Here is a quick list, mainly for reference, regarding some Wordpress plugins that I always install when creating a new blog.
Akismet
This plugin comes with Wordpress, but needs a Wordpress API key to run. Don’t worry, you can get a API key for free just by creating a account at Wordpress.com. What better way to stop spam on any blog than by using Akismet? I have found that it stops 99% of spam getting through and very rarely has any false positives. The good thing about Akismet is that it is constantly being updated and improved through spam on other blogs. This means that when you flag something as spam it gets recorded by Akismet and the same spam on other blogs will be caught as well. Neat.
View more information about Akismet.
All in One SEO Pack
Although Wordpress isn’t terrible with regards to SEO, it does need a push in the right direction for some aspects. This plugin will allow you to control much of the meta data that is essential to get right on any site. You can control things like meta keyword and description tags and even the contents of your title tags.
View more information about All in One SEO Pack.
Google XML Sitemaps
The sitemap.xml file can be submitted to lots of search engines, who will then use it to spider your site. This plugin will not only create the files, but will also submit them directly to search engines (not just Google). I still have trouble understanding why Wordpress doesn’t allow you to create sitemap.xml files out of the box.
View more information about Google XML Sitemaps.
Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
The other side of coin with regards to sitemaps is the HTML sitemap. This plugin will create a nice looking paginated sitemap on any Wordpress page that you want.
View more information about Dagon Design Sitemap Generator.
cformsII
Wordpress doesn’t have a contact form facility, so yet another plugin is required. This is by far the best contact form plugin I have used. It has all of the functionality that you would expect from any contact form and even allows users to send files. Although it works very well, there is one issue when it has been updated. It seems to set all of the files to be non-readable, which causes the stylesheet to be hidden from the browser, which makes the form look a little odd. The solution is simply to change the permissions back to 775.
View more information about cformsII.
ShareThis
Social bookmarking is important in any social media campaign, and the best thing you can do is get other people to submit your site. Submitting your own site over and over again not only reduces the importance of future submissions, it also makes you look like a spammer. The ShareThis plugin will allow anyone to post to the social bookmarking site of their choice through a simple button. This makes it easier for the people who read your blog to post your pages.
View more information about ShareThis.
Twitter Tools
One good way of generating some traffic from social media is through the use of the incredibly popular Twitter. Twitter tools has lots of different things that make it stand out from the rest of the Twitter plugins available. Not only will it post any new blog post to Twitter, but it will also create a widget than you can add that will display your latest Twitter posts in your side bar. You can even post to Twitter from this side bar.
View more information about Twitter Tools.
The best thing about all of these plugins is that you can just set them up and forget about them. This allows you to concentrate on writing blog posts and not continuously editing your plugin settings.
Philip Norton
Lead Developer, Research and Development
