The All-In-One SEO Plugin is one of the most popular plugins ever made for WordPress. And if you don’t have it, stop reading this, GO GET IT, because you are the only one who doesn’t have it yet!
The All in One SEO Pack is your virtual Search Engine Optimizer. It does all the dirty jobs of adding Meta tags, the Title tag, adding Meta keywords, adding post Description, avoiding indexing of duplicate pages (like Archives and Category pages) and other SEO stuffs that a normal blogger won’t like doing. And the best part; it’s all automated.
If you are not too much concerned about SEO, then you may not have tweaked the plugin, even though you already have it installed. The default installation is powerful enough, but it gets better with some extra tweaks. Exploiting something is so much fun!
Tweaking the All in One SEO Pack
The SEO plugin consists of two parts: Plugin Options Page, and a widget on the Post Editor. See the screenshots below and you will get an idea of what each page is meant to be. If you haven’t done anything yet to these pages, its time to start doing something now.
Add a Home Page Title
The Homepage title is the one line description of your blog; it need not be the same as the name of your blog. Tell the visitors what your blog is all about here. Include the keywords that would bring you traffic over a long period of time. And keep it short; don’t make it longer than 70 characters. This Title Appears on the Search Results and on the Browser Window when you are on the homepage.
The Plugin Options Page
Add Description and Keywords
The Homepage Title is for the readers, but the Description and the Keywords are for the Search Engines. Describe your Blog to the Search Engines and most importantly, add the most popular keywords on your site to the Keywords Section. Adding too many keywords lessens the keyword weight of each keyword, so include only the most important ones here.
No Index all the Duplicate pages
Did you know that on the web, there exists at least three copies of every post your write? Well, the funny thing is that it’s right within your blog! You have one copy on the homepage, one on archives page, and yet another on the category page, not to mention the additional copies on the tag pages. Remember, Google hates duplicate content so better noindex the duplicate pages. (See the arrows)
Add Post Title and Description
The Widget on the Post Editor
The Second Part of this WordPress SEO plugin is a widget on the Post Editor Page. Once the plugin is installed you will see the widget below every post of yours. Add the Title of the Post and a Description on this Widget. You have to do this every time you write a new post. Adding a Keyword Rich, human-friendly hand-crafted description is important because Google uses this description on the Search Results page. So it acts like a Welcome message to a potential visitor. (See image below)
See the Description ( Below the title, in black )
Finally, Enter the Keywords
These are the keywords that go into the Meta keywords tag of the html of the page. It is said that Google no longer uses Meta keywords, anyhow, other Search Engines uses still uses them. Enter the keywords from the post here. If you do Keyword research, then this is the right place to enter the suggested keywords.
The SEO plugin is a quick solution to all your SEO needs. It’s a must have for every WordPress blog.
Download All In One SEO Pack
Thanks to Anand and Girish for contributing ideas to this article.
Update:
When Canonical URLs were introduced, a new check-box was added in the settings page, just above “Rewrite Titles”. Keep that check-box titled “Canonical URLs” ticked.
I am a WordPress product developer and creator of Image Attributes Pro. I am passionate about solving problems and travelling the world.
Arun,
Thanks for mentioning my name here.
Keep up the great work , you had given a vry different views to very common plugin like all in one SEO.
I started a series of article about ‘how to blog for newbies’ which covers
writing tips, SEO tips, essential Plugins, Backup Plans
Enjoy blogging
C ya
Though All in One SEO is very common, I know some people who seldom use it, this is for them and for all the newbies.
Good luck with the newbie blogging series, I hope I get some tips from that too…
Cheers
I am using it in all my blogs, quite useful and easy to learn,some themes do not show the meta tags.
Well, all themes are not search engine optimized. and themes have a good part in SEO. Choose themes with right sidebars for better SEO. This is because if sidebars are on the left, the Google bot will index the sidebar first, which is not good. The content should go first in.
Cheers
Nice tutorial for those who are new to WordPress or SEO.
Thanks Nihar, You make my day 🙂
Just verified my settings.I already used all these as my settings.Thanks
This guide was meant for beginners who just install All in One SEO just because they read about it somewhere. You are a pro Blogger yourself and you are already on the right track. Good luck dude!
I came to know that this is a really nice plugin. It would revolutionize blogging if it was available for blogspot blogs too.!
Ah, Thats the plugin support that Blogger lacks. Thats the best part of WP that I like. 🙂
One of the worthy posts I ever read !
Regards,
HellBoundbloggers.com
Thanks mate, Glad that it helped. Happy SEO 🙂
Buddy, is there is a trusted plugin for Optimizing Images for Search Engines ? Or the default system of WP enough ?
What kind of optimization do you need..? Basically images need a title text and some alt text. Thats available with wordpress itself 🙂
Neat one !!
I saw a video of this some where in December 2008 when I was first starting to know about wordpress and blogging
Lucky you, it took me 2 years to learn what SEO expanded as, I should have known WordPress and stuffs like this two years ago, but everything has its own time.. 🙂 Kudos to you…
Everyone feels the same Arun,that why didn’t I start blogging much before and now I’d have been somewhere else.. but as you said everything has a time.
Yeah, If I had started only today I would have started on WordPress, then I would never know Blogger, now I know both Blogger and WordPress, so it was worth it.. 🙂 Time plays with us.. But life is awesome.
Cheers…
Does this work with buddypress? I only know of 1 plugin that is specifically for BP but it is no longer supported 🙁
Thanks,
uNeek
gamervoices.com
No it doesnt work with BuddyPress. I guess you are talking about the SEO for BuddyPress plugin. I haven’t updated BuddyPress in a long time, just to stay safe.
Weird, I thought this was available in the BP downloads section.
Hi, Kevin Stacey here..
First off, this post is extremely thorough! I don’t see too many bloggers going into detail like you have…that’s the mark of a blogger who knows their SEO plugin. For optimization, free plugins like All in One SEO Pack are really great as it lays down the basic SEO foundation for a WordPress site, but every blog is different and nothing works best for everyone.
I always suggest looking at a side-by-side comparison of the best seo plugins for WordPress in order to make an informed decision of what the best plugin is for that blogger and their website’s specific needs.
Here’s my most recent write-up on the subject:
SEO Pressor vs Easy WP SEO vs Scribe SEO
http://www.bestseopluginforwordpress.com/wordpress-seo/the-best-seo-plugin-for-wordpress/
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Great article btw…I’ll be referencing this post on my main blog.
so…it’s better to set the ‘use no index for categories, archives and tag archives’ option checked? thanks for the info…
Hey ,
I have gone through your post about All in One SEO Pack. Its very informative.
I have one query about the Increasing Character Limit of Title and Meta description.
i have check all setting but where should I Increase Character limit of the particular field in ALL in One SEO Pack?
plz Suggest me some Solution.