Best Wordpress Plugins   by Pixelrage

Rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 8 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

The Best Wordpress Plugins That You Can't Do Without!

Find the best free Wordpress plugins quickly and easily with this list of personal recommendations! All Wordpress plugins listed here are widely believed to be the best and most used plugins available today. Use them in confidence...get the most out of Wordpress!

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Before You Install that Wordpress Plugin...Make Sure It Still Works! 

Make sure that the Wordpress plugins you're downloading will actually be compatible with your version of Wordpress! Visit the Wordpress plugin compatibility list for all versions, or view the Wordpress 2.3x plugin compatibility list.

All of the plugins listed below briefly give you the most important info you'll need to know. Great features are marked with a , while things that suck have icons. Everything is sorted by alphabetical order, naming each one the most logical way so that you can find things quickly ;)

Ad Rotator for Wordpress 

Looking for a way to display your banner ads, so that it picks and chooses them from a queue? This one's for you - Ad Rotator lets you maintain a text file pointing to different ads, which are rotated during page refreshes.

Lets you display ads from AdSense, Chitika, Adbrite, or anything else!

>>> Get Wordpress Ad Rotator here.

AdSense Plugin for Wordpress 

An extremely helpful and beneficial plugin that allows you to insert Google AdSense into your Wordpress blog posts with minimal work on your end. According to many reviews I've read, this appears to be the "best" and most popular AdSense insertion script for Wordpress (I've tried this one, but not the others).

Works with AdSense, Yahoo Ads, CJ, et. al.
Created for people who know nothing about coding
Uses simple HTML comments to insert AdSense
Globally change ad styles with ease
Ads do not show up in your RSS syndications
Extremely customizable in terms of ad types & styles
Last but not least, AdSense Deluxe is technically a PHP Include Script. It will let you place any kind of script (even plain old HTML) wherever you want, even within Wordpress posts and pages, which was previously an impossible thing to do without major code adjustments. This makes your affiliate marketing possibilities truly unlimited!

>>> Download AdSense Deluxe here.

If you can't get this one to work - another highly recommended plugin is "Who Sees Ads". Yes, it's a funny name - but it lets you fine tune who sees what. Do you want a regular visitor to not see ads? You can do that. Do you want a search engine stumbler to see a certain ad? You can set that, as well. What this plugin aims to do, is to decrease "ad blindness," or visitors' ability to naturally ignore your ads after visiting your page so many times, and getting used to the ad spot layout.

>>> Download Who Sees Ads here.

Affiliate Link Masking for Wordpress 

Hide those affiliate codes with this Wordpress plugin. Through your admin panel, you can specify your affiliate links and cloak them with the click of a button. Your affiliate link will turn into "http://www.yoursitename.com/ category-you-set/ page-name-you-select".

What affiliate wouldn't love this? Not only can you cloak your links, but you can rename them to your own domain with a SEO-friendly structure!

>>> Download WP-Affiliate here.

Analytics Plugin for Wordpress 

The easier way to install Google Analytics into your Wordpress blog, if you do not want to insert it by hand.

Simply download the PHP file, install in Plugins.
Copy and paste your Analytics code in the backend panel
Has a variety of other features for tracking
If you're not lazy, just add your Analytics code immediately before the /body tag, in your Wordpress template! It really isn't that hard to do :)

>>> Download Analytics for Wordpress here.

Articles sorted to your liking 

This plugin lets you create a page with a sitemap-style listing of articles that are organized according to you! In other words, no more reverse chronology. See an example of what it looks like here.

Create a nice site map or directory for your site
Freedom to list any article you want, any way you want

>>> Download the Wordpress 'Articles' plugin here.

Author Images 

Display an avatar next to posts that are made by an admin on your Wordpress blog.

Spotlight posts that are made by admins
Break up the monotony of text-heavy blogs

>>> Download Author Images here.

Caching for Wordpress 

A caching plugin will cache your Wordpress site so that it doesn't have to load every single time someone visits. With Hyper Cache - never worry about suffering from the "Digg effect" or an unexpected massive volume of hits. Install this plugin to cache your pages: making your site perform better and become more responsive, as your users's computers won't have to continually load each already-visited page. Best yet, there truly is no negative side effect to using this plugin (except for a few issues, noted below):

Make Wordpress run faster, all the time.
Never get performance sufferage from many web hits.

