Written By Nicholas Cardot265 Vibrant Responses
The 15 Best Wordpress Plugins to Use in 2010
Awesome Content: Set Up For Online Success
One of the reasons that I’m so madly in love with WordPress is the thousands of plugins available. It doesn’t matter what you want to accomplish on your blog, there’s probably a plugin that will allow you to do it.
This list is the 15 most incredible WordPress plugins. Only the best plugins have made it while anything less than amazing has been kicked to the street.
Each of these plugins are used at Site Sketch 101 and I personally recommend each of them to you. The following plugins are posted in the order that I recommend them.
- WP Super Cache – This plugin is great for two reasons. First, it makes your pages load way faster. Second, since it stores static versions of your site, it requires much less CPU processing than using WordPress all by itself. This WordPress plugin is number one on the list for a reason.
- HeadSpace 2: WordPress SEO Made Simple- Move over All in one SEO. There’s a new guy in town. HeadSpace provides you with the features you need to drive your site to the top. People spend way to much time working on SEO and too little time writing great content. This plugin let’s you put your focus back where it belongs. It takes care of all the SEO work that your blog will need.
- Akismet – Akismet is the comment spam fighter that comes built into Wordpress and it does a mighty fine job. Activate this plugin and you won’t need to moderate or captcha your comment submissions. Akismet does 99% of the work for you.
- WPtouch iPhone Theme – This plugin allows you to instantly and effortlessly transform your website into a mobile paradise. Whenever a mobile user accesses your blog a pleasant looking lighter version designed specially for mobile devices is presented. This is a must have for 2010.
- Backtype Tweetcount – If you’re using the TweetMeMe tweet counter badge on your blog then kill it right now. Nobody wants to authorize another program to access their Twitter account just to share a link to your site.
- Nofollow Case by Case – This site’s comment links are dofollow. I’ve stripped out all of the nofollow tags from the comment section of Site Sketch 101. You leave a comment here and Google page rank will chase you all the way back to your site. This plugin is what makes that happen. So leave a comment here and then install this awesome WordPress Plugin at your blog.
- WP-DBManager – This little gem is amazing for backing up your website. It actually has quite a few functions that it can perform but perhaps it’s most impressive feature is it’s ability to email the entire WordPress databse to me every day.
- Thank Me Later – This plugin is great. It sends an email to all first-time visitors. You can write up the email to remind them about your RSS feed or just to invite them to connect with you personally. I do both.
- WP-PageNavi – Those ‘Older Posts’ and ‘Newer Posts’ links are boring. With WP-PaveNavi you can get page buttons so users can go directly to whichever page they want. Plus they look a lot better than plain little links.
- Permalinks Moved Permanently – Last year I moved all of my permalinks to post the page so that they wouldn’t be so long. This would have meant that all of the links to my posts would generate 404 errors. This plugin just forwards all the links and PR to the new addresses.
- SEO Slugs – Using your entire post title as the slug for the article can make web addresses long and it can waste the opportunity to focus on using your keywords. This plugin strips out all the unnecessary words from the permalink for you so that you don’t have to.
- SEO Smart Links – Do you inter-link your articles? You should. Linking within an article to other articles is a great way to build Page Rank throughout your site and it’s a great way to get readers to find your other articles on similar subjects. This plugin will interlink keywords to your other articles for you.
- Subscribe to Comments – This plugin took a little bit of work to get it to work right but it’s great because it allows people to subscribe via email to any other comments that show up on a given post. This helps get readers to keep coming back.
- Top Commentators Widget – At the bottom of the sidebar here, you can see the top 10 commentators for this month. This is a great way to provide a dofollow link back to the people who help make your site great.
- Wordpress Related Posts – If a reader enjoys one of your articles then one of the best things that you can do is to put some more articles in front of them to keep them digging through your site.
Group Discussion
Plugins are amazing little creations. In a matter of just seconds you can bring new realms of possibilities to your website.
Which plugins do you use on your site and how many plugins do you use at your site? Do you use any of these plugins? Do you have any other WordPress plugins that you would highly recommend to the group here?
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 198 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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- WordPress Plugins: 15 Incredible Wordpress Plugins For 2010 « Netcrema – creme de la social news via digg + delicious + stumpleupon + reddit
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- The 15 Best Wordpress Plugins to Use in 2010 | WordPress News
- WordPress Plugins: 15 Incredible Wordpress Plugins For 2010 » Web Design
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- wp-popular.com » Blog Archive » WordPress Plugins: 15 Incredible Wordpress Plugins For 2010
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- The Ultimate Entrepreneur & Small Business Toolbox | Sean M Everett
248 Vibrant Comments
I would love to hear yours!
Don Gilbert said:
I love WP Super Cache. Thank you so much Donncha for creating such an awesome plugin.
One of my personal favorites that I am sad but not surprised didn’t make the cut is the Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu. It doesn’t really offer anything from a end user standpoint – but it saves me SO much time when I navigate my admin area.
Great list here. I will be implementing some of these on my next major WP site revision.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » Explain to us what Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu does for you? I’m not familiar with it at all and I’m sure that we would all love to hear more about it.
Don Gilbert said:
Well, I think what I meant to say was site-visitor, not end-user. Because it offers a good service for those who use it in their admin panel, but it is transparent to the site-visitor.
It allows for easy access to ANY admin page from ANY other admin page with a single click. No longer do you have to click the arrow to be able to review your options, and the select what you want, you just hover and click.
Now, I know that if you collapse the admin panel so it is just icons on the left, it does something similar. But the benefit of the Ozh admin bar is that it puts the bar at the top of the admin content area, making WordPress feel more like a traditional desktop publishing application. Also, not only does it show icons, it also puts the text there for users to read as well as recognize the icon.
It is literally the first plugin I install in a fresh WordPress.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » That sounds pretty cool. I’m surprised that I’ve not heard more about this one. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Bilal said:
“It is literally the first plugin I install in a fresh WordPress.”
Same as you..It’s a great time saver..
My Latest Blog Post: Site güncellemeleri ve tasar?m de?i?ikli?i
Drew said:
Just installed the ozh admin plugin….WOW. Thank you for this recommendation as it is amazing!
Kilian Güntner said:
Agree,
SEO Slug works great. Thanks for a splendid list.
kirkoconnor said:
that’s a very succinct list Nicholas.
I have used about half previously but some of the others that I haven’t used such as SEO Slugs and Thank Me Later are pure gems.
Thanks so much for sharing the list.
Nicholas Cardot said:
kirkoconnor » The ‘Thank Me Later’ plugin really is a gem. In fact, you’ll receive an email from me in a few hours using that plugin. I use it to invite people to reply and connect with me personally and I’m able to build genuine, personal relationships as a result. It’s pretty cool. Just be sure that you make the email sound as personal as possible. Don’t just uses it to pitch sales.
Aminul Islam Sajib said:
Thanks nick for awesome post. I’m already using some of those plugins. This post inspired me to switch from tweetmeme to backtype tweetcount. I’d like to use WP Super Cache, but I find it difficult to manage. This post also inspired me to add SEO smart links.
Great one, dude.
