10 Essential Plugins Every Modern Wordpress Site Should Have

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10 Essential Plugins Every Modern Wordpress Site Should Have

Posted May 4, 2009 in Tools/Resources, Web Design 120 Comments »

One of the many benefits to WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platform and Content Management System (CMS), is that it is open source software with a very large and dedicated community. There are so many great developers working to make WordPress the best that it can be, that there are thousands of free plugins available to enhance the platform’s default functionality.

There are, of course, too many plugins to list here, so in this article we’re just going to point out the essentials… what I consider to be the bare minimum “can’t live without” list of plugins that should be installed with just about any new Wordpress installation.

If you are new to WordPress, this basic list (which is technically not limited to plugins alone) should help get you started on the right foot. Whether you are running a basic brochure site, or a full featured blog, you should be sure your WordPress site includes these essentials.

First Steps

Permalinks

Once you’ve installed WordPress, there are a few things that absolutely must be taken care of right away. No if’s, and’s or but’s… Two of these items are already included with WordPress – you just need to configure them.

1. Permalinks

Although not a plugin, this is one of the first items that should be setup in WordPress. Permalinks give your blog posts and pages a “pretty” url. Something like yoursite.com/category/post-name/ as opposed to yoursite.com/p=?1234 – not only is this easier on the eyes, but it is SEO friendly since it incorporates keywords into your URL.

In theory, this is a quick and easy setting to change. However, I have run into the situation on some web hosts where you have to manually update the .htaccess file for this to work properly.

You can update your Permalink structure under the Settings tab in the admin area.

2. Permalink Redirect

Related to Permalinks, is the Permalink Redirect plugin. This one doesn’t come with WordPress, however they go hand-in-hand together. This plugin takes the basic Permalink settings a step further by ensuring that there are no excess characters in your URL – in the event there are excess variables, Permalink Redirect sends users to the correct URL.

This plugin is pretty much all taken care of behind the scenes – once you’ve installed it, there is nothing for you to configure.

3. Akismet

If you are simply using WordPress as a CMS for a brochure type site, this is a step you can skip. However most people take advantage of WordPress’ blog feature (it’s primary function). If this is the case, and you have comments enabled on you blog, then Akismet is absolutely essential as well. Akismet is a “smart” spam filter, in that it is able to learn what should or should not be considered spam.

It amazes me the type of spam comments that people and spam bots try to post on blogs. To protect your site from such comments, you will need to configure the Akismet plugin (which comes pre-installed with WordPress) as well as create a WordPress.com API key.

Once setup, you’ll be able to view a list of all spam received, in order to confirm that the plugin didn’t catch a real comment. This is rare, but if it does happen, you can mark it as “Not Spam” – then just hit “Delete All” and the rest of the spam comments are gone!

You can enter your API key under the Plugins tab, and manage spam under the Comments tab.

Feed Your Obsession (To Constantly Check Stats)

RSS Feed Subscriptions

If you have a blog, you are no doubt constantly trying to increase the number of subscribers you have. The best way to keep track of this is with FeedBurner.

4. FeedBurner RSS and Email Feed Subscriptions

By default, WordPress automatically creates a feed address for your blog, enabling visitors to subscribe to updates using their RSS Feed Reader of choice. However this default setting is limited in that visitors to your site are only able to subscribe via RSS and you are not able to keep track of subscriber numbers.

By utilizing FeedBurner, you are able to give your visitors the additional option of signing up for updates via Email, as well as letting you track exactly how many subscribers you have.

You can create a free account on FeedBurner and give them your default WordPress feed address (something like yoursite.com/feed/). FeedBurner will in turn provide you with two unique URL’s, making it as easy as possible for people to subscribe to your blog updates.

Better yet, it keeps an accurate count of your subscribers that updates on a daily basis. FeedBurner even lets you view a list of subscriber email addresses.

You can place the HTML codes that FeedBurner provides in many different places on your site. It can be hard coded into the WordPress theme PHP files, entered as a Text/HTML widget for your sidebar under the Appearance tab, entered into individual pages or posts, or even included as options for several subscription and bookmarking plugins.

5. FeedBurner FeedSmith Plugin

Once you’ve setup your feeds with FeedBurner, it is very helpful to also install the FeedBurner FeedSmith Plugin. Without this plugin, you might run into the situation of some people clicking on your FeedBurner subscription URL, and other people finding (or manually typing in) the default WordPress feed address.

