If you’re a blogger, no matter the subject you blog about, these plug-ins are some of the best you will find and are definitely worth the install. I personally have 16 of these plug-ins running on this blog as well as my other two blogs. Wordpress plug-ins not only make your blogging easier, your backups quicker and your spam count at zero, they also give your readers a better experience while reading your blog.
Feel free to skim over this list I have put together and if you know of any others that should have made the cut, feel free to leave a comment at the end of the post. I’m always interested in hearing what others have to say about blogging and I am willing to read and learn from anybody.
- Google Sitemaps - The format that this plug-in generates (xml) is supported by Google, Yahoo and MSN. You’re going to find this plug-in useful for giving the spiders a map to crawl through so you end up with more indexed pages.
- Popularity Contest - You can see this plug-in in action in my sidebar. This plug-in is highly detailed in its choosing of the top articles on your site and gives a pin point accuracy for your readers to quickly find the best content on your blog. *note: Wordpress 2.5+ users should download the version found here on wpGuy
- Wordpress Database Backup - With this plug-in, you can quickly backup your wordpress database or even have it emailed to you daily, weekly or monthly. This is definitely a must have for any serious blogger.
- Contact Form ][ - An easy to integrate contact form for your blog. You can see it in action on my contact page.
- All in one SEO - So you’re wanting better search engine rankings huh? Yeah, we all do. This plug-in should be your #1 if thats what you’re after. Great out of the box SEO for your wordpress blog that is easily customizable.
- Sociable - Let your readers stumble, digg and vote your articles for you without having to do much work. This plug-in lets you insert the icons on your posts to give your readers the option to quickly and easily share your content with others. *note: find a version of this plug-in for designers here.
- Related Posts - Let your readers find other content from your blog that they are interested in whenever they are reading something they like. This plug-in is awesome.
- Comment Relish - This plug-in will send an email to any commenter on your blog who leaves a comment for the first time. A great way to leave a lasting impression on the commenter to let them know you appreciate their comments.
- Feedburner Feedsmith - You would be surprised at how many people find the /feed/ link for your blog instead of your feedburner link. This plug-in will redirect anyone subscribed with the old link to your new feedburner link seamlessly.
- RSS Feed Signature - Utilize every ad area possible with this plug-in. No longer do you have to lose out on advertising dollars because RSS readers do not view your actual site. This plug-in allows you to add a signature at the bottom of your feed posts which works well for advertising as well as a copyright message to ensure no-one is stealing your content without at least linking back to you.
- SRG Clean Archives - Instead of an archives page that is cluttered with a ton of stuff and is hard to follow, use this plug-in to keep the archives page clean and easy to manage for your readers.
- What Would Seth Godin Do - Display a welcome message to new readers. This is a great plug-in and can be edited to display 1 time or 10000 times. Remind your readers about a contest, subscribing to your blog or use it to display a random advertisement. I’ve personally done all three.
- Search Everything - You can allow your readers to search ever tag, category and page instead of just the regular posts. This is a great plug-in to help with the usability of your website.
- Subscribe to Comments - A check box allows your readers to subscribe to the comments and get updates every time someone comments after they do. A great way to keep the conversation alive on your blog.
- Adhesive - This plug-in allows you to place a post at the top of the page and let it remain there no matter how many new posts are written afterwards. This is a great way to showcase content or keep an announcement in the open for everyone to see.
- Enforce www. preference - Does your blog allow visitors to see it from http:// as well as http://www. ? If it does, this plug-in is perfect for you. It allows you to activate it and specify in the wordpress admin which you prefer your site to use and it does the 301 redirecting for you. Great for SEO purposes.
- WP Cache - Reduce the server load on your website and increase the chances that your visitors stay long enough to read your content. There is nothing worse then a website that loads super slow. This plug-in helps stop that.
- Adsense Deluxe - Add google adsense ads directly into your posts without having to do the same things over and over in order to make it happen. Control your ads easily in the wordpress admin panel.
- FlickRSS - Display your flickr photo stream live on your site. This is a great plug-in to use if you run a photography blog or just want to show your readers what you’ve been doing lately offline. Recently this has been used to showcase flickr groups for designers which is a superb idea.
- Random Redirect - Allow visitors of your blog the ability to browse your website in a stumbleupon style fashion. A nice little plug-in that can increase the page views on your site as well as the time spent by each visitor.
- Twitter Updater - Automatically send an update to your twitter account to be published every time you create a new post on your blog. A great way to let your twitter followers know when you’ve posted something new.
So there you have it, 21 MUST HAVE plug-ins for every blogger. Like I previously said, if you’ve got a plug-in that should have made the list, feel free to leave a comment. I’d also love if you could give this post a thumbs up on stumbleupon or vote on any other social media website you use.
