For the whole time I've been blogging, I've always been into widgets and plugins, but there really wasn't much to do inside the blogspot. While blogspot is great to start blogging, being free and very easy to use, self-hosted blog is the only option for more serious blogging and/or tech-geek like me.
WordPress (.org) as blogging platform comes with great features as default and maintaining basic blog is very easy, like with the free services. Of course, one has to take care of hosting the blog somewhere, instead of the free spot for the blog at WordPress.com or Blogspot.com.
But when you get deeper into the WordPress and start playing with themes and plugins, it gets fun. There are thousands of plugins for WordPress, most of them free, like the platform itself, so trying them all out would take a lot of time. But fortunately there are lists and review service inside the WordPress.org, which you can check here: WordPress.org Plugin Directory.
I look for plugins with great reviews and/or lot of downloads. With little experimenting, I've found about 20 plugins I use at every WordPress blog I have at the moment.
WordPress Plugins I've tried
The list has selection of WordPress Plugins, I've tried on some of my blogs:
- Akismet
- All in One SEO Pack
- Analytics360
- Blog Metrics
- commentluv
- Contact Form 7
- Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
- Enhanced WP-ContactForm
- Exploit Scanner
- Feedburner FeedSmith
- Google Analytics for WordPress
- Google XML Sitemaps
- HeadSpace2
- Limit Login Attempts
- MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
- No Self Pings
- Redirection
- Robots Meta
- RSS Footer
- Search Regex
- SEO Friendly Images
- ServerBuddy
- Sociable
- Subscribe To Comments
- Use Google Libraries
- W3 Total Cache
- What Would Seth Godin Do
- WordPress Firewall
- WordPress SEO -plugin
- WordPress.com Stats
- WP Greet Box
- WP Security Scan
- WP Smush.it
- WP Super Cache
- WP-DBManager
- WP-PageNavi
- Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
- Yoast Breadcrumbs
That's not all, but that's all I remember now, so these have been useful for me. However, I don't run them all anymore. For example, with the SEO -plugins, I've tried them all, All in One SEO Pack, HeadSpace2, etc. But eventually settled for WordPress SEO -plugin, which does what the others, but also includes the functionality from Robots Meta, RSS Footer and Yoast Breadcrumbs, all stable plugins on my blogs. It also has the feature for sitemaps, but at least for now, I haven't let go of the Google XML Sitemaps -plugin.
The Best of the Best
After trying out tens, if not hundreds of plugins, I have found a set of plugins that I use in every WordPress blog I run (the essential plugins) and a set of circumstantial plugins, which are great for some blogs, but are not needed in all (e.g. simple mini-site).
The set of recommended plugins can be found from my resources page: recommended WordPress plugins. With that list, and the ones I'm using on some blogs, here's the complete list of plugins I'm using.
The essential ones are bolded and links are to the individual guides for the those plugins that need one.
WordPress Performance and Optimization
- W3 Total Cache
- WP-DBManager
- WP Smush.it
- Use Google Libraries
SEO
- WordPress SEO -plugin
- Includes the following old favorites:
- RSS Footer
- Robots Meta
- Yoast breadcrumbs
- Google XML Sitemaps
- Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
- SEO Friendly Images
Security and Anti-SPAM
- Akismet
- Limit Login Attempts
- WordPress Firewall
- WP Security Scan
Commenting and social plugins
- Sociable
Utility Plugins
- Redirection
- Feedburner FeedSmith
- Contact Form 7
- MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
- WP-PageNavi
Metrics and Statistics
- Google Analytics for WordPress
- Analytics360
- Blog Metrics
Other plugins
- Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
Run-on-demand plugins
These plugins I have installed, but can disable and enable as needed.
- Search Regex
- ServerBuddy
- Exploit Scanner
Experimenting New WordPress Plugins
As I've been blogging for a while, I'm quite settled for a set of recommended WordPress plugins, and I'm not exactly on the lookout for new plugins. However, occasionally I find something that is actually useful, and try them out when I have time.
When I started, if I saw something cool on another blog or someone posted "50 great plugins" -list, I was there to try them out. Not the best use of time, so I wouldn't recommend you go that road, but settle for a set of proven plugins and focus on the good stuff, which is blogging and creating content.
If you do have some plugin in mind that you really like, or just want to share your experiences, leave a comment to this article.
Updates / Version History
- 2009-05-23: Post published
- 2010-11-10: Updated, edited the list of plugins