Either way, they are signing up for your blog updates, which is great. But, if they go through the default WordPress feed URL, their subscription won’t be included in your total subscriber count.

Enter FeedBurner FeedSmith! What this plugin does is automatically redirect any feeds coming from WordPress through FeedBurner, so that it is included in your total subscriber count.

For example, if you click the link going to this blog’s default WordPress feed URL:

http://www.freelancefolder.com/feed/

You’ll see in your address bar that it is automatically redirected to FeedBurner:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/freelancefolder

This redirect ensures the new subscriber will be included in your subscriber count.

You can enter your FeedBurner feed URL under the Settings tab.

Get Analytical – Comprehensive Stats Tracking

Comprehensive Stats Tracking

As with the obsession to check subscriber stats, comes the obsession to track visitor stats, as well. To aid in this is a wide range of statistics and analytics programs.

6. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is perhaps the most popular of the various stats programs available. It lets you track an amazing amount of visitor information – such as the number of visitors to your web site, how they found your site, what web browser they are using, etc.

Frequently analyzing visitor trends is a smart move for any web site owner, as it will give you a good idea of what the most popular content on your web site is, what search terms people are using to find you, what pages people are linking to on your site, etc.

Having a good view of visitor trends will help you to optimize your site further by letting you know what type of information people are looking for on your site, so you can provide even more helpful content. It’ll also give you a better idea of how you can update your site for better search engine optimization.

You can add the tracking code near the end of your footer.php file, just above the </body> tag.

Search Engine Optimization

One of the great benefits to having a blog is that by nature it is a type of web site that is frequently updated. Having frequently updated content is a GREAT benefit for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). WordPress itself has many features that are great for this, but coupled with a few additional plugins, it can’t be beat!

7. All In One SEO Pack

All In One SEO Pack is one of the more popular WordPress plugins in regards to SEO. Ask just about any expert WordPress user out there what SEO plugins they suggest, and you can bet this one is at or near the top of their list.

All In One SEO Pack gives you numerous items that you can control from the WordPress admin area. On a static web site, things like the Title tag, Description and Keyword meta tags must be hard coded into the HTML of the site.

With All In One, you are easily able to set these default tags for your home page through the WordPress admin area, without knowledge of HTML. Even more important, however, is that you are able to set specific tags for each individual page and post, as well. By default, if you do not manually update these, it will pull text from the post itself. Although this is quite helpful, you’ll ideally want to hand-craft the proper tags for each post.

You can edit the default information under the Settings tab, and update the information on each page/post under the post writing area.

8. Google XML Sitemaps

Many search engines – in particular Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com – utilize specially formatted XML Sitemaps in order to properly index all of the pages on your web site.

The Google XML Sitemaps plugin will automatically create this file for you, as well as update itself a regular basis by adding new pages or posts to the Sitemap file. The file generated includes a list of all the URL’s on your site, as well as additional information, such as the priority of the page, date a page was last modified, etc.

While having an XML Sitemap on your site does not by itself guarantee that your web site will be indexed by the search engines, it does help ensure that when it is found (usually by you submitting the Sitemap to the search engines – something else this plugin offers), that it can easily find all content of your site. If you happen to have pages that you don’t want to be indexed, you can specifically mark those pages or posts, so as not to have them appear in the Sitemap.

You can edit the settings and generate new sitemaps under the Settings tab.

Security and Safe Guarding

Database Backup

I’m sure that most of us know all too well the importance of frequent backups of personal and/or work files on your computer. Hopefully you’ve never had to learn this the hard way!

Well, your web site is no different. It’s crucial to frequently backup both the files on your server (usually by manually downloading files via FTP), as well as MySQL database tables, which are what contain the actual content (text from your pages and posts, comments, settings, etc.) for your WordPress driven web site.

9. WP DB Backup

Absolutely essential for ALL WordPress sites is the WP DB Backup plugin which can backup your entire MySQL database. This plugin provides several options for backups – for example, you can do a manual backup that will let you download the file to your computer, save it on your server, or send it to you via email.

Even more convenient, is the option to set the plugin to run automatically, letting you backup your database on an hourly, daily, twice daily or weekly basis, depending on how frequently you make updates to your web site.

