There are numerous WordPress SEO plugins available to help with various aspects of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). You might wonder if they really necessary but, in fact, they are really essential if you are serious about getting your pages and posts ranking well on the search engines. Common questions asked in this respect are:

Isn't WordPress Search Engine Optimised "out of the box"?

A standard WordPress installation is ok for SEO purposes but it can definitely be improved. Some things like adjusting the Permalink settings can be done in standard WordPress and some Themes are designed to provide additional facilities for SEO purposes.

However, the easiest way to take control is to install a good WordPress SEO Plugin or Plugins designed specifically for this purpose.

What is the purpose of a WordPress SEO Plugin?,

A WordPress SEO Plugin aims to give the Webmaster control over matters such as how the site appears on the search engines and what is and is not indexed. It does this by adding functionality to change things that are fixed in standard WordPress, adding user input fields and bringing the functionality together in one place.

There are also plugins which can be beneficial for SEO purposes as a side effect of their main purpose. For example a plugin like WP-Super-Cache can speed up page loading time and hence benefit SEO.

What can I expect from a WordPress SEO Plugin?

Most of these are designed to help you configure your site by, for example,

• Making it easy to add a meta description for each page/post or even automate this (best to do it manually).

• Facilitating adding meta keywords to each page and post.

• Providing the ability to use a title different to the one used on the site.

• Automatically adding ALT text to images.

• Controlling the duplicate content inherent in the WordPress structure.

• Controlling the format of the page title (does it include the site title?).

Perhaps the best known of this type of WordPress SEO Plugin is "All In One SEO Pack".

Will using a WordPress SEO Plugin result in higher rankings?

Whilst it will definitely help, the key is still to produce good SEO optimised content. This is where a second type of WordPress SEO plugin comes in. Rather than help you configure your site for SEO purposes it checks your completed pages and posts, gives them a score and makes recommendations.

You then change the content in line with the recommendations with the aim of getting as high a score as possible, thereby optimising your content.