11 WordPress Plugins For Professional Bloggers

In a world filled with enough plugins to make your head spin, it can be quite frustrating looking for that right plugin to do that job your after. Most bloggers have spent countless hours sifting through google or wordpress.org looking for a plugin to do something they are after but just can’t come up with the name that they need.

Everyone can probably name their favorite plugin. The trick is to name the plugins that are worth installing, ones that can actually add something useful to your blog. Remember, plugins tend to slow down wordpress blogs, so it’s a good to keep an eye on performance and only activate what you actually need.

Once we switched tech.nocr.at over to wordpress some time ago we too spent countless days tweaking and installing plugins, looking for the right combination to do the job. So here I present to you, the list of must have plugins for any pro-blogger. All of them are installed and activated right here.

The List

Of course, these plugins don’t make your blog an instant success, but they do add some important and needed feature to a blog. Concentrate on content if you want to attract readers and let the plugins do their jobs and help you along the way.

Must Haves

The following plugins should be install on any blog no matter what type of content you have or how popular your blog is. No exceptions.

1. Akismet
   This one is a no brainer, I mean, who the hell wants spam on their site?
2. WP-Super-Cache
   Once one of your posts hits the front page of Digg or you become popular on StumbleUpon you are going to be thankful of this puppy. This plugin stores a static file of each page in html, which is easier to show than dynamic content. It lowers the processing of PHP and the database hits that can kill you.
3. All in One SEO Pack
   Want to have your site indexed properly on search engines? Let this puppy take all of the hard work off of your hands.

SEO & analytics

1. Google Analytics for WordPress
   Probably the worlds most used analytics package. Install this one and you will be greeted with more stats than you can handle.
2. WP-UserOnline
   Does exactly what it says, tells your how many people are on your site right now. Even gives you referring URL’s and spiders too.
3. Google XML-Sitemap Generator
   Search engines just love sitemaps, especially google. This plugin will create a XML-Sitemap for you automatically and keep it up-to-date.

RSS Plugin

1. Feedburner Feedsmith
   Feedburner is probably the industry standard for rolling out your feeds. This plugin will ensure that any link on your site to your RSS feed is redirected to your feedburner account.

Comment Plugins

1. Move Comments
   This plugin in will give you the ability to move comments from one post to another. Keeps your commenters on track.
2. CAPTCHA
   Just incase Akisment didn’t get em, this one will help you out.

Miscellaneous Plugins

1. Related Posts
   Shows a number (set by you) of posts that relate to this post a users is one. This is a great plugin for giving people a choice of similar content on your site and having them dig deeper.
2. Maintenance Mode
   If you ever need to tweak or upgrade your system, this plugin will allow your to show a static HTML page telling people that you are down for some upgrade and tweak love. The best part is if log in, you can still access your site to test those tweaks and upgrades.

Well there it is, this list of wordpress plugins that are must haves. There is always room for improvement though. If you have a must have plugin in that we should know about then let us know.

Frank's the editor in chief of tech.nocr.at. He can be found surfing the internet and playing with gadgets. Follow him on twitter @franklinhares