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This post has been submitted by Sharon Hurley Hall from Get Paid To Write Online.com.

I recently wrote about the Wordpress plugins that I have abandoned since the upgrade to 2.7. However, the list of plugins I can’t do without is far longer. Here’s a list of my must have plugins for a great WordPress experience.

Spam Protection

Aksimet - this spam protection plugin comes preloaded and all you have to do is grab an API key and activate it. Aksimet works pretty well, though I have recently replaced it with Defensio, which I reviewed in another post. It’s amazing how fast those spammers can sniff out your new blog, so some form of spam protection is essential. I back up my spam protection with Tan Tan Noodles Simple Spam Filter, and I get a lot less spam when that’s installed than on blogs where it isn’t.

All In One SEO Pack

These days, many WordPress themes are coded with search engine optimization in mind, but it wasn’t always that way. That’s why All In One SEO Pack was born and it proved so useful that even when the original developer stopped work on it, someone else carried on the good work. This plugin makes sure that your post titles appear in the right places and that you avoid duplicate content, while still having unique excerpts for each post. An alternative which is also well thought of is Platinum SEO.

Feedburner FeedSmith

Feedburner (now part of Google) has a suite of tools for improving feed management. FeedSmith makes it easy to redirect your blog’s automatic feeds to your Feedburner one so you can get the most benefit from these tools. Some themes have this functionality built in, but many don’t so this is worth installing right from the start.

Google Sitemaps

If you want your blog found by search engines, having a Google compliant XML sitemap is a must. The Google XML Sitemaps plugin creates that sitemap for you and keeps it up to date, so that all search engines can easily retrieve a list of your posts along with their priority.

WP Database Backup

When you start a blog, backup might be the last thing on your mind. To avoid having to think about it again, install WP Database Backup which will automate the backup of your SQL database. Believe me, you don’t want to deal with the consequences if you don’t do it, and it takes only a couple of clicks to set it up.

These are just the basics you need when setting up a new blog. I have more than 20 plugins installed. Read the follow up post to see which other plugins are on my must-install list.

Sharon Hurley Hall
Get Paid To Write Online.com
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