WP DB Backup is somewhat like insurance – it’s something you hope you never have to use, but it is a lifesaver if you do end up needing it. In the event something in your database goes terribly wrong, you’ll be able to restore your site content with the most recent backup file created with the plugin.

You can select from the backup options under the Tools tab. Please remember, however, that this just backs up the Database tables – you’ll occasaionally want to download the site files files (PHP files, images, etc.) that can be accessed via FTP.

10. ____________________

For the WordPress developers out there, we’d love to hear from you! If you were setting up a new WordPress site and were limited to the plugins / feeds / tweaks / settings, etc. above… and only one more… what would it be?

Please share in the comments below!

To answer my own question, I’m going to cheat and pick two more plugins. ;)

Exec-PHP
If you plan on putting any PHP code in your posts or sidebar items (something necessary for more advanced customization of WordPress) the Exec-PHP plugin allows you to place PHP code into your pages, posts or sidebar items. Without this, you either get an error, a blank space, or most likely you’ll just see the <php> tags appear on your page. The Exec-PHP plugin allows your custom code to actually function – and the more I work with WordPress, the more I find that the possibilities are truly endless!
Deactivate Visual Editor
While Exec-PHP is great, it can sometimes use a little bit of help… If you only plan on putting PHP code in your sidebar items, then you can forgo this plugin. However if you plan to place some additional code on either your pages or posts, you’ll need to be sure to ONLY edit these pages using the HTML editor in the admin area. If you switch over to the Visual editor, it renders your code useless. This plugin forces you to use the HTML editor on any pages (or posts) that you specify, ensuring that any PHP code you’ve added stays fully in tact and functional.

More Web Design Resources from FreelanceFolder

If you liked this list of online resources, you might also enjoy these other web design posts from FreelanceFolder:

What’s On Your Must Have List?

Share Your Must Have Plugins

This is obviously just the beginning, as these are only a fraction of the seemingly limitless list of things you can do to customize and enhance your WordPress driven web site.

In particular are many plugins that can greatly improve upon a default WordPress blog – such as integration with social bookmarking sites, comment enhancing plugins or tweaks, photo gallery plugins, and more – certainly enough to warrant another post (or ten) of their own!

About the author: Selene M. Bowlby is a web designer and front-end web developer with over 10 years of professional experience in the design industry. After taking the "freelance plunge" in 2008, she runs her company, iDesign Studios full time, where she specializes in creating custom web sites for other businesses.

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120 Comments

Desizn Tech
May 4th, 2009 at 10:39 am

This should been done months ago. Could have been check list for my site. Unfortunately It is too late. Nevertheless, very useful tips! :)
JamieO
May 4th, 2009 at 10:56 am

For any site that is more than just a blog – aka Wordpress-as-a-CMS use cases – I find my own plugin – Idealien Categry Enhancements – to be invaluable. It does two big things better than the core for allowing theme developers / content users to leverage the power of Wordpress:

You can name category / post theme files as category-photos.php rather than the indescriptive category-32.php or single-32.php. You can select which category template applies to which category through the admin console (manage > categories). A great feature for theme developers who build LOTS of custom templates and want to give non-technical users the ability to apply them to specific categories without modifying PHP.

Sub-categories can (configurable option) inherit the template of their parent. If you have a blog, a photo gallery, a portfolio, etc each which have nested child-categories, you don’t need to have a lot of conditional logic that must be updated whenever you add sub-categories or change category ID’s.

The upcoming version which should release around the same time as V2.8 of WP will offer the ability to override post templates from the post editing window as well as proper support for child theme concepts which it “may” support depending on how the parent / child theme structure was implemented within specific parent themes.
Maria
May 4th, 2009 at 11:00 am

How about wp-typogrify, widget-logic, wp-super-cache and easy-contact and breadcrumbs?

That (along with most of the ones you mentioned) are what is in my shared plugins directory.
Andrea_R
May 4th, 2009 at 11:06 am

Can I add an extra tip for #3?

Use WP’s *internal* comment blacklist and moderation, so the obvious spam gets dealt with before it even gets to Akismet. Less processing for Akismet to do, less spam filling up the database because it’s kicked to the curb before it gets saved. And hopefully less false positives. :)

I find it’s more efficient all the way around then.
Michelle
May 4th, 2009 at 11:07 am

Thank you, fantastic list!

The only one I’d change out is All-in-One SEO – I’ve been having a lot better luck with Headspace (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/headspace2/).

