Creating an SEO-Friendly Plugin for WordPress

Posted on 16th June 2023

Introduction

If you’re a WordPress developer, then you’re probably familiar with the process of creating a plugin. In this article, we’re going to take a look at how to make your plugin more SEO friendly. By following the tips in this article, you’ll be able to make your plugin more visible to search engines and get it ranked higher in the search results.

1. Use Keywords in Your Plugin’s Title and Description

When you’re creating a new plugin, one of the first things you’ll need to do is choose a title and description for it. These are important for SEO because they’re what show up in the search results. Make sure to include relevant keywords in both the title and description so that people can find your plugin when they’re searching for something specific.

2. Optimize Your Plugin’s Images

Another important thing to consider when it comes to SEO is how you’re using images in your plugin. All of the images you use should have relevant keywords in their file names and alt text. This will help search engines to index your images and show them in the search results.

3. Use Keywords in Your Plugin’s URLs

Another important factor for SEO is the URLs that you’re using in your plugin. Make sure to include relevant keywords in the URLs so that people can find your plugin when they’re searching for something specific.

4. Promote Your Plugin on Social Media

Social media is a great way to promote your plugin and get it ranked higher in the search results. When you post about your plugin on social media, make sure to include relevant keywords so that people can find it. You can also use social media to build backlinks to your plugin’s website.

5. Submit Your Plugin to Relevant Directories

There are a number of directories that list WordPress plugins. Submitting your plugin to these directories can help to increase its visibility and get it ranked higher in the search results. Some of the most popular directories include the WordPress Plugin Directory, CodeCanyon, and WP-Plugins.

Conclusion

By following the tips in this article, you can make your WordPress plugin more SEO friendly. This will help to increase its visibility and get it ranked higher in the search results.

The SEO-Friendly Plugin for WordPress

In the previous article, we showed you how to create a plugin that would help you to automatically generate an XML sitemap for your WordPress website. In this article, we will show you how to make your plugin even more SEO friendly by adding support for breadcrumbs.

What are Breadcrumbs?

Breadcrumbs are a trail of links that lead from the homepage of a website to the current page. They give your visitors an easy way to navigate back to previous pages, and they also help search engines to understand the structure of your website.

Adding Breadcrumb Support to Your Plugin

The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin. Once the plugin is activated, you need to visit the SEO » General Settings page and scroll down to the Breadcrumbs section.

From here, you need to select the Enable breadcrumbs checkbox and then click on the Save Changes button.

Next, you need to open the plugin file that you created in the previous article and add the following code to it:

-1,
‘post_status’ => ‘publish’
) );

// Initialize the sitemap
$sitemap = ”;
$sitemap .= ”;
$sitemap .= ”;

// Loop through all posts
foreach( $posts as $post ) {
setup_postdata( $post );

// Get the post URL
$post_url = get_permalink( $post->ID );

// Get the post date
$post_date = $post->post_date;

// Get the post modification date
$post_mod = $post->post_modified;

// Get the post priority
$post_priority = 0.5;

// Get the post change frequency
$post_freq = ‘weekly’;

// Add the post to the sitemap
$sitemap .= ”;
$sitemap .= ” . esc_url( $post_url ) . ”;
$sitemap .= ” . mysql2date( ‘Y-m-dTH:i:s+00:00’, $post_mod, false ) . ”;
$sitemap .= ” . $post_freq . ”;
$sitemap .= ” . $post_priority . ”;
$sitemap .= ”;
}

// Reset the post data
wp_reset_postdata();

// Close the sitemap
$sitemap .= ”;

// Return the sitemap
return $sitemap;
}

// Add the sitemap to the WordPress rewrite rules
add_filter( ‘rewrite_rules_array’, ‘seo_friendly_sitemap_rewrite_rules’ );

function seo_friendly_sitemap_rewrite_rules( $rules ) {
$new_rules = array(
‘sitemap.xml$’ => ‘index.php?sitemap=1’
);
return $new_rules + $rules;
}

// Add the sitemap query var so that WordPress knows how to handle the sitemap request
add_filter( ‘query_vars’, ‘seo_friendly_sitemap_query_vars’ );

function seo_friendly_sitemap_query_vars( $query_vars ) {
$query_vars[] = ‘sitemap’;
return $query_vars;
}

// Handle the sitemap request
add_action( ‘parse_request’, ‘seo_friendly_sitemap_parse_request’ );

function seo_friendly_sitemap_parse_request( &$wp ) {
// If the sitemap query var is set, return the sitemap
if ( array_key_exists( ‘sitemap’, $wp->query_vars ) ) {
header( ‘Content-Type: application/xml; charset=utf-8’ );
echo do_shortcode( ‘[sitemap]’ );
exit;
}
}

// Add support for breadcrumbs
add_filter( ‘wpseo_breadcrumb_output’, ‘seo_friendly_breadcrumb_output’ );

function seo_friendly_breadcrumb_output( $links ) {
// Get the site URL
$url = get_site_url();

// Initialize the breadcrumbs
$breadcrumbs = ‘

‘;

// Return the breadcrumbs
return $breadcrumbs;
}
?>

As you can see from the code, we have added a new shortcode, which we have named [sitemap]. This shortcode will output an XML sitemap for your website.

We have also added a new rewrite rule, which will redirect all requests for sitemap.xml to the sitemap shortcode.

Next, we have added a new query variable, sitemap, which WordPress will use to handle requests for the sitemap.

Finally, we have added a new action, parse_request, which will handle requests for the sitemap.

If you visit the sitemap.xml file on your website, you should now see an XML sitemap. You can also view the sitemap in your browser by adding ?sitemap=1 to the end of any URL on your website.

We have also added support for breadcrumbs. If you visit the SEO » General Settings page, you will see a new Breadcrumbs section. From here, you can enable breadcrumbs for your website.

If you now visit a post on your website, you should see a breadcrumb trail that looks something like this:

Home » SEO Friendly Plugin » Adding Breadcrumb Support to Your Plugin

In the next article, we will show you how to add an RSS feed to your plugin.