My Latest Blog Post: Twitter Tool: Who Was My First Follower?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Aminul Islam Sajib » Making that switch is a good choice. TweetMeMe forces your users to authenticate their twitter account on your website. People don’t like giving that access out to just anyone just to share out an article. In the end, it results in fewer shares. I know that I won’t use it. Switching to BackType will allow people to click over with a status and a link directly in their account without going through a third party.
Aminul Islam Sajib said:
What do you think of Buy Me A Beer plugin? I use it and find interesting.
My Latest Blog Post: Twitter Tool: Who Was My First Follower?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Aminul Islam Sajib » I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I’m uncomfortable just asking people for money, but on the other hand, if you are producing great material then there is nothing wrong with being rewarded with a grateful reader giving you a dollar or two. I don’t really have an official answer but weigh out those factors and decide on what you believe is right for you, your site, and your readers.
Tony said:
Subscribe to comments plugin? I never thought that people would actually want to keep updated on comments to a blog post. Nice to have, like a novelty; but not essential. Thanks for sharing this list!
My Latest Blog Post: Technorati Verification
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tony » No. It’s not an essential but I’ve been surprised how many people subscribe to comment updates here. It’s especially useful for people who want to jump back in and get involved in the conversation and respond to whatever the author had to say in response to a comment.
Brian Carnell said:
I disagree..subscribe to comments *is* essential if you want me to keep coming back and commenting. I don’t have time to revisit your site to follow the conversations I want to participate in.
Without a “subscribe to comments” plugin, I’m making one comment and never visiting your site again. With it, I’m following ongoing conversation(s) and much more likely to visit again.
My Latest Blog Post: Holy Bible: Stock Car Racing Edition
Nicholas Cardot said:
Brian Carnell » I think that it would be essential if it wasn’t so incredibly difficult to configure it with some blog themes. It was very difficult to get it to work the way that it does on this site.
Derek Jensen said:
I would say that the plugin is essential to have as an option but make sure by default the checkbox is unchecked.
Yes, you want the people that made a comment to continue the discussion if replied back to or leave another comment, but sometimes it can be annoying if you have already established a reader who comments all the time on your site but they get all of these emails regarding the post they just commented on.
In short, make it an option for people because that will give them the opportunity to reconnect.
Martha said:
With respect to subscribe to comments (really this is more a Disqus forced subscription complaing), I find as an end user that it can be incredibly frustrating when you get loaded down with irrelevant comments following your own comment on a post. However, from a blog hoster’s point of view, it makes sense to offer the option. Even when I try to opt out of Disqus when commenting on someone’s blog, I seem to always get stuck with the follow ups and often find myself incredibly frustrated. So, opt-in subscribe = good, forced subscribe = very, very bad.
Cheers,
Martha
Nicholas Cardot said:
Martha » I completely agree. I’m 100% in favor of the opt-in option. I’m with you on that.
Gordie said:
HI Nick,
Thanks for bring the Thank Me Later and iPhone Theme to my attention. I’ll try to install them later today.
Thank you very, much.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Stop People From Driving You Crazy.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gordie » Believe me, you don’t want to be without those two plugins. The features that they bring to your online experience are well worth having.
Stefan said:
I would also recommend No Self Pings, Smart Youtube and Contact Form 7.
Besides those it’s a great list.
My Latest Blog Post: The Don’t Quit Poem
Nicholas Cardot said:
Stefan » I’m familiar with your first and last recommendation, but what does Smart Youtube do?
Stefan said:
When you want to embed a YouTube video you simply write httpvh:// and later on you can change size, etc. in your settings.
My Latest Blog Post: The Don’t Quit Poem
Nicholas Cardot said:
Stefan » With WordPress 2.9, the core programming now offers that functionality. Except that you don’t even have to add the vh in the middle. Simply drop a link to a video and WordPress will display it as a video. It’s pretty amazing stuff.
designfollow said:
thank you for the great plugins.
My Latest Blog Post: 40 Inspiring Single Page Websites
Nicholas Cardot said:
designfollow » You’re welcome. I hope that you found something that you can use.
David Hobson said:
Thanks for the list, i have most but im missing a few of them.
My Latest Blog Post: How to Make Money Online With 404 Error Pages
Nicholas Cardot said:
David Hobson » Well jump in and grab those last few that you don’t have and let’s take it to the next level.
Enrico said:
Thanks for the list! Very useful plugins.
Correct link for Headspace2 is http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/headspace2/
Nicholas Cardot said:
Enrico » Thanks for giving me the correct link. A long time ago I used to use the All in one SEO plugin but now I’ve switched to the much better HeadSpace 2. I guess I had the old link in there. Thanks for helping me find it and get it corrected.
designi1 said:
Great tips… thanks! Let me save this for future use!
My Latest Blog Post: 3# The best readings for this week – designi1 suggestions
Martino Palladini said:
Thank you for the useful list of Plug-ins. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up to date with all the newest additions to Wordpress.
My Latest Blog Post: Food Made in Italy
Nicholas Cardot said:
Martino Palladini » It really is hard. And sometimes the newest additions aren’t even as good as some of the oldy but goody plugins. They certainly are coming out with great ones, but WP-Super Cache has been at the top of my list for a while now and HeadSpace 2 is just phenomenal.
Rachel said:
Thats a great top 15 for wordpress… I’ll have to go to my wordpress blog now and update my plugins.
Thanks
X
Nicholas Cardot said:
Rachel » You’ll be glad that you did. As I mentioned in the article, I use every one of these plugins here at Site Sketch 101. Any one of these plugins that you decide to add to your website, I guarantee that you’ll be glad that you did.
Leora Wenger said:
Question for you: I am planning to switch from to the Nofollow Case by Case plugin (currently, all my comments on my blog are DoFollow). In which cases would you switch a comment link to Nofollow? Can you give an example? Thanks.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Leora Wenger » Honestly I wouldn’t. In my case the only time I contemplated it was when someone left a good comment and linked to an adult website in the address field but I simply removed link altogether. I’m not going to provide a dofollow or a nofollow link to a site like that. I’ve never NoFollowed any links here. If you’re using a plugin that keeps everything dofollow then I would just stick with what you have. Does that make sense?
Leora Wenger said:
Yes, that answers my question well regarding dofollow and nofollow links!
And thank you for suggesting Backtype Tweetcount – I have not been happy with Tweetmeme for a while, so an alternative is more than welcome.
My Latest Blog Post: 7 Social Media Blogs for Small Biz
Nicholas Cardot said:
Leora Wenger » Good. I’m glad that I could help clear that up.
TweetMeMe was the first tweet counter plugin that I ever encountered also but I’m so glad that I discovered BackType. I actually contacted the BackType company and gave them suggestions and they listened and implemented most of them. I was pretty impressed with that.
Karl Foxley said:
Some great plugins. I find Subscribe to comments one of those real simple plugins but it is so necessary to have that option no a blog.
Top commentators is a great way to reward your visitors who go on to engage with your site a bit further.
