Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins

Any top ten list is bound to be contentious and this list is going to be no different.  There are an amazing array of WordPress plugins available. This list concerns itself with essential plugins. Most are related to security, spam protection, and search engine optimization.

Some plugins suit some themes better than others. For example, the All-in-One SEO Plugin and the Google Analytics plugin used to be my favourite plugins until I found the Thesis theme.  Thesis made both these plugins unnecessary, however in place of this I still need  need the Robots Meta plugin which allows me to easily change which pages are indexed and which links should be dofollow or nofollow.

So bearing in mind that I use the Thesis theme, I am excluding some SEO plugins and Google Analytics Plugins. My top 10 plugins are:

  1. Robots Meta:  This allows you to easily change which pages are indexed and whether links should be dofollow or nofollow.
  2. Fast and Secure Contact Form: This allows other people to contact you without displaying your email address or attracting SPAM.
  3. Google XML Sitemaps: Helps search engines better index your website / blog
  4. Socialable – automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts
  5. TweetMeMe: Twitter Plugin to help readers tweet your posts.
  6. WordPress Database Backup – You can set how often the backup runs and where to send the file(s) for safekeeping. Can set it to backup daily (or weekly) and have the file sent via email. I delete the previous day’s backup once I’ve received the new one.
  7. Yet another related postsgives you a list of posts and/or pages related to your blog post and helps the reader find other relevant content on your site.
  8. Akismet: A great plugin to catch spam.  It comes as a default with wordpress. A good plugin for small websites with low visitor traffic.  There is a 500 visitor limit on the plugin so you may need to eventually replace it with another anti-spam plugin.
  9. Secure WordPress: helps keep your site secure.
  10. Privacy Policy: automatically generates a privacy policy for your site saving you time.

If you aren’t using Thesis, then the following plugins are essential and can replace the robots meta plugin:

  1. Platinum SEO for normal sites
  2. Headspace2 For autoblogs, datablogs, rss feed blogs.  Headspace2 does everything the all-in-one seo and platinum seo plugins do and more. It allows integration of Crazyegg tracking.

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Disclosure: I am affiliated with some of the products recommended and earn an income from my recommendations - generally enough for a cup of coffee.