Recently I was talking with Kerry at Camera Dojo and he asked what my choice plugins were when using WordPress as the content management system (CMS) for a total website. Below, in no particular order, is the “default” plug-in pack that I install when I begin setting up a WordPress based website and why. Some of these are common and will be used on almost any WordPress install, others are almost unique to the needs of using WordPress as a website CMS.
WP Memory Usage Marvelous simple plugin that shows the active hosting PHP version, memory limit and current memory usage on the Dashboard. A current WordPress web/blogsite needs 64MB and PHP5 to operate well, this plugin will tell you easily what are the settings for the hosting. This is info you need early so it is one of the first I activate.
Reveal IDs for WP Admin Adds the entry ID back into the administration panel of posts, pages, categories etc. Needed for things like excluding a category from a dynamic menu, etc.
All in One SEO Allows you to fine tune Titles and Descriptions for every page and post.
Image Friendly SEO Just to make sure that every image has a proper Title and Alt attribute, even if the site administrator forgets.
WP Super Cache With what seems to be Google’s increasing emphasis in 2010 on page load speed and to enhance your site visitor’s experience this plugin is more valuable than ever.
WordPress.com Stats A very nice companion to Akismet (they both use your WordPress.com API key). It shows useful site visitor stats on your Dashboard providing a quick source of timely metrics for your site.
WordPress DB Backup The database is where most of the content and access for a WordPress site resides. Backup early and often, even more so while building the site.
Twitter Friendly Links Have your Tweets show a backlink to your website’s URL not to bit.ly or some other third party service.
Twitter Tools Integrates your WordPress website with your Twitter account.
Page Links To Allows you to use pages or posts as navigational links to non-WordPress site sections or off-site resources.
Redirect Parent to First Child Use the parent page just for site organization. This plugin will automatically redirect the parent page to its first currently published child page
PHP Code Widget Similar to the standard text box widget, but it will also allow PHP code to function
Widget Logic With a full site I usually don’t want every widget appearing on every page. This plugin adds a conditional statement field to every widget that you can use to control on what pages the widget appears.
My Page Order Easy drag and drop reorder for your page navifation
My Category Order Easy drag and drop reorder for your category navigation
Google Analytics for WordPress If you want to be a successful internet marketer you will use Google Analytics, this plugin makes it easy to add Analytics to WordPress sites.
Google XML Sitemaps A must have! Automatically builds a compliant site map and notifies Google, Bing etc of the maps location on your server.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) Excellent for building interior links. It gives you a list of linked posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site
Sociable or Sexy Bookmarks Encourage your site visitors to share your site content across the web. I use either one depending upon the site’s target market.
cforms II My favorite contact form tool.
When I published this post these plugins were current and mostly behaved well with each other. As time passes that may change. If you have questions, please feel free to send me an email.
