My ‘Top 5’ most indispensable WordPress Plugins

1. Akismet

Description: Automatically check your comments for spam.

Comments: Indispensable for any blogger.

2. WP-Optimize

Description: Helps you to keep your WordPress database clean by removing post revisions and spam.

Comments: Database bloat can cause some undesirable effects on the speed and stability of your blog, this is particularly true for the more established older blogs. This nifty plugin helps clean your database for you.

3. WP Fastest Cache

Description: This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the slower WordPress PHP scripts.

Comments: Not only does it help serve up your content faster, it helps improve your page rank.

4. Google XML Sitemaps

Description: This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog.

Comments: The best way to get your content noticed by search engines, improve your page rank and promote your blog.

5. Jetpack

Description: Jetpack simplifies managing WordPress sites by giving you visitor stats, security services, speeding up images, and helping you get more traffic.

Comments: A multifaceted plugin which has a number of benefits, customisation allows you to select the features you require without unnecessarily adding bloat.

Didn’t make the cut but worth a mention

1. Sociable

Description: Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.

2. Simple Lightbox

Description: Dim’s the page and highlights the selected image or gallery.

3. WP Smush

Description: Reduce image file sizes, improve performance and boost your SEO

4. Broken Link Checker

Description: This plugin will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.

Which WordPress plugins could you not live without? Leave you comments below.

You may also like to read my Five Most useful Firefox Add-Ons