My must have WordPress plugins

January 2, 2010 By Tris Hussey 55 Comments

Even though it’s been the holiday season, work on Using WordPress hasn’t slowed down only a wee bit. Several of the initial chapters are now in the loving hands of my editors and I’m proceeding full steam ahead. Since crowd sourcing works pretty darn well for getting feedback, commentary, and information, I’m looking for a bit of help with the next chapter in the book: WordPress Plugins.

Us WordPress.org/DIY install users know that there are thousands of WP plugins out there to try. Lots of plugins do the same thing and while there are some standout awesome ones, I’m sure there are some real dogs as well. I have my set of core favourite plugins (even if I don’t have them active at the moment for various reasons), but I want to know which plugins you’d add (or remove) from the list.

In the book I’ve (for the time being) grouped plugins into the following bins:

Interface tweaks
Comments
Caching and optimization
SEO
Metrics and stats
Multimedia
Theme related
Administration
Social Media integrations
Mobile
Search
Miscellaneous (you always need miscellaneous).

I know that there is overlap among the categories. A plugin for a Flickr slide show could be multimedia or social media or Akismet could be administration or comments. Regardless of how I bin them in the end, I want to have as complete a list as possible. To that end, here are my “must-haves” and “I wouldn’t mind recommending them” plugins:

No, I don’t have all of these active (only 21 of them in fact) nor have I listed all 66 plugins I have loaded on my blog, but like I said these are ones I don’t have a problem recommending or using myself.

Now it’s your turn. Are there plugins that should and shouldn’t be on the list? I can’t include every plugin under the Sun, but I would like to make sure who ever reads the book will have a solid list to start with and work from.

Okay, let’er rip!

Update: Thanks to @leonardipaolo for suggesting/prodding me to include links to all the plugins.

Update 2: Speaking of plugins, I was trying one today to check for bad links and while it worked (I think) it also brought this blog to a crawl. Disabled the plugin and everything is back to normal. So, word to the wise, overloading with plugins is just as bad as overloading your sidebars with widgets—it very likely will negatively affect your blog’s performance.

Update 5/30/2010: I’ve started culling the list of plugins here. There are 30 right now that have made the cut not to be removed from the list. I’ll be updating the list with some additions in a bit.

Filed Under: Blogging, Blogging 101, Books, Business blogs, Cool tools, Featured, Internet Life, Multimedia blogs, Personal blogs, Portfolio blogs, Social Media, Using WordPress, Web 2.0, WordPress Tagged With: Blogging, Blogging 101, Social Media, Web 2.0, WordPress 2.9, WordPress plugins, WordPress tips, WordPress.org

http://www.travelinlocal.com LisaNewton

Great list you put together here. I also have many of these plugins, but one you might want to add, because you’re using a tagcloud is Netlife’s Tag Cloud (FatCloud).

I don’t use it on my main site, but it works for me here:

http://www.losangelesbybike.com

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Thank you Lisa I take a look at that one! There are so many great plugins, and so little time to try them all!

http://www.travelinlocal.com LisaNewton

Great list you put together here. I also have many of these plugins, but one you might want to add, because you’re using a tagcloud is Netlife’s Tag Cloud (FatCloud).

I don’t use it on my main site, but it works for me here:

http://www.losangelesbybike.com

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Thank you Lisa I take a look at that one! There are so many great plugins, and so little time to try them all!

http://www.linkedmediagroup.com Lee Traupel

Great job on this list. Like you, when we go over 10-12 plugins we find that we get into conflict problems with some of them. Thanks for this Blog post – We RTed as well…..

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Thank you Lee. And with WP 2.9.x thumbnail plugins aren’t as important now as well.

http://www.linkedmediagroup.com Lee Traupel

Great job on this list. Like you, when we go over 10-12 plugins we find that we get into conflict problems with some of them. Thanks for this Blog post – We RTed as well…..

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Thank you Lee. And with WP 2.9.x thumbnail plugins aren’t as important now as well.

http://bonniesainsbury.tel Bonnie Sainsbury

Great list of plugins. There’s some I haven’t used before, so will check them out.

