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 When I see a plugin support homepage that looks outdated or underused, that is a good sign to me that there will not be anyone to help me with this plugin if difficulties arise.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 When these pages are no longer active this becomes a broken link on your post and broken links are frowned upon by the search engines, therefore, it is important that you not have any broken links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.

Related posts:

1. Increase Traffic with Landing Sites
2. How and why do you use post tags?
3. Need Better SEO for your WordPress Blog? Choose from the Top Ten

1. WP-PageNavi is a great tool that can be used to enhance the pagination on WordPress.  Default settings include a previous and next link.  However, the PageNavi plugin allows for a more attractive and more useful navigation system.  Instead of two options, you can choose from first, last, previous and next.  But it also has individual pages so you can click on a particular page and it shows that page you are on and how many are available.
2. WP-PostViews is a great plugin that outlines the most viewed posts on your site.  When a new user is just visiting your site, they will no longer have to wade through pages and pages of posts and instead can immediately get to the posts that are most popular based on number of views per post.  This is a great way to get a new user immediately interested in your posts by sending them to the most viewed ones first.
3. BreadcrumbNavXT is a way to add breadcrumbs to your site.  Breadcrumbs give the extended link navigation so it is easy to follow.  Users can navigate to a broader or more narrow category by using the breadcrumbs at the top of the page.  Breadcrumbs look like “Home Page -> Broad Category -> Detailed Category -> Blog Post” or can be customized to as many levels as you need.
4. The Related Posts plugin is a great way to refer users to other posts they may find interesting.  It lists posts that are similar or related in some way to the post they are currently reading based on keywords.  This is a great way to keep a user on your site longer by referring them to other posts they may find interesting.
5. Add the Search Everything plugin to allow users to search for exactly what they want to read on your site.  Tags, keywords, comments and user defined criteria are all searchable so that a user looking for specific information can easily find it.
6. Drop Down Menus such as PixoPoint allows users to browse through categories in a convenient drop down navigation menu and then jump to the category they want.  If they want to browse to a sub category they can do so without first going to the parent making it easier, faster and more convenient.
7. Change Permalinks to be more SEO friendly by using the Permalinks Moved Permanently plugin.  Users who are already on your site may have bookmarked particular blog posts.  Search engines have indexed your posts.  These links will go to a specific page in your site based on the title of your blog.  However, the default titling of posts is not SEO friendly and should be changed.  If you have already established a blog and need to change the permalink titles, use this plugin so older links and indexing is not changed.  Instead the new page will be displayed based on the old link.
8. A sitemap is essential for good navigation and it is also useful for search engine optimization purposes, especially with Google.  Use the Google Sitemap tool to automatically generate and update your sitemap in a standard format for use with Google and other search engines.
9. The Multi Page Toolkit plugin is a great way to allow you to easily navigate through long blog posts.  Ideally blog posts should be concise but some topics just need a lot of discussion.  If you want to have a blog that will span multiple pages, the Multi Page Toolkit is the ideal addition.
10. Make sure your sidebar navigation does exactly as you want it to and is useful for your particular users.  The needs may change from blog to blog because of the unique demographic of your users.  WordPress has a variety of options available for customizing your sidebar to make it as useful as possible to your audience.  Use the WP codex (http://codex.Wordpress.org/Customizing_Your_Sidebar) for your sidebar to determine which options will suit you best.

Related posts:

1. How to Change Links without Losing Traffic in WordPress
2. WordPress Plugin to Increase SEO Rankings
3. Enhancing WordPress Pagination