Top wordpress plugins that you must use

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Top wordpress plugins that you must use

As the name implies, there are certain plugins that you *must* install on any wordpress websites, and I say this as these will help you on the long run. These are my top wordpress plugins that I’m currently using and have been using for more then a year now, I’ve had no issues with my wordpress or with my account usage whatsoever. These are highly recommended.

So yeah, let’s get started.

1. A cache plugin, wp-super-cache or w3-total-cache

WordPress is known to use a lot of resources in almost any queries you do on your site, it is a fantastic CMS or blog application, whatever you wish to call it, but it uses a lot of resources, especially for mysql queries. Developers have come to the conclusion that a cache proxy is required, and so the above mentioned plugins appeared not long after wordpress has been released. Personally I use wp-super-cache with its preload option which will automatically cache all your pages in static html pages.

2. Yoast WordPress SEO

This is really a great plugin for SEO optimization, it does really well advising what you should do for each of your articles to optimize them for search engines. It also contains a stylish sitemap that can be used directly with google webmaster tools to get your site indexed as fast as possible. But if some more profound approach required, here is where to find SEO.

3. WP Minify together with wp-super-cache

This one is needed with wp-super-cache as it doesn’t have a minify option included, w3-total-cache does have one so you are safe without this plugin if using that one. But I don’t believe I’ve seen any preload option inside w3-total-cache or maybe I just missed it.

4. Social

You can send newly published posts and pull in discussions using integrations with Twitter and Facebook. I love the integration with Twitter and Facebook, but I also like the comment stylish from this plugin also. You can see it bellow my articles hot it looks.

5. Ultimate TinyMCE

I don’t really use the editor from wordpress, I personally forgot why was the reason I installed this, but after checking, I could see the options from TinyMCE is far superior in editing my articles then the default one. This one is also recommended!

6. Simple Share Buttons Adder

I’ve long been looking for a nice share buttons to add on my site, I’ve stumble on Simple Share Buttons Adder and I really like them, you have other styles to choose also. Keep in mind, do not use the counter from this plugin, it does add a noticeable delay in page loading even with the cache plugin since it is doing remote requests to social networks for that information.

7. Sharebar

Making your site to be easily added to social networks is good, but you also need to provide the option to share your site in a feasible and easy to see manner. So I’m using the left float Sharebar for this.

8. Contact Form 7

This is meant as it sounds, to receive contact information using a form you create from your wp-admin section and adding it to a page or post.

9. Akismet

This is highly recommended for spam comments, and do believe me, you will receive these spams. I receive at least 10 each day and this plugin always marked them for me as spam so that I just need to delete them.

10. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

The last one I recommend is a related posts plugin to show your visitors article that may interest them in some way. Eg. if the visitor viewed a page that you’re talking about programing or drinks, related articles to this will show for your visitor click on them and read another page from your site.

That’s all for now, I do use a few more plugins, but these are really necessary, for eg. the feedburner or wp-syntax are plugins that you mostly decide your self if you need them or not. I for one I need wp-syntax for code highlight on all my articles.

And that is all, cheers and see you again on our next article.

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