If I could add one more… that’s tough. I’d have to add two: Cleaner Gallery (which cleans up the default WP gallery code) and Slimbox2, so that photos automatically pop up into pretty lightboxes.

Thanks again for the list, nice to see on a Monday morning. :)
Erik
May 4th, 2009 at 11:14 am

First off, love the website. The information here in invaluable.

Maybe you’ve covered it before and I missed it, but it might be helpful to do a similar post for us Google Bloggers out there. While not necessarily as popular as Wordpress, the list of Blogger apps/widgets is increasing at an exponential rate. Granted, many of the suggestions above are applicable with both platforms, but I am curious as to what you think is worth adding, particularly whether a relevant SEO pack exists for Blogger.
Addicott Web
May 4th, 2009 at 11:19 am

Thanks for the interesting post. I write about Wordpress a lot as well, and there are a lot more plugins that I think are essential and that I regularly install when setting up a Wordpress website. Of course, the caveat to that is that my list of essential plugins varies depending on whether I’m building the website for a client who is using it more as a CMS, or for someone is using it more for a blog.

No matter how Wordpress is being used, two of my absolute essentials I install are:

- WP-Super Cache
- Lightbox

Then, if someone is using Wordpress as a blog, I recommend installing:

- Better Comments Manager
- No self pings
- Subscribe to Comments
- Similar Posts
- Popular Posts
- Share This
- WP-Pagenavi

You can see more of my recommendations at http://www.addicottweb.com/2009/02/essential-plugins-for-your-wordpress-website-or-blog/.
Chris@Mathewson.me
May 4th, 2009 at 11:23 am

Good list; I already use most of those, and those I don’t I probably have a different flavor.

In addition to Google Analytics, I like to have WP-Stats installed as well. While not as comprehensive as Analytics, WP-Stats provides stats in real-time, more or less, whereas Analytics compiles stats in 24 hour increments.
Rahul
May 4th, 2009 at 11:31 am

The plugins that you’ve listed above are very good. I like them very much and have them installed in my website too.

Here are some of other plugins that I use and would suggest:

1) Math Comment Spam Protection
2)WordPress.com Stats
3) WordPress Related Posts
4) AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget (drop-down)
Colin Wright
May 4th, 2009 at 11:33 am

WP-Supercache is a good one to keep in mind, just in case you get Digg/Lifehacker/StumbleUpon-bombed.
Fresh Jen Dizzle
May 4th, 2009 at 11:48 am

Every new wordpress user who is serious about starting off right should read this one!
Spellcrafter
May 4th, 2009 at 11:56 am

I have to agree on the WP-Supercache. If you expect any major amount of traffic, it comes under the category of essential. I would also like to mention Postie, for anyone who wants to be able to post to their blog via email. It has much more functionality than the built in email posting capabilities.
Addicott Web
May 4th, 2009 at 12:09 pm

For Wordpress websites that I build for clients, I’ve also been regularly installing these plugins (see my post here – http://www.addicottweb.com/2009/03/6-more-wordpress-plugins-you-should-be-using/):

- Easy Contact Form
- Thank Me Later
- WP-UnitPNGFix (fixes PNG transparency in IE 6.0)
- Thumbnail for Excerpts
- Multilevel Navigation
- Embed iframe (useful for embedding Google maps, calendars, etc.)

Most of these add in functionality of some sort, while the “Thank Me Later” plugin is a great way to foster a relationship with your commenters.
John Soares
May 4th, 2009 at 12:31 pm

Excellent list. I’m using most of these, but I’ll install the back-up plugin soon.
Writer Dad
May 4th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

Tweet Suite is now my new must have. It does an awesome job with something that is now mandatory: Twitter.
Marc
May 4th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

Thanks for this list!
Ty Dennis
May 4th, 2009 at 1:17 pm

Thanks to @g33kguy I am now using Alex King WordPress Mobile Edition which is super for my employers blog/pressroom. A lot of the VP’s have their blackberry and are always on the go. http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress

Great article as always Selene and very helpful. /
T-Law
May 4th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

Useful list for all new WordPress’ers :) My favorite All In One SEO Pack.
Andrea Pelizzardi
May 4th, 2009 at 2:06 pm

There are also these three fabolous plugin, useful for every kind of blog:

