I am sure every WordPress blogger has a list of plugins that they love. Lets start with those WordPress Plugins that are essential to running your blog.
These are the behind the scenes plugins that help you run and get the most out of each and every blog post.
All In One SEO: This plugin allows you to control what is seen when some one searches for your site or for the keywords you are using. In a future post I will be getting into how to best use this plugin.
Akismit: This plugin protects your blog from comment spammers. You are in control when it comes to who can comment on your blog. Akismit determines who may be spamming your site and keeps those comment separate for your moderation.
FD Feedburner: An RSS (Really Simple Syndiation) feed on your site can make it easy for your blog to become syndicated. Google has set up the Feedburner Syndication. It is easy to use when you want people to subscribe to your blog in this way. Now I have to admit that this is always essential, depending on your niche. But if you plan on syndicating your blog on Facebook, you will need this.
Google Analytics For WordPress: Although I do not use this plugin for my niche sites I use it on my main blog. The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin automatically tracks the links of your posts.
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.
Sexy Bookmark: Though the name may be a little “edgy” for some, SexyBookmarks has proven time and time again to be an extremely useful and successful tool in getting your readers to actually submit your articles to numerous social bookmarking sites.
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Sociable: This plugin also makes it easy for others to share your posts. It is more main stream.
TweetMeme Button: Make it simple for your readers to tweet your posts. So effective that big companies and bloggers use it.
Online Backup for WordPress: You are actually using WordPress to keep all of your WP info. You absolutely need to back up your WordPress Database. After all the work you put into your blog, it would be terrible to loose it.
WordPress To Twitter: Make it easy on yourself. You can tweet your new blog post just as soon as you hit the publish button. Put your site out there and get traffic.
WassUp and VSTATS: These two plugins work in tandem. You get a compete overview of all visits to your sites. You can even tell what bots have visited and how often they visit. This is the analytics plugin I prefer on my niche sites.
Yet Another Related Post Plugin: Keep your visitors on your site longer and give more information with this plugin. This also creates deep links to your site. (Good for SEO). Look below to see how this plugin works, you will see related posts just before the comments.
I have to call this lesson in How To Blog On WordPress one of the most important.
Okay, we now have my list of essentials. Do you have any you would like to add? Be sure to give the reasons why.
Sheila
Related posts:
I have just installed Statpress. It’s a plug in that keeps track of your stats like Google Analytics and WassUp. I’m testing it against Wassup. (I have loved Wassup.)
I’m not sure which of these stat trackers will win. I’ll be testing them against each other for a couple of weeks.
Like you Sheila, I don’t put Analytics on all of my sites. However, I need a good tracking tool so I can watch my stats. I’m glad there is other alternatives.
Be sure to let me know what you like best.
Shelia,
This is a great post for knowing what are the plugins you need as a newbie. Must admit you name a few that I don’t know and will be checking them out. I wish I had had this information when I stated. It would have saved a few headaches.
@joyce
Glad you found this helpful.
Thanks for telling me about the YARP plugin. I’d used it on one blog before and totally forgot about it. BTW I notice you are using Thesis. I love it and it makes some other plugins unnecessary such as the Feedburner and Google Analytics plugins. It makes everything so simple.
Rodney Daut recently posted..The One Belief Proven By Science To Make You More Successful
@Rodney
You are welcome. I love Thesis for those exact reasons.
Ok I do have WP to Twitter but I guess I need to see if it is enabled because it is not updating twitter automatic. And I have the wassup too but I am just now learning how to read analytics. What are two or threee things to be able to see in the analytics? genuine question I have no clue.
Tony Denson recently posted..The Most Powerful 4th Verse of the Star Spangled Banner
@Tony
There has been a recent update for WP to Twitter. When ever I have a plugin that is a little buggy I first check for and make updates. If there is no update, I deactivate and reactivate the plugin. So far this has worked every time.
I would suggest you go to WassUp and play around with it. In the upper right had corner, click on “show ten”. This will tell you where your visitors come from, what pages are the most looked at what was searched for in the search engines (top query).
I use this data to help me with keywords, post titles and blog subjects. I can also see who is connecting to my site so I can visit their site and comment or get someone to do a guest post.
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