10 Most Useful WordPress Plugins

By Julia Khusainova • December 6, 2009 • Posted in Blogging, Development, Wordpress, Wordpress plugins • 2 Comments »

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WordPress is an awesome Content Managment System. It allows you to build almost any type of website from you personal on-line blog or portfolio page to e-commerce site of full value.

WordPress can be easily extended by using plugins which add functionality to you site without any direct editing to core programming of WordPress! It is required none or minimum knowledge of HTML/PHP.

What plugin is? A WordPress Plugin is a program, or a set of one or more functions, written in the PHP scripting language, that adds a specific set of features or services to the WordPress weblog, which can be seamlessly integrated with the weblog using access points and methods provided by the WordPress Plugin Application Program Interface (API). WordPress.org

I made a list of the most useful WordPress plugins. It’s not about changing gravatars in your comments or adding some nice ajax features – it’s all about handy tools for bloggers – helping promotions, organizing content, gathering statistics and much more. Give it a try, install it on your blog and you will see new features of your WordPress site and how much more you can benefit with just a few clicks and few lines of code!

1. All in One SEO Pack

Well, this one is a king. Must-have number 1. Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).
Author: hallsofmontezuma

2. Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator for WordPress

This is the first plugin I insalled so far. This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This format is supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search.
Author: Arne Brachhold

3. Cryptographp

This plugin allows you to add a captcha before anyone could post a comment. The captcha can be easily configured in the options of the WordPress admin section.

Author: Leo Cacheux

4. Most Popular Posts

Plugin allows to display a link to the most popular posts on your blog according to the number of comments.

Author: Wes Goodhoofd

5. Recent Posts

Retrieves a list of the most recent posts.

Author: Nick Momrik

6. WordPress Database Backup

WordPress database backup creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your choice in the same database.

Author: Austin Matzko

7. Google Analytics

Adds Google analytics to your blog, with various advanced tracking features enabled. Google Analytics is a truly amazing service for marketers: it generates comprehensive site statistics for your site — at no cost — that are entirely geared towards website optimization (quick tour). The only downside is that Google ends up knowing your stats.

Author: Denis de Bernardy

8. Secure Contact for WordPress

SecureContact is a drop in form for users to contact you. It can be implemented on a page or a post. It offers enhaced security by using captcha images.

Author: Andrei Cipu

9. WP Page Navi

Automatically adds pages to your blog.

Author: Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan

10. Sociable

The Sociable Plugin is something we at BlogPlay.com offer to bloggers. With this easy-to-install plugin, your readers will be able to share your posts with the rest of the world.

Whether they are on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, BlinkList, or any other social network/sharing site, the Sociable Plugin will allow your blog to be connected to the social media stream, making your content known to the world.