WordPress does a great job of search engine optimization out of the box, even with most themes. Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin adds just a little more umpfh that WordPress is missing.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
Here are a few key highlights of this plugin.
- Add OpenGraph meta data (for Facebook, Google+ coming soon)
- Ability to aggressively control what your <title> settings are — Homepage, Post, Page, Attachments, Categories, Tags, etc
- Easy access to
- Indexation Rules, such as author archives, date-based archives, category archives, etc.
- Internal Nofollow Rules – such as nofollow login and registration links and comments links
- Archive Settings – disable author archives, disable date-based archives, disable post format archives, etc
- Robot Meta Settings – add noodp and noydir
- Ability to clean up the <head> section – hiding RSD links, hide WLW Manifest Links, etc
- Built-in XML Sitemap Generator
- Advanced Breadcrumbs Settings
- Ability to add content before and after each post in the RSS feed
There are a lot more features to Yoast’s plugin.
So why do I choose to use his plugin over other WordPress SEO plugins? Yoast is both a well-known SEO speaker and a great WordPress developer. With that combination in a single person, you can always expect a few important things: great code and active development.
Jonathan Dingman is a passionate blogger who loves writing about WordPress news, reporting on events, theme releases, awesome plugins, and more. He started using WordPress in 2004 and ran the first WordCamp NYC in 2008.
Thanks Jonathan :)