Top WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have

I’m always working on new projects and half of them are new blog sites, usually in niche markets. When setting up a new blog, I have a separate folder I use for uploading all of my important wordpress plugins. I’m always on the look out for ways to improve spacing, loading times and reader interaction, and many of the plugins do just that. Here is my breakdown on wordpress plugins that every blog should be using.

For a list of the most recent top WordPress plugins, be sure to visit the official WordPress.org plugin ranking page.

Stop Spam with Akismet
This one is a given, but it’s still a necessity. Without Akisment, managing your blog and comments would just be a pain. The bigger your site traffic the more comment spam you will get. You may be getting comment spam on your new blogs before even getting a real comment. The bottom line is, Akismet is your first line of defense for cutting down comment spam.
– Download Akismet for WordPress

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
You spend a lot of time writing your blog content, don’t let your old posts die and get lost for ever. Once a reader gets to the bottom of your post, instead of seeing just a comment form, add in the YARPP plugin and show a list of your older related posts as well. This is a great way to bring new traffic and attnetion to your older posts.
– Download YARRP for WordPress

Improve Your Chances of a High SEO Listing
Bring your blog’s search engine power to the next level by adding the “All-in-One SEO” plugin. This plugin is at the top of many designers lists as a must have. All in One SEO allows you to add in your own meta description, title tags and keywords for individual blog posts and pages.
– Download All in One SEO for WordPress

Threading Your Comments is a Must
It wasn’t til recently that I set this blog up with threaded comments. Before then, it was a mess and very annoying to respond to someone, as it would set all comments out of order. The blog is now running of Brian’s Threaded Comments plugin, which keeps everything clean and organized, while actually increasing your blog commenting activity.
– Download Brian’s Threaded Comments for WordPress

Bring in Free Viral Traffic with Twitter
There are a lot of different options to choose from when adding social media buttons to your blog. I’ve been using TweetMeme for a while now and have been happy with it. In short, this plugin will create a short redirect link and allow other Twitter users to “retweet” your post in a single click. This is great for bringing in free viral traffic.
– Download TweetMeme for WordPress

WP Super Cache to the Rescue
Any digg, resource or social media related blog already understands and appreciates the value of WP Super Cache. This plugin is responsible for saving a ton of downtime and server crashes for blogs overloading with traffic. WP Super Cache plugin increases the page/post loading time and reduces the resource consumption on your server.
– Download WP Super Cache for WordPress

Is Your Blog iPhone Ready?
Last year I finally got my hands on the iPhone and there is no going back. Unfortunately many sites just didn’t look that great, or where overwhelmed with content. I came across a plugin called WPTouch, which make your blog completely accessible and easy to read through the iPhone. This plugin is definitely worth checking out. (I also did a full post on this plugin a while back)
– Download WPtouch iPhone Theme for WordPress


Other top notable wordpress plugins on my list include; Contact Form 7, Subscribe to Comments, WordPress Automatic Upgrade, WordPress Backup & Google XML Sitemaps.

There’s hundreds of amazing plugins out there, and I’ve only mentioned a few. Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite wordpress plugin that isn’t on the list.

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53 Comments

  1. I keep forgetting to get around to getting an iPhone plugin. Let's hope I don't get that many iPhone readers.

  2. I was having some serious performance issues with some of my WordPress installations. I found a post online that YARPP made a ton of calls to the database and reduced performance significantly. So I switched to a different related post plug in and my performance issues went away.

  3. I've been using All-In-SEO plugin for years and it works well with my blogs but only basic features are incorporated with this plugin.

    Yet-Another-Related-Posts plugin is for your internal linkings if you want an automatic way of internal cross linking of your related pages within your website.

    1. I have been using All-in-one-SEO as well asn agree it works well. Like the sound of Yet-Another-Related-Posts I will have to give that a try. Thanks.

  4. Good comprehensive list Zac. I've used all these on every blog I've ever started and agree they're must-haves.

  5. All In One SEO is not programmed very good. It is even forbidden on some hosts. It also got a bunch of security flaws that got plugins based on it removed from the WP.org systems. AIOSEO was left in there though probably due to its popularity.

    There is a another plugin that is based on it called Light SEO by Alden Torres. Light SEO is faster and leaner than AIOSEO. You can read about it on Aldens blog.

    For caching another good plugin is W3 Total Cache. Don't know if its faster or equal to Super Cache but it got a lot of cool features that SC don't have. It feels faster but thats not very scientific.

  6. Good list Zac.

    Bear in mind though that you don't need a plugin for threaded comments. It became standard on WordPress in version 2.7.

    Tweetmeme has to be my favourite on your list, just because it's so effective.

    1. This was a good update for wordpress. I haven't updated a bunch of my older blogs with the latest version yet, so I'm still running the plugin elsewhere.

