The 13 Wordpress Plugins I Currently Use And Why You Should Use Them Too

When I was setting up my blog, I found discussions about the various plugins being used on Wordpress blogs very helpful. I often refer back to “24 plugins that I currently use on my blog and why you should use them too” which was posted on the blog How To Make My Blog. After trying 10 of the wordpress plugins that are mentioned there and determining that 8 of them are unnecessary, I would like to share with you the 13 wordpress plugins that I currently use on my blog. You can look for these and other plugins at wordpress.org. I like to keep the number of plugins used on my blog to a minimum, because I want to reduce potential problems as a result of interacting with each other. I will break them down into the following categories:

Anti-Spam
Security
Stats
Website Interaction / Usability
SEO / Optimization

Anti-Spam Wordpress Plugins I Recommend

Akismet - Akismet is the standard bearer of Wordpress spam control. Without this plugin, Wordpress would not be as popular as it is today. Keep spam at bay and used the saved time posting more new content, improving your site design, or away from the computer. You will need a wordpress.com api-key to use Akismet.

Raven’s Anti-Spam – To relieve some of the pressure put on Akismet by heavy traffic and spammers, I use Raven’s Anti-Spam to keep spam from ever entering into the system. Think of Akismet as a scrubber or cleanser that is involved in cleaning out the spam. Think of Raven’s Anti-Spam as a filter that blocks spam from ever entering into the system. The idea this Wordpress plugin is that most spambots do not run or interact with javascript. If a visitor allows javascript, then they are presented with a comment box. If a visitor does not allow javascript, then they are presented with a comment box + CAPTCHA verification. It is a nice way to filter spam without annoying everybody with CAPTCHA.

Plugins under consideration for the future: Bad Behavior

Security Wordpress Plugins I Recommend

Login Lockdown – This plugin adds a layer of protection to your Wordpress blog by tracking failed login attempts and locking out IP addresses that fail logins for an amount of time determined by the user. Since all Wordpress blogs have the same login location of www.yourblognamehere.com/wp-admin hackers can make easy attacks on an unprotected blog. This plugin adds another layer of protection, and tracks IP addresses that fail to login. I have never experienced a blog getting hacked, and I do not want to either.

Wordpress Database Backup – This Wordpress plugin provides for automated backups of your database to be made. Automated backups are delivered via email. There are a number of different options, but if your blog ever gets hacked you want to have a current backup of the database so that you can restore your blog.

Stats Wordpress Plugins I Recommend

Wordpress.com Stats – I am a stats junky. I want to know who visited, from where, how long they were on my blog, and I want to know NOW! That is only a slight exaggeration. The stats by itself are a very nice addition to the free Google Analytics or Clicky Analytics. An added benefit is that there are other interesting plugins that utilize these stats.

Google Analytics for Wordpress – This extremely popular plugin makes it very easy to get your Google Analytics working. It also has some interesting customization options that are beyond my needs.

Popularity Contest – This plugin by itself keeps track of the popularity of various posts. You have the capability of calibrating the popularity based on comments, trackbacks, pingbacks, page views, search engine traffic, and more. The plugin also tracks the most popular posts over 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 1 year, and lifetime. Now that I have this plugin installed and tracking information I just need a widget to display the information on my blog. Then I can get rid of another plugin.

Website Interaction / Usability Wordpress Plugins I Recommend

TweetMeme Button – TweetMeme is a website that tracks the most popular stories that are being talked about on Twitter. You can see the button in action at the top left of any of my posts. It shows how many people have tweeted pointing to a particular page on my website. In addition, it makes it very easy for the user to also tweet about it. I love making it easy for people to share the various posts I have made. The biggest potential problem with this button is that it will show many tweeple are recommending a post. If it happens to be an extremely low number like 3 or 4 then the button will give the impression of a negative social bias.

Disqus Comment System - This plugin has been awesome. I suggest you at least try it out. You have the capability to allow numerous login methods for commenting such as OpenID, Twitter, and Facebook Connect. Additionally you have the ability to bring in commentary from around the social web from sites like Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr. This plugin makes it very easy from people to comment and draws in discussions about your material from around the web. I cannot say enough about it. Interaction and community building on your blog will lead you to success, and Disqus makes it easier.

Wordpress.com Popular Posts – After people navigate to your blog for one reason or another, you need to make it as easy as possible for them to stay and read more of your blog. This Wordpress plugin displays the most popular posts of your blog based on the number of pageviews. It is easier to integrate than popularity contest, and as a result is still on this blog. Once I get a widget to display the popularity contest information I desire, then Popular Posts is out. This plugin requires the Wordpress.com Stats plugin.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARRP) – This is another great plugin to use to keep people reading your blog. This plugin is responsible for the related posts information that is displayed at the end of each post. This plugin works very well, and seems to use very little server resources to do its job. I read somewhere that this is Matt’s (chief Wordpress coder) favorite Wordpress plugin.

SEO / Optimization Wordpress Plugins I Recommend

Google XML Sitemaps – XML sitemaps are a file originally thought up by Google to make their search processes easier and more efficient. Since then the 3 major search engines Google, Yahoo, and Bing (previously Microsoft’s Live Search) all utilize this file. If you want more search engine traffic, then you need to make their life easier. The problem for me was that I have no clue how to create an XML sitemap. This plugin fortunately creates the sitemap for me. In addition to submitting the sitemap to the big search engines, I recommend making your sitemap auto-discoverable in these 3 easy steps.

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer - Blogs have one HUGE advantage over regular websites. They are setup to automatically ping upon editing. A ping is just a method for your blog to tell an outside service that your blog is updated. There are numerous services that accept pings such as Google Blog Search and Technorati. Due to the power of the ping, many people began ping spamming. As a result of the ping spammers out there, the various services began filtering pings and removing pingers who appear to be spammy. Wordpress sends out pings whenever a post is edited in addition to being published. The MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer limits the pings sent out by Wordpress to when a post is published.

Wordpress Plugin Conclusions

I currently use and enjoy the functionality provided by these 13 wordpress plugins. I want plugins that provide a lot of functionality without overloading my server. If I can take the basic function of a plugin and add the necessary code directly to the site, then I will do that. For example, I have coded the social sharing buttons that many get from socialable. Enjoy!