Must Have WordPress Plugins for Bloggers

Plugins & Integration

The definition of a WordPress Plugin is a program, which contains a set of one or more functions which is written in the PHP scripting language. The sole purpose of a Plugin is that it adds a specific set of features or services to a WordPress ( self hosted ) weblog. This allows for seamless integration with the weblog which uses access points and methods provided by the WordPress Plugin Application Program Interface (API)

Nearly every user of WordPress is quite aware that the WordPress blogging platform is infinitely extensible. The core philosophy of WordPress is to keep the core code as light and fast as possible – and within this philosophy, the recommendation is to provide a rich framework for the huge community of Developers to expand what WordPress can do, and which is of course : limited only by their imagination.

Plugins can supercharge and extend your WordPress site into conforming to just about anything you can imagine, and the WordPress Plugin directory contains an unlimited amount of plugins for nearly everything and anything one can imagine or need by which to enhance their WordPress powered site. WordPress Plugins can allow a user to easily modify, customize, and enhance their WordPress powered blog. Thus, a user can add the functionality they require or need for their site instead of changing the core programming of WordPress, with the WordPress Plugin of their choice or specific requirements.

Functionality vs. Need

For this article we have gathered a list of Essential Plugins which every Blogger should have, by which to improve the core functionality of their site. We also advise that: in order to understand how WordPress Plugins work and how to install them on your WordPress blog, you may want to take a look at the WordPress Plugins Codex, where you will find step by step detailed instructions on how to get started. We would also like to advise users that – although having essential plugins which are suited to your needs and are required in enhancing the functionality of your site is a good thing, installing too many plugins will only be detrimental to your site and will only create bloating and slow page load time. Therefore : Choose your Plugins wisely and enjoy the list of plugins below !

1. WP Super Cache

This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

2. Login LockDown

Login LockDown records the IP address and timestamp of every failed login attempt. If more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range. This helps to prevent brute force password discovery.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/login-lockdown/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

3. Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

4. Conditional Captcha

This plugin provides a CAPTCHA complement to Akismt, If Akismet identifies a comment as spam, it will ask the commenter to complete a simple CAPTCHA, If they fail, then the comment will be automatically discarded or trashed (and won’t clutter up your spam queue), If they pass, it will be allowed into the spam queue (or approved, if you so choose), Meanwhile, genuine commenters (i.e., those not flagged by Akismet) will be able to comment on your site hassle-free.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-conditional-captcha/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

5. Akismet

Akismet filters out your comment and track-back spam for you, its one of the most popular plugin amongst developers.
 
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6. Digg Digg

Digg Digg is useful wordpress plugin that help users to include different social networking buttons wordpress blogs. It supports almost all popular social sharing buttons with count, such as Twitter, Buffer, Facebook Share, Facebook Like, Digg, LinkedIn, Google +1, Reddit, dZone, TweetMeme, Topsy, Yahoo Buzz, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Sphinn, Designbump, WebBlend, BlogEngage and Serpd, Pinterest.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/digg-digg/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

7. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 allows you to flexibly design the form and mail. You can manage multiple contact forms as well.In addition, it supports many features including AJAX submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering, file uploading, etc.
 
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8. SEO Smart Links

SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more. SEO Smart Links can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

9. WP Google Analytics

WP Google Analytics is an impressive and useful plugin that allows users to use Google Analytics to track their WordPress stats.
 
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10. All in One SEO Pack

This is very useful plugin which optimizes your wordpress blog for Search Engines, it supports Google Analytics, custom post types, fine tune page navigational links, nonce security and many more.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

11. FD Feedburner Plugin

FD Feedburner Redirects the main feed and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com. It does this seamlessly without the need to modify templates, setup new hidden feeds, modify .htaccess files, or asking users to migrate to a new feed. All existing feeds simply become Feedburner feeds seamlessly and transparently for all users.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feedburner-plugin/” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

12. LinkWithin

LinkWithin is a blog widget that appears under each post, linking to related stories from your blog archive. The widget links to stories that are relevant and interesting to readers of a particular post, keeping them engaged with your blog, and increasing your traffic.
 
[zilla_button url=”http://www.linkwithin.com/learn” style=”black” size=”medium” type=”square” target=”_blank”] Download [/zilla_button]
 

13. WP-DB Manager

Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database, drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database.
 
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14. Cforms

cforms is a highly customizable, flexible and powerful form builder plugin, covering a variety of use cases and features from attachments to multi form management, you can even have multiple forms on the same page.
 
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15. SEO Friendly Images

SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress optimization plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set. Additionally this makes the post W3C/xHTML valid as well.
 
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