I see you use the Thesis theme – it’s pretty much all I use now. Do you use all-in-one-SEO with your Thesis themed blogs? I though I read somewhere the theme is SEO optimized and extra plugins aren’t necessary? Your thoughts?

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Hi Bonnie, great observation! You’re bang on, I don’t need All in One SEO when I’m using Thesis, so it’s turned off here, but I have it turned on for non-Thesis blogs.

http://bonniesainsbury.tel Bonnie Sainsbury

Great list of plugins. There’s some I haven’t used before, so will check them out.

I see you use the Thesis theme – it’s pretty much all I use now. Do you use all-in-one-SEO with your Thesis themed blogs? I though I read somewhere the theme is SEO optimized and extra plugins aren’t necessary? Your thoughts?

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Hi Bonnie, great observation! You’re bang on, I don’t need All in One SEO when I’m using Thesis, so it’s turned off here, but I have it turned on for non-Thesis blogs.

http://www.relicpro.com Portland Wedding Photographer

How do you feel about the Google XML Sitemaps plugin? It seems superfluous if you have good SEO (considering that bots crawl blogs rather easily), but I’ve added it anyways just in case

Also, for anybody that wants to work with images, I highly recommend the Yet Another PhotoBlog plugin, and the YAPB sidebar widget is pretty cool too.

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I’m a huge fan of Google Sitemaps. One of the suggestions from Google is to have an XML-based sitemap, and that plugin just makes it painless.

YAPB, I’ve heard good things about that one too. I’ll have to check it out again! Thx!

http://gloriaantonelli.com Gloria Antonelli

I just tried to install Yet Another PhotoBlog from my dashboard and receivedIncompatible archive PCLZIP_ERR_BAD_FORMAT (-10) : Invalid archive structureIt would not install. Anyone else having a problem?

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I haven’t seen that before either, but it sounds like the version from the repository is corrupted. Maybe install via FTP?

http://www.relicpro.com Portland Wedding Photographer

How do you feel about the Google XML Sitemaps plugin? It seems superfluous if you have good SEO (considering that bots crawl blogs rather easily), but I’ve added it anyways just in case

Also, for anybody that wants to work with images, I highly recommend the Yet Another PhotoBlog plugin, and the YAPB sidebar widget is pretty cool too.

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I’m a huge fan of Google Sitemaps. One of the suggestions from Google is to have an XML-based sitemap, and that plugin just makes it painless.

YAPB, I’ve heard good things about that one too. I’ll have to check it out again! Thx!

http://gloriaantonelli.com Gloria Antonelli

I just tried to install Yet Another PhotoBlog from my dashboard and receivedIncompatible archive PCLZIP_ERR_BAD_FORMAT (-10) : Invalid archive structureIt would not install. Anyone else having a problem?

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I haven’t seen that before either, but it sounds like the version from the repository is corrupted. Maybe install via FTP?

http://boyscoutblog.wsr3.net Kevin

I’ve found the plugin broken link checker to be very effective at spotting broken links. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

LOL! That Kevin happens to be the plugin I just tried today that I think brought my blog to a crawl! Might be because I have so much content. I agree, however, that it looks like a great plugin and I’m going to give it another shot.

http://www.ianbrodie.com Ian Brodie

Yep – I found the Broken Link checker plugin really slows down any of my bigger blogs with lots of pages/posts.

Ian

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Which is a shame, because it could be very helpful. Ah well.

http://www.ianbrodie.com Ian Brodie

Yeah – my blog is slow at the best of times (perhaps due to my addiction to sexybookmarks and other graphics heavy plugins)

Maybe something to have installed but inactive and just switch on once a month in the wee small hours to run a check.

Or maybe they’ll speed it up.

Ian
http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I think it’s more likely we’ll just have to put our blogs on a plugin diet!

http://boyscoutblog.wsr3.net Kevin

I’ve found the plugin broken link checker to be very effective at spotting broken links. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

LOL! That Kevin happens to be the plugin I just tried today that I think brought my blog to a crawl! Might be because I have so much content. I agree, however, that it looks like a great plugin and I’m going to give it another shot.

http://www.ianbrodie.com Ian Brodie

Yep – I found the Broken Link checker plugin really slows down any of my bigger blogs with lots of pages/posts.

