10 must have wordpress plugins for 2012

One of the reasons I love WordPress is because it allows you to add functionality to your blog or website with few clicks, by installing additional plugins. The number of plugins available is literaly endless, ranging from simple to very complex ones such as auction or geo location platforms and many more.

Here are the 10 must have wordpress plugins for 2012, every blog or website owner should install. I do use all of them and highly recommend them. Tip: do not just install any plugin for the sake of having more features, focus on few that add real value to your readers and the way you manage your blog or website.

Yoast SEO

By far the best SEO wordpress plugin available. It is very easy to use and all what it does is to provide you with an SEO checklist while creating a post. To avoid missunderstandings, no SEO plugin will ever bring you on top of search engines, your content will, follow some key seo tips and you are good to go.

Better related content

This plugin shows other content relevant to your posts, from within your blog of course, a great way to increase readers engagement and promote your other posts.

DiggDigg

I use the floating version of the social media sharing buttons, this plugin makes easier for your blog readers to share your content with their friends’ network.

Contact form 7

The best available wordpress contact form plugin, easy to install and implement anywhere within your website or blog.

Google XLM sitemap

This plugin helps you create a site map for your blog or website, so it is easy for search engines to find your content ( or not to )

W3 total cache

What happens when your blog loads slowly? This plugin helps you optimize performance and experience via caching, pages, browsers, databases.

WP Touch

WPTouch is a simple yet very powerful mobile theme for your blog.

Backupwordpress

Do not you ever make a mistake and never backup your blog, make sure you do back up your content at least once a week if you do not blog that often. For heavy bloggers, daily backup is a must.

Simplyexclude

This plugin helps you exclude any content you want from wordpress, for example, you may decide to exclude some pages from being publicy viewed.

Hellobar for wordpress

Helps you install a bar just on top of your content so you can promote content, for example, white papers or special promotions.

Which of these plugins do you use?

Digg Digg

Related content:

http://www.theSEONewsBlog.com/ PatMarcello

Hey Ilias,

These are great plugins and I use most of them. A new one you might want to check out will smooth the rel=author process, called AuthorSure and it’s from Liz & Russel at DIY Webmastery. Here’s a post explaining what it does: http://www.theseonewsblog.com/5264/wordpress-plugin-authorsure

Also Dublin Core for WordPress. It adds Dublin Core Metadata for every post you make. Here’s more info about that: http://www.theseonewsblog.com/4924/dublin-core-metadata/

Great post, by the way! Always love to see reviews on new plugins! Thanks!

Pat
http://www.thewebcitizen.com Ilias Chelidonis

Hi Pat, thanks for your comment. I will do take a look a the Dublin Core wordpress plugin, it looks interesting.
Douglas Goddard

Just a cupel of comments on the list above. If using Yoast SEO. No need for the Google XLM site map. WP Touch seems to break often on some heavy templates. The best backup is the old by hand way. I’ve tried many and all seem to have some sort of problems. Database dump, FTP and your good. Security, I would go with one of two. BPS Security (difficult to set up) or WSD security (sends email when it see’s any edits). Contact form 7 is the only form you need.

DG.
- http://www.thewebcitizen.com Ilias Chelidonis
  
  Thanks for your inputs Douglas.
Constanzavictoria

Hola Ilias, me parece muy interesante tu artículo. La verdad soy nueva en esto de WordPress, quisiera preguntarle lo siguiente: Cómo añado el plug de Linkedin a mi blog? Lo he buscado en widgets, pero no lo encuentro. Tampoco sé colocar RSS a mi blog. Gracias por la ayuda que puedas brindarme. Saludos, Constanza.
- http://www.thewebcitizen.com Ilias Chelidonis
  
  Hola Constanza, sólo hay que visitar este enlace y podrás encontrar más información sobre cómo hacerlo http://goo.gl/Bi4fX
John Quinn

These plugins have some great potential; having created a new organic site, I will definitely install some of these to boost interest. Thanks!
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http://DenverBucketList.com Chrissy Morin

I will check out digg digg.. I’ve been using shareaholic but I would like to have the pinterest button and their’s is a bit wonky. I also use Yoast SEO plugin and love that it takes the place of about 4 other plugins I used to use. I like nRelate for related content. It gives you the ability to limit the age and the content of what shows up.
- http://www.thewebcitizen.com Ilias Chelidonis
  
  Hi Chrissy, digg digg does have a Pinterest button, so give it a try. As far as Yoast, i believe is the best SEO plugin available, very easy to use and works just fine. I have not tried the nRelate, therefore, i cannot really say much.
http://DenverBucketList.com Chrissy Morin

I will Check out Digg Digg.. been looking for a plugin that had pinterest included.
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http://bikramkawan.com.np Bikram Kawan

How about making wordpress fast ? can you give me must have plugins for this. I have already installed w3total cache. What can i do beside that for fast loading?
- http://www.thewebcitizen.com Ilias Chelidonis
  
  Bikram, i do not believe there is such plugin, i suggest you check with your web hosting provider and try to get rid of plugins you do not use. Speed issues usually have to do with your server connection and databases loading.
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http://www.youbihar.com/ Shalu Sharma

I tried digdig but thought it was too intrusive. Couldn’t help looking at it. But I guess that is the whole point.