  7. Easy Privacy Policy is another great plugin. Automatic creates your privacy policy page in a few clicks.

  8. I like the All in One SEO plugin, but the Meta Robots plugin is a pretty good one as well.

    The Identify External Links plugin is a great one too.

  9. All of those plugins are good. But I like more Platinum SEO than All in SEO pack. ShareThis is also a plugin that I like 🙂

  10. I haven't tried the the threaded comments plugin . It would definitely help to organize my comments, but I'd be interested to see if it spurred conversation on my blog.

    As Kevin mentioned there's a setting in the latest version of WordPress (2.9.2) in Settings | Discussion | Other Comment Settings. I checked the box "Enable threaded (nested) comments 5 levels deep" You have the option to choose how many levels deep.

    Thanks for the list!

  12. Finally! because of your very informative post now I got this Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) which I'm looking for a long time ago. I always see this plugin on blogs and I don't know what it's name. Thanks!

  15. All of those plugins are good. But I like more Platinum SEO than All in SEO pack. ShareThis is also a plugin that I like

  16. Why do you need wp automatic update, when the latest version of wp lets you update on the fly?

  17. Statpress, Auto Update plugin, retweet, subscribe2 plugin are really useful plugins too.

  18. You aren't going to find a theme that has these features. You can, however, create a theme of your own easily if you know css and can play with javascript a little (you will need this for onClick changes to your menus).

  19. I'm with Laptop Tamiri, I like Platinum SEO Pack better than all in one.

    And I wish more plugins worked as well and seamlessly as YARPP. I love that one most of all lol.

  23. Awesome! I use almost all of these plugins but have not been using Brian’s Threaded Comments for WordPress. It will make my blog look so much nicer and more professional too! Thanks!

  24. I also love the Google XML sitemap plugin and SImilar/Latest posts, it helps indexing better all the posts!

  30. Akismet has been very essential on my blog due to using commentluv. Spammers try their best to get their comments but the plugin has done a wonderful job so far to stop them.

  31. The "all in one SEO" plug in is so simple and very effective. I've seen it get a lot of people to the first page of google

  32. Thanks, I've just added those new plugings to my wordpress. Not really sure how all of them work and if the will be compatible with all sorts of themes?

    Thanks for this

  36. Great and these seems to be awesome plugin list for WP!

    Do you know any good plugin for wordpress which can generate unique contents or maybe rewrite some already written articles and make them look readable and unique!!

  37. yes i do have most of these! I love WP as every kind of plugins are available for free and they word awesome!

    I really thank you as well for giving out this post to everyone of us!

  38. Thanks, that's a great list. I am a big fan of WordPress. When I really started to pay attention to them they had just surpassed the 4000 plugin mark. Now look where they are. Last time I looked they were past the 10K plugin mark. Amazing. Personally my favorite plugin is the blubrry podcasting plugin:
    https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/powerpress/
    My recent post Is It Better to Have Keywords in the URL Path or Filename

  39. I like the fact that you mentioned you should have an iPhone plugin.. It definitely opens up your blog to a wider array of readers, because a lot of people (like myself) only look at the internet on their phones for the most part. Having a blog that's iPhone capable gets your readers your scoop on their phones!

  40. This is very helpful. We have a blog set up on our website, and we were trying to figure out which plugins were the best. The commenting plugin is real interesting. So far, we have minimal comments, but I think that plugin should help increase comment activity. Thanks!

  42. I liked the whole post and bookmarked the blog. Hopefully, I will get more helpful information from this blog. Thanks

  43. I definitely love All-In-One SEO, it works very well for me, especially my small niche wordpress sites. I believe that a good weapon does not make a good soldier. ____There is no tool greater than another, it's how you use them that counts. I started my online business with free stuffs and plug in and figured out how they operate, I used all these tools effectively and I saw, and still experiencing great results. Again, as I mentioned earlier, "A Good Weapon Does Not Make A Good Soldier"____See U At The Top 🙂

  44. I love lists of best plugins. I should do my own one day.
    I also use YARPP and am pretty happy with it, not just for what it does but because the customization of it is pretty robust.
    Now, I know Akismet is the one anti-spam plugin that everyone raves about, but I wonder, does everyone who uses it actually pay for it. Because, you know, you're supposed to pay for it if you're intentions are commercial rather than strictly personal. And, who in the internet marketing niche is not trying to monetize their blog?

  45. Nice site. Helpful information. I have had all the iPhones and I like the iPhone4 better than any. I will try the app you mentioned. Regards, Bill
    My recent post 3 Necessary Tools for the High Rolling Affiliate Marketer

  46. Hi Zac

    Nice list of wordpress plugins.

    Personally, I like the look of wp cumulus for posting tags in the sidebar.

  47. Postcards are the simplest and yet one of the most effective marketing tools available for online or off…
    My recent post New GVO Conference Video

  49. I like the threaded comment plugin. I think every blog ownr should have installed.

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