WordPress is just so popular not because it’s free (sure, that’s one reason) but because it is so robust and has so much functionality. WordPress plugins allow you to do just about anything with your blog!
Below is a list of my 7 top WordPress plugins, what they do, and why you need them. While there are some plugins you need to pay for, all of these plugins are totally free.
1. Akismet
Spam comments are a BIG problem. The reason for this is because there are clever people that misuse their programming skills to come up with ways to spider the Internet for blogs and leave comments on them automatically. One of my blogs gets over 50 spam comments every single day! You don’t need to install the plugin normally as it comes with WordPress. To activate it you will need an API key which is free for personal and non business web blogs.
If you could only have one plugin, this would be it. All in One SEO Pack helps you to make your blog SEO-friendly. Why would you want to do that? The more the search engines (e.g. Google) like your blog, the better you’ll rank and the more free, targeted traffic you’ll get.
3. DoFollow
There are two types of links; dofollow and nofollow. Google will not credit nofollow backlinks when ranking a website.
WordPress comments links are, by default, set up as nofollow links. The DoFollow plugin changes the comments links attribute to dofollow thus encouraging more visitors to leave comments on your blog.
4. Socialize
The more you can integrate your blog with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr the better. This plugin puts a social networking buttons on every post and when visitors ‘like’ your posts, their Facebook friends will see it and you’ll get more, free traffic! Facebook traffic can be very viral if you play it right. This is a powerful plugin that you definitely want to have on your blog. This plugin is very much improved.
This plugin auto-generates a sitemap for your blog and keeps it up to date. Google loves sitemaps. The plugin fully automates the process.
Not an exhaustive list of WordPress Plugins admittedly. However enough to get your blog started.