– Gravatar [ http://en.gravatar.com/#section_2_2 ]
– Maintenance Mode [ http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/plugins/maintenance-mode/
- Separate Comments & Pings [ http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/separate-comment-pings/ ]

:)
taylan
May 4th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Great list. Simple Tags and Sociable plugins can be added to the list. Thanks…
Goofydg1
May 4th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

Good list. I use many of them in different situations. Some others are
WP Security Scan
WP Polls
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Stijn
May 4th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

WP DB Manager (by Lester Chan) does the same for me as WP DB Backup, but can also handle table repair and optimizations, without having to switch to PHPMyAdmin. As for personal favourites besides the ones you’ve listed here, I think I’ll go with Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu. Something so simple, that had made management so much easier.
Bill
May 4th, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Fine list. My antispam favorite http://antispambee.com
Thx.
Adam Pieniazek
May 4th, 2009 at 2:53 pm

Personally, I just disable the visual editor on all my wordpress installations via the wordpress settings for users. To me it serves no real purpose, especially since I can easily preview the page to see exactly how it will look visually.

I would add Subscribe to Comments as absolutely necessary for any wordpress blog. It will get used often and will bring repeat traffic back to your blog and will keep discussions going. There’s many times when I comment on a blog without an option to subscribe to comments and will tell the blogger in my comments that they really must install this plugin to make it easier for readers to track conversations.
Jacob Gube
May 4th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

I’m not a big fan of plugins because many of them use up a lot of system resources and aren’t written optimally; if I need a feature, I write it myself. With that said, here are the only plugins I use:

1. Super Cache – it improves your pages’ response times and reduces database queries.
2. Google XML Sitemaps – simple, automized way to maintain a Sitemap.
3. All-in-one SEO pack – Handy for assigning meta tags and general search engine optimization tasks.
The_Patriot
May 4th, 2009 at 4:19 pm

Microaudio: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/microaudio/

Turns any link to an MP3 into one of those beauty-small little players – invaluable if you have audio content…
Naomi Trower
May 4th, 2009 at 7:22 pm

Great list! I love the Twitter plugins Tweet My Blog and Retweet Plugins..I just found out about the Broken Link plugins that shows you any broken links on any of your blogs..
GoBoxy
May 4th, 2009 at 10:31 pm

nice post, very rich, i will link to it in my blog
david hopkins
May 5th, 2009 at 1:52 am

Dont forget something like YARPP (yet another related post) and wp-poll – bpth adding value to a wp blog
Ben Mapp
May 5th, 2009 at 1:54 am

Great list.

I’d say that the one “essential” plugin that’s missing is:

Improved Plugin Installation
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/improved-plugin-installation/

It allows you to download and install a plugin with two clicks of the mouse. A huge time-saver. It’s the first WP plugin I downloaded. And I’m glad it was.

- Ben Mapp
http://www.RoadMappMarketing.com
Ezra Sandoval
May 5th, 2009 at 2:05 am

Great post. I have just started using Wordpress and this was just what I needed. I was already using about half of these plugins but didn’t know about the rest. I have already installed these and put them to work.
Ari Herzog
May 5th, 2009 at 2:09 am

Kudos to Michelle in the comments above referring to Slimbox2. I just installed that… looks neat!
Harsh Agrawal
May 5th, 2009 at 3:25 am

Thanks for such a wonderful post. Stumbled
Install Scripts Videos
May 5th, 2009 at 4:04 am

Awesome suggestions! Ive done all on my blog except for feedburner, how could I have missed that one… Thank you!
Lillea
May 5th, 2009 at 5:55 am

Robots Meta is one of my favorites. Being a non-programmer, I couldn’t figure out how to protect pages before I got that plugin.

I’m having a much easier time working with WordPress since I bought Leanne King’s new product which I review here: http://www.speedonlinewealth.com/blog/wordpress-for-internet-marketers-leanne-king-review/
kamrul
May 5th, 2009 at 6:06 am

A very useful post. It will surely help me starting my story site 100-stories.com which I think I will develop with word press.
Sparky
May 5th, 2009 at 6:58 am

Nice list.

Wordpress Stats and Yet Another Related Posts Plugin are two from my list that aren’t on yours. I created a WordPress setup checklist just last week that includes my essential plugins.

