designed and updated.

    • Hi there. I am sorry to hear that the permalink finder does not work on your theme. If you don’t mind, can you tell me what Theme you are using? Thanks!

  • I am using Mystique theme by digitalnature

    • That’s a nice theme. Hope you are satisfied with it.

  • Thanks for sharing this. Haven’t use any of this plugin yet coz I’m still new with SEO. I’ll definitely try this. This is really great 😉

    • Hi Ardee. That’s the good part about all this plugins, you do not need to be an expert in SEO. This is the reason why they exist.. Thanks for stopping by and sorry for the delay in response.

  • One thing to check in to, and I haven’t: If you let Thesis handle all of your SEO, then you switch themes, what happens to all of your metadata?

    I have never seen this investigated.

    I do know from reading Thesis source that Thesis defers to data entered via All In One SEO. That is, if you have AIO, Thesis will use that. This is what I do on all of my sites.

    • That’s is something to think about Dave. Hopefully, I will never get to switch themes ever. I love Thesis and I am sure Chris will do everything possible to keep me happy with it 🙂 In any event, I have a question, if I decide to use AIO for my SEO, then how do I go about the metadata that I have already in place under Thesis. Is that even possible?

  • I recommend platinum SEO pack bro. The plugin is really cool 🙂

    • Hi Latief. Hopefully there are people who will see your recommendation. There are others who have recommended it as well so that’s another vote for Platinum SEO. I use Thesis’s built in SEO pack and so far I’m happy with it. Just have to consider my options for the future as mentioned by Dave.

  • I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time looking at SEO plugins. It’s a maddening number and difficult to differentiate. I’m waiting for the Yoast plugin but have been very happy with the Platinum SEO Pack like some others of you are mentioning. It does almost everything well and the author has basically taken the best of AIO SEO and Headspace2 to create this one. We use it on the Legal Advice Guide on our site and will also be using it for another great function – auto do 301 redirects for permalink changes as we’ve discovered it’s better (despite performance) to make a few changes for the long term. I highly recommend it.

    • Hi Micheal. Thanks for your opinion. Appreciate it.

  • Brilliant list Ditesco i am using all except permalink finder will have it check thanks for sharing

    • Hi Gary. Good to see you here. Permalink finder is very interesting and I think it does its job well considering that my crawl errors have been steadily decreasing (very little right now actually) after I installed this plugin

  • It’s great that you coming up with articles based on your experience and here is another one which I suggest for SEo:
    SEO friendly images.. Why not to use images to drive traffic? Is int it??

    • Hello Harsh. It is always good to see you here. And images, right, I always forget about the power of “image rankings”. I have some images ranking well and I think they bring in some traffic as well, not a lot, but there is always a possibility. Thanks for your input and this along with the other you left has certainly sparked more post ideas for me to start working at. Thanks!

  • I’ve always wondered about using SEO Slugs.. I do use the plugin but it can actually be bad for SEO if it removes some words as part of a phrase such as “This is how we handle Google’s new terms” , the permalink would probably end up like “handle-google-new-terms”, which wouldn’t be the greatest match for a long tail search. It’s a great plugin but you have to keep things like that in mind for competitive phrases.

    • Hi Aaron. Sorry for the late reply. Been scanning through my unreplied comments and found out about this one 🙂 Anyway, you are right about that. One should always keep an eye on things as not every single plugin works 100%. Your example is a good one

  • Excellent Post! It got me to get into Webmaster tools and see that I had 15 old links getting 404’d since I updated my site a few weeks ago. Now they are being redirected to the home page. I have added the sitemap, smart links, and slugs per your suggestion as well. Now I have to create my own WP Plugins post!

    • Hi Roger. Good for you and nit is nice to see that it is working out well. Sorry for the delay in responding and thanks for stopping by.

  • Hi thanks for this information , i have a problem with my wordpress blog that it’s tag are not optimized i am using digitalnature mystique theme and All in one seo pack.previously i was getting really good traffic from google but now my blog seems to be getting less traffic from google.
    Could you suggest your opinion regarding this.

    Thanks

    • Hi Gupta. Sorry for the delay. If you tell me what your URL is, I might be able to give it a look. Let me know

  • thanks buddy.. now m folowing u..

  • Wonderful list i installed all this and i have wonderful results ..I personally tested them…

    Thank u so much for sharing it

    Sri

    • Good to know it is working well for you. Thanks

  • Keyword Winner – SEO WordPress plugin just launched and It has been regarded by top Internet Marketers and Pro Bloggers as the best SEO Plugin out there!

    • Hi Dan. Good to see you here. I actually purchased already your plugin and started to work on it. Hesham of famousbloggers is to blame :). I am also promoting it through a website I have just started. Hopefully it will be beneficial for both you and me. thanks for developing an awesome plugin. If you need my testimonial, I’ll be glad to send you one. Let me know.

  • Hey DiTesco,

    Haha, That’s great to hear, Can’t wait to see what your doing with the website you will be promoting it on, sounds great!

    I will keep in touch!

  • What I really like is that you didn’t just list all the typical SEO plugins every other blog does, some of these are not well-known amongst WordPress bloggers. You even went as far as to describe their usage in detail while most bloggers just give it a quick mention and move on. That’s definitely the mark of a blogger who knows his plugins.

    I’ll be referencing this post on my main blog.

    • Thanks. Will be looking forward to that post. Let me know when it goes live. Probably live already since I took way to much time to respond to your comment. Sorry about that

  • SEO activities like deep linking, and optimizing for keywords takes a lot of time. I’ve always wondered if the All-in-one SEO pack would help. I guess it’s about time, I gave it a shot and test it for the blog rather than just reading up recommendations on multiple blogs.

    Thanks DiTesco.

  • Yoast Seo Plugin is also fine

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