Any type of caching, including this plugin, will cause your "dynamic" plugins to stop functioning. This includes anything that relates to page popularity plugins, hit counters, and anything else related!

>>> Download Hyper Cache here.

Categories: Displays Posts by Category 

This plugin will allow you to insert a simple tag anywhere you want, that will list the latest posts from all categories in directory style format. There are a few display options, as well.

Offer a different navigation style to your site.

>>> Download Wordpress Posts By Category here.

Comments: Comment Pagination 

For those who hate seeing mile-long Wordpress posts due to many comments: paginate your comments section and show only a certain number of comments on a page...and let others simply click a "next" icon or comment page number to see the rest!

Reduce clutter...kill those insanely long pages.
Also has a "view all posts" link, for those who like to see all comments on one page.

May conflict with other plugins. As with everything else, test it on a staging site with your other plugins before going live.

>>> Download Wordpress Paged Comments here.

Copyright Protection for RSS feeds 

Feed Copyrighter will permanently adds your Copyright information to your RSS/Atom feeds.

Protect your text from thieves! Your RSS will always display the copyright line you've added with this plugin.
Only displays for the full version of an article (the newer versions of Wordpress do not display anything after a "More" code in RSS)

>>> Download Wordpress Feed Copyrighter here.

Global hyperlink replacement for words you choose 

These plugins will assign words that you designate as a hyperlink automatically throughout all of your blog posts (much like a wiki). So, if you assign the word "eBay" with "http://www.ebay.com", then every instance of the word "eBay" within your blog will be hyperlinked to that URL.

Create a poor man's wiki within your blog, or vastly expand your affiliate sales by hyperlinking words to an affiliate product
Link words to other articles in your blog for more interactivity
Promote other sites or pages from your site, by making all words across the blog display as a link (maybe even offer this as an advertising option?)
Also works within user comments

>>> Download aLinks here.

>>> Download Link A Dink here.

Gravatars 

POPULAR!

This has become one of the "must haves" for Wordpress. Gravatars are the avatar icons that appear next to visitor comments. In order for a user to have their own gravatar, they need to have signed up for one, otherwise, they'll get a generic icon showing next to their posts.

Most blogs have this implemented, therefore, so should you
Requires a Wordpress theme that allows for Gravatars
Installing this plugin requires some manual code insertion. It's easy though, read the directions here.

>>> Download it here for older versions of Wordpress...otherwise:

...Wordpress 2 now uses a new Gravatar service from ZenPax. It's not recommended to use the old Gravatar 1.x - so use this one instead:

>>> Download Gravatar 2 here.

Lightbox Image Display 

The lightbox plugin is a new trend for websites - letting users click on an image thumbnail and see the full size image "expand" right over the darkened website itself. Be sure to take the proper measures to leave your image in an "open" directory for Google to spider, if you want to be seen in Google Image searches.

Conserve space, present images neatly
Works well with Slickr image gallery for Wordpress
It looks pretty damn cool.

>>> Download Lightbox here.

Popular posts plugin 

Popularity Contest is a plugin that uses its own algorithm to determine which posts in your Wordpress blog are the most popular - and lists the most popular posts. This could make a decent addition to your blog's home page, as a space filler.

Display how popular an individual Wordpress post/page is with the usage of a simple tag that you can place anywhere.
Also, create a list of popular posts and set the number of links you'd like to show.

This plugin will not work well if you use a cache plugin, like "WP Super Cache" or WP-Cache", as it will cause the results to be skewed on a constant basis. This is not the fault of Popular Posts, but the caching plugin.

>>> Download Popularity Contest here.

Random File Plugin 

This plugin will display a random file from a folder that you specify. In other words, you could use it for displaying random images on a page refresh!

Keep your Wordpress site looking new with the magic of randomization.

>>> Download Random File here.

Redirect Plugin 

Objection Redirection will help manage all redirects (404's) as well as 301, 302 and 307's. It beats having to edit the .htaccess file by hand!

Makes a grueling task easy if you have many broken links

>>> Download Objection Redirection here.

