Top 10 WordPress Plugins
Sep. 13th, 2007 by Shaun
All of these plugins I actively use on this blog and all of these plugins work with WordPress. Plugins assist in increasing site functionality and usability. It seems that every blog these days has made their own version of the “best wordpress plugins” or something similar so here’s my stab at it 
1. Akismet - Probably one of the most used wordpress plugins out there. Akismet blocks any spam comments on your site. Download here.
2. All In One SEO Pack - This plugin allows you to easily manage the meta description, meta tags and title tags for your site. Very easy to install and use and I highly recommend using this plugin for better search engine results on your site. I wrote an entire article on how to properly use the All In One Seo pack, this article explains how to use this plugin to maximize your search engine rankings. Download here.
3. Bookmark me - The bookmark me plugin for WordPress lets you easily add links to social bookmarking sites to your entries. Will help generate more traffic to your site. Download here.
4. Brian’s Threaded Comments - Gives you threaded comments which allows for users to reply to comments left by other users on your site. Download here.
5. Feedburner Feed Replacement - This plugin simply forwards all your feed traffic to FeedBurner. The plugin will detect all ways to access your feed and redirect them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed, and optionally your main comments feed as well. Download here.
6. Google Sitemap Generator - Creates a sitemap for your site which allows search engine spiders to easily access all pages on your site. Download here.
7. Optimal Title - Optimal Title is a WordPress plugin that mirrors the function of wp_title()exactly, but moves the position of the ’separator’ to after the title rather than before. This allows you to have your blog name tacked on to the end of the page title instead of having it appear first. Helps increase your search engine results. Download here.
8. Recent Posts - This plugin tracks the most recent posts your site has published. You can change the settings on this plugin to show as many or few recent posts as you wish. Download here.
9. Related Posts - This plugin scans your older posts that have already been published and finds the most relevant posts to the one you just published. It will then display any related posts to the one your just wrote. Very helpful for increasing site functionality and will increase page views and the time visitors stay on your site. Download here.
10. Show Top Commentators - This plugin keeps track of your top commentators and displays them on your site. This will encourage more commenting on your blog and also rewards your commentators by linking to their site. Download here.
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September 13th, 2007 at 12:48 am
good list. I have found that the “Bookmark me” plugins don’t really help my visitors, but all the others are must haves !
Becky
September 13th, 2007 at 8:55 am
@ becky: so far it seems to have helped me, once i put the bookmark me pugin on my site i noticed a jump in traffic from the social sites.
@warrior blog: i agree i guess there aren’t any “best” plugins they are all important. I use more than these 10 as well i think theres about 20 on my site.
@ the wildone: haha thanks man
September 13th, 2007 at 12:48 am
Trust me, once you discover a lot lot more wordpress plug-in, you won’t think some of these are the top ten no more.
I have about 20-30 wordpress plugin and they’re fantastic! I no longer judge which is most important, because they all are important someway.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:58 am
i always like the pictures you use for your articles
September 13th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Me too! I am terrible at picking photos and when I saw the power strip, I though “dang thats perfect for plugin post”. :c) Great list Shaun, I am going to check out the bookmarking one as I use a different one that doesn’t work so well.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:59 am
@ gnomynewt: thanks a lot! i hope the new plugin works for you i think it increased my traffic a little bit when i installed it.
@ shman: thanks man!
@madhur kapoor: yeh i use them all and use a bunch more, i didn’t want to go through all of my plugins though.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:08 am
Good collection of plugins. I like it.
September 13th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Good list , i am using all of them except bookmark me.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Thanks for the list, I’ll be checking those plugins out as I’m currently in the process of moving over to a self-hosted wordpress blog. Useful post!
September 13th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
@ joanne: great im glad this list was helpful.
@ nomar: haha see they are the top plugins! if both you and me use them lol.
@ susan: thanks susan im thinking of putting google adsense on my site again this will be helpful!
September 13th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Great list Shaun ! I am almost using all 10 !!
Good to make a list like this !
September 13th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Hey Shaun,
I’ve been meaning to install the Related Posts for a long time…thanks for reminding me to get that done this afternoon!
