Must Have WordPress Plugins 2011

I'm going with 'Yet Another Related Posts Plugin' for my related posts plugin because it has a good reputation, does well on my sites, and doesn't seem to slow them down much. There are other alternatives, however this has worked for me.

It DOES require tagging efficiently.

The reason you need a related posts plugin is to make sure your content is interlinked well - this plugin manages that without much hassle.

The reason I picked this plugin over some others is that it treats RSS as different from the blog. You want your readers to get links to related posts, but do they need as many?

I tried this plugin at the beginning of 2010 and it was way too complicated for me to use on my simple blogs. Frederick Townes is oriented towards upscale blogs that are hosted on their own server and the plugin showed it. However, most blogs are on shared hosting, like mine.

At the end of 2010 however the situation has changed. The plugin is now very usable and replaces two other plugins I was using. One is always better than two, so I recommend using the W3 total cache.

It does still require some help, so I've included a screenshot above for the settings you probably need.

The first one is the hardest. Click the buttons under 'general' until it looks like above.

Basically it amounts to this: you can ignore everything, as long as you have page caching and CSS and Javascript minification. The second MIGHT break your site, and if it does, just turn OFF the minification.

The spam comments will start appearing on your blog in tandem with search engine traffic. Do make sure you enable Akismet to keep them out.

Do burn your feeds on Feedburner. Then install the Feedburner plugin, so all the RSS feeds get redirected properly.

THE one thing that slows down any well designed blog are images. However, you need them - they look good, your visitors will like them. So what you need is to make the images as light as possible. That's what Smush It does automatically. Seriously: automatically. That means: upload your image and you're done.

Unfortunately this does NOT work for all theme images.

While I would recommend Google Analytics for serious stats, do install the WordPress Stats plugin as well. It gives you a nice overview of how your blog is doing, without having to log into Google Analytics.

Another reason to use that plugin for stats is that if you want to show your users the most popular of your blogposts, the WordPress Popular Posts uses the WordPress stats information.

The popular posts plugin has two functions:

1. Shows users your best stuff


2. Links to your most popular posts, which makes them rank better in Google

I use the Thesis theme on all my sites.

With that theme comes the option to change a whole lot in code. Many of those options are available through the WordPress interface if you use the Thesis OpenHook plugin.

Upgrading WordPress to a next version is a security MUST. If you don't, you'll likely be stuck with spammy comments and links hidden from sight. Hidden, so that's good? No, it's not - because it will ruin your Google rankings.

Instead you should go with every automatic update WordPress offers, and make sure you've backed up your Database, so you don't have to worry about that aspect of the situation.

I use the WP DB Manager for that purpose. Easily set to back up your database weekly.

No, I don't mean an XML sitemap. What I mean is a simple page, visible to users, on which you list all your posts and pages, aka: a sitemap. Preferably organised by category.

That's what the HTML Sitemap Generator does. In practice I use a personally adapted version of another plugin (which seems gone), but if you're not going to edit PHP, this one is good enough.

Not an XML sitemap you ask? Well, I personally don't see much reason to use one of those on my sites. I'm sure there are reasons to use it on more complex sites, but on ordinary blogs where everything is accessible to search engines (as it should be), you can do without one.

Unfortunately changes in my personal life, and in the way squidu is managed, have made me decide to stop answering questions on that forum. I'm also too busy to answer questions elsewhere.

I am available for consulting though, but that doesn't come cheap. For $99 you get a month of asking whatever questions you want and advice on your SEO strategy, link building, optimizing your blog etc. SEO consult online publishing.

If you aren't willing to pay up, you'll have to be content to stay updated on my Marketing Spiritual Blog where I am also willing to answer any questions related to the posts. It also contains a free ebook.

I'm active on twitter and facebook.