Related Posts plugin 

This Wordpress plugin will list related posts, based on keyword matching. It's a great way to make all of your pages (even the old ones) look new, as the plugin keeps updating the links, based on what else you have in your blog!

If you don't like the results that show up, simply include a custom tag filled with keywords within your post's code. It will pull links based on those keywords you've set. A very nice addition!
Customize the pre/post visual for the result links...include a bullet, a numbered list, a GIF image, whatever you want before or after them. Or, include nothing at all.
Mimic Amazon.com's famous "customers who bought this also viewed" feature. Reduce your site's bounce rate!

>>> Download Wordpress Related Entries here.

SEO for Wordpress: Custom meta for individual posts, and duplicate content fix 

POPULAR!

For some baffling reason, Wordpress does not support any custom post META out of the box. All In One SEO Pack adds the META Description, Keyword & Title options to your admin panel, so that you can customize which pages get which tags either by default or individually. Yet another feature that should have been standard!

Assign META Keywords/Title/Desc on a page by page basis
Adds a new "box" to your admin panel when writing/editing a post or page
As an added bonus, it sets "nofollow" links to archive, category and tag pages, so that you don't get spanked by Google.
Many if not most serious Wordpress users will argue that this is a must have plugin.

>>> Download All In One SEO Pack here.

Sitemap Generator Plugin for Wordpress 

A customizable sitemap generator that has plenty of options. Note that this is a not just a sitemap in the traditional sense: creating a new page with a "tree" of organized links that are on your blog, but it also creates a Google XML sitemap for Google Webmaster. It contains the following features:

support for multi-level categories and pages
category/page exclusion
multiple-page generation with navigation
permalink support
choose display & order options
show comment counts and/or post dates

>>> Download Sitemap Generator here.

Want a sitemap plugin for Wordpress that just creates the XML file? Google Sitemap Generator for Wordpress 2 does just that - and gives you many options for auto-updating, as well.

>>> Download XML Sitemap generator here.

Social Bookmarking 

A Widget that adds over 55 tiny social bookmarking icons! Very nice.

Every major/known social bookmarking site included
Pick which icons you want to display, omit the ones you don't want to display.
Alternately, you can simply use other services like AddThis or ShareThis.

>>> Download WP Bookmark Widget here.

Social Bookmarking: Before and/or After articles 

This social bookmarking plugin inserts bookmark icons before or after posts, on the home page, archive pages, search results, or anything else you specify! It appears as though every social bookmarking site is available as selectable options.

Social bookmarking after or before an article
Pick and choose which social sites you want to use, and their icons will appear before or after your blog posts.

>>> Download Sociable here.

Ratings/Star Ratings for Wordpress 

This is a really cool star rating script that is a must for bloggers who are looking to bring some attention to a product they've reviewed. By inputting a simple "rating:#/#" code, Wordpress will insert a nice little box with a star rating in any spot you choose. Note that this only allows you, the article writer/webmaster, to add the rating - not your visitors.

It sure beats having to place a GIF or JPG image every time you want to show a star rating on your blog! (or paying a freelancer to make the script for you!)

>>> Download Star Rating here.

Want your visitors to rate your Wordpress articles? This very versatile ratings script offers a drop down box and rating results bar, that tallies up and graphically displays your visitors' votes. Lots of customization options are available - read this page for details. See a demo in action, here.

You can place the code anywhere you want, to have the rating option show up anywhere!
When in category view, the "total rating" for that page will be displayed as a thin bar, next to the post's title.

People who have large Wordpress sites have noted that this plugin will start to eat server resources. Be warned if you plan on having a large Wordpress site with hundreds of pages!

>>> Download Wordpress Rating here.

Send-to-a-friend for Wordpress 

This plugin creates an option that allows site visitors to recommend your page/post to a friend, via an e-mail form.

Alternately, you can simply use other services like AddThis or ShareThis, which also have this functionality, plus much more.

>>> Download it here.

Subdomains 

This very interesting plugin will convert all of your Wordpress categories into Subdomains [instead of "mysite.com/category1/", it would be "category1.mysite.com/"]. Obviously, this is a cosmetic change that will probably not improve or ruin SEO in any way, but some people just prefer subdomains! Test this one out on a test site first, as it appears to be in a beta phase.