Ian

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Which is a shame, because it could be very helpful. Ah well.

http://www.ianbrodie.com Ian Brodie

Yeah – my blog is slow at the best of times (perhaps due to my addiction to sexybookmarks and other graphics heavy plugins)

Maybe something to have installed but inactive and just switch on once a month in the wee small hours to run a check.

Or maybe they’ll speed it up.

Ian
http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I think it’s more likely we’ll just have to put our blogs on a plugin diet!

http://boysocutblog.wsr3.net/ Kevin

Ok this is completely unrelated but where did you get that cool email button and the twitter button?

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Hi Kevin, The Twitter button came from Twitter.com and the email one from here: http://services.nexodyne.com/email/

http://boysocutblog.wsr3.net/ Kevin

Thanks!

http://boysocutblog.wsr3.net/ Kevin

Ok this is completely unrelated but where did you get that cool email button and the twitter button?

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Hi Kevin, The Twitter button came from Twitter.com and the email one from here: http://services.nexodyne.com/email/

http://boysocutblog.wsr3.net/ Kevin

Thanks!

http://www.designisphilosophy.com Morten Rand-Hendriksen

I have to say if you’re planning on making a more advanced website using WP-eCommerce you’ll find that if you move anywhere outside of the standard configurations you’ll run into some pretty serious issues. And their support isn’t all that great. It’s a good eCommerce solution but it has very little room for advanced customization and has a lot of “interesting” code that is hard to work with.

Just my 2 cents.

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I’m with you there Morten. I think it’s very strange how WordPress has great plugins for everything BUT e-commerce!

http://www.designisphilosophy.com Morten Rand-Hendriksen

I have to say if you’re planning on making a more advanced website using WP-eCommerce you’ll find that if you move anywhere outside of the standard configurations you’ll run into some pretty serious issues. And their support isn’t all that great. It’s a good eCommerce solution but it has very little room for advanced customization and has a lot of “interesting” code that is hard to work with.

Just my 2 cents.

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

I’m with you there Morten. I think it’s very strange how WordPress has great plugins for everything BUT e-commerce!

http://kevinbaggs.com Kevin Baggs

Still looking for a good Facebook like plugin.

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

This is the one I’ve found and will be trying here: http://blog.ahmedgeek.com/facebook-like-button-for-wordpress-v3

http://kevinbaggs.com Kevin Baggs

Still looking for a good Facebook like plugin.

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

This is the one I’ve found and will be trying here: http://blog.ahmedgeek.com/facebook-like-button-for-wordpress-v3

http://www.guitaramplifiersguide.com Steve Wyman

Hi

I also meant to ask which of the two cache plugins youve found most benefial and do they add much of an overhead in performance?

Steve Wyman

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Steve I like W3 Total Cache myself. It gives me the ability for minifying and caching more than just the pages, but the database, Javascript, and CSS as well.

It is the geekier of the two caching plugins, but I think it’s a strong choice.

http://www.guitaramplifiersguide.com Steve Wyman

I can Geek so Ill play wth it some more on my largest site.

Should i be using it even on my light 5 page sites ? or will it hinder performance?

Thanks

Steve

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

It might help with the smaller pages, but only in terms of load times for your users.

http://www.guitaramplifiersguide.com Steve Wyman

Hi

I also meant to ask which of the two cache plugins youve found most benefial and do they add much of an overhead in performance?

Steve Wyman

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

Steve I like W3 Total Cache myself. It gives me the ability for minifying and caching more than just the pages, but the database, Javascript, and CSS as well.

It is the geekier of the two caching plugins, but I think it’s a strong choice.

http://www.guitaramplifiersguide.com Steve Wyman

I can Geek so Ill play wth it some more on my largest site.

Should i be using it even on my light 5 page sites ? or will it hinder performance?

Thanks

Steve

http://www.trishussey.com/ Tris Hussey

It might help with the smaller pages, but only in terms of load times for your users.

matthaltom

Tris Hussey, have you ever tried Lijit Search for WordPress ( http://www.lijit.com ) instead of the Search Everything Plugin?

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