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There are literally 1000′s of Wordpress Plugins, some incredibly useful, some so outdated they’re dangerous and some I would not think of building a site without (as long as they are being updated regularly and then I would be looking for an alternative).
Plugins add to the functionality of your site in all sorts of ways, you can add plugins to showcase images, plugins to add shopping carts, plugins that make your dashboard easier to use, and plugins for so many different functions it would make your head spin to add them all.
The best part about the plugins listed here are, they’re all free.
This is a list of 17 WordPress Plugins I MUST HAVE on every site I build:
1. Akismet – Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. It keeps your site protected from spam even while you sleep. To get started: 1) Click the “Activate” link to the left of this description, 2) Sign up for an Akismet API key, and 3) Go to your Akismet configuration page, and save your API key.
2. cbnet WordPress Ping Optimizer - Every time you ‘update’ your blog after publishing it, it sends a ping to the search engines, if you do it too much, you’re tagged as a ping spammer, which is bad. This plugin prevents that from happening.
3. CopyLink - CopyLink adds a custom link attribution under content copied from your website or blog. It does not guarantee that copyists will use it but it does remind them to link back to your site as attribution for the content they have copied.
4. Custom About Author - This plugin displays an author profile at the end of every post. There are options to create profiles for custom authors; which is great for guest bloggers who do not have an account on your WordPress site. This is also great because you can add in your social networks, which most other author boxes don’t have. Plus, this custom author box plugin is SUPER easy to use and customize.
5. Do Follow – Removes the evil nofollow attribute that WordPress adds in comments. This one is not available in the WordPress Plugin Directory and will have to be downloaded onto your computer and uploaded again to your site. Click Here for a discussion about this topic and decide for yourself.
6. Facebook Comments Importer – This plugin imports the comments posted on your Facebook fan page to your blog.
7. Hide Trackbacks – Stops trackbacks and pingbacks from showing up as comments on your posts.
8. Shareaholic (a.k.a. Sexy bookmarks) – Shareaholic adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts in several different image options. See the bottom of this post to see them working.
9. Simple Page Ordering Order your pages and hierarchical post types using easy drag and drop on the built in page list rather than trying to figure out the correct page order via math. Also adds a filter for items to show per page. For further instructions, open the “Help” tab on the Pages screen.
10. Strictly Google Site Map - This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. This object has been developed specifically to overcome the numerous performance issues related to other sitemap plugins that regularly cause out of memory issues by reducing the number of database queries that are executed, writing the code so that formatting and URL related functions are only run once and by removing unneccessary nested loops and system functions. The plugin also offers a number of features such as inbuilt XML validation, Site Indexes, SEO Reports and Configuration and performance analysis.
11. Tweet Old Post - This plugin helps you to keeps your old posts alive by tweeting about them and driving more traffic to them from twitter.
12. Google Analytics for WordPress (by Yoast) – The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin allows you to track your blog easily and with lots of metadata. This plugin uses the asynchronous Google Analytics tracking code, the fastest and most reliable tracking code Google Analytics offers. See video here for more information.
13. Ultimate Tiny MCE - Beef up your visual tinymce editor with a plethora of advanced options. This Plugin will add over 30 new buttons the default visual tinymce editor, giving you the power to visually create your pages and posts. No need for mucking about in HTML and CSS.
14. WordPress SEO (by Yoast) – The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more. Simple to use with added advanced features that can be enabled by the more advanced user.
15. WP Touch – A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for visitors on Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android, Blackberry Storm and Torch, Palm Pre and other touch-based smartphones.
Yes, having a lot of plugins does have the potential to slow down your website, but it does also depend on the quality of your server/host. I have about 26 plugins (and counting) on this blog alone and it doesn’t seem to effect the speed too much (if at all).
There are a ton of other useful plugins, so, which ones are your MUST HAVES?:
Update: Thanks to a much appreciated comment by Andrew Stein from steinvox.com I was alerted to the fact that my Ultimate Google Analytics was no longer working, so have updated that Plugin with the one I am using now – Google Analytics for WordPress which you will now see in the list.