Regards,
Karl
My Latest Blog Post: 15 Free Tools To Add To Your Online Business Toolbox
Nicholas Cardot said:
Karl Foxley » I agree. Instead of having a ‘link exchange’ or a ‘blog roll’ I have a top commentator widget. Those who are the top commentators get links on all of my pages. My home page is PR4, several internal pages are PR3 and PR2. Plus since I don’t have a lot of items in my sidebar, it provides I higher chance of being clicked on.
Keith said:
Nick,
I am a plugin junkie, so I have used most of these before, but I always find a gem when someone post a list like this, Gonna checkout Headspace on one of my test sites, I have been using Platinum SEO for awhile now. Just want to comment on a couple of the plug-ins:
WP Touch – I tried this plugin and unfortunately it doesn’t play well with Blackberries (which I use). Only seems to work on iPhones (when I used it) and Blackberries are now the number one selling smartphone, so wouldn’t seem right to leave them out. I recently started using Wapple and it seems to work across multiple platforms for mobile.
Backtype Tweet, I use Tweetmeme on mine because it doesn’t take you away from my page, I didn’t realize you had to sign into a 3rd party to use it, so will investigate this one
Thank You Later – Man I just ranted about getting emails after I comment on someones site, I guess if it is only one I didn’t notice it from you, or you started using this after my first comment. Either way, I disagree with sending emails through emails left behind in your comments, seems like email spam to me.
Great list Nick RT’d
My Latest Blog Post: Pop Ups On Your Blog
Nicholas Cardot said:
Keith » Could you consider doing me a favor and providing feedback about Site Sketch 101 on your blackberry? I have an Android and it works fine for me, but you’re right. I certainly don’t want to forget about the ever popular Blackberry.
As far as the TweetMeMe is concerned, I’ve stepped back from sharing articles quite a bit because I don’t feel like authorizing another site to access my account.
That’s a good counter argument for the Thank Me Later plugin. I respect it and it’s why I so adamant about making the email as personal as possible. In my emails I actually invite people to respond, to feel free to email me or to feel free to IM me if they have questions or want to chat. I get a predominantly positive response from it.
Keith said:
Was unable to bring your site up on my Blackberry, but I don’t have the best signal here where I live either. Keeps saying network timed out.
Changed my tweet plugin so go share some of my articles
I will check your site again later and report back, seems like I had problems with that plugin on my blackberry.
I don’t think that one email is so bad after commenting, but there is one site in particular that sends me one every time, I stopped reading their blog because of it.
My Latest Blog Post: Pop Ups On Your Blog
Nicholas Cardot said:
Keith » Thanks for taking the time to check that for me. I’m not sure what I can do to make that work. I know that it works well on Androids and iPhones so at least I have that going for me.
I’m glad that you switched out your Tweet plugin. As far as sharing your stuff…done.
You definitely don’t want to send one every time. That is way over doing it. Even one can be too much if it’s not friendly and personal. You don’t want to appear as pushy or trying to make a sale. Simply thank them and let them know that you are a real person.
Don Gilbert said:
To get the page to display properly on a BB using WP-Touch, you need to add it’s UA string to the settings panel.
What is the UA string for BB?
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » I don’t know what a UA string is let alone what the UA string is for a BlackBerry. Whoah. That’s all over my head. It sounds like it would be worth figuring out though.
Don Gilbert said:
UA stands for User Agent. It is what what every web browser, whether mobile or otherwise, sends to a website when accessing it.
Example UA’s:
__________________________________
Browser | User Agent
________________|_________________
Firefox | mozilla
Safari | webkit
iPhone | iPhone
iPod Touch | iPod
Yahoo Bot | yslurp (?)
BlackBerry | (?)
etc…
WP-SuperCache uses it in tandem with WP-Touch so that the cached, non-mobile friendly pages are not sent to mobile devices like the iPhone or iPod Touch. The UA triggers a setting to bypass the cache.
WP-Touch just needs to have the UA for BlackBerry added to the settings (somewhere) so that when a BlackBerry accesses the site, it triggers WP-Touch, and the mobile friendly version is displayed.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Don Gilbert said:
So much for trying to make a table. lol
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » Ha ha. It’s fine. We know what it means.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » Ahh. I see. We should contact the creators of the plugin. They would probably add it right in there. They update the plugin almost every week.
Tee Riddle said:
Hi Nicohlas,
Great list of plugins! Currently, I am using wp-cache, but thinking about switching to WP Super Cache. Do you know if WP Super Cache supports gzip compression?
I am using TweetMeMe and may seriously consider switching to the one you listed. Thanks!
Does SEO Slugs remove unnecessary words from permalinks in all posts (past and future), or just from posts you write after the plugin is installed?
Thanks so much for sharing these plugins!
My Latest Blog Post: Enter To Win A Free Vegetable Gardening Book!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tee Riddle » It does support GZip compression which is terrific. Does the plugin that you’re using support that as well or are you looking for a new feature here?
I used to use TweetMeMe but I do highly recommend that you go ahead and make that switch.
It only removes words from posts that you create. Nothing from the past will be changed. No page rank will be lost.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
I’ve used almost all the plugins that you listed above, except the wp-cache because the Buysellads plugin doesn’t work together with wp-cache, so I don’t use it yet.
Anyway, all these plugins are good one.
Regards,
Lee
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong » Wp Super Cache is an amazing plugin and it will drastically increase the speed that your website loads. I love it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone use WordPress, which is a very heavy CMS, without having this plugin installed.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
Yea I definitely agree with you that wp-cache is a must need plugin for wordpress users. I tried to install that b4 but it couldn’t be able to work with the buysellads plugin, when I activated wp-cache, buysellads banner disappeared.
Anyway, I’ve contacted the developer of buysellads plugin and highlighted him the problem I faced. I’ll try to active wp-cache plugin again and see what happens.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong » Hopefully they add that functionality for it soon. It seems outrageous not to offer it when so many people are using WP Super Cache. It’s worth it for them to switch.
Wez Pyke said:
I love Thank Me Later, it’s a great plugin that gets users back to your blog.
Good list Nicholas!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Wez Pyke » Yeah. I love that plugin. I hope that you reply to the email that you’ll be getting from here.
Kok Siong Chen said:
I used all the plugins you mentioned above except for the Headspace2 as i do not really know how to configure it. I will learn to use it. Thanks for your sharing!
My Latest Blog Post: Angelman Syndrome – Angel-like Genetic Disorder
Nicholas Cardot said:
Kok Siong Chen » Here’s a few articles that have been written here at Site Sketch 101 that can really help you get a handle on using HeadSpace 2.
SEO Tips & Tricks for Your WordPress Blog
Supercharged SEO: A Guide to Headspace 2
WordPress SEO Made Simple With Headspace
Lynda Dmoch said:
Hi Nicholas. Don’t remember how I came about your site, but I find it very useful and informative. I just wish I was more computer savvy to really reap the benefits of all you offer. I am a self-taught, learn-as-you-go entrepreneur struggling to understand it all. I struggle with some of the “back of the house” technical stuff. With that being said, do you have any recommendations who I should use to help me tweak my site so I can maximize my internet presence? I am in the process of looking for a new host server as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for sharing your expertise with me. :^)
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lynda Dmoch » For hosting I use and recommend BlueHost. I think that they offer terrific service and out of this world support. In the past, they’ve even logged into my WordPress control panel to figure out and solve an issue for me. It was amazing.
