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The list below represents a small group of WordPress Plugins that I install on every single blog I run! They all have a specific purpose that either increase the usability of wordpress, remove risk of losing visitors or data, or make the administrative tasks easier! This is not ALL of the plugins I use, just those that are essential!
Askimet – You won’t need to download this one, it is installed as part of the WordPress build and helps to control spam on your blog. You need a free API keyin order to use it, but the process is simple and easy! On this blog, Askimet has blocked 21,710 spam comments in just over 1 year!
All in One SEO Plugin – It really picks up where wordpress left off and gives you the ability to optimize your WordPress website, using basic SEO strategies.
Google XML Sitemaps- This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO
Redirection for WordPress- Having this redirect plugin gives you the ability to handle current and future changes to your site. It logs ALL 404 errors and provides a very user friendly area to manage 301’s for your site pages.
WordPress Automatic Upgrade- It couldn’t get easier than using this plugin! While I am guilty of not keeping my own blogs updated all the time, this plugin turns a feared practice into a point/click/done process!
RSS Footer- This plugin adds a small snipped to the bottom of your RSS feed. Every time you publish a post, this snippet is inserted with a permalink back to your site. It is NOT visible to website visitors and comes in most handy when people scrape your content. Heck, I don’t mind someone copying my work, as long as they link back! This plugin takes that out of the equation and automatically provides the link back for you!
WordPress Database Backup- You MUST have a daily backup of your work! If your server fails… pardon the french, but your f**ked! I have mine setup to automagically backup every morning at 3am and email the database to me in my gmail account! At worst, I lose one days worth of info on the site!! This plugin ONLY backs up your data and you always keep local copies of themes, images etc, on your site.
WP-Cache- Hopefully, you will have a post that gets hit up on Stumble, Digg etc, and gets 10,000 visitors in an hour! If you don’t have the cache plugin in place, only the first 1500 will see it… the rest will get the dreaded 500 error when your hosting account dies a painfully fast death due to the traffic overload! Install it and forget it… your pages are cached on the server and your visitors are delivered mock-static content, completely in the background! After you activate this plugin in WP, make sure you visit the settings page for the plugin and click on the “Enable” button to turn it on.