I am shopping around for a new Contact Form plugin if anyone has any recommendations.
Joshua Parker
May 5th, 2009 at 7:04 am

Here are another few honorable mentions:

1. 404 SEO Plugin – gives a more meaningful 404 message to your readers.
2. Firestats – Its a resource hog, but you can add it to a different database after install.
3. WP Ban – Ban by ip, refererrer, etc.
4. WPML Multilingual CMS – Turns your website into a multi-lingual site with other added features.
Florian Komm
May 5th, 2009 at 7:12 am

I would also recommend the Robots Meta plugin by Joost de Valk to manage your robots.txt in your backend. You also can include your webmastertool codes vom Google, Yahoo & Microsoft.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
May 5th, 2009 at 7:19 am

We recently posted 13 little-known plugins that we’ve found to be real gems. You can check out these here – and probably find one that suits exactly what you need. (Exclude Pages, anyone?)

http://menwithpens.ca/13-wordpress-plugins
Nikhil
May 5th, 2009 at 7:28 am

Great post,

Although all the plugins are Basic but all are important to make the blog better..
Sue Bailey
May 5th, 2009 at 8:20 am

No Self Pings should definitely be on everyone’s list (in fact, the ability to switch off self-pingage should be in core).

Bad Behaviour – for a “belt and braces” approach to stopping spam, complements Akismet well.

I like Contact Form 7 – seems to work easily straight out the box every time I use it, though I guess everyone has their favourite contact form plugin.
philip
May 5th, 2009 at 8:57 am

Great Post!

Thanks for the list!
Addicott Web
May 5th, 2009 at 9:12 am

My recommendation for a contact form plugin is the Easy Contact plugin. I’ve used it on a few of the Wordpress websites that I’ve built or am building (my website included) and really like it. It has some great functionality, is easy to use, and you can customize both how it works and how it looks however you want.
Steve Ollis
May 5th, 2009 at 10:10 am

There’s 3 plugins you’re going to want to have:

1) Hyper Cache (v. 2.2.4) by Satollo – has better support for wp-pda, and outperforms super cache in my testing.
2) WP Widget Cache (v. 0.25.1) by Andrew Zhang – reduces db queries thus reducing load on server
3) DB Cache (v. 0.6) by Dmitry Svarytsevych – This is the plugin to rule them all. This saves me about 70-80 db queries, and keeps the db load to a minimum.

You can see my blog config at http://www.theitjuggler.com/about/about-this-blog/
Yana
May 5th, 2009 at 10:44 am

Just for your Information, I read your blog through Google Reader. When I click on ‘Show original item’, the post link is http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freelancefolder/~3/7DMVmu1XM3E/ and this site is forbidden by my corporate firewall. I saw the same for feedburner on another blog. The only way for me to access the original site is no click on a link inside a post, if there is any. In your case it’s the first image that’s linked to the original page.
Cocobolo
May 5th, 2009 at 11:06 am

You have no idea how much it hurts to be as new as I am. Oh, it’s terrible. I just learned about wordpress yesterday, don’t have an account yet, but soon I hope. So I bookmarked this list which I hope will be of considerable help. So this is just a “Thank You” from me to you for taking the time to do this.
Simon Stapleton
May 5th, 2009 at 11:15 am

It was a massive relief to find out that I have all these installed on my blog!

I’d hate to think I was missing out!

Thanks for sharing this, I am sure new bloggers will find it extremely helpful.
Jay Robinson
May 5th, 2009 at 11:32 am

An absolute must is Improved Include Page by Vito Tardia (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/improved-include-page/).
Once installed, use the PHP function iinclude_page('##'); to put the content from any WP page into any template. Makes it very easy to create a custom homepage layout filled with easily editable content, and I couldn’t work without it.
Brian Peppler
May 5th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

I use Wordpress for my client review site where I post design revisions and project documentation. With a combination of the Members Only (http://bit.ly/O4JIr) and Role Scoper plugins (http://bit.ly/Brmyx) all content on the site is password protected and clients can only view the posts available in their respective category.
Raymond Selda
May 5th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Thank you for this article. I just installed FeedSmith plugin.
Tracey Kazimir-Cree
May 5th, 2009 at 2:59 pm

Great article! I was composing a list like this for myself and was missing just a few of these. One I would say is a must is Wordpress Automatic Upgrade. It makes upgrades go much faster for me and I appreciate saving that time.
منتديات
May 5th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

thnka alot
Laurie Phillips@The Dead Company Club
May 5th, 2009 at 5:52 pm

This article AND the comments are an instant classic. Thanks for starting this.