September 14th, 2007 at 8:59 am
no problem! you should see a big increase in comments
September 13th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Hey Shaun! Great list! I also recommend Mighty Adsense: http://mightyhitter.com/main-page/plugins/mightyadsense/
September 13th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Nice list. Yeah, I think these are basically the standard ones you should have when starting new blogs and the like. It’s funny I say that because I certainly don’t have every plugin on here, but hey - I’m workin’ on it!
September 13th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
@ bush: haha not all of these plugins are manditory but I’d say some of them are almost a must-have.
@Cristian: thanks alot buddy
September 13th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Nice list c:) Stumbled !
September 13th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Yup agree with the list although I haven’t actually used all of ‘em.
How do you get readers to use the bookmarks, Shaun? Traffic from the bookmarking sites are minimal at best for me and it’s usually after I have posted. Not much residual traffic from those.
Great tips - stumbled!
September 13th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
@ YC: To be honest i’m not exactly sure how much traffic I get from the “bookmarkme” plugin but I know for a fact the icons get clicked because my stats record 4-5 clicks on them per day however I’m not sure how much traffic it generates. I would say it doesnt give me a MAJOR boost but every little bit helps
Also when I added that plugin I noticed an increase in traffic from the social sites but that could be for other reasons.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Shaun, your stats record would mean via Awstats (etc) or the plugin actually provides that? I guess perhaps the key reason why the icons are being clicked could be because the articles are really useful. The plugin provides a quick way for people to submit in that instant.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I use most of these and they are great. I will be installing 9 and 10 soon, I’ve been looking for plugins like these. Thanks
September 13th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
@ loren: I think the related posts is a must for a lot of blogs. I love when blogs have that it always gives me something else to read. When I find an interesting blog i can use the related posts links on that blog to keep me reading for a long time!
@haris: Yeh I would say that’s a very good one to I have debated putting it on this site for a while but for now I’ll leave it off. thanks for the comment!
September 13th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Great collection. Except no. 3, 4 and 10, I use all of them.
Don’t you think Most Popular Posts plugin is a good one?
September 14th, 2007 at 4:02 am
Nice collection, I’m using all except 3 and 4.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Great layouts! I will be using one of them
September 14th, 2007 at 7:06 am
Great List Shaun. I haven’t used the bookmark plugin, but have noticed it on your blog and quite like it. Think I’ll give it a try.
The other one I think is great is WWSGD.
September 14th, 2007 at 8:57 am
@nirmal: yeh it seems like a lot of people aren’t using those plugins.
@john: sweet which one will you be using?
@heather: yeh i’ve read about that one it sounds sweet.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:36 am
The threaded comment plugin sounds sweet! Does it require any coding to install or is it an activate and forget it type of plugin?
September 15th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
@ Joe: I think it does require some coding, here are the instructions from the page you download it from:
-Copy the briansnestedcomments.php file to your plugins directory
-Make a backup of your existing wp-comments-post.php and wp-comments.php
-Copy wp-comments.php and wp-comments-post.php to your wp root folder
-Activate the plugin from your plugin administration page (you would be surprised how many people have forgotten this step).
I didn’t even install the plugin myself I had someone do it for me because my webdesign skills are horrible lol.
September 15th, 2007 at 6:43 am
good stuff! my main blog doesn’t use wordpress but I have other blogs that I need to use a couple of these on
September 15th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
@ jamaipanese: good stuff man these plugins will help a lot
September 15th, 2007 at 8:52 am
[...] Top 10 WordPress Plugins (Shaun Low) [...]
September 16th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Nice list! Will try some of the plug-ins
September 19th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I really don’t see the use of “7. Optimal Title” with “2. All In One SEO Pack” and if you want an optimal title without using a plugin will be better. I will try to make a good article about it.
Making an optimal title without using any plugin.
September 18th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
[...] http://www.shaunlow.com/top-10-wordpress-plugins/ [...]
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May 1st, 2011 at 3:00 am
The All In One SEO Pack plugin is definitely one of my favorites!
-Jean
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May 27th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good results. If you know of any please share. Many thanks!
May 30th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Have you ever thought about creating an ebook or guest authoring on other blogs? I have a blog centered on the same topics you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my readers would value your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e-mail.
June 3rd, 2011 at 7:41 pm
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Bless you!
June 7th, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Firefox. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The layout look great though! Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Kudos
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