The technical part of blogging can be difficult but always keep in mind that it’s not the most important part of it. The most important part is that you always focus on writing outstanding material and you work to connect with your readers.
Sridhar Katakam said:
I recommend Host Gator. It will come down to $6.36/month with a 20% off coupon that can be found everywhere.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sridhar Katakam » Host Gator is a good company. I’ve not personally used them but many of my friends have and I’ve heard very few bad things about them. I hear lots of people praising them.
Lynda Dmoch said:
Thanks, Sridhar, for your hosting suggestion. Hostgator is one of the hosts I am looking into and thinking about. Thanks for taking the time to suggest them and the coupons!
Lynda Dmoch said:
Thanks, Nicholas, for the helpful info and encouragement. I’ll keep watching your posts to keep on learning!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lynda Dmoch » Awesome. If you do keep following the posts on this site then you certainly will keep learning.
Teasastips said:
I’m always looking for ways to enhance my WP experience. Just coming from Blogger, I feel like a kid in a candy store. Thanks for the tips. By the way, found you on Twitter.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Teasastips » I know what that feels like. I used to be a blogger user myself and I’m glad that I switched. There is a lot to learn when you first make the jump though.
Sridhar Katakam said:
BackUpWordPress allows you to backup database as well as files and comes with a rich set of options.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backupwordpress/
I prefer it to WP-DBManager.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sridhar Katakam » Thanks for that recommendation. I’m going to look into it and see what kind of functionality it offers. Thanks.
Daniel Howard said:
Hey Nicholas
We use All In One SEO – Plugin…
But the headspace 2 looks better for SEO purposes so I have just installed that…
And the Nofollow Case by Case looks great for SEO as well
Thanks again for these…
Danny
My Latest Blog Post: Action Blueprint – Building The Foundation
Nicholas Cardot said:
Daniel Howard » You’re welcome. HeadPace is much better although it will take a little bit for you to get used to setting it up. Once you get it configured to your liking then you will certainly be set up for success.
Teen Blogger said:
Nice post.
I always like these kind of posts. I think every blog owner uses lots of plugins to keep his blog in good shape. Some plugins listed here are a life saver. Like Akismet, that’s a must for every blog owner. Top commentators is also good to get more comments.
I personally use most of these myself.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Teen Blogger » Thanks for the affirmation on these. These really are life savers. I agree with you on that. It’s amazing that we can just expand our sites to do all of these neat things for us.
Daniel Howard said:
Hey Nicholas
Thank you for a great detailed article. we are always looking for better WordPress plugins to use, and you have just saved us hours of looking for these plugins.
We are going to download a couple now thanks again.
Danny
Nicholas Cardot said:
Daniel Howard » I’m glad to hear that. Which ones are you looking at downloading? I would love to hear how you like them after you’ve tried them out.
Tee Riddle said:
I think I would have to add some coding into the wp-cache plugin files in order to enable gzip compression. To be honest, I’m not even sure my web host supports gzip compression. I need to contact them and find out.
One other question – Are you using a plugin for the Twitter username and “Follow me on Twitter” links in your comments? If so would you mind sharing it? That’s a really cool feature of your comments! (so is the latest blog post feature)
Thanks!
My Latest Blog Post: Enter To Win A Free Vegetable Gardening Book!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tee Riddle » Who do you host with? I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t support it. It’s a fairly common feature in most web hosting environments but calling them would be the easiest way to figure it out.
The twitter feature in the comments section is powered by a plugin called Twitip ID. It’s amazing. And I’ve placed it into my template using the manual template tag that they offer so that I can make it look the way that you see it here.
The latest blog post feature is actually the CommentLuv plugin slightly modified to look a little bit nicer than I usually see it on other sites.
Simon Carr said:
Nice list of Wordpress Plugins. Most of them have been around for a while, but the Wordpress for iPhone plugin is a really neat concept. I’m going to make it a point to use all of these plugins at least once in 2010
Nicholas Cardot said:
Simon Carr » Some of them have been around for a while. I certainly have no disagreements. These really are powerful ones though. And yes, I love the iPhone plugin. I use it to check my site on my Android every day. If nobody else uses it around here, I do.
green apple sorbet said:
Thanks for this fantastic list, really useful! I’m new to blogging and some of these plugins will be invaluable for improving my site.
Nicholas Cardot said:
green apple sorbet » As a new blogger, you’ll need to grab a hold of everything you can. You’ll be learning a lot right now. Stick with it and learn everything you can.
mark said:
B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T – as a new to wordpress user this has been invaluable, cheers Nicholas you’re a belter!
My Latest Blog Post: People Don’t Resist Change
Nicholas Cardot said:
mark » I’m glad to hear that you like it so much but I have to ask. What’s a belter?
Tammy said:
WoW ! Nicholas thank U again! I’ve learned so much from you already… your blog is like a gold mine! Thank U!
My Latest Blog Post: Let Nature Be Your Guide
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tammy » That’s great to hear. I’m glad that you’re finding value here and I feel confident that if you stick around that you’ll keep pulling golden nuggets out.
Andrew said:
Good list Nicholas. I’m just wondering why you’d still be using Nofollow Case by Case when Headspace will handle the nofollow for your, either in defaults or on a post/page by post/page basis.
Seems a waste of server resources to have 2 plugins running all the time when only one of them is actually required.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Digg Your Way to The Front Page
Nicholas Cardot said:
Andrew » I didn’t realize that HeadSpace offered that option. Or if I had seen it I had forgotten about it. How do I get that to work in comments and how do I get it configured?
Andrew said:
Like everything HeadSpace you have the default settings in each of the taxonomy areas, plus you can add the module so it also shows up on the new post edit page with all your other HeadSpace options.
Just remember you can set defaults then use the post/page options to override those defaults allowing you to have greater flexibility.
So you might have the default set to follow links in comments but override just for a certain post. Just one of many examples.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Digg Your Way to The Front Page
Nicholas Cardot said:
Andrew » Okay. As I explored the settings, I didn’t see any default settings or any way to adjust the nofollow/dofollow status of comment, sidebar links, etc. Is that feature in there?
Melvin Ram said:
You forgot the big daddy of all the backup plugins: http://wordpressbackup.org
Good list though.
The iPhone theme plugin will also become really important as more and more “superphones” start becoming the norm.
~ mel
PS: Okay, I’m a little biased lol
My Latest Blog Post: Dr. King On How To Build A Reputation
Nicholas Cardot said:
Melvin Ram » I’m going to look into that big daddy right now and see what it offers. Does it offer other backup options that don’t rely on Amazon Storage?
Melvin Ram said:
It only works with Amazon S3 for now, which really only costs pennies per month to backup most WP-based blogs & websites.
My Latest Blog Post: Dr. King On How To Build A Reputation
Nicholas Cardot said:
Melvin Ram » Interesting. That sounds like it’s definitely worth looking into then. Thanks for the recommendation.
