32 Plugins That Drive a Successful WordPress Blog

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Plugins are a very important part of a WordPress blog.   Plugins extend the functionality that’s already built into WordPress and allow you to make your blog more dynamic.

Some plugins work in the background, unseen to web visitors, like say Align RSS Images, which simply aligns the pictures correctly in your RSS Feed.

While others have a very dramatic effect on the way a WordPress site is viewed or used, like Premise Landing Pages (affiliate link), which create entire new look and feel to your conversion pages…

 My Plugins

pluginsThe following list of plugins are currently installed on this blog.  Some will say I have to many and others may say I’m missing a few necessary plugins… (I’d love to get thoughts and ideas in the comments) 

Not all of these plugins will work for everyone.  Based on what I do, right now, these are the plugins that are necessary to run this website.

I’ve removed the generic WordPress description of each plugin and instead given each plugin one sentence on what I use it for and why I think it’s important to the proper function of RyanHanley.com.

Hopefully you’ll find a couple of the plugins below useful and helpful in providing the best blog experience possible for your readers.

Enjoy

  1. Advertising Manager – From time to time I will add Adsense Ads to this blog and this plugin manages those ads.
  2. Akismet – Used by millions, spam-blocker that comes standard with wordpress.
  3. Align RSS Images – Makes image alignment work in RSS feeds… pretty simple and straight-forward but important if you want your feed to look good.
  4. Anthologize  - Use the power of WordPress to transform your content into a book… This is the plugin that I used to help create the 1st addition of my eBook (Kindle edition).
  5. AWeber Web Forms – Allows me to sign up people to my newsletter from comments with checkbox.  Aweber is the newsletter provider I use (Read Aweber review).
  6. Better Delete Revision – Deletes the excess revisions of posts stored on my blog.  Revisions can slow down your website significantly especially if you have a lot of content.
  7. Broken Link Checker – Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found… simple.
  8. CloudFlare – CloudFlare integrates your blog with the CloudFlare platform which helps speed up your blog by handling some of the hosting service.
  9. CommentLuv – Reward your readers by automatically placing a link to their last blog post at the end of their comment.  If you leave a comment on this blog post and enter your website url in the appropriate field CommentLuv allows you to choose one of your blog posts to include with your comment… It’s awesome and gets you exposure.  Go ahead Check it Out!  Also read more about building a quality comment system here: How Cheapskates Build a Quality Comment System
  10. Comment Redirect by Yoast – Redirect commenters who just made their first comment to a page of your choice. I use this to say Thank You to first time commentors… If you’ve never commented, now’s the time!
  11. Exclude Pages from Navigation – Provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation… simple.
  12. FD Feedburner Plugin – Redirects all feeds to a Feedburner feed which is what I use to handle all my RSS Feed and Email Feed duties… (You can subscribe via email or RSS Feed Here)
  13. Genesis Footer – This plugin allows you to modify Genesis-powered-website footer via Genesis theme settings… again simple and straight-forward.
  14. Genesis Simple Hooks – Genesis Simple Hooks allows you easy access to the 50+ Action Hooks in the Genesis Theme.  This is a plugin specific to Genesis WordPress Theme(affiliate link).  This plugin allows me to easily hardcode different features into my blog, I use it mostly for different tracking code, that I would struggle with if I had to go straight into the theme editor.
  15. Google XML Sitemap for Videos – This plugin will generate a XML Video Sitemap for your WordPress blog.  This allows me to Ping Google whenever I add new video to my website.  Helps Google index my videos.
  16. Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog…. Very Important!
  17. Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin – Very simple plugin that adds a client side generated checkbox to the comment form requesting that the user clicks it to prove they are not a spammer.  It’s just a simple checkbox but it really cuts down on Spam in comments.
  18. IFRAME Embed For YouTube – IFRAME Embed For YouTube will add a quicktag on WordPress Post Editor which will add the capability to embed Youtube Videos thru IFRAME.  NOTE: I do not use this Plugin any longer.  I now just insert the YouTube Old Code into the HTML editor in Blog Posts… See this Post from SEOMoz as to Why.
  19. Premise Landing Pages – Quickly and easily create amazing landing pages for your WordPress site.  Landing pages are important because this is where your website really does the selling.  You build relationships through blog posts and landing pages sell your product or service… (See My eBook Page and Speaking Services Page for examples)
  20. Pretty Link Lite – Shrink, track and share any URL on the Internet from your WordPress website.  I use this plugin to make links not look so crazy… (Check out Blogging Resources for some examples)
  21. ReplyMe – Sends an email to the author of a comment when someone replies to their comment.  Nicely packaged and you can add in different links or messages if you so choose.  Very nice little comment plugin.
  22. Socialize – The sharing button and Action-Box you see on my currently are from the socialize plugin.  I really like the look of this plugin.  I’ve tried the Floating Share Plugins and just didn’t care for them.  I’m a big fan of Socialize.
  23. Social Profiles Widget – This plugin/widget allows you to insert social profile icons into your sidebar via a widget which you can find at the bottom of this page. Simple.
  24. Speedy Page Redirect – Redirects pages and posts to other locations on my site.  I’ve done this with some legacy pages that I know links exist for but I don’t know where.  So when someone links to the old page they are redirected to the new correct page.
  25. Tweet old post – This plugin tweets out old posts randomly based on time intervals of your choosing.  This is nice for bringing old posts back to life.  I use the Buffer App tool now for most of my Tweet scheduling so I only “Tweet Old Post” like once or twice a day.
  26. User Avatar – Allows users to associate photos with their accounts by accessing their “Your Profile” page. Simple.
  27. W3 Total Cache – The highest rated and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the speed and user experience of your site.  Basically the best Cache plugin that I can find. There are a few this is one that I use.  I like it.
  28. WordPress Download Monitor – This is the tool that allows you to download the Free .pdf version of my eBook on Social Tools.
  29. WordPress Popular Posts – Showcases your most popular posts to your visitors on your blog’s sidebar. See it in action at the bottom of this page.  I’ve tried a couple of these and keep coming back to this one.
  30. WP No Category Base – Removes ‘/category’ from your category permalinks. I needed this for some reason a while ago.  I may not any longer.
  31. WP Smush.it – Reduce image file sizes and improves performance of my blog. Not much for you to do but does help reduce the load time of your pictures.
  32. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm.  There are a ton of these plugins out there.  I have tried almost all of them.  YARPP is the simplest and in my opinion most effective.  I think the results it pulls are quality and looks neat and clean at the end of your blog post.

