10 Essential WordPress plug-ins
WordPress is one of the most commonly used blogging platforms. In terms of functionality, it is very advanced. And best of all it is free. There is also an active developer base which means that more features will be added with every new release. If you are planning to create a blog, I would recommend WordPress.
Plug-ins are designed to extend the functionality that WordPress offers. These are written in PHP and have to be downloaded and installed on your WordPress installation before you can use them. Most of the plug-ins are freely available but there are some paid plug-ins also. You can download plug-ins from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.
Here is a list of 10 essential plug-ins that I will find very useful:
1. All in One SEO Pack – It plug-in makes you a blog very search engine friendly. It takes care of every aspect of search engine optimization. Using this plug-in, you can change titles, meta-tags and slugs and ensure that your pages rank well in search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
2. Google XML Sitemaps – This plug-in allows you to add a site map to your blog. It generates dynamic sitemaps very easily.
3. WP Super Cache – Caching of the dynamic pages helps reducing the load on the server. Caching helps the webserver to deliver the pages as static pages and thus makes your blog load very fast. WP Super Cache is undoubtedly the best caching plug-ins available.
4. WP-DB-Backup – Many times, the database get corrupted for various reasons. WP-DB-Backup helps in backing up the database tables for later retrieval.
5. Redirection – Pages and URLs may turn non-existent and result in 404 pages. Redirection of the page to the right page is important for keeping your users engaged. Redirection plug-in help you do this.
6. Akismet – Akismet helps you fight spam comments on your blog. This comes installed by default. However, you will need a free key to use this plug-in.
7. WordPress.com Stats – This plug-in makes it easy to track your visitors without leaving your dashboard.
8. WP-Paginate – WP-Paginate helps you allow your visitors navigate through the archive pages easily.
9. YARRP – Keeping visitors engaged is the way to have more page views. This plugin provides an option to display the old related stories in your blog below the current story.
10. WPtouch – Finally, now most of the web browsing is happening thru, smart mobile phones. This plugin automatically changes your WordPress blog into mobile friendly web site, especially with iPhone it works as an iPhone application.
