On note of caution, don’t stuff your blog full of plugins. Carefully choose which plugin(s) you want based on the features. I also like to use plugins that seem to have a good support system. When I see a plugin support homepage that looks outdated or underused, that is a good sign to me that there will not be anyone to help me with this plugin if difficulties arise.

So, what are some good plugins that will increase you Wordpress rankings? This article will discuss some plugins that are useful when you are trying to get your Wordpress blog to rank well.

1. Broken Link Check 0.5: Often blog posts will have links to outside pages. When these pages are no longer active this becomes a broken link on your post and broken links are frowned upon by the search engines, therefore, it is important that you not have any broken links on your site. The Broken Link Check plugin will alert you to broken links so you can fix them. With this plugin you can:
   • Check your links in the blogroll
   • Receive broken link notification immediately
   • Have your links on one page so you can view, edit, remove links all from the same page
   • View broken link information in a dashboard widget
   • When you edit or delete a link, bookmarks, custom fields and posts will be updated automatically. Awesome!!
2. SEO Smart Links: Search engines love to see interlinking going on in your blog. This means that you will be linking to other pages/posts within your blog. SEO Smart Links connects keywords and keyword phrases contained in your posts and comments to your corresponding posts, categories, pages and tags that are on your posts. This is all done automatically after you have configured it in the admin panel. You have complete control over this entire process with options you may customize. With SEO Smart Links you can:
   • Link keywords and keyword phrases within your post to other posts, pages, and comments
   • Set up a list of keywords that you do not want to link to
   • Use customized keywords to control the external links
   • Enable caching to speed things up
   • Set up links to open in a new window
3. Google XML Sitemaps Generator: Submitting a XML sitemap to Google is like telling Google that you are on the web and what you have to offer. It’s like an invitation for the search engine spiders to come on over and check out your site. Although it is called Google XML Sitemaps Generator, the format works for Yahoo!, Bing (formerly MSN search) and Ask.com. This plugin also alerts the search engines to any changes in your blog. When this happens, the spiders come running back for another look to see what’s new. All this spider activity will help your Wordpress blog to rank better for your keywords and keyword phrases.
4. All in One SEO Pack: With this plugin you can customize post titles, descriptions and tags. When you do this customization, it helps you improve your search engine optimization. This is a fairly sophisticated plugin, but that should not intimidate you. It is designed to work upon installation with no programming, however, if you are an advanced WP user and feel confident in making adjustments to this plugin, there are plenty of things you will find that will make you happy such as:
   • Ability to fine tune your navigation links
   • Automatic search engine optimization of titles
   • Automatic generation of META tags
   • Ability to override titles so you can incorporate the META keywords and descriptions of your choice.
5. Alexa Rank or WP-Stats-Dashboard: As you are trying to improve your rankings, it is nice to know where you stand. Using one of these plugins will give you up to date information on where you rank in Google, on Alexa, Technorati rank, etc. Alexa Rank is more simplistic and will give your Alexa ranking information. WP-Stats-Dashboard is will give you information on Google PR, Technorati, Alexa, etc.

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