FV Simpler SEO: Intelligent Defaults
This post links to the revised version, 5 February 2010, which no longer shares the XSS issues of the Semper Fi version of All in One SEO Pack. Download with confidence.
Since we were not happy about certain features of the original All in One SEO Pack from Semper Fi Web Design we decided to do our own version of it (read the whole story here).
It's using all the code from the original plugin but there are several modifications which are really important to us and we grew tired of modifying the code over and over again after every plugin update. So we did the modifications to the plugin and added some extra options to allow you to override it.
- We've also eliminated the XSS (Cross Site Scripting) vulnerabilities in the original plugin.
- We've simplified the user interface
- We've also totally simplified the admin interface
- We've set extremely intelligent but non-intrusive defaults. WordPress 2.8+ handles page titles and such awfully well on its own. If you have even a decent theme, you have the core SEO you need.
Removing the Keywords field
All in One SEO Pack is showing way to much stuff on the post editing screen:

All in One SEO Pack Metabox
Keywords field seem to be a little bit too much in our opinion. First, as any longtime SEO will tell you, keywords are just not that important. And it's an extra field which is confusing our clients.
Both tags and categories are used for it by default, so what's the point on adding any more stuff in it? This is how the post editing of our version of the plugin looks like:

FV All in One SEO Pack
If you really want keywords, you can have them by enabling a single option in the plugin configuration.
Disabling excerpts for descriptions
Another thing which was irritating us is that the WordPress posts excerpts are being used as a meta description if you leave the Description field empty. This is usually ok, but we do a lot of Typepad to WordPress conversions and most of the sites some up with an auto-generated excerpts from the export files.
That's why we added an option to turn off excerpts for descriptions. Overall our most important objective was to simplify the interface and provide intelligent defaults.

FV All in One SEO Pack: really simple admin options:
Don't worry all the advanced options are there but out of the way now:
Sensible SEO does not need to be a headache
Download
Download the latest version here: FV Simpler SEO Pack
Requirements
WordPress 2.7+
FV Simpler SEO forums
| Subforum | Topics | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Bug reports | 2 | 7 |
| Requests and Feedback | 1 | 12 |
| Troubleshooting | 2 | 9 |
Latest FV Simpler SEO Discussions
| Topic | Posts | Freshness |
|---|---|---|
| SEO Header Title | 4 | 2 days |
| Wordpress 3.3. Menu Labels | 2 | 1 month |
| change google description | 5 | 2 months |
| Can't Edit Pages | 5 | 3 months |
| Question about homepage paged format | 12 | 2 months |

