21 Wordpress Plugins You Must Use

The fourth chapter of our very popular Bullet Proof Blogging series where I point out 21 useful tips, tools or resources for my readers brings you 21 of the most important Wordpress plugins that you can use. If you are looking for plugins for your Wordpress blog then this is the selection that you should choose from.

1. HeadSpace 2 - HeadSpace 2 is a very powerful Wordpress plugin (I seriously mean that) which can do a massive array of SEO tasks. It takes a little while to get your grips around the interface and for Wordpress beginners may be a little daunting however I seriously recommend this for anyone who is planning on using their Wordpress blog to rank in the search engines (this should be everyone).
2. RSS Footer - This is a simple Wordpress plugin which allows you to add an extra sentence to content which is visible on your feed. It is simple to install like every plugin here and the interface is very easy to use.
3. Popular Post Plugin - Another excellent Wordpress plugin this allows you to add a new widget to your sidebar displaying the most popular articles on your blog. Obviously this helps to increase the number of pageviews your blog receives whilst rewarding your best articles with more link juice.
4. Yet another related Post Plugin - This plugin allows you to add several links to the bottom of your article page which links to other related posts. This again helps to increase pageviews and keeps the reader on your blog.
5. All in one SEO Plugin - If your not to convinced with using HeadSpace for your SEO needs then this is another Wordpress plugin that you can use instead. Although it doesn’t have all the features that Headspace2 has it still allows you to add a title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords to each post.
6. Wordpress Poll Plugin - This is an extremely customisable plugin allowing you to add polls to your Wordpress blog, whether you choose to add the poll to an individual page or to your whole blog this helps gather data and increase interaction between yourself and the reader.
7. Comment Relish - This is a great plugin which you may notice I use here. This enables you to automatically E-mail users who comment on your blog. Whether you ask them to subscribe or merely say thank you for subscribing it adds interaction and communicates with readers on a more personal level.
8. Google Analytics Wordpress Plugin - This plugin makes it easier to install Google Analytics on your blog and ensures that Google Analytics tracks traffic from every page on your Wordpress blog.
9. XML Sitemap Generator - This is another fantastic plugin which after you have installed it automatically creates a sitemap for your blog, when ever you post new articles it will automatically update the sitemap page.
10. What would Seth Godin do - This plugin allows you to communicate to first time visitors by adding a box by default above each of your posts which can display a welcome message. If you want to increase readership and ask them to subscribe to your blog then do so.
11. Feed Footer Plugin - This plugin allows you to add footers under all your posts in your RSS feed. The benefits of this are that you can monetize your blog feed or merely advertise other articles on your blog.
12. Home Page excerpts - Another excellent plugin this allows you to add an excerpt of your article to your home page.
13. Contact Form Plugin - This plugin allows you to add and manage multiple contact forms to your blog so that readers can get in touch with you.
14. Redirection Plugin - This plugin helps to keep your redirect URLs in order and managed. It keeps track of your 404 errors and generally cleans up your loose ends.
15. SEO Image Plugin - One SEO technique that many people forget to do is optimise an image, well with this plugin it does it for you. A great tool for anyone who uses a lot of images.
16. Maintenance Mode Plugin - If your doing a bit of maintenance on your blog its good to tell your readers, this plugin adds a page to your blog telling your readers this exactly.
17. Sociable - This plugin automatically adds links to your favourite social bookmarking websites. This therefore helps to increase traffic and web visibility and entices your readers to spread the word about a certain article.
18. Adsense and YPN Plugin - Helps to automatically insert Google Adsense adverts and Yahoo Publisher Network advertisements.
19. 125 Advert Box Plugin - A plugin I have only just found is this 125 Advert plugin which allows you to manage your 125 adverts and add the length of time the adverts should be shown for.
20. WordPress Opt in - Adds on Opt in form on to your Wordpress blog.
21. All in one Video Pack - If you add a lot of videos to your blog then it would be easier with some way of managing these videos, well you can do with this exceptional plugin.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks Bullet Proof Blogging chapter and found it useful, please share with your friends by taking advantage of my own social media buttons. If you have any other Wordpress Plugins that you think are extremely useful then please add them by commenting below.

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