Excerpts, Meta Tags and SEO Plugins

[Nelson Swett]

I read Lynn's article this morning on Web Page optimization (http://www.clicknewz.com/2103/web-page-optimization/) and carefully studied what she had to say about Blog Optimization. And because I want to get the most out of Lynn's link building decided to make sure I was ready by making sure I my pages are optimized. I couldn't remember what Meta Tags were and went back to review the information in one of the threads I posted on here after one of Lynn's seminars (September 16th Blog Optimization (http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/members/showthread.php?t=1288)). In Lynn's response she said, "I don't use any SEO Plugins for WordPress, so I can't comment on that. I do however use the Optional Excerpt below the composition window" So, I followed the "learn more about manual excerpts (http://codex.wordpress.org/Excerpt)" in my wordpress dashboard. Then, I followed an article that they linked to. This article, "What, Why and How" (http://op111.net/67) explains the excerpt and then explains how to get the excerpt to be a meta tag.

So now my question. The article mentions two SEO-plugins (SEO Platinum and All-in-one SEO Pack) and another (headspace2) for making the excerpt a meta tag. Is anyone using these plugins and would you recommend them?

[marksierra]

I've used All in One, but have slowly drifted away from it when I create new blogs. The reason is because I already target my keywords in my titles, so there's not much point in using it for that.

Another reason is because the meta keywords practically hold no weight anymore because of the way they have been abused. As for the excerpt though, I cannot speak to that. It may be useful, but there are tons of serps that don't have them anyway, so I'm leaning toward just focusing on providing good content and if Google and the others want to provide an excerpt, I'm fine with that. :)

[Nelson Swett]

Mark, I appreciate your insights. I'm still learning and when Lynn talks about something I try to find out all I can. The What, Why, How and Tips on Excerpts (http://op111.net/67) article that I linked to was pretty enlightening. I wouldn't have paid much attention to it if Lynn hadn't mentioned it. In fact, I have a little note I made myself the other day to find out more about them, because I'd been ignoring them. The author of the article caused me to ask myself the question, "Do I really want the excerpts for a particular page left in the hands of someone else when it could make the difference between someone clicking my link or not?"

[marksierra]

You're quite welcome. I hope I haven't contradicted anything in those posts. :)