The power of WordPress lies in its many plus-ins, which can greatly enhance functionality. Understanding the plug-in infrastructure and equipping your WordPress site with them, gives you an edge by getting a better ranking with search engines, and hence, the deserved attention. Ranking apart, plug-ins improve ones blogging experience ten-fold. This article recommends plug-ins available only from the WordPress database, and that have been selected based on my personal usage.
This is not a how-to article on installing plug-ins for WordPress. If you are a newbie, you can refer to the link in the References section for information on how to install WordPress plug-ins. The plug-ins I recommend can be used directly with a compatible WordPress set-up, or a similar plug-in can be picked up from the WordPress plug-in site. Naturally, you are required to have administrator privileges on a functioning WordPress set-up. Before we start, here are a couple of things to remember:
- Compatibility needs to be checked before installing plug-ins.
- Since these open source plug-ins are provided without a warranty, any critical data needs to be backed up before you use them. You are solely responsible for any potential damage or loss to your personal data.
The List
Quick Cache
This plug-in caches the pages of your site. Since WordPress is database-driven, on every request there are a bunch of connections to the database. Repeatedly querying the database for the same old content is an awful waste of processing power. 'Quick cache' serves the request from a cached copy of unchanged pages, and improves response time. Configuration options let you tweak what to cache, and what not to. The minimum requirement is WordPress version 3.1.
Captcha
As per Wikipedia, Captcha stands for 'Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart'. This plug-in ensures that all comments on the site are entered by a human, by including math puzzle on the page that human brain must solve before entering the answer. This prevents spam bots from posting comments on the site. The minimum required is WordPress version 3.1.
Digg Digg
We definitely want to share information on our blogs through social media channels. This plug-in adds that capability for various social media site like Facebook, Twitter and Buzz. Users that click the enabled social media icon will be prompted to share the current blog on their social networking profiles. Various social media buttons can be enabled via the settings. The minimum required is WordPress version 2.3.
Hitcounter
To count how many people have visited your blog, use this plug-in. It stores and retrieves the count from a database and displays it on the blog. The WordPress version required is 2.3 or later.
Statpress Visitors
This is one of the most useful plug-ins for statistics, beyond those of Hitcounter. Some of the details it collects includes information on visitors, robots from Google or other search engines; keywords in search engines; browser types and various other traffic to your site. It is highly customisable, with various type of statistics. The minimum required is WordPress version 2.5.
Comment Rating
This plug-in lets users rate the comments for a particular blog, through the use of 'like' and 'dislike' buttons. The most-liked comments are displayed accordingly. The rating is also displayed beside each comment. The plug-in allows only one vote per IP address, and tries to prevent fraud. Various customisable options can be explored. The minimum required is WordPress version 2.3.
WordPress automatic online backup
The best way to avoid losing your blog is to back it up online. A free online account at wordpressbackup.com provides you the necessary space; this plug-in provides the necessary infrastructure to automate this process. Backups can be restored at any time. I recommend this plug-in for all those who value their data. The minimum required is WordPress version 2.1.
Coding a new plug-in
If you think the existing plug-ins do not meet your specific requirements, you can pretty much code your own. Check the link in References for instructions.
All-in-One SEO pack
The best way to attract visitors to your blog is to make it visible to a search engine. This plug-in does everything to optimize your blog in order to make it visible to search engine and attract visitors. The minimum requirement is WordPress version 2.8.
