32 Essential FREE WordPress Plugins
These are plugins that i find give a good balance between SEO, Security, Functionality and Social Media.
1 - Core Tweaks Plugins The very first plugin i use on every site
This plugin takes 5 minutes to configure and saves me up to an hour doing the same tasks manually
2 Google XML Sitemap Plugin
3 DD Sitemap Generator
Not the same as XML sitemap, This is a user sitemap
4 Ultimate SEO
Get your Site Titles, Description and keywords right with this plugin and soooo much more!.
5 Akismet Plugin
Anti Comment Spam plugin, easy to configure comes as standard when installing WordPress
6 CBnet Ping Optimizer
Set this up to stop wordpress pinging your site after every correction you might make on a new post. Avoid becoming a ping spammer.
List of ping sites to add to your settings in attachment if i did it properly
7 Chennai Central
Save Bandwidth with this plugin
8 Quick Cache
This is the easiest to configure of the W3 cache plugins available. Helps your
site load times...Very important these days!
9 Wordpress Security Plugin
First of 3 security plugins, step by step configuration .
10 Wordpress Database Backup Plugin
This backs up your database and emails the database to you each day or week or whenever you choose.
11 SEO No Duplicate Plugin
Wordpress often creates duplicate posts but this plugin prevents this from happening.
12 RSS Includes Pages
Creates RSS fees for your pages, good if you use wordpress as a CMS, or authority site with lots of static pages as opposed to posts
13 SEO Auto Links and Related Posts
This is a two in one automation plugin which helps with internal linking and external links too.
14 Bullet proof Security Plugin
Bullet proof security plugin can look a bit daunting at first when you look at
the settings, Its actually quite simple to use. I have video on youtube for configuring this one in 1 and a half minutes.
15/ Contact Form 7
Easy contact form to set up
16 Picture for Posts
Never struggle to find royalty free images for your posts, even better its easy and instant
17 Shareaholic - Sexy Bookmarks
With lots of choices for sharing plugins its hard to choose which one is best.
This one has google +1 so i use this for now.
18 Tweet Meme
Allow visitors to tweet your content with a noticable counter with number of times tweeted in a prominent place on each post.
19 Twitter Publisher
Publish your post direct to Twitter, but i have also mentioned Su.PR plugin below which does the same thing
20 Advanced Author Bio Plugin
Add an author Bio to your sidebar with social media links to your linkedin, facebook, yourtune and facebook pages.
21 Find Me ON Plugin
Good looking social media Icons that link to your social media profiles and fit nicely in your sidebar, great to use just under your contact details if adding them on the sidebar...good idea if offering local services or for offliners..
22 As PDF
Allows people to save your posts as PDF. I have seen this plugin responsible for page one listings with PDFs on the first page of Google.
23 RSS Footer Plugin
Adds a footer to your rss feeds with anchor text using your site title
24 Shorten To Ping Plugin
Get Your latest posts distributed to over 30 social networks instantly after
being published with this plugin...need to use the email option these days as ping.fm API keys no longer work
25 Global Translator Plugin
The best plugin for translating your content in other languages. It also creates sitemaps in those languages too!
26 Google Analyticator Plugin
Google analytics is really useful, this plugin is one of many choices available but very easy to set up.
27 Vipers Video Quicktags Plugin
Ever had problems with embeding s on your blog and cenetering them? Not anymore with this easy to use plugin. NEWBIE Friendly
28 Search and Replace Plugin
This plugin searches for terms on your site and replaces them with other words.
Really useful if you are GEO targeting and want to clone a site. We used this
to build 64 sites in two weeks for a large client in America by cloning a core website with 79 highly optimized pages into 64 diifferent geo targeted locations. AWesome plugin!
29 SU.PR Plugin
Stumble Upon is a major source of traffic for my own site. This plugin when configured properly will automatically post all your latest content to Stumble,
Facebook and Twitter!
30 Additional Sitemap Plugins
You can also add Image sitemap, sitemap and mobile sitemap plugins which take just one click. The developers name is Amit Agarwal, he has 4 sitemap plugins that are really easy to use.
31 All in one Webmaster Tools
Webmaster tools is a core SEO tool that should be used. Submit your sitemaps here.
