Wordpress logoEvery time I setup a new blog for myself or help someone else start their own blog there are some essential free WordPress plugins or premium WordPress plugins that must be installed first and foremost.  What are plugins you ask?  Quite simply, plugins are tools that extend the functionality of WordPress (WP).  Most of them are available for free at the Official WordPress Plugin Repository where they can be downloaded and installed on your own self-hosted WordPress blog.  Beware however that the search engine there really stinks, thus I’ve created my own (WordPress Plugin Search Engine) that works much better at finding relevant plugins at the Official WordPress Plugin Repository and a few other repositories.

While each plugin comes with its own set of simple instructions on how to install it, generally it is just a simple matter of uploading the plugin to your blog (via an FTP client like FileZilla) and activating it (see video below).  Make sure however, that you read each plugin’s included instructions carefully as some plugins require extra actions to be taken on your part for customizing it and getting it to work properly.

Below I have listed my favorite starter plugins that I believe to be must-have installs for a new WordPress blog and newbie bloggers.  You may have your own that you think are more important but I have found that these make blogging for myself and newbies much easier and more worthwhile.

  1. Akismet – Excellent tool that automatically keeps your blog from being taken over by all the spammers on the web
  2. Feedburner Feedsmith – Integrates Feedburner service seamlessly with your blog
  3. All-In-One SEO Pack – The premier SEO tool for WordPress blogs
  4. WP Super Cache – Caches the content on your blog to make your website load lots faster
  5. Homepage Excerpts – Takes your full length posts on your homepage and displays the excerpts instead.  It works great for reducing content duplication and making your blog more reader friendly.
  6. Excerpt Editor – Automatically creates excerpts for your posts with messing with ‘more’ tag
  7. WP-DB Backup – Simply and easily backs up your database automatically according to the schedule you set
  8. WordPress Related Posts – Displays links to other posts you’ve written according to related tags you’ve assigned each post
  9. Google XML Sitemaps- Automatic generation of a Google XML sitemap for your blog
  10. ShareThis – Button that lets readers email, SMS, or bookmark your posts using all the popular web services
  11. cformsII – Customizable and flexible form builder for creating a simple contacts page or a very elaborate form with attachements
  12. TinyMCE Advanced – Great customizable What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor that make it easy to edit your text and content when writing.  It makes it easy to add photos and videos, create tables, and more.
  13. Wordpress Automatic Upgrade – Permits you to upgrade plugins from your blog’s admin with one easy click
  14. Exclude Pages – Lets you exclude pages from the navigational menu of your blog
  15. WP PageNavi – Creates navigational page links for your blog so visitors can navigate through your post pages more readily
  16. Subscribe to Comments – Add a simple check box at the end of the comments section to let your readers be notified of new comments via email
  17. Popularity Contest – Features your most popular posts in your sidebar for visitors and tells you some great statistics about your most popular content from your blog’s administration panel
  18. SEO Slugs – This automatically removes filler words in your permalink to improve SEO
  19. WordPress Thread Comment – This enables nesting of the replies of your commenters so it is easier to follow a discussion in the comments section of your blog
  20. AskApache Google 404 – When installed correctly on your 404 page, this automatically suggests related content to the visitor on your 404 error page and 99% of the time finds the exact post the visitor was looking for

Okay, so are there any here that you disagree with or think that I should have included in the list?  What are your favorite beginner plugins that are must-haves when you start a blog?

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