Here’s a list and brief synopsis of the essential WordPress plugins that every WordPress blogger should definitely consider. WordPress 3.3.2 allows you to easily find, then download and install these plugin automatically. Please check your version of WordPress and be sure to upgrade to the latest. Aside from new features being added, WordPress also fixes security problems.

These essential WordPress plugins are made available through the Open Source software community and thankfully cost nothing to use. They plugins are updated frequently – sometimes to add a feature or more likely to fix a security glitch. Keep WordPress up to date as well as your plugins.

How to get these Essential WordPress Plugins

Once you are logged into your WordPress dashboard, just select Plugins>Add New to search for, select, and install these plugins. See the graphic at the right. WordPress will then display a search box that allows you to locate and install our list of essential WordPress plugins.

The Essential WordPress Plugins List

Akismet- keeps the spammers at bay. If you allow comments on your posts, this is an essential WordPress plugin. Akismet comes bundled with every WordPress installation, but you must remember to activate it before it will work for you. Get a complimentary but required API key from WordPress.com, plug it in, and turn it on. Highly recommended.

All in One SEO Pack – unless you use a WordPress theme like Thesis that handles SEO as a function of the theme itself, you need to install this plugin. This essential WordPress plugin allows you to optimize your posts to make them search engine friendly. So unless you really don’t want to be found on the Internet, this plugin is a must have. Take the time to enter description, title, and meta data for each post or page. There is also a professional version of this plugin, but start with the free one – it should be enough for all but the most demanding webmaster.

Google XML Sitemaps – another essential WordPress Plugin if you want to be search engine friendly. This plugin automatically creates and updates an XML map of your site allowing search engines to better crawl and index your site. Fail to do this at your own peril. Seriously – this is one plugin you really need to install. Google loves it.

TinyMCE Advanced – this plugin adds 16 additional options to TinyMCE, the built in editor in WordPress. This plugin gives you complete control over the creation and editing of your post and adds over 40 new functions. I consider this plugin an essential addition for anyone creating content for their site. Once installed, you need to look under Settings, select TinyMCE and pick the features you would like to add. Just drag and drop the functions you need. Don’t add what you don’t need. Too many added functions can affect performance.

Contact Form 7 – unless you don’t want anyone to contact you, Contact Form 7 is an easy way to add a simple contact form to your blog or site. Also, search engines like to see contact methods on a website, so this is an easy way to address that need. Send us a message to see how it works – click on Contact Us.

Broken Link Checker – the essential WordPress plugin list wouldn’t be complete with out a way to make sure all your pages are working. Unless you want to send your site’s visitors to dead ends (very bad mojo), use a tool like the Broken Link Checker to make sure that doesn’t happen. This job is a pain to do manually, so install this plugin and you won’t have to worry about it. This plugin finds broken links and missing images as well.

Twitter Tools – if you’ve been bitten by the Twitter bug, then by all means install this plugin. It automatically provides integration between your WordPress site and your Twitter account. If you don’t use Twitter – don’t bother installing this one.

WP Super Cache – if your site gets a lot of traffic, and let’s hope that it does, this plugin will definitely speed things up for your visitors. It works by creating static HTML files that will be served to your site visitors instead of the usual output created by WordPress PHP scripts. This not only gives your visitors a better experience, it takes considerable load off your server.

Some WordPress users prefer the “W3 Total Cache” Plugin. The choice is yours – they both serve to decrease the load times of our WordPresss pages – Google loves fast loading pages (keep this in mind).

Note: not all hosts provide support for cached HTML files – consult with your web hosting service if in doubt.

SexyBookmarks – sounds racy, but it’s really a very useful tool to encourage your visitors to submit your site to a plethora of social bookmarking sites. Great for helping to increase your back links and general site awareness.

Google Analytics for WordPress – if you have a website, especially one with commercial intent, an absolutely essential wordpress plugin is the Google Analytics plugin. This plugin allows you to know what’s going on with your site – who’s visiting, where they are coming from, what pages they are viewing, what keywords bring them to you, and how long they are staying – get a Google Analytics account and use this plugin.

Warning – One of our readers, Anne, recently brought to our attention the danger of using Google Analytics in that it likely gives Google too much easy information about your business. A growing number of users of Google Analytics are beginning to voice the same concern. Reader Anne suggests using another analytics tool called Piwik. Piwik is open source software, and since it needs to be installed on your own server, it may not be for everyone – get it here http://www.piwik.org. It’s not as powerful as Google’s version, but then your privacy may be more valuable. And frankly, I don’t think any of us really understand the full impact of what Google can/will do with all the information they are collecting.

If your business model involves Internet marketing – NOT using Google Analytics may be a good idea (especially if you have multiple sites all indexed in the same Google account). I’m not suggesting Google is doing anything necessarily bad – they did pledge to “do no evil” – but I’ve heard enough rumblings lately that a word of caution seems to be in order.

Easy Privacy Policy – this is an another essential WordPress plugin, especially if you display Google AdSense on your website. Google expects to see a privacy policy, so you need to have one. Actually every website should display a privacy policy – it’s just good business and not having one can effect your rankings, and the trust factor your site generates with your visitors. This plugin is basic, but it gets the job done, and can be edited to specifically address the needs of your site (which I strongly recommend you do). By the way – Google AdSense isn’t what it was 5 years ago. A word to the wise – inspite of all the get rich quick schemes to the contrary – Don’t put all your eggs in the AdSense basket – you may wake up one morning and find the basket is missing.

Another policy option is WP Policies which is a bit more complicated to set up, but may better meet your needs. It comes with ten pre-written policies that you can choose from, and then further edit to meet your exact needs.

WordPress Plugin Roundup

This is by no means a complete list of possible candidates for the top essential WordPress plugins, but it does give you a soled starting point. As your website grows, you may find that other plugins will also become essential. Check back to this site from time to time or subscribe to our feed to be kept up to date.

Our Disclaimer: Please note that this site does not dispense legal advice and it does not have attorneys on staff. While we believe the Privacy plugins mentioned in this article are worthwhile, should you chose to use these privacy policies, you do so at your own risk. If in doubt, have these policies reviewed by a competent legal advisor before using.

If you have a favorite plugin – please tell us what it is and why you like it.