 The Rub

32 plugins actually now that I’ve gone through them all seems like a lot.  But except for maybe two they all seem to have valuable purpose to my blog.

One thing you may have noticed is that I don’t have an WordPress SEO plugin like “All in One SEO” or “Ultimate Google Analytics.”  The WordPress Theme I have chosen to use (eleven40 from Studiopress) does that for me.  I installed the Google Analytics code via Genesis Simple Hooks and my WordPress theme handles all the SEO stuff.

SEO plugins can really slow your blog’s site speed down which in turn hurts your Search Traffic.  That is why I personally don’t use one.

I’m very interested to get YOUR THOUGHTS on these plugins.  Please comment below on plugins you like, dislike, questions you may have about these plugins or others you’ve seen… Whatever.

Thank you!

Ryan H.

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Comments

  1. wonga says:
    July 20, 2012 at 10:51 am

    I blog quite often and I seriously appreciate your content.
    Your article has really peaked my interest. I am going to bookmark your website and keep checking for new details about once a
    week. I subscribed to your RSS feed too. here
    wonga wants you to check out… wongaMy Profile

    Reply
  2. Trung Nguyen says:
    May 17, 2012 at 5:34 am

    Thanks for share these WP plugins, I know most of them however, there are some new plugins that I think it will be useful for my blog.
    Trung Nguyen wants you to check out… How to Start a Blog: 7 Steps to Start a Blog YourselfMy Profile

    Reply
  3. Helena says:
    May 4, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    Thanks for this – very useful!

