10 WordPress Plugins Every New Blogger Should Install

This is a guest post from Bill Breen of Effective Development.

I am relatively new to blogging, but I have been in the field of web development for 10 years now.  When I began blogging I had a huge interest in the workings of my site – even as much as the content. So I started looking for WordPress Plugins that would be useful for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and user growth.

As full featured as WordPress is, I was amazed at all the widgets, plugins and tools that are available to WordPress users.  So I set to work installing and tinkering with various plugins in order to get my site in working order.

This list of 10 plugins will be of benefit for any new or even established blog using WordPress. Most of them deal with getting traffic and exposure on both the front and back end.

All these Plugins, and many more, can be found in the WordPress gallery.

1. Google XML SiteMaps

Google XML SiteMaps is the most important back end utility you can install.  XML Sitemaps are XML files that are delivered to the major search engines to tell them what content is on your site and its’ importance.  You will need to setup a Google WebMaster Tools account and get a Yahoo Application ID.

The process is easy, and there are links once you install the plugin that provide help.  Every time you publish or edit a post, this plugin delivers an XML file to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com which tells them to come and crawl your site – this will boost your search engine traffic, and get your blog noticed much faster.

It’s not glamorous, but it provides a very necessary function to aid in getting your blog indexed and spidered regularly. This is especially important for small and new blogs. Once you are setup you can login to Google WebMaster Tools to get stats about your site including broken links, and crawl rate.

2. All In One SEO Pack

The All In One SEO Pack is a another critically important back-end plugin.  It will add detailed meta tags, keywords, and descriptions to your homepage and blog posts.  You don’t need to know a lot about SEO, and even if you leave the defaults, this will help your Search Engine Optimization – which, again, leads to more traffic and more readers.

3. Akismet

Akismet is installed by default in all new WordPress installations.  You will need to go to the Akismet site, though,  and apply for an API key to activate it.  Their algorithm for catching spam comments works great. If it misses a spam comment, simply mark it as spam, and it will be analyzed by Akismet for the future. Once those spam bots find you (and they will) you will want to be ready and activate this plugin.

4. WordPress.com Stats

Wordpress.com Stats is a simple stat tracker that sits right on your WordPress dashboard – great for finding out how many people are coming to your site, and who they are. It’s fast and provides close to real-time traffic numbers. You do not need to embed code on your site; the plugin takes care of it all for you. It even filters out your own page hits, so if you visit your own site a lot, the numbers will not be artificially inflated.

Once you have this installed, you can also install WordPress.com Popular Posts.  It uses the stats gathered to display a most popular post widget on your site. It can be very useful to help drive traffic deeper into your site and showcase your better work.

5. FeedBurner by Feedsmith

I recommend you get an RSS feed from Feedburner right away.  Yes, WordPress can build its own RSS feeds, but FeedBurner is a quality tool.  FeedBurner can provide you with usage stats, they can handle all RSS formats, and if you are using Google Adsense, you can put ads in your feed.

You will in all likelihood eventually graduate to FeedBurner, so I recommend doing it as soon as possible. If you already have an RSS feed this plugin will handle redirecting users from all sources to your new fancy FeedBurner feed. Just setup a FeedBurner feed, enter its URL, and activate the plugin.  It’s simple, a good catch-all, and requires no maintenance.

6. Add To Any Subscribe Button

Add to Any is a simple plugin that adds a share button in your sidebar, or on your individual posts.  It gives less technical readers of your blog a way to subscribe to your site. RSS, email, etc…  You do not have to use this exact plugin, but these type of “add this/subscribe” buttons are becoming a web standard.  Even if your readers are very technical, drop it on, and you may pick up a few more regular subscribers.

7. Sociable

Sociable automatically adds icons and links to almost any social site out there. Pick the top few that are popular in your niche, and they are added to the bottom of your individual posts, pages, even RSS if you choose.  It should also be used along with the “Add to Any” buttons (#6) because all new bloggers should make following and sharing their posts as easy as possible. As a bonus, anytime users link to your site from a major social site, it can enhance your SEO.

8. BackType Connect

Most new bloggers do not have a lot of activity on their site. To help you get involved, BackType will scour the web and find conversations related to your content on other sites. It allows you to post those comments inline on your own site, increasing a sense of community and activity on your new blog. It also helps you see where your posts are gaining traction that you may not have been aware of. More established bloggers may not like this plugin, but I find it interesting to see if anyone out there is mentioning my posts.

9. Referrer Detector

The Referrer Detector welcomes your new readers based on the site from which they were referred. When a user comes from Digg for example, they are greeted with a message such as: “Welcome fellow Digg reader, if you like the content, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed, or bookmark this site.”  It’s a nice touch for new readers who stumble upon your site. It may also help them become regular readers of your blog. You can customize almost anything in this Plugin.

10. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

As the name suggests, there are quite a few plugins of this nature for WordPress, but YARRP is the best. I find this plugin a simple and accurate way to display related posts on your pages. The obvious benefit here is if readers like your post, they may be interested in seeing other similar posts. It is a great tool to help convert users to regular readers.  If you feel the results you are getting are not accurate you can play with the algorithm and defining criteria to achieve the desired effect. You can also customize the display of the links, and add them to your RSS feed.

BONUS: Change the Permalink setting for the URLs on your blog immediately. This is not a plugin, but it is very important for readability and SEO. On your blog’s dashboard go to “settings” -> “permalinks”.  Change the radio button from “default” to “day and name” or “month and name”.  This will create keyword rich URLs which are essential for building good Search Engine karma.

All these plugins are free, but some provide a way to give a donation of your choosing. By installing them, hopefully you will see more traffic and more engaged readers.

Do you feel there are different or better plugins out there that new bloggers should know about? Let us know in the comments, I’d love to hear from you.

Photo: Darren Hester

For more from Bill, check out his site, Effective Development.

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