Askimet
If you’ve used WordPress then you are probably already very familiar with this plugin. I added this plug in to the list anyway however because it’s so useful at eliminating spam from your comments. And using a system like WordPress as your blog will undoubtedly attract a lot of spammers. So make sure that this plug in is enabled and configured!
Download Askimet plug in
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WP Super Cache
WordPress can be quite resource hog, especially if your blog starts to become popular. I use this excellent plugin to lighten the load on the server. It essentially generates static html versions of your posts and saves them to the server and then returns those instead of querying the database and parsing text. This is a must have if you’re going to be displaying code or breaking up your posts into different pages.
Download WP Super Cache plug in
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Syntax Highlighter Evolved
Speaking of code, this plugin does an amazing job of displaying source code (perfect for programming tutorials). What’s different about this plug in is that it takes the task of parsing the text away from the server and onto the browser itself by using JavaScript instead of PHP. This results in a faster website with less overhead.
Download Syntax Highlighter Evolved plug in
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Multi-Page Toolkit
On occasion I’ll write an extremely long post. One that simply isn’t econimical to have on one page. Therefore I prefer to break it up into different sections. This makes it really easy to do this. All I need to do is write one line of code and it breaks my content into separate pages. It couldn’t really be any easier if it tried.
Download Multi-Page Toolkit plug in
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All in One SEO Pack
WordPress does a decent job of choosing the right keywords and description for the meta tags but if you want more control then this plug in is perfect for you! It allows you to add whatever titile, meta description or keywords that you like, that way you can fine tune your search keywords and get the most out of your keywords.
Download All in One SEO Pack plug in
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Google XML Sitemaps
If you’re familiar with sitemaps you’ll know that they are a great way to keep google updated about the status of your site. Unfortunately, you typically need to update your XML sitemap and submit it to Google every time your site gets updated. This can be a real pain in the butt so the fine people at arnebrachhold.de have created this elegant solution. Every time you update or submit a new post it will notify Google of your changes and you don’t have to worry about it anymore!
Download Google XML Sitemaps plug in
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WP No Category Base
I don’t know about you but I don’t like how WordPress organizes its posts by default. Plus when you want to view by category it adds the “category” word to the URL so it would something like http://www.bolducpress.com/category/design/. This plug in removes the category all together and makes your url look like this http://www.bolducpress.com/design/. Much better if you ask me!
Download WP No Category Base plug in
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Redirection
This handles any 301 redirects or 404 errors, it’s nice because it will create a log of your 404 errors, it has full regular expression support and doesn’t require .htaccess!