I love Tweet This. TinyMCE was a good find too. It’s an enhanced editor that reduces headaches when trying to format posts. Does anyone else have a good plug-in for post formatting?
Anlina Sheng
May 5th, 2009 at 11:29 pm

You can do one better than just installing Google Analytics. I love the Ultimate Google Analytics plugin (http://www.oratransplant.nl/uga), because (among other spiffy features) you can set it up to not insert the analytics code on any pages you view while you are logged in, which means when you’re updating your blog or doing other admin stuff, analytics isn’t tracking your visits and pageviews and skewing your numbers.

Choosing just one other plugin would be a challenge. There are so many good ones that might be THE plugin to have, depending on your goals and the size of your readership. Some of my favourites are: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, Twitter Tools, RSS Footer, Share This, Meet Your Commenters, Better Nearby Post Links, and WP Page Numbers.

I suppose WP Security Scan is a good one for anyone to have, and WP Super Cache would be invaluable to anyone getting lots of traffic.
Venkat
May 6th, 2009 at 1:45 am

What about Contact Form 7?

I always wondered why wordpress site doesn’t have an option to sort/filter plugins by rating/downloads, etc. It confuses newbie’s a lot in deciding which one to use.

Nice list to help them. Thanks
Internet Marketing Blog
May 6th, 2009 at 2:54 am

I’m glad to find out that I have all these plugins installed on my blog as well plus many more! One for instance is the “WP Greet Box” which displays a message reminding the reader to subscribe to their RSS feed. The message is displayed in a neat rectangular box at in the top or bottom of each post (see the example on my blog). I find it very useful and it encourages more readers to subscribe to your RSS feed.

Tom Duong
Tom Duong @ Internet Marketing Blog
May 6th, 2009 at 2:54 am

I’m glad to find out that I have all these plugins installed on my blog as well plus many more! One for instance is the “WP Greet Box” which displays a message reminding the reader to subscribe to their RSS feed. The message is displayed in a neat rectangular box at in the top or bottom of each post (see the example on my blog). I find it very useful and it encourages more readers to subscribe to your RSS feed.

Tom
Jeffry Degrande
May 6th, 2009 at 8:24 pm

ozh admin drop down is a must since the left sidebar navigation. Headspace2 is preferred over all-in-one-seo-pack. For one, it plays nicely together with buddypress.

For backups I simply put the following 3 lines in a php file in the root of my wordpress installs:

include (’wp-config.php’);
include (ABSPATH . ‘wp-admin/includes/export.php’);
export_wp();

This way you can get your content exported remotely and store it in your dropbox folder (for example)
Jared Walker
May 7th, 2009 at 12:28 am

I’ve used the cforms II plugin to make a “Get Quote” page, but it could be used for any types of forms on your site.
Bruce > The Big Desk
May 7th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

Great list – I use them all.
One important one is the Security Scan. Folks need to take a few easy steps to help keep the bogey man away…
SEO Updates Daily
May 8th, 2009 at 1:11 am

Nice post, all plugins are important for WP Blog,

Just include ajax captcha plugins, to protect blog from software generated spam comments, and adsense manager plugins, to manage adsense on your WP Blog.
Tim McNabb
May 11th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

I have come to really appreciate AWS Easy Page Link. Load it up, and it’s much easier to link to pages on your WordPress site. Makes WP act more like a CMS.
Sajid
May 12th, 2009 at 5:18 am

The list could be larger though as there are a lot of great tricks.
The plug-ins is easier to install now.
Thanks for the tips.
havis
May 13th, 2009 at 3:47 am

great one
i used that all thanks
brian
May 13th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

Thanks for posting this. I hadn’t seen the plugin that deactivates the visual editor.

I have a few on a list I posted on my site. One of the notable plugins that I am featuring is Login Lockdown. Check it out.

http://www.creativewhirlwind.com/10-great-wordpress-plugins/
Zahid
May 16th, 2009 at 5:31 pm

Besides the feedsmith plugin, I have pretty much everything mentioned. It’s funny how I always wondered if there would be a way to redirect all the feeds request to feedburner so i atleast have some idea of how many people are subscribed to the feed.

I love All in one SEO and it is my all time favorite. Thanks for providing this useflu list.

