The Wordpress Plugins I Like
Nell reminded me how much I love Wordpress. It is an absolutely amazing way to manage a content site and I have probably a dozen different WP blogs now. I do the installations and customization my self usually…although I have been known to outsource a custom skin. That can set me back about $500 or more so I don’t do that often.
When I install a new blog the FIRST thing I do is change the permalink structure to be more SE friendly. By default the permalink structure includes the full date (month, day, and year) inside the URL. I change this right away to get rid of the date and usually just leave the post title and the post number.
Next I add some plugins I can’t live without. These are the tools that work behind the scenes to make blogging easier and more productive.
Spam Karma - This plugin gets rid of the spam that can attack your blog daily. If I didn’t have Spam Karma or something similar I wouldn’t blog because the spam would be overwhelming.
All in One SEO Pack - This nifty little tool adds a custom title to each page (different from the post title), a custom description, and keywords…for each individual post. I like this plugin because post titles should be catchy to get the readers attention but that might not be the best title for SEO purposes so this plugin allows you to have your cake and eat it too.
FeedBurner FeedSmith - This redirects your RSS feed to your custom Feedburner feed. This allows you to customize your feed and track subscribers.
MightyAdsense - If you use Adsense on your blog this is the easiest way to add it. You just add the code and select the location….simple.
Related Posts - This plugin adds a string of links to related posts at the end of each post based upon keywords. If you blogged about Squidoo for instance then it would have links to other posts you wrote about Squidoo at the bottom of the post. However, I find that this plugin is testy. You have to run a database script to get it running and for no apparent reason it works sometimes and not others…even on brand new blogs and databases.
RSS Feed Signature - This adds a signature to your RSS feed. It can be text or anything in html. I use this plugin to add an affiliate link or banner to the RSS feed to promote to feed readers who don’t visit the blog to read my latest posts.
Share This - This plugin adds links to social networking and book marking sites like Digg and Stumbleupon. It also allows a reader to email the link to a friend.
SimpleTags - Adds technorati tags to the bottom of each post…although you have to write them manually.
WWSGD - This adds a box to the top or the bottom of the first post to remind readers to subscribe to your RSS feed.
Depending on the blog I also add a few other plugins but those are the main ones I look to first. What ones do YOU use?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
February 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 am
Awesome post, Tiffany. There are some plugins mentioned that I don’t use. I’ll have to check those out.
Nell Taliercio’s last blog post..4 Hours = 30 Days
February 4th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Oh wow. I didn’t know about most of those. I know there are so many cool things WP does that I haven’t discovered yet. What about the one you mentioned the other day that keeps you from pinging the SEs too often?
February 4th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Carrie,
I forget the name of the one I initially used. Something about future dated posts…Lynette suggested it. Now I am using MaxPress Ping Optimizer.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
[...] [...]