32 Quick Adsense plugin...this is an easy adsense plugin to add your ads inside your blog posts etc.
Hope this helps some of you
1 - Core Tweaks Plugins The very first plugin i use on every site
This plugin takes 5 minutes to configure and saves me up to an hour doing the same tasks manually
2 Google XML Sitemap Plugin
3 DD Sitemap Generator
Not the same as XML sitemap, This is a user sitemap
4 Ultimate SEO
Get your Site Titles, Description and keywords right with this plugin and soooo much more!.
5 Akismet Plugin
Anti Comment Spam plugin, easy to configure comes as standard when installing WordPress
6 CBnet Ping Optimizer
Set this up to stop wordpress pinging your site after every correction you might make on a new post. Avoid becoming a ping spammer.
List of ping sites to add to your settings in attachment if i did it properly
7 Chennai Central
Save Bandwidth with this plugin
8 Quick Cache
This is the easiest to configure of the W3 cache plugins available. Helps your
site load times...Very important these days!
9 Wordpress Security Plugin
First of 3 security plugins, step by step configuration .
10 Wordpress Database Backup Plugin
This backs up your database and emails the database to you each day or week or whenever you choose.
11 SEO No Duplicate Plugin
Wordpress often creates duplicate posts but this plugin prevents this from happening.
12 RSS Includes Pages
Creates RSS fees for your pages, good if you use wordpress as a CMS, or authority site with lots of static pages as opposed to posts
13 SEO Auto Links and Related Posts
This is a two in one automation plugin which helps with internal linking and external links too.
14 Bullet proof Security Plugin
Bullet proof security plugin can look a bit daunting at first when you look at
the settings, Its actually quite simple to use. I have video on youtube for configuring this one in 1 and a half minutes.
15/ Contact Form 7
Easy contact form to set up
16 Picture for Posts
Never struggle to find royalty free images for your posts, even better its easy and instant
17 Shareaholic - Sexy Bookmarks
With lots of choices for sharing plugins its hard to choose which one is best.
This one has google +1 so i use this for now.
18 Tweet Meme
Allow visitors to tweet your content with a noticable counter with number of times tweeted in a prominent place on each post.
19 Twitter Publisher
Publish your post direct to Twitter, but i have also mentioned Su.PR plugin below which does the same thing
20 Advanced Author Bio Plugin
Add an author Bio to your sidebar with social media links to your linkedin, facebook, yourtune and facebook pages.
21 Find Me ON Plugin
Good looking social media Icons that link to your social media profiles and fit nicely in your sidebar, great to use just under your contact details if adding them on the sidebar...good idea if offering local services or for offliners..
22 As PDF
Allows people to save your posts as PDF. I have seen this plugin responsible for page one listings with PDFs on the first page of Google.
23 RSS Footer Plugin
Adds a footer to your rss feeds with anchor text using your site title
24 Shorten To Ping Plugin
Get Your latest posts distributed to over 30 social networks instantly after
being published with this plugin...need to use the email option these days as ping.fm API keys no longer work
25 Global Translator Plugin
The best plugin for translating your content in other languages. It also creates sitemaps in those languages too!
26 Google Analyticator Plugin
Google analytics is really useful, this plugin is one of many choices available but very easy to set up.
27 Vipers Video Quicktags Plugin
Ever had problems with embeding s on your blog and cenetering them? Not anymore with this easy to use plugin. NEWBIE Friendly
28 Search and Replace Plugin
This plugin searches for terms on your site and replaces them with other words.
Really useful if you are GEO targeting and want to clone a site. We used this
to build 64 sites in two weeks for a large client in America by cloning a core website with 79 highly optimized pages into 64 diifferent geo targeted locations. AWesome plugin!
29 SU.PR Plugin
Stumble Upon is a major source of traffic for my own site. This plugin when configured properly will automatically post all your latest content to Stumble,
Facebook and Twitter!
30 Additional Sitemap Plugins
You can also add Image sitemap, sitemap and mobile sitemap plugins which take just one click. The developers name is Amit Agarwal, he has 4 sitemap plugins that are really easy to use.
31 All in one Webmaster Tools
Webmaster tools is a core SEO tool that should be used. Submit your sitemaps here.
32 Quick Adsense plugin...this is an easy adsense plugin to add your ads inside your blog posts etc.
Hope this helps some of you
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