25 Must Have WordPress Plugins

WordPress is one of the most used platforms by bloggers. The beauty of WordPress is that it can be extended into any direction with plugins. You can make a blog, a static website, a classifieds site and what not.

There are more than 6000 plugins available in WordPress Plugin Directory. Picking the perfect ones out of these is a very tough job. So, I decided to write this article that lists 25 most important plugins that every WordPress user should know about.

1. Contact Form 7: Contact Form 7 is a simple and flexible plugin that lets you create contact forms that you can embed in your posts and pages.
2. Most Popular Posts: Most Popular posts plugin lets you display a list of most popular posts of you blog ranked according to parameter of your choice. Posts can be sorted by number of comments, overall views or average daily views.
3. WP Super Cache: WP Super Cache generates static HTML files. It then serves these static files to visitors who do not comment. Since HTML pages are faster than PHP(language used by WordPress) and also light on server, they save lot of resources.
4. Subscribe To Comments: Subscribe to Comments plugin lets commentators subscribe to future comments on a post. This helps in keeping conversations alive. Note: The plugin is not listed as WordPress 2.8 compatible but I have used it and it works fine. If you encounter any problems, try Comment Reply Notification.
5. Google Analyticator: It lets you insert the Google Analytics code. The most unique feature is that it does not track the logged in users. This makes statistics very accurate. The latest version has a dashboard widget that lets you display the number of visitors in last 30 days.
6. HeadSpace 2: HeadSpace is the ultimate SEO plugin you will ever need. It packs features of 10 other plugins and also lets you add web counters easily to your blog. If you are a newbie, you might find it a bit difficult to use. In that case, try All in One SEO Pack. To learn more about HeadSpace, check out this review by me: HeadSpace 2: The Ultimate SEO Plugin For WordPress.
7. Twitter Tools: Twitter tools integrates your WordPress blog with Twitter. It can update your twitter account automatically when you publish a post. 10 link shortening services are supported. It also lets you tweet right from the sidebar widget!
8. WP-Polls: WP-Polls plugin lets you create polls without need of any external service. You can style the polls using custom css and also add HTML in the options(useful if you want the options to be links!). If you prefer using external service for polls, try PollDaddy plugin.
9. Google XML Sitemaps:This plugin generates a XML sitemap that helps search engine bots(spiders) to index your blog quickly. It can also notify search engines about updates on your blog.
10. Feedsmith: A big problem with WordPress is that there are too many variants available for feed URLs. If you want to track number of subscribers using Feedburner, this is a big problem. Using Feedsmith, you can stop worrying as it will automatically redirect every feed request to your Feedburner feed.
11. Limit Login Attempts: This plugin makes your blog safe from Brute Force attacks(hackers usually bombard the login forms with lot of password combinations to find right password). It lets you set the number of failed login attempts. After this limit is reached, the user can not log in for 15 minutes.
12. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin: This plugin displays related posts automatically or manually below your posts. It also caches the output t reduce server load. You can select the criteria for matching posts and also exclude categories/tags.
13. WP-DB Manager: This plugin lets you automatically or manually backup your database. It can then also send the archived database to administrator via email. You can also clear rows, drop tables and optimize database.
14. Tiny MCE Advanced: This plugin super charges the WordPress post editor(Tiny MCE). It lets you add 20+ custom buttons to editor(ranging for tables to styles).
15. PageMash: PageMash lets you easily change the order and titles of WordPress pages in navigation bar. It is very useful if your theme does not let you exclude pages.

The above plugins are recommended for every WordPress users. Next, here are 10 plugins that are not essential but perform useful functions!

1. WP-Note: This plugin lets you create eye catching notes(5 variations) in your posts. You have to enclose the text in shortcodes and that's all you need!
2. After The Deadline: After The deadline is an advanced spell checking plugin(actually, it's grammar checker!) that checks for spelling and grammar mistakes.
3. Blog Icons: This plugin lets you add a favicon(what is favicon) to your blog that's compatible with iPhone and RSS feeds as well.
4. Blog Metrices: Blog metrices plugin is useful for those who want to analyze the performance. It lists the number of comments, posts and words per author for last 30 days/overall. using this, you can analyze how you are going.
5. Blog Stats: Blog Stats plugin is useful for those offering advertising space on their blog(and those who love to brag!). It displays various statistics including PageRank, Alexa Rank, RSS count etc using short codes. The best thing is the write and forget approach. Once you include a shortcode in a post, it is automatically updated everytime plugin stats are updates.
6. Comment Redirect: Comment Redirect plugin redirects first time commentators to a custom page. This way, you can get more sign ups for your newsletter/feed!
7. WP Ajax Edit Comments: This plugin adds Ajax functionality to comment form and lets people edit there comments for a limited amount of time(you can change it). Also, it displays a friendly message if reader;s comment is caught in spam(you can change t also!).
8. Auto Close: This plugin automatically closes the comments/pingbacks on old posts. Since old posts tend to get more spam, this can save a lot of work.
9. RSS Footer: This plugin lets you add any HTML code to RSS feed footers. It can be used to insert copyright notes and ads easily.
10. Redirection: Redirection plugin lets you add 301/302/307 redirects to your blog easily. You can use any link structure. Also useful for hiding affiliate links as it monitors number of redirects.

Do not forget to add your favorite plugins to list via comments! Constructive criticism is also welcome! :)