Recommended WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plug-ins are add-on programs that can modify various aspects of the website or blog which is run on WordPress Content Management system. Some changes the way the site functions while others can do anything from adding contents from various sources to turning site into an e-commerce shopping cart. In web browsers, for example, there’s a Flash plug-in that enables Flash. Similarly we have QuickTime, Shockwave Flash and other plug-ins. Unlike widgets, plug-ins may act completely behind the scenes, affecting the operation of the website rather than adding a simple block of content to it.

WordPress Plug-ins are managed in the Plug-in area of the admin screen and most installed plug-ins will add a new configuration page to a section of the admin area.

The official WordPress Plug-in Directory is a great place to find plug-ins and read feedback on how they function. We will discuss some of the widely recommended WordPress plugins.

Search Engine Optimization Plug-ins

Search engine optimization plug-ins can do an enormous amount of work for you. This includes both on page and off page optimization. You will need different plug-ins to perform different tasks. When one is making websites for a living you will definitely have to get familiar with search engine optimization plug-ins. On page SEO is extremely necessary because you need to tell the search engines what your post is about. If you have not performed on page optimization, the search engines will not be able to figure out who to send to your website. At the bare minimum the following Plug-ins are a must for the websites if you wish to make money out of it through applications like Google AdSense ads.

SEO All in One Plug-in: It is the plug-in which takes the key areas of the site and allows you to add the keywords which will bring visitors to your site. If you want to make your website more Search Engine Optimized friendly then this plug-in will be your new best option. Some of the features enables you to generate META tags automatically, fine-tune just about everything, avoids the typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs, automatically optimizes your titles for search engines and as a bonus it “works out-of-the-box” without any adjustments.

XML Sitemap Plug-in: This plug-in will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog and help the web crawlers to see the complete structure of website and retrieve it more efficiently.

Askimet Plug-in: If comments are enabled on your website, you more than likely receive a lot of comment and track-back spam. Instead of moderating all the comments and track-back spam manually, just set up Askimet. Askimet is a effective way to kill spam and block more than 95% spamming comments on your blog. Simply install, apply your API key and forget it as it does it’s job. A must have for any blog owner!

Click Counter Plug-in: Suppose you have a blog and you have statistics telling you how many people read it. You post links. But do you have something telling you how many people click on your links?Click Counter Plug-in does the function of counting number of clicks.