Ron Leyba said:
Just installed wp super cache now. Feels like, big google is loving those blogs that loads faster. This one will help, a lot.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ron Leyba » I have heard that it really does impact our performance on Google. Great going getting that installed.
Andrew said:
With the release of Caffeine load times are now a major factor. Matt Cutts discussed load times publicly late last year.
So while plugins are great, don’t overload your blog and slow it down either.
A great way to make sure your blog is not bloated with plugins is to use HeadSpace and take advantage of the per post plugin option. If you normally run a lot of plugins but many don’t really need to be loaded all the time, using this method can really help to speed things up as well.
I made a video last showing how simple it is to do and I’d suggest anyone who uses more than 10 -15 plugins consider this option.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Digg Your Way to The Front Page
Nathan said:
Great list – though I’d add two of my favourites to the pile – Insights is great for finding and linking to your old posts, wikipedia, Flickr images and just about anything else.
And Shashin is a great Picasa plug in.
My Latest Blog Post: Leaving home.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Nathan » I’m going to look into both of those. Are you a photographer or a graphics enthusiast?
Nathan said:
Primarily I’m a blogging enthusiast. I do like photography and store most of the images for my blog on Picasa.
My Latest Blog Post: Leaving home.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Nathan » Okay. I was just curious based on the recommendations that you shared with the rest of us here. Thanks for letting me know.
Jim Hardin said:
Great list of plugins. I do use most of them and I also use the one you created Sketch Bookmarks. I like it.
I didn’t realize the iPhone plugin that makes your blog accessable for cell phone etc. Sounds like a good thing to do as everyone out there is on the blackberry/iPhone or whatever.
Thanks for the list
Jim
Nicholas Cardot said:
Jim Hardin » It really is a great thing to do. That’s for sure. Mobile browsers are becoming more and more advanced and there is a definite trend towards more people using them. We need to be sure that we’re designing sites that cater to these users.
P.S. Thanks for using Sketch Bookmarks plugin. I’m glad that you like it.
Tamar Weinberg said:
Hey Nicholas, great post but I’m surprised that everyone’s still fixated on WP Super Cache (even from the comments!). I used to spread the cheer about that plugin 3 years ago, but times have changed. If you want REAL stability, you’d want to check out W3 Total Cache. It’s MUCH better than WP Super Cache! In fact, your website will likely load faster too.
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Melvin Ram said:
I have to 2nd this. SuperCache didn’t immediately work for me but when I tried it a second time, it worked easily and the load time was reduced by 0.5 seconds which is significant considering that SuperCache had already cut down load time by a lot.
My Latest Blog Post: Dr. King On How To Build A Reputation
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tamar Weinberg » I just did some testing on that plugin and it sent errors to any bot that checked the site out. Google webmaster tools was not able to connect to it. Speed testing sites sent back errors. I don’t know what the problem was but I can’t imagine that it would be good for my search engine rankings.
Anthony V. Gibby said:
thanks for these plugin, guess i have to back into my blog and deactivate/uninstall some plugins so i can get these up and running.
Thanks,
Anthony V. Gibby
My Latest Blog Post: Family Pictures
Nicholas Cardot said:
Definitely. These are some great ones to check out.
Anthony V. Gibby said:
Ok! As I am still learning html, blogging, etc, etc. I just looked up on wiki what NoFollow means, and now that I understand, Nofollow Case by Case plugin is very valuable. So, one I would like to thank you for allowing us to have a Dofollow on your site, and two im going to install this plugin ASAP.
http://avgibby.posterous.com
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Anthony V. Gibby » For another great resource on that topic be sure to click on the words “Our Comments are DoFollow” in the sidebar of Site Sketch 101. It will show you how I feel about it.
Ronna Detrick said:
Could this possibly be more succinct, more helpful, more fabulous?!? Thank you!!!
My Latest Blog Post: “Renegade” revisted.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ronna Detrick » You’re welcome. And thank you for the very enthusiastic response. That’s an inspiring way to respond. Thanks.
Josh said:
Great insight! Thanks for providing these. I just went to a self-hosted Wordpress site back in October, so I’m still learning. I love the backtweet recommendation. One question with that: What do I need to do to get the backtweet image on the right-hand side of the post (top) instead of the left? Sorry for such a noob of a question…
Nicholas Cardot said:
Josh » That depends. Are you manually placing it in the template or are you using the option in the settings page?
Josh said:
Not manual….just going into the settings.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Josh » In that case, I’m not sure how to do it. I know how to manually put the template tag in there and make it sit wherever you like it but I’m not sure that the default settings offer that option. Sorry.
Monty said:
I installed WP Super Cache and noticed an instant drop in my adsense earnings. I had read somewhere where this happened to someone else. Not sure if it’s related but I monitored it after a month, and then uninstalled it. My earnings per click started to rise again. I’m even reluctant to try W3 Total Cache.
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Melvin Ram said:
Any ideas on why this would be? Seems like it should go the other way around.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Melvin Ram » My only guess is that WP-Super Cache might cache a particular ad and Google might reject it when clicked on as a static link instead of as a generated piece of information.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Monty » That’s strange. I wonder what’s causing that. Thanks for sharing that insight with us.
Monty said:
Yeah, no problem. I do see the value in these “caching” plugins…but I have to tell you, they sound great in theory (and may actually deliver in practice for most folks) but for me, they’ve been nothing but a pain in the rear…. my blogs have been so slow and I try to fix it with a caching plugin, when really it requires more money out of pocket for a dedicated server or whatever…. I’ll never use a caching plugin again because of my adsense experience. Since disabling it, I’m up about 40% in income… but that’s just me…
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element321 said:
Nicholas,
This is a great list of plugin. I use almost all of them. As for the ones I do not, I will be trying them out.
My Latest Blog Post: Daily Delicious Posts Jan 15th 2010
Nicholas Cardot said:
element321 » You won’t regret giving these plugins a try at your site. They’re great and they’ll definitely help you out.
Connie Ragen Green said:
Great list here, Nicholas. I was going to ask you about the all-in-one-seo plugin, but I see that Daniel already mentioned it. Is it true that the Thesis theme is best for SEO?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Connie Ragen Green » No. It’s not true. It’s true that Thesis has some absolutely terrific options for SEO and that it does work wonders. But I’ve found that that HeadSpace 2 works wonders as well.
Mark McGowan said:
Fantastic article – I already use some of these plugins but will be getting stuck into the ones that I don’t, thank you.
Mark
My Latest Blog Post: Bishop Eton & St.Peter’s, Liverpool
Nicholas Cardot said:
Mark McGowan » I definitely recommend taking the time to check out those other ones. I think that you’ll really like it.
ckorody said:
Thorough job Nick – up to your high standards.
The iPhone plug in works nicely but I guess I have to check out Wapple…
Thank Me Later is just sweet.
I already implemented Headspace 2 based on your earlier posts and that is working nicely.
Since I tend to edit a lot, I am getting good mileage out from MBPing.
Zemanta does a great job generating Tags. Of course there is some question about how useful they are =)
best,
ck
Nicholas Cardot said:
ckorody » What is MBPing? I just did a google search for it and nothing came up. Where can I get more information about it?
