5 Wordpress Plugins You Can’t Blog Without - Part I

Posted by hts | November 25, 2007 .

So you say you are a blogger, eh? Moreover, do you use Wordpress as your platform? If so, then check out the great plugins below:

Akismet

I know it is included by default with Wordpress from version, but I had to mention it.
For those who don’t know, Akismet is a plugin for Wordpress that helps fighting comment spam by checking them against the Akismet web service to see whether they are spam or not.
In order to use it, you need to get a API key. After you receive your key, under the Admin Panel, go to the Plugins section and activate the plugin. After this, click on Akismet Configuration, enter you key and activate it. You’re now (almost) immune to comment spam.

All-in-one SEO pack

With this plugin, you can add/change the title, description and keywords for your pages. In my opinion, however, the best feature you get with this plugin is the ability to add “noindex” to category / tag / archive pages, in order to avoid duplicate content, so you won’t be penalised by search engines.
Download: All-in-one SEO pack

FeedBurner FeedSmith

Can’t say it better than the official description:

“Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber”

Download: FeedBurner FeedSmith

Google XML Sitemap

Use this plugin to generate a Google-compliant sitemap of your Wordpress blog. Very useful to help search engines index your site.
Download: Google XML Sitemap

Gregarious

Gregarious is a plugin that integrates social sites into your blog. Has support for: Digg, Reddit, FeedFlare, ShareThis button - all managed from an AJAX-based, easy to use admin panel.
Download: Gregarious

As the title of the post says, this is the first short-list of useful plugins for our beloved Wordpress. Stay tuned for more!