    Reply
  4. android talk says:
    April 17, 2012 at 6:04 am

    All 32 plugins are useful but more plugin may slowdown site loading time.. is it so??
    android talk wants you to check out… Motorola Droid XYBOARD 10.1 waterproof android TabletMy Profile

    Reply
    • Ryan Hanley says:
      April 17, 2012 at 6:17 am

      You have to be very careful with which plugins to add to your site… If your site slows down then use a site speed checker to figure out which plugin it is that’s holding up your load time.

      Reply
  5. Ampit says:
    March 23, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    Also consider that the more plugins you use the more your website will take to load.

    Instead search for a single plugin that can do that work of several plugins like

    WP SEO by YOAST that is very much useful and saves from installing various other plugins like google xml sitemaps
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  6. admin @ mashable site stats says:
    March 20, 2012 at 7:37 am

    Thanx for sharing such a big list of useful plugins. I have used many of these but certainly not all. Will try them as well.
    admin wants you to check out… Detailed Site Traffic and Visitor AnalysisMy Profile

    Reply
  7. Ana Hoffman says:
    March 14, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    Hey, Ryan: why do you feel like you need to use both GASP and Akismet for spam control?

    I strongly dislike Akismet; thinking about writing a post about everything I think about them. lol
    Ana Hoffman wants you to check out… Market Samurai: Has It Reached its Expiration Date?My Profile

    Reply
    • Ryan Hanley says:
      March 15, 2012 at 9:33 am

      You know… that is a very good point Ana.

      I’ve always had Askimet. But now that I have GASP I’m probably just slowing my site down with a redundant plugin. I’ve really enjoyed GASP and have seen great results.

      I guess I’m Deleting it right now.

      Reasons why I love comments you learn awesome stuff.

      Thanks!!

      Reply
  8. Eleanor says:
    March 14, 2012 at 6:18 am

    Really helpful list, thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  9. marquita herald says:
    March 13, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    Great list! While I use many of these plugins I’ve made note of a few to check out. I love Tweet Old Posts and Comment Redirect! I have CommentLuv Pro … the plugin works great, but I’m actually considering closing comments all together. The problem with CommentLuv is you become a magnet for bloggers trolling the internet looking for link opportunities; not a serious problem unless they leave comments that 1) make it painfully obvious they didn’t bother to actually r-e-a-d the article, or 2) are so blatanly self-promotional they are embarrassing. While I’ve yet to edit any of these comments, I will admit I’ve trashed a few. I’m working on a survey now to send to my subscriber list and one of the questions is how much weight they place on the number of comments.
    marquita herald wants you to check out… The Secret to Achieving Greater Inspiration, Focus and Personal PowerMy Profile

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  10. Dee Ankary says:
    March 13, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    Hi Ryan,

    I love the typography and colour scheme of your site. Awesome.

    Thanks to your list, some of the mystery has now been taken out of the blogs I’ve visited of late and thought, “How did s/he do that?”

    Now I know!

    Awesome post :-)

    Dee
    Dee Ankary wants you to check out… Is Your Blog Ready For Mobile?My Profile

    Reply
  11. Pauline says:
    March 13, 2012 at 10:38 am

    Hi Ryan
    You have a great list of plugins, some I use and some I don’t but the important thing for me is that you give your readers a choice, we don’t all use the same ones.
    I have just discovered the Buffer app that you mentioned and although I have been thinking of using the Tweet Old Posts plugin I think I’m going to just try Buffer at the moment and see what the results are.
    Pauline wants you to check out… Tips on Emailing Your ListMy Profile

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    • Ryan Hanley says:
      March 13, 2012 at 10:43 am

      Pauline,

      I’m actually thinking of doing away with Tweet Old Post… I think the plugin has a ton of value but I don’t want to flood my Twitter feed with posts that I’m not actively engaged in.

      So I’m considering dropping that one soon.

      Thanks for your thoughts!!

      Ryan H.

      Reply
  12. Salman says:