Kwin said:
Wonderful post! Thank you very much for these suggestions. I love the iphone plug-in and SEO slug. Both are new to me and I can’t believe I’ve not been using them. You now have another loyal reader!
People like you make the internet a better place. Thanks Nick!
Kwin
Nicholas Cardot said:
Kwin » That’s great to hear. Your positive reaction is incredibly motivating. I certainly appreciate it. Those two plugins that you mentioned really are terrific.
Extreme John said:
Nice list of plugins Nick, there are a few in there I haven’t tried yet like the BackType plugin.
I was surprised to see that you don’t have Comment Luv on your list of plugins, any specific reason you don’t see that as a recommended plugin for 2010?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Extreme John » I love comment luv if it were modified a bit which you can see I did on the site here. I think that the concept of it is absolutely terrific but I think that it’s default styling is absolutely hideous. It forces a little box around it and stuff like that. It should have the option to make the opt-in invisible like it is here. I don’t want to make the comment section more complicated but by hacking the code myself I’ve been able to integrate it without compromising some other online values that I believe in. By hacking it I don’t have to sacrifice the important element of brilliant design. I also don’t have to sacrifice the concept of keeping the comment section as easy as possible. Every button is another opportunity for someone to feel like it’s too much hassle to leave a comment. I love the plugin. But they need to make the changes that I’ve made.
Frump said:
Just migrated to Wordpress from Expression Engine, and the items on this list, as well as several other articles on your site, have been of great help to us.
Wish I could comment on them all, but then I’d feel like I was spammin’ ya. Many thanks for your extremely helpful content.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Frump » I’m really excited that you’re getting value from the content here and I’ll certainly be doing whatever I can to help you on your journey.
Paul Crowe said:
Great List, i am about to start a new blog on wordpress and there are so many lists.
This is the first one ive seen were i could see myself use them all..
Paul.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Paul Crowe » That’s great to hear. I didn’t just throw 15 plugins on the list. These are 15 plugins that I personally use. They really are great.
Olusegun said:
Hmmm,
I will definitely use the “Thank you later” plugin.
Meanwhile Nick, what do you think can make dragging widgets to sidebars cease to function?
Cheers
Nicholas Cardot said:
Olusegun » I really don’t know. I’m at a loss as to what that might be.
Jean said:
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned this in all of the 100+ comments, pardon me for not checking but I’m thinking that the yoast breadcrumbs plugin should be included in the list. Now that were seeing search engines listing pages by order of depth of site i.e home > about > team etc.
Site structure for the search engines boosting SEO for blogs maybe?
My Latest Blog Post: The importance of blogs, case studies and articles
Nicholas Cardot said:
Jean » That’s a good idea. I used to have breadcrumbs here but I got rid of them because I didn’t really have a place for them where they could look nice. And no, it hadn’t been mentioned yet.
Danny Brown said:
I tried the WP Touch plug-in, but found it wasn’t adaptable enough to users without iPhones.
Now I use Wapple and it really is the best mobile plug-in I’ve seen for WP. You can customize the look and feel to reflect your site, as well as define what pages show in the Nav menu:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/
I also like the What Would Seth Godin Do plug-in – nice little reminder for the end of posts to leave a comment or subscribe:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/
Cheers!
My Latest Blog Post: The Future is Now
Nicholas Cardot said:
Danny Brown » Thanks for those two recommendations. I’m definitely going to look into those two plugins. I wasn’t really aware of wapple but if it’s better than WP Touch then I definitely need to get information on it.
GM Baker said:
Again Nicholas you blow me away. I’m installing headspace seo smart links asap!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
GM Baker » If you do, be sure to check out the HeadSpace Guides that have been posted here at the site.
Nathan Colquhoun said:
I came to this site and looked at the title and I thought to myself; “I love lists.” This was perfect, thanks!
What do is the difference between 12 and 15
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Nathan Colquhoun » Number 15 will automatically generate links to similar posts at the end of your post. SEO smart links allows you to make certain phrases link to posts in your blog. For example, I make want to make the phrase “Best WordPress Plugins” link to this post. Then Google will possible rank me higher on that particular phrase. You can also exchange links with friends like this.
Fire said:
Thanks a lot Nocholas. Really lot of info and it will be useful for my new site.
Thanks
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Fire » That’s great. I’m glad that it’s so helpful. Good luck on the new site. Stick around here and you’ll learn exactly what you need to know to make it successful.
Michele Miller said:
Thanks so much for this fantastic list, Nicholas. I’m a novice WP blogger and will tap into most of these!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Michele Miller » You won’t go wrong tapping into these plugins. They’ll help you really get your WordPress blog rolling. These are some of the best WP plugins you’ll find online.
ckwrites said:
Hah – actually its just a plain old Google plug in which I over abbreviated -
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/mpo/
Ensures that you don’t repeatedly ping services and directories and get banned – or so they say…
The other new one I just added that some folks will like – probably depending on how long they have been using WP is Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu
Takes all of the Admin categories from the column and adds them across the top as a drop down menu – very sweet – if your muscle memory isn’t already trained to scroll the column I think its a winner.
BTW Wapple is much better then the iPhone only version – looks really good – delivered up our site exactly as designed right out of the box- Bert, my designer was blown away. If you’re not happy they offer a lot of tweak options and the support team is very willing to help.
In informal testing I have determined that W3 Total Cache is much faster then Super Cache so have gone that route.
Also on Headspace2 – a lot of it is redundant to what comes in Thesis. I’ve assumed its a one or the other sort of thing and have filled in the blanks accordingly using HeadSpace.
If you are getting a second set of tags on your posts, chances are they are coming from Headspace – it took Bert quite awhile to chase that down – FWIW I only want the tags for the bots, I choose not to display them
Thnx for encouraging me to check all this stuff out – beats writing LOL
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Pat said:
Excellent Article. I’m always looking for expert knowedge on what actually works – so I can use it myself and recommend it to my clients. I have added this article to the shortlist.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Pat » Thanks for that. These are some great plugins. You won’t regret adding them to your list.
Knowledge said:
Great article, excellent resources. Once again, I have some updating to do. Still wrapping my head around the WPtouch plugin, but ultimately it’s looking to be a nice replacement to mobile press. Thanks for sharing your list.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Knowledge » You’re welcome. You’ll love the WPtouch plugin. It’s absolutely terrific.
Sridhar Katakam said:
@Shamim: You might want to try pagebar plugin.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sridhar Katakam » Thanks for the recommendation.
Shamim said:
Thanks Sridar, I am going to check out the Plugin that you have given. Advanced Thanks…….:D
Cato Research said:
Thanks for these great suggestions. We’re just starting our blog in 2010 and we’ll be putting many of these plugins to use.
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Blake @ Props Blog Reviews said:
BackType seems really awesome. I did notice that it seems to count differently than Tweetmeme. I love how customizable it is.
Headspace seems nice, but it isn’t as straightforward as All in One. I tried it before and didn’t like it, but I’ll give it a try again.
