This is our ever changing list of essential WordPress plugins – every blog has its own list – this is ours.
Akismet
Akismet eats comment spam. It comes packaged with WordPress. It should be the first plugin you activate. I wrote a post about Akismet and how it can help cut down on comment spam in WordPress. I also walk you through the process of setting up Akismet.
All in One SEO Pack
If you are using Thesis or a theme that supports meta tags etc then you don’t need to use the All in One SEO Pack. If you are using a free theme then you will need to use AIOSP to at least add a meta description tag to your posts.
Google XML Site Map Generator
Easily create an XML sitemap for your blog. Google uses this to better index your site.
Contact Form 7
A really easy to use plugin you can use to add forms to your blog.
WordPress Related Posts
WP-DB Back Up
Broken Link Checker
Statpress Reloaded
Anti Virus for WordPress
No Self Pings
Redirection
Subscribe to Comments
TweetMeme
WP-Optimize
WP Greet Box
Apture
Exec PHP
Yoast Breadcrumbs
I deliberately haven’t included any links here as the plugins can be manually installed through the plugin installer.
