Impress the Ladies with these 20 Wordpress Plugins

Over the last several years I have probably tested a few hundred different Wordpress Plugins. Some simply did not work, while others straight up sucked but most simply didn't fit my needs.

The sites that always seemed to have the best plugins to me appeared to be the most unique looking Wordpress sites. From magazine style, video or picture blogs, to not using Wordpress as a blog at all, plugins can make the amazing happen.

TheDocBlog currently uses 20 different Wordpress Plugins, however the listing below features 22 plugins. Some of the plugins help create the magazine style front end of TheDocBlog while others help in blog promotion or other basic functions that simply were too much work to code directly in myself.

Add Meta Tags: Add Meta Tags adds the Description and Keywords tags to your blog's front page and to each one of the posts, static pages and category archives. This operation is automatic, but the generated META tags can be fully customized.

All in One SEO Pack: All in One SEO Pack optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines. I don't currently use this Plugin on TheDocBlog but I do on several other blogs I run.

I like both Search Engine Optimization Plugins and can't really recommend one over the other.

Dean's Code Highlighter: Dean's Code Highlighter is a plugin that allows you to highlight code (php, css, html, ect) within Wordpress Posts.

DoFollow: DoFollow removes the nofollow tag on all Comments. When you post a comment on TheDocBlog, Your Name is linked to the URL you enter. When the nofollow tag is removed you get full link-juice back to the linked URL as a little thank you for making the comment.

Get Recent Comments: Get Recent Comments displays the most recent comments or trackbacks with your own formatting in the sidebar.

Show Top Commentators: Show Top Commentators encourage more feedback and discussion from readers, by rewarding them every time they post a comment! Readers with the most comments are displayed on your Wordpress blog, with their names.

Top/Recent Commenters: Top/Recent Commenter's retrieves the top commenter's or most recent commenter's to your site (if called outside "the loop") or for a particular post (if called inside "the loop").

* I'm still playing around with Recent Comment Plugins and Top Commenter Plugins. I'm up for any suggestions or recommendations you may have.

Similar Posts: Similar Posts displays a configurable list of related posts on each posts page. This greatly helps move traffic around that is actually looking for more or related information.

Landing sites: Landing sites allows you to display a custom message and related post links from visitors coming from Search Engines. This greatly helps in making sure Search visitors can find what they are actually looking for. I use a customized version of this plugin to show a welcome message for Industry Forum Referrals.

Google XML Sitemaps: Google XML Sitemaps generates a compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog, which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo.

RSS Footer: RSS Footer allows you to add text or links to the top or bottom of your published articles within an RSS Feed.

Smart Update Pinger: Smart Update Pinger replaces the built-in ping/notify functionality in Wordpress forcing pings to only happen when articles are published and not when edited.

Subscribe To Comments: Subscribe To Comments allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.

The Feature: The Feature adds the interface to declare a post a "feature" and the tools to display the data in your template. You can see an example feature post in action on the front of TheDocBlog.

Wordpress Mobile: Wordpress Mobile makes your blog work well on mobile phones and it lets you post to your blog from your mobile!

WP-PageNavi: WP-PageNavi adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog. TheDocBlog PageNavi has been modified to fit the permalink formating for my blog.

WP-PostRatings: WP-PostRatings adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog's post/page. You can see an example of the star ratings at the top of this article. Don't forget to rate it!

WP-SpamFree: WP-SpamFree is an extremely powerful anti-spam plugin that virtually eliminates comment spam. Read my article on Stopping Blog Comment Spam and Trackback Spam, I highly recommend WP-SpamFree!

WP-Stats: WP-Stats displays basic WordPress blog statistics for your blog. Ranging from general total statistics, some of my plugins statistics and top 10 statistics. I just like stats, it's nothing amazing but it's information either way.

Wp-db-backup: Wp-db-backup creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your choice in the same database.

I don't care what db backup method you use, if it's your host (which is what I use) or some other Wordpress Database Backup Plugin, you MUST use something! If you don't currently backup your Databases (wordpress or not), it's not a question of IF you will lose the information. It's the problem of knowing that your database WILL crash (server explodes, hacked, bad hard-drive) losing ALL of your information! A Raid is NOT a backup! Don't question backing up your databases, just freakin do it!

Wp-cache: WP-cache is a fast cache module that caches your Website so it loads faster using less server and database resources.

This plugin has a history for me, even a little bit of forced love it..
MysteryMan first told me about wp-cache, which I did test (I swear). However I only tested it on TheDocBlog for a few hours, which I then disabled the cache plugin due to blog development and I never turned it back on. A few hours is a test, right?

Months later while at the Phoenix Forum I was again complaining to MM about the performance issues with several Wordpress copies on an already active traffic box and when I returned home, I was killing every Wordpress project.

As the good times started to role, the reminder that I was being a stubborn ass and not listening to the solution was promptly drilled in. Needless to say, I came home and installed the wp-cache across all WP Blogs and from that day forward I never saw the same issues appear again.

Lesson Learned... Never under estimate a Plugin (judge a book by its cover) and be sure to extensively test every plugin you try. Some may insert links you don't want, some mess with other plugins, and many do exactly what is expected but it's always best to double check. And finally, if you get lucky you will come across those few golden plugins you really didn't know you needed but now you can't live without!

I almost always read others posts about what Wordpress Plugins they use and recommend. So I hope you enjoyed mine. I personally find it interesting to see some of the odd plugins that get selected and some of the newer, clever plugins I can take advantage of too.

Have any Wordpress Plugins you recommend?

~TheDoc