WordPress is possibly the best blogging tools for people who have their own domain, and PHP/MySQL capabilities on their server. Out of the box it is a solid performer, with a lot of useful features. However, what makes WordPress really good is the fact that as an open source content management system, there are many add-on modules available which enhance the core functionality. These add-ons are called Plugins in wordpress. There are far too many Plugins to list, a full list can be found on the WordPress.org website, under the extend menu. Here we review the most important Plugins to get you started. There is now no need to download Plugins and then FTP them to you web server, as the process can now be controlled via the WordPress control panel. Just search for Plugins and then install.
Akismet
Askimet ships with WordPress, but you need to apply for an API key to activate from WordPress.com. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put in your template. It is without doubt an essential part of running a healthy blog, as once a blog becomes popular and hits the search engine radars, it will be inundated with automated spam.
All in One SEO Pack
This is an “out-of-the-box SEO” tool for your WordPress blog. This Plugin allows the blogger to add a custom description to any post. This is a very useful tool to improve search engine click through rate, as the page description often forms part of the test on search engine listing. Also a different title can be added, rather than using the default title, which will be the same as the post title. Finally keywords can be added. The tool also allowss you to customise posts automatically.
AZIndex
This is a highly customizable and user friendly plugin to create one or more alphabetical indexes of selected posts in your WordPress blog. It allows you to create a dynamic index for the whole site – we use it for our index – Webologist Index
Google Analyticator
This simply adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics. After enabling this plugin visit the options page and enter your Google Analytics’ UID and enable logging. Essential for those utilises Google’s Analytic software to improve web performance.
Post-Plugin Library
Does nothing by itself but supplies common code for the Similar Posts, Recent Posts, Random Posts, and Recent Comments plugins. Make sure you have the latest version of this plugin.
Random Posts
Displays a highly configurable list of randomly selected posts. This is very useful for larger sites which receive a lot of random traffic, as it acts a bait to make people delve deeper into the site. Best used along the lines of “you may also like…”. Requires the latest version of the Post-Plugin Library to be installed.
Secure WordPress
Little basics for secure your WordPress-installation. Really these extra security measures should be part of the core files. Includes simple solutions such as blank index.html files to prevent people peeking into your directories.
Similar Posts
Possibly one of the best Plugins available, especially for larger sites with a lot of simialr content. It can pick up posts made years earier on the same topic. Similarity can be based on any combination of word usage in the content, title, or tags. Don’t be disturbed if it takes a few moments to complete the installation — the plugin is indexing your posts. Instructions and help online. Requires the latest version of the Post-Plugin Library to be installed.
Simple Trackback Validation
This helps to reduce spam in the comments fields. It eliminates spam trackbacks by (1) checking if the IP address of the trackback sender is equal to the IP address of the webserver the trackback URL is referring to and (2) by retrieving the web page located at the URL used in the trackback and checking if the page contains a link to your blog.
Twitter Tools
A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter. Bring your tweets into your blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter. This really helps you to build up a Twitter community around your blog as each post is Tweeted.
WP-DBManager
Essential for those who are not comfortable with MySQL command line or phpmyadmin. It allows you to manages your WordPress database from the control panel. Includes database optimization, repair, backup and restore database, drop/empty tables and the ability to run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database. You can even set it up to email your database to you on regular intervals.
WP125 1
This is an advertising Plugin which allows you to easily manage 125×125 ads within your WordPress Dashboard. Just input the location of an image and a URL and this Plugin will monitor clicks on adverts, alert you when adverts are about to expire.
For more WordPress Plugins go to the WordPress website: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
Other plugins worth a mention are:
- WordPress.com Stats – keep stats on traffic in the control panel
- Google XML Sitemaps – create a dynamic sitemap for Google Webmaster management
- NextGEN Gallery – smarter way to display photos
- Contact Form 7 – add a secure contact form to your WordPress blog / website
