The Top Most Important WordPress Plugins
Posted on March 27, 2008
WordPress is hands-down the best blogging software for any serious blogger. I am probably going to get flamed by the Blogger.com lovers out there, but there has to be a reason that most professional bloggers use it.
One of those reasons is because WordPress is expandable and adaptable. The sheer number of great plugins that were created for this platform make it the giant in the blogging software industry. You don’t like that it does this-and-that? Well, there’s a plugin to do exactly what you want!
If anything, the only drawback (if you can call it one) is that you must wade through all the plugins. And yes, some of them, can be, well, not so good. So here is my list of the most important ones to download.
Google Sitemaps - The first, and most important WordPress plugin is Google Sitemaps. Having a Google sitemap helps the Googlebot index your site and keeps it up to date. Combining this with the Google Webmaster Central is a powerful tool for any web site owner. Possibly the best reason to have it is that it pings Google every time you make a change on your site. While Google’s algorithms are, for the most part, unknown, one thing is for certain. Sites that have regular content are indexed more frequently than sites that do not. Allowing Google to know that you site is updated is an invaluable service.
FireStats - Information is key, and FireStats lets you have just that. This nifty, widget-ready plugin allows you to see who is coming to your site, where they are coming from, and how many pages they are looking at. A definite must for the well-informed webmaster.
Askimet - Askimet helps you weed through all those annoying, spammy comments. It will automatically block them and leave them in a queue for you to look at, or not to look at.
Social Bookmarking RELOADED - This is a widget-ready social bookmarking plugin that lets you have all those great little links at the bottom of your posts.
WP-Contact Form III - Allows you to put a small line of stuff in your post [ like this ] that will display a nice contact form. Sometimes I can be quite lazy, so I find this extremely useful, if not for only one or two posts.
No Follow Free - One of the more annoying problems in WordPress is that there is a no-follow after links in your comments. This is to combat spammers just sending you irrelevant comments. Used in conjunction with Askimet (above), this will allow your visitors some free-linkin’-loving.
All-in-One SEO Pack - This one enables modification to your WordPress headers to allow better search engine optimization.
Show Top Commenters - Ok, this is something that I’m guilty of, as well. I don’t have this plugin installed, and I should. It quite simply shows who comments the most. The reason this plugin is nifty is because it encourages people to comment on your blog, because it will then show up in the sidebar.
WP Backup - This will backup your database automatically. My host backs up too but getting them is a pain, so I installed this plugin just in case something goes haywire.
Related Entries - This is a great way to get people to visit more of your site.
Buy Me a Beer - This doesn’t fall under the all-time gotta-have-it plugins. But i’s very useful to automatically put a “Donate” PayPal button. Some people actually DO give you money, and God bless ‘em. Did I mention that I love people who donate money to me?
BankRoll - This plugin is a must have. It allows people to buy content on your web site.
Adsense Deluxe -I’ve recently discovered this one. By inserting <!– adsense –> (without the spaces) you can put your Google Adsense code in your post, thus allowing you to monetize your site better.
So there you have it. Tell me if you download any of these plugins and if you find them useful, too.
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Registered users will have the "nofollow" attribute removed. Other commenters have a "nofollow" tag.13 Responses to “The Top Most Important WordPress Plugins”
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Hi Maureen
It only took me 2 weeks to remember where this blog was!
But yeah, those are good plugins. All you need now is Subscribe To Comments.
Keep in mind, in light of the new 2.5 upgrade to WP, it’s in your best interests to deactivate ALL of them for the upgrade. “Contact Form” in particular is causing tons of trouble if you check out the forum at WP.org. And personally I wrote a very heated piece about the new version of Wordpress.
[…] The Top Most Important WordPress Plugins | Make Money Blogging Online with 5 Star Blog (tags: Blogging plugins wordpress2.5) […]
Good list. I wish I could find a plugin that allows article submission. I need it for some of my customers.
Nice wordpress plugin.
Have added,
Thanks for the information.
You really poses much expertise on Most Important WordPress Plugins | Make Money Blogging Online with 5 Star Blog. I really enjoyed going through your posting. I really appreciate it.
@ Steve :
Try TDO Mini Forms
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tdo-mini-forms/
Thanks for info - I had it hard till now to under stand a few topics. Thanks for that I definatly keep an eye out for more info like this
Really Helpful
regards
Nel