Oh yeah, for me number 10 would be Sociable… I like it :)
wannadevelop.com
May 17th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

Nice list there…

I will make a wordpress essentials top 100 list next week! :)
Max
May 27th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

For the last #10 plugin I would select Simple Sidebar Navigation plugin. I think it’s the only plugin available right now that as flexible and as easy to use to create custom top and sidebar navigation.
Data Entry
May 29th, 2009 at 5:51 am

Good Job,

Although all the plugins are Basic but all are important to make the blog better..

your
Christopher Hennis
May 29th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

Nice list of plug-ins. Also the fact that you took the time to discuss them a bit was appreciated. Even though I already use all of them (except the Feedburner one), I just enjoyed reading the article.
Miranda
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:35 pm

Hello!
Thanks for such a great article. Simple and concise, but very helpful. Perfect for newbies like me. I have added all these plugins!
Selene M. Bowlby
June 4th, 2009 at 10:14 am

Wow – thank you for all the great feedback on the post!

I’m glad to have helped with this basic list, and many of you have suggested additional essential plugins, as well. Quite a few are plugins that I often use myself, though there are equally as many that are new to me, and ones that I definitely see myself using on future sites – thank you!
My Blogging School
June 10th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

Your initial list only held one surprise to me, which I am adding to my installation zip right away. I am going to have all my students read this post as well as the comments to find additional uses for the plugins.

One I absolutely love is Twitter Tools, which allows a lot of different Twitter actions. And the Exclude Pages plugin is great for having pages that you don’t want showing up in your navigation menu!

This was definitely a required reading post.

Micheal
Jayson
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:16 am

It was a pleasure on the senses, thanks for the outstanding advice.
I will be using every last bit of info.
All the best with your future project.
Dainis Graveris
June 29th, 2009 at 4:01 am

Beautiful article – maybe all the plugins are very well known already, I like how you spent your time to explain pros and cons..and actually why and in which case to use them!

Thanks a lot!
Jonny
June 30th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

My top 10 would include the linkbuilding plugin from IBL Builder, its getting me quite a few decent one way backlinks for my blog. Its on their homepage at http://www.iblbuilder.com
Wordpressthemegenerator
July 8th, 2009 at 4:57 am

There are a lot of great tricks.Thanks for the tips.

Online Word-press theme making is available at my site check it….
blessie
July 25th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

Except for no 9 (WP DB Backup). I’ve been using all of them. for the db backup, I have a cron job that does that for me.
Frank Scurley
October 15th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

I don‘t know If I said it already but …Hey good stuff…keep up the good work! :) I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,)

…..Frank Scurley
Graeme
October 16th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

I am just beginning to learn the benefit of wordpress as a cms. I would include the role control and post control plugins in my top 10!
Amar
October 20th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

I recently started my blog so this list is definitely going to help me :) Thanks a ton
Crazy83
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Set an example for your neighbors. ,
James
November 9th, 2009 at 12:43 am

Yeah you are absolutely right SEO is very important for any blog optimization. I really liked that plugin.

Thankx for providing quality content..
Mathaios
November 19th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

Realy essential plug-in list mate!What about Auto anchor list plug-in?
I think that makes reading and finding the contents in every blog`s page so easy and also is good for SEOing.See it in action in my blog at the top of every page apart the home page.
david fu ta wei
December 28th, 2009 at 3:00 am

good site sir,, do you agree to exchange link with me?
ari wibowo
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:00 am

HII prend,, nice post is in your blog..
i’m from indonesia..
may i to exchange link with u..??
contact me or visit my blog ..
thankzz
Mia Lobel
January 26th, 2010 at 9:16 pm

As a new WP user this is incredibly helpful. Thank you! I installed all of them except for feedsmith which I’m having a problem with (not finding it in the internal plugin list and getting errors from the downloaded version.) Has something changed with that one since this post? Great post as always.
Kelly watson
January 31st, 2010 at 8:13 pm

This is great post…thanks
Carol Dunlop
February 24th, 2010 at 6:02 pm

Great post and awesome list! I have everything but 2 of them, which have downloaded and will be installing.

I am with Naomi Trower, talking about the Twitter plugins, can’t live without them.
Jamesh
February 25th, 2010 at 7:41 am

This blog is really nice and informative. We are pleased to know this blog is really helping people.

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