Annie Infinite
Hi I'm Annie Infinite - I love the internet and all it's digital media have been online for many years, joined Facebook just 4 months after it went public, Twitter had only 500 people on it when I signed up, basically I am a walking encyclopedia of digital and social media just ask anyone. I help people find their authentic voice and project it out into the world with integrity, passion and authenticity. I am an Event Promotions Strategist and I strategise, manage and train business owners just like you to use digital and social media intelligently. I am the Digital Media Sourceress of Oz and Goddess of Geek lol. About Annie Infinite17 Responses to “Useful WordPress Plugins I Use on Every Site I Build”
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Been meaning to ask you about the author text box on your page, great plugins definitely be exploring them more.
Hey Jenni the author box I have here is lucky for me a feature of the amazing theme I use which comes with all sorts of features and functionality – however you can add an author box using one of these plugins: DT Author Box or Author Bio Plus (very new) as well as the one mentioned in the post.
Hey Jenni Parry I answered your question on Author Boxes on the post for you and gave you two option.
I know Annie so excited to explore all the plugins….. The inner geek and techno addict is emerging more and more each day. Love it Annie
Wow, what great info,always wondered about which plugins to use and had no idea what would be useful. Thanks for the information. Is it easy to add them, or should I be knowledgeable about wordpress?
Hi Kerry adding Plugins is not that difficult however you do need to know what you are doing a little – go to > Plugins click on Add New then search for the exact name of the plugin you are after > once you have found it click Install Now > then you will have to find and use the Plugin. New Plugins can be found under your Settings Link both in the navigation of Settings or directly under it, some will install in other strange places and you will have to look for them.
and others will just add themselves to the New Page or Post page and be ready to use. I recommend either hiring someone who knows what they are doing and which Plugins are safe to use (not all are) or hiring someone to give you some instruction on installing and configuring Plugins safely.
Thanks Annie! I have a WordPress site, so will work through the list.
Thanks Annie! I have a WordPress site, so will work through the list.
Great stuff hon, all of these are just plain useful
Thank you Annie, I have been plugging in this morning after all these useful tips
Great plugin list, Annie. I’m particularly fond of WPTouch.
Just wondering what happened to #15 and #16?
LOL I looked at them and decided they were not plugins I use often enough to include in this list and forgot to change my title – very busy mumpreneur sometimes
Are you still using Ultimate Google Analytics? the plugin appears to have died, with the last update in Feb 2008? Sounds like an interesting tool, but feels woefully out of date…
Hi Andrew and thank you your prompt was appreciated and I checked my data on the plugin to find you were correct, I have not only updated my plugin, I have changed it in the list in the post above and noted your helpful suggestion on the bottom of the post with a link back to you in thanks. Annie
Hi Annie,
No worries!, I rely on “the community” to keep me up to date on the plug-ins I use. When I read “Ultimate Google Analytics” in your post, I wondered if something was better than Yoast. Yoast is a great plug-in. And he does a great job of keeping up. I’m looking forward to any changes that might be forthcoming from Yoast regarding the latest Google updates in “Panda.”
Yoast is so busy – but I sure wish he would pull into his SEO plugin, the confusing “rel=author” tag and use configuration. His SEO plugin seems to be the right place for integrating that tag to make it easier – now that it is pivotal to SEO, content, and overall visability/findability. Not to mention, how important rel=author is to copyright with so much content being copied these days.
Your list is great! Might I suggest it become a “running page” of the latest plug-ins? as opposed to falling into the blog archives?
Great idea Andrew I might just do that
and thanks for the heads up about Tynt as well, yes I have used this one myself at times and I totally agree this is very good information about your content.
Hi Annie, You asked about favorite plug-ins. I have a favorite, but it’s not a plug-in. It is:
“tynt” publisher toolset, from 33across http://www.tynt.com
It’s a toolset of analytics that tells you what is being copied, and referenced from your blog/website and adds references and link-backs to your blog so the source is referenced. The two reports I have set up are GOLD. Well worth looking into.
Cheers,
Andrew