Requires your blog name to have "www" before it
Requires a specific permalink setting (see details)
Note that Google will soon be counting subdomains as categories (one.mysite.com will be equal to mysite.com/one)...Just for your information.

>>> Download Wordpress Subdomains here.

Tables in Wordpress 

WP-Table is a vast improvement over the default Wordpress WYSIWYG HTML tool. This table creation tool allows you to choose rows and columns, type in table elements, and save the table. When completed, you can even sort table contents by category (via clicking a table heading).

It's a nice way to add a table that has alternating row colors, without having to do the HTML yourself every single time.

It goes crazy if you attempt to use coded HTML within the rows or columns.

>>> Download Wordpress Tables here.

Tags & Tag Clouds in Wordpress 2.3.x 

Expand your post tagging possibilities with Simple Tags, which throws in a myriad of new options for your tags (even include related pages in RSS, edit mass tags, auto-fill while you type, Technorati tags, compatibility with old plugins and much more). While you're at it, check out Configurable Tag Cloud Widget for Wordpress 2.3 and get that old "Ultimate Tag Warrior" feeling back, with configurable fonts and font colors for big and small tags in the cloud.

Put the power back into Wordpress tags & clouds, before 2.3 when UTW was around!

>>> Download Simple Tags here.
>>> Download Configurable Tag Cloud Widget here.

Turn off Wordpress while you're doing an update 

The lock-out plugin for Wordpress allows you, the administrator/webmaster, to "close" your Wordpress blog while you make updates. When closed, the Wordpress site will display a designated page and message for for non-admins, when any page of the blog is visited.

Turn off your site, so that other people don't see you messing around with things.

Get ready for some pain if Googlebot happens to see that your site is down for awhile.

>>> Download Wordpress Lock-Out here.

Video Player for Wordpress: from Jeroenwijering 

I've literally tried every single FLV video player for Wordpress (yes, there are MANY), and none of them hold a candle to this one. The JW FLV Media Player plays FLVs, as well as MP3s and image files, too, and it's insanely customizable. Change everything from colors to sizes, add a thumbnail navigation, a "download this video" option, and change any setting to your heart's content. Do it all through a convenient page where you can test all of the variables out, and see how the end results appear (the video player test page is here).

If you want to turn Wordpress into a video site, there aren't many options...but this is most likely going to be your best bet for quickness & expandability.
Easily create a video player window that plays multiple videos, which you can scroll through. This is a free feature that you'll only find elsewhere for semi-expensive FLV player scripts!

>>> Download Jeroenwijering's Video for Wordpress Plugin here.

Reader Feedback 

Would you like to see other Wordpress plugins featured here? Let me know and I'll take the time out to research and try them. It's basically part of my full time job, anyway!

Props-n-Frocks-Fancy-Dress

Great lens, I am new to Wordpress and feel abit overwhelmed at the moment. Your lens has helped me a great deal.

Posted March 11, 2008
Tina_Woodall

Another great wordpress advice lens! Very impressed!! :)

MonkeyBrain: Best Premium WordPress Theme?

Posted February 28, 2008
BlogdesignGuy

Awesome list of plugins, that is the greatest strength in wordpress in my opinion. I created a lens on designing blogs that I think you would be interested in.

Posted February 28, 2008
himick

Top ideas and links here.
I cant wait to start using the on my blog.
Regards,
Mick

Posted February 22, 2008
Gregor

I think there is a lot of great resources here. I del.icio.us bookmarked your lens so I can come back for ideas once my Wordpress site is up and running.

Posted February 10, 2008
 
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More Wordpress Plugin Links 

Alex King Wordpress Plugin list
This should be one of your first stops for great Wordpress Plugins.
Mudbomb
Lots of great plugins for Wordpress.
Lester Chan
This programmer has a TON of Wordpress plugins worth looking at. All of his plugins have the prefix "WP-".
Circle Six Design
Lots of really unique plugins. I'll be adding certain ones to the list above periodically.
Coffee2Code (C2C)
This site lists several popular Wordpress plugins, notably the recent post plugin, for those who want to break away from Wordpress's chronological ordering of posts.

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