For subscribe to comment, I don’t like how I see every single comment for the post. Did you figure out a way to only get followup comments for specific comment or is it still followup comments for the whole post?
Kickass list though.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews » You’re right that HeadSpace is quite different from All-in-one-SEO. It took me a while to get the hang of everything but thankfully, it’s working absolutely great for me.
I haven’t figured out a way to choose only followup comments for a specific comment. It is still for the entire post. That is a good idea to look into figuring that out though.
J.T. O’Donnell said:
It’s my first time to your site. My Branding Manager shot this post over to me and said, “Hey, do you think any of these plugins would help us?”
He’s sent me posts like this before, sometimes there’s one or two plugins of interest.
I almost FELL OVER reading your list. 13 out of the 15 I had not heard of and are things we need.
Thank you for providing one of the most valuable posts I’ve read in a while!
JT
Nicholas Cardot said:
J.T. O’Donnell » I’m thrilled that your brand manager referred you over here and I’m even happier that you’re satisfied with the material that you found. I’m very excited that this is useful for you.
Shawn K. said:
Awesome suggestions, already using a few of those.
I also use:
CommentLuv – that “My Latest Blog Post” for commenters
Digg Digg – Add Digg/Share/RT counters and buttons
SyntaxHighlighter Evolved – awesome for sharing source codes
Sociable – adds a ton of tiny share buttons to bottom of posts
RPX – allows users to connect to your Wordpress using Facebook and various APIs
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Shawn K. » I also use the CommentLuv plugin and I used to use Sociable but I have since written my own plugin because I am now so opposed to having tons of bookmark links on the page.
Steve Atwal said:
Great list. Found a couple of new ones here. I also use CommentLuv
This commenting part looks great. I like the large avatar icons, etc. Is that just part of the theme?
Cheers
My Latest Blog Post: Twitter Bootcamp. More Hands On!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Steve Atwal » I too use commentluv as you can see in your comment here. The large icons are modifications that I’ve made to the theme. I like to see who people are and this is my way to do it.
ckwrites said:
Hi Nick -
seems to be little question that Headspace2 is incompatible with Thesis…
We found a post to that effect on Chris’ site:
“”Thesis is compatible with the SEO Title Tag plugin and the All-in-One SEO plugin, but not the Headspace2 meta manager. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but I’ve had hundreds of issues with the other two plugins”
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Nicholas Cardot said:
ckwrites » If you use Thesis then you probably don’t need Headspace anyways because it utilizes some advanced SEO techniques itself.
Will Fowler said:
Great list Nick you taught me and Don some new things we were inspired by your list to compile one thats more SEO plugin focused at Masters of Seo.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 15 Wordpress SEO Plugins for 2010
Nicholas Cardot said:
Will Fowler » Very cool. I’m glad that it was an inspiration for you.
CC said:
A big warm thanks for this great list. Headspace 2 seems to be broken for 2.9.1, do you confirm that it works?
Nicholas Cardot said:
CC » I’m using HeadSpace on WordPress 2.9.1 and it seems to work just fine. Most conflicts with SEO plugins come as a result of the theme not using the default Wordpress title and header tags.
Robin G said:
Thanks for the great post and all the juicy tidbits generated by it.
I’ve been contemplating adding super cache, and will now add it this afternoon.
I have hated tweetmeme for quite some time, and have a twitter button in “sexy bookmarks”… one of my fave plug-ins. I do think people occasionally miss it there though so I will try out backtype, as well.
I will look into headspace and wapple after I change themes. Thanks again
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robin G » I experimented with Wapple and I’m much less happy with it than the one that I recommended in the list. With Wapple you actually have to register your website with them which I’m not a fan of. I also noticed that it doesn’t offer any more substantially valuable additions to WPtouch. I use WPtouch and I love it.
Top Ten Top Ten Lists said:
Excellent list, thanks very much. I’ve added this post to my site, http://toptentoptenlists.com – not only to let everyone else benefit from this, but also to remind me to check out some of these to use on the site later
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Top Ten Top Ten Lists » Uh oh. Are you allowed to do that? It’s a list of 15 and not a list of 10. LOL
Top Ten Top Ten Lists said:
Hmmm, good point, maybe I could chop off the last 5?
I’ll keep an eye out for any more lists you make, I’ve very impressed with the quality and we need ore blogging/wordpress related ones.
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Worship Ministry said:
Thanks for the great list. I just installed the WPTouch plugin – thanks for that suggestion.
While this is more of a specialty plug-in, I use (and love) WP-Table Reloaded for various table needs. It’s great if you’re presenting chart data, events, and other various lists.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Worship Ministry » I have a table plugin installed as well. I don’t remember the name of it right now, but as you say it is perfect for presenting charts and data.
Tim said:
Thanks a lot for this post. I have used almost all of the recommended plugins. I just wanted to say that I couldn’t get the related posts plug-in working with wordpress 9.2 (or whatever the most recent version is.) With that said, I am using “Yet Another Related Posts Plugin” and it works great. I think it has a better algorithm and you can customize it a great deal.
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Tim said:
Sorry, I forgot to ask one question. The Thank me later plug-in is not working for me. I leave test comments and I receive no email. I have the latest release of wordpress. Do you know what could be any reason for this off the bat? Thanks in advance for your response.
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Jason Lam said:
Thanks for this list. Now using SEO Slugs.
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Gonzo the Great said:
Hi Nick,
great collection of plugins you’ve got here. Specially love the WP SuperCache, going to install it immediatly.
And ‘thank me later-plugin’ is a great way to stay in touch with your visitors who leave a comment.
Thanks for sharing, cheers & ciao ..
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Chris said:
Nicholas–great list.
There are at least three that I will be adding to my site.
I do have a question though.
Why do you think the SEO plugin Headspace is better or more effective than All in One?
I’d also love a tip or two on how to configure it for my site.
Thanks,
Chris
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
This is awesome. 196 comments already?!
Let m just suggest WP-stats.
Latief@AnotherBlogger said:
Oh Nick, thanks. I just build my new blog with WordPress last month, the blog is about three weeks
I need the best plugin for my new blog, your list is amazing, some of them are used some of them really new to me and I’ll give them a try.
Thanks
Latief
Shane said:
Nice article. Thank you.
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Ron Leyba said:
SEO Smart links is one of the best. It works not only on the page body post but also on the commenters post (if I am right). In this way, there will be constant flow of link juices as well constant related article to read upon the by the commenters.
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Ana Goncalves said:
The WP-PageNavi Plugin does sound good.
I would love to hear more about it.
Great set of plugins, as always.
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Nimit Kashyap said:
The list are superb and i agree with them, I like the post. Thanks for sharing you blog.
Phil said:
WP-Super cache is the best! It really helps page load speed, thanks for the tip!
Tony M said:
Great list of plugins, thank you. I have been using Thank Me Later and others but am now checking out some of the ones you listed like Backtype Tweetcount and Page Navi.
I found this blog because of your Social Bookmarking plugin, so add that to the list also.
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Patrick McCain said:
Thanks for the nice list. We’ll be trying out a couple of them for sure.
