Recommended Wordpress Plugins I Can't Live Without

One of my favorite things about blogging using Wordpress is the unlimited ways you can customize your  blog.  This customization can be accomplished from the countless number of plugins you can install on your blog.  However, it can be a daunting task to go through all of these plugins and figure out which ones you REALLY need.  That is why I wanted to create this post and show you EXACTLY which plugins you will need.

If you are an active blogger and use this as part of your social media strategy these recommended Wordpress plugins can be especially helpful.  If you are unaware of how to install a new plugin the process is rather simple.  Go to the navigation on the left side of your Wordpress dashboard and click “Add New” under the Plugins section.  Type in the plugin name that I recommend and then locate it in the search results.  Once you find the plugin click install, activate the plugin and you will be good to go.

If you want to get the most out of your Wordpress blog then you MUST install all of these plugins…

1.  Akismet – This plugin checks all of your comments for spam.

2.  All-In-One SEO Pack – This nifty little plugin enhances your search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities, allowing your blog to rank higher in the search engines.

3.  Comment Luv – This plugin helps to drive more traffic back to the commentor’s website.  This increases the interaction on your blog amongst your active readers and new visitors.

4.  Facebook Share – Relatively new plugin that allows your readers to share your blog post on Facebook.

5.  Google Analytics For Wordpress – Essential plugin used to track all of the activity on your blog.  With Google Analytics you can view the amount of traffic that comes to your website, sources of traffic, time spent on each page and a number of other useful metrics.

6.  Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin is used to generate an XML sitemap of your blog which in turn makes it easier for search engines to index your blog and blog content.

7.  Onlywire – This is one of my favorite sharing plugins.  Onlywires allows you and your visitors to share your blog content to up to 33 different social bookmarking websites all at once.  This increase backlinks to your blog and the relevancy of your content to the search engines.

8.  Optimal Title – Makes your content titles more easy viewed and scanned by search engines.

9.  Popularity Contest – This helps to rank your posts by popularity.  In general this can elicit a positive response from your blog readers and get them to read your more popular posts.

10.  Simple Tags – Plugin used to manage all of your blog tags (keywords).  This plugin also helps to have your tags get recognized by search engines more quickly.

11.  Smart Update Pinger – Plugin that is used to control the amount of pings your blog sends out.  It pings only when you publish a new post, not when editing.

12.  Subscribe To Comments – This plugin allows readers to be notified when new comments are added to a post entry.  This increase the interaction among readers and new visitors.

13.  Tweetmeme ReTweet Button – Very cool plugin that allows you and other readers to tweet the post to Twitter.  This increases the likelihood that more people will be able to view your blog post.

14.  WP Related Posts – Generates a list of related posts for your readers.  This increases the amount of time a specific visitor can spend on your blog.  The more posts read the better!

15.  WP Super Cache – The more plugins and content you have on your blog the slower it will load.  This plugin takes care of that problem and allows your blog to load faster for your visitors.