What would your WordPress blog be without plugins?
I can tell you this, plugins are a vital component to WordPress blogs. WordPress is great by itself right out of the box. WordPress is excellent with a few key plugins that extend the funcionality of your blog.
What are those plugins you ask?
Here is a list of plugins, in alphabetical order, that make using your blog and getting visitors to your blog easier.
All in One SEO Pack – this plugin does all of the heavy SEOing to make your blog search engine friendly, from providing titles to specific pages to meta keywords and descriptions.
Breadcrumb Navigation XT – gives your visitors and search engines an easy way to navigate your site and shows the visitor’s path through your site.
Executable PHP widget – for those interested in adding custom PHP coding, like showing time of day or displaying visitor’s I.P. address or presenting special offers, this plugin allows you to add in PHP code that will execute on page load. Recommended for advanced users.
Google XML Sitemaps – this plugin creates a sitemap for your blog that is supported by Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask. Also allows you to specify “weighting” for certain types of pages and posts, i.e. – how frequently those are updated.
LinkingPress – creates a links page that displays links to other users of this plugin. Gives you control over those type of blogs that you want to link to.
Search Term Tagging – will display the search term that a visitor used to arrive at your site. If you think about it, for those competent in PHP programming, you could create your own plugin using the executable PHP widget to do this.
Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form – allows visitors to contact you and has a built in CAPTCHA to help prevent spam.
WordPress Automatic Upgrade – allows you to upgrade your WordPress blog automatically – or at least you don’t have to go download the latest .zip file.
WordPress Database Backup – creates a backup of your WordPress blog for the unfortunate case of ever having to reinstall your blog.
WordPress Related Posts – displays a list of posts related to the current post displayed. Gives your visitors a way find other interesting posts on your site without having to use the search function.
