21 Essential WordPress Plugins
10. Dec, 2008 
24 Comments
WordPress is nothing without its plugins, they are an integral part of any WordPress blog. Due to the overwhelming choice of WordPress plugins, though, it can be nerve wracking for any person to select the important ones for their blog.
So here I present to you 21 Essential WordPress Plugins. Your blog is incomplete without these:
The All-in-One SEO Pack is the ultimate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plugin out there. It automatically optimizes your blog for search engines, and has several options for the more advanced users.
2. Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not, and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s Comments admin screen. With the ever increasing amount of spam on the web, you’d be dumb not to get this plugin.
The FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin detects all ways to access your feed (e.g. yoursite.com/feed/ or yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php etc) and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed, and optionally, your comments feed as well.
4. Google XML Sitemaps Generator
The Google XML Sitemaps Generator plugin generates an XML sitemap of your WordPress blog. Ask, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN support this format. Having an XML sitemap and submitting it to the search engines that support it can really increase your blog’s search engine visibility, especially when it’s new.
WordPress.com Stats is a traffic statistics plugin that shows only the most popular metrics a blogger wants to track – such as page views, referrers, top posts & pages, search engine terms, and clicks – and provides them in a clear and concise interface.
6. Sociable
Sociable automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages, and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the Digg Effect and the Slashdot Effect. They can cause a server meltdown, and if you’re on shared hosting, get your ass kicked out. To Digg-proof your blog, get WP Super Cache. It reduces the load on your server b generating static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog.
8. One Click
The One-Click plugin allows you to upload themes and plugins straight to your WordPress blog from the browser. Just upload the zip file, and it’ll automatically unzip the contents and install the plugin for you. Now you never have to use FTP again!
Ever felt your dashboard was too cluttered? Then download Dashboard Widget Manager. It allows you to remove unnecessary widgets from your dashboard so it’ll look clean and load faster.
10. Exec-PHP
Exec-PHP lets you execute PHP code in posts, pages, and in the text widgets of your sidebar.
11. Google Analytics for WordPress
The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin lets you insert the Google Analytics code automatically throughout your blog. It discounts your own visits, automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links, and downloads. It even allows you to track AdSense clicks, add extra search engines, and track image search queries.
12. Lighter Menus
Lighter Menus creates drop down menus instead of the regular admin menus for WordPress, so you can browse items in one click. It’s fast to load, adaptable to color schemes, and comes with some sleek icons.
13. PageMash
Customize the order of your pages, manage their parent structure, and hide them, all using PageMash. It features an Ajax drag-and-drop administrative interface, and is a great tool to re-arrange the order of your pages quickly.
14. Simple Trackback Validation
The Simple Trackback Validation plugin helps to eliminate trackback spam by performing a simple a simple but effective test on all incoming trackbacks.
15. WP-Spam Free
Fed up of all that comment spam? Stop wasting time checking and clearing your Akismet spam queue every day and download WP-SpamFree. It will eliminate 99% – 100% of the comment spam you receive. Yep, I’m not joking. And it does it without captchas! WP-SpamFree uses a combo of JavaScript and cookies to stop the spambots. Since 99% of the spambots out there can’t process JavaScript, they won’t be able to submit comments. It also doesn’t slow down your blog one bit.
From the day I’ve installed WP-SpamFree, I’ve received zero comment spam! I highly recommend you get this one, unless you’re masochistic.
16. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) inserts a list of related posts below each post on your blog, and in your blog’s RSS feed. It’s extremely configurable, and a must-have.
17. Contact Form 7
Even though there are tens of contact form plugins out there, I’ve always liked Contact Form 7. The problem with most contact form plugins is that either they are too simple or way too complex. Contact Form 7, on the other hand, is extensible yet easy-to-use. It supports Ajax-powered submitting, multiple forms, CAPTCHAS, and Akismet spam filtering.
18. Manageable
Manage allows inline editing of the date, title, categories, tags, status, and more of both posts and pages without ever having to leave the “Manage” admin section. No need to load each post or page individually. Simply double-click anywhere in the post or page row and when you’re done, press enter.
You should always backup your WordPress database regularly. However, doing it manually every time can be difficult and time consuming. The WordPress Database Backup plugin lets you easily backup your WordPress database tables. You can even schedule a backup, and it’ll email the file to you every day!
20. OIO Publisher
OIO Publisher is the ultimate ad management plugin. It’s great for those who want to sell ads on their blog by themselves. The great thing about OIO is that it removes all the hassle one gets from self-selling ad space: you only have to approve purchases. OIO Publisher handles everything else. Using OIO, you can sell reviews, links, ads, and even your own products! Heck, it even allows you to create your own affiliate program, so other people can sell your ads and products for you.
The SRG Clean Archives plugin displays your archive listings in a clean and uniform fashion, that’s search engine and user-friendly, on a dedicated page or in your sidebar. If you’re still manually updating your archives page, stop doing it!
(Photo credit: teddY-riseD)
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That’s a great base of plugins. Most I have but I may have to try manageable.
Thanks for the information. There were a couple on here that I was not familiar with
Thanks for the list theres a few that will come in handy.
makasi infona..salam knal ya..
kemarin saya pernah download yang ada di dafar itu tapi malah sulit keindex googel…
emang da yang salah ya….
mohon bimbingannya
Very useful & very essential plugins for wordpress thanks for sharing..
Just an FYI, Yet Another Related Posts plugin is a great plugin, but it slows down WordPress badly.
Thank for the plugin list.
I am using about 1 quarter of them right now.
Will definately look into #8 One click.
Thank again for this great list.
All the best in 09,
Cedric Aubry
Great starter list for sure. I have spent about 3 months testing over 1500 Wordpress plugins and their suitability for IM, and the ones you have are all on the list :>)
I have also developed an auto-installer for a killer pack of plugins available at my site.
Great work!
Ron
Some great plugins here. I use half of these plugins. Thanks for sharing.
terimakasih. Sangat bermanfaat sekali.
I don’t use plugins much… but Askimet is the best! It saves like 3 hours a day for me.
thank for sharing
nice posts
ini artikelnya hasil translate pake translator ya?
soalnya banyak kata2 yang aneh, sepeti “WP-Spam Gratis” mungkin diambil dari lata “WP bebas Spam” dengan kata asal WP Spam Free”
tapi artikelnya bagus ko dan sangat berguna.. good post
Interesting!I’m a new blogger and I’ve installed
All in one SEO
I think I’ll install related posts, trackback validation and sociable
In future it’ll be the OIO publisher for ads
Nice Blog my friend! Keep up the good work
Cheers
Sandeep
can you tell me something more about contact form 7..i mean can we function this plugin as a guest post plugin for a blog.
cheers,
gurtey
Great! Thanks for sharing these, will definitely use!
nice info friends,, very helpful,,,
Thank for this article..This plugin i will use at my new site soon…Thank you so much…
I just wanna say..Really thank for your post..This plugin will be used at my new site..
Thank you so much..
Great resource. As i am just launching my first blog site for myself, a lot of good info here for me to look into re plug-ins for WordPress.
Hey Thanks, for the essential wordpress plugins as i am a newbie so i’ve put my hands on everything that possible for me,
Well i will add each and try it.
Thanks
Gaurav Mainali