Clarence Middleton said:
Great Post. I never heard of the nofollow plugin before. There are a lot of best wordpress plugins, and you blog is the first to have a plugin that isn’t mentioned everywhere else. Thanks,
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Clarence Middleton said:
Hey, what was that plugin your using that pulled my lasted post into you blog??? That’s cool LOL!!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Clarence Middleton » It’s called the “CommentLuv” plugin and I love it also.
Steve Ingram said:
Hi Nicholas,
I’m a newbie to Wordpress, thankfully i bookmarked your blog a while ago, in readiness for my blogging.
I’ve just been installing the WP super cache- very impressive. Thanks for the list.
I’m also using all in one SEO, so I’m considering your choice of Headspace.
One question – do you know of any plugins which can provide a review page?
Hopefully I’ll be reviewing some gadgets using pages rather than posts. I’ve been trialing ‘My review box’, not really what i’m afer – I welcome any suggestions.
Oliver said:
This is perfect! Downloading a bunch now including CommentLuv!
Cheers!
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Neil said:
Great Set of Plugins!
Anwar said:
Thanks for all the plugin recommendations. I’m new to wordpress and blogging so its cool to be able to see what some of the good ones are since there are so many plugins!
Richard Belcher said:
Thanks for the great list of plugins . I too am finding as a new webmaster that SEO is taking up way to much of my time devoted to my blog , so it was cool to find great plugins like these.
off to install
K. Praslowicz said:
Thanks for the list as well. I got several of these going already on my site, but not all. I’ve been meaning to do some dofollow links for a while–Nofollow Case by Case should help for that.
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rabsin_d said:
Hi Nick, Thanks for this entry. I’m actually new to wordpress so this will definitely help me with all the things I need… I am currently using All in One SEO, but because of this, I’ll be changing it to HeadSpace 2: WordPress SEO Made Simple
thanks ALOT!
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Khephra said:
Cheers for the round-up! Among those listed I installed the WPtouch iPhone Theme plugin. It looked well-worthy of giving a try.
Some I might add to your list include: DisQus, Wassup, Tweetable, and FollowMe, but using preferences are diverse and unique, so YMMV.
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Matt Goulart said:
Great list!
Are you going to create more like this?
Daniel Grillo said:
Wonderfull! Thanks
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resimleri said:
Plugins are so useful. thank you
Marshall | Genverters.com said:
The two in the list I like best are:
Super Cache ( I’m ready for slash dot!)
Thank me later (always say thank you to those who leave comments
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Japan Cinema said:
Extremely helpful. Glad I came across this list.
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Solitary_Scar said:
Great list, thanks for the tips Nicholas. I find it much informative and resourceful.
Marita said:
Thank you som much for this great post!
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The Urban Cowboy said:
Great post, found a couple gems here.
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vijay said:
I loved the list. These plugins are amazing. I am moving from blogger to wordpress, right now I really need them most. Thank you for your wonderful post.
Gary said:
Thanks for sharing your research — good stuff here!
Dmitriy Zasyatkin said:
I can see why this is ranked so high in Google when searching for “best wordpess plugins”. Thanks for sharing (and for the dofollow).
Andy said:
Thanks! All plugins were great, I tried out 12 and am still using 9 of them! Very good collection, super-cache really helped me out.
Computer Tips said:
wonderful list of recommended plugins. Thanks a lot. I really liked the 1st one.
Jason said:
Great list. Don’t know where you guys find these files I do a lot of searching, but never seem to find anything good. Thanks for the list.
Jason
LifesLittleQuotes.com
Dominik Klenk said:
I’m just building my own website and your great list of plugins has been eye opening.
Do you have any recommendations on image plugins?
Chris Hands said:
Thanks for the list, i’ve been wanting to switch from joomla to wordpress primarily and have been looking for plugins and tweaks to get back some of the power of joomla.
Jared said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve added quite a few of these plug-ins and have found them to add a lot to my site!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Jared » I’m glad to hear that. Thanks for the feedback. It’s always good to know that something was helpful to someone.
Ed said:
Great Stuff!! My favorite blog site is Site 101!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ed » Thanks. I really appreciate that.
Ah Hong said:
Nick, love the share about WP Super Cache. It will be the best plugin on WP ever in terms of speed performance improvement plugin.
Techy Thailand Volunteer said:
Looking forward to trying out HeadSpace 2 so cheers Nicholas.
What about thread burners? I see someone has mentioned Disqus already but what are your thoughts on IntenseDebate?
I’m thinking about us that are not long started out you see and need all the help we can get.
Looking forward to going through more of your tips!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Techy Thailand Volunteer » I’ll be honest. My favorite comment system in the world is the default WordPress comment system. I love that your users don’t have to log in and it’s incredibly easy to style with your template. Some of those more advanced systems that require logins can scare people away. I want it simplified and easy to comment.
PamMktgnut said:
Thx 4 the great list. Glad I found your site. I use about half of them. However, very happy to find the SEO Slug, Thank Me Later and DB Manager.
Thx!
Nicholas Cardot said:
PamMktgnut » That’s great to hear. I love that Thank Me Later plugin. It’s really helped me to connect with a lot of people through this blog.
Komra Moriko said:
We’ve just released a nice elegant custom fields plugin for Wordpress called Verve Meta Boxes. Yes! it handles image and file uploads as well as text, textarea, select, checkbox, radio and date type custom fields. Check it out here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/verve-meta-boxes/
The plugin stores all custom field data in wp_postmeta, so your data can be displayed in templates using standard Wordpress tags lik get_post_custom, etc.
Would love to get feedback on this for future releases.
trimi said:
Im already using 13 of them, thanks anyway
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WP Lover said:
What a great list! Thank you so much.
DON said:
Excellent list of Plugins. We try out many different ones but some like wp-supercache are staples to WP site performance.
The main problem with many plugins is how they work your server. If this was not an issue with a large number of them, people would probably use a host of them.
They are great for user interaction and page views, which is in turn great for traffic and seo.
A needed article could be one that compares plugins pros and cons.
Thanks for the article
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Kevin said:
Excellent post. I just added the WP-DBManager, and Wp Super Cache based on your recommendations. Would also recommend “Single Post Template”. A great way to change things up for each post.
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Chris said:
Very Helpful
Thanks
Chris
Nicholas Cardot said:
Chris » You’re welcome.
Mike said:
“SEO Slug” is really cool.
Appreciated.
Jay said:
I installed the WP DB manager. After a warning to move its .HTACCESS file, I did just that. Now I still have an annoying warning message visible across my admin panel. It’s a good plugin, but I will have to delete it if I can’t get rid of that warning?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Jay » That’s really strange. I’ve never heard of that happening before. I’ve been using it quite happily for a long time. I’m sorry to hear about that warning.
Patrick Hitches said:
Nicholas,
This was by far the greatest article on plugins I’ve read in a long time. I’ve implemented most of the recommendations you laid out. Thank you for the solid info!!
Patrick
mentesviajantes said:
nice post! will use in my blog!
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Jon Reil said:
Excellent list of plugins. I’ve installed many and look forward to seeing how they all come together. Thank you!
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