My Top 12 Favorite Wordpress Plugins

This post was originally going to be a list of my top 10 favorite plugins, but I have more than 10 to share, so you’re getting 12.

If you’re familiar with Wordpress, you probably use at least a few plugins. You’ve got your favorites, your “go-to” plugins – the ones you can’t do without. Right? Yes, we’ve all got our list.

If you’re new to Wordpress, just look around a little. You’ll see that there are literally hundreds of plugins out there to add functionality to your site, and more are being developed every day.

I use the plugins on this list every day on my own sites, so I’m comfortable recommending them. They’re all available for download on Wordpress.org/extend and are compatible up to Wordpress version 2.7.

Here are my personal favorites:

Akismet: This plugin is an incredibly effective spam filter, and it’s already included in your Wordpress software. It blocks spammers from posting comments on your blog. It will also give you the opportunity to view the spam comments – in case one of them happens to be legit. In that case, you can release that comment from the spam folder. You’ll need an API key, that you can get by setting up a free account on Wordpress.org.

All-In-One Adsense and YPN: This plugin is for blogs using Adsense. It inserts your Adsense or YPN code into your blog posts automatically. You choose the ad size, position, location, and frequency. Pretty simple.

All In One SEO Pack: This essential plugin helps you optimize every single post on your blog. When writing a post, you’ll specify your custom title, relevant keywords, and description, then All In One SEO Pack overrides your theme’s default settings. The rest is done behind the scenes. I should add that I use this on every site that does not use the Thesis theme. When I’m using Thesis (like I do here on Best Website Tips), I still install the plugin, but I use it sparingly. Thesis is so well optimized “out of the box” that it already does the work for you.

Best-Posts-Summary: This plugin will create a post that lists all your best posts in one place. It can post once a week, once a month, etc., and you can tell it how many posts to include, if it should consider the number of comments for each post, etc. It’s a pretty cool way to create an automated “best of” post.

Broken Link Checker: As your site grows, it can be difficult to keep track of all the links on all your pages. This plug-in keeps track of all your links and alerts you immediately if one isn’t working. One of my favorites.

Cforms II: Use this plugin to quickly and easily create forms to use on your Wordpress site. This is a pretty advanced plugin and may do more than you need it to, but if you want to add a form to your blog, this is the easiest way to do it.

Google XML Sitemap Generator: This plugin will generate a sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo. All you need to do is activate the plugin. It even submits the sitemap for you.

MyLinkOrder: This plugin allows you to easily set the order in which links and link categories will appear in the sidebar by using a drag-and-drop interface. Not crucial, but certainly handy.

Odiogo Listen Button: Though it has a few quirks, this is an awesome plugin. Odiogo adds a “Listen Now” button to your blog so your readers can actually listen to your posts. The voice is a little robotic, but I hear that the developers are working on adding additional voices in future updates. Aside from pronouncing a few words incorrectly, this plugin rocks!

Sociable: This essential plugin automatically adds tiny icons and links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites. You choose which sites to link to, and changing the mix is as simple as a few clicks. (I used to use TweetThis, but I now link to Twitter through the Sociable plugin.)

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin: (Yes, that actually is the name) This plugin pulls together a list of posts related to the current post, using titles, post bodies, tags, and categories. I have mine set to list the related posts at the end of every post, but you can change the positioning if you like.

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade: This plugin topped my list as one of the most important to have – but now it’s integrated into the latest Wordpress version (2.7). I’m including it on this list because not everyone is running on v. 2.7. If you’re using an earlier version of Wordpress, be sure to snag this plugin. It makes upgrading a breeze.