Essential plugins for Wordpress

Michael Gray posts a great list of SEO plugins for Wordpress.

I’ve been referencing this over the past week to look for plugins I really should be using.

Namely because so far I haven’t been using any Wordpress plugins.

As I use Wordpress a lot as a Content Management Solution (including for Platinax) I definitely need use more of these plugins - not so much for SEO, as much as to help add value for users and administration.

This is especially after seeing how well Jim Boykin has used various plugins on his blog.

Anyway, I’m whittling down his list a little to recommend particular Wordpress Plugins that I’m currently installing and using across my sites:

Akismet - Now included with the default Wordpress install (2.x) you will still need an API key to use it - get one by registering an account at Wordpress.

Database Backup - Allows you to backup the Wordpress database in the Wordpress admin panel, rather than log into phpmyadmin/Cpanel, etc.

Did you pass math - Really effective anti-comment spam plugin to stop the bots.

Related Posts - A lovely little plugin that allows you to post feeds of related posts with each article.

Search Pages - The default Wordpress search function only searches posts - add this to search pages as well, if you’re using Wordpress for content management.

Static Homepage - Helps you create a static homepage, again for when using Wordpress as a Content Management Solution.

Top 10 posts - Looks like a promising little tool, for both content management and news portals.

I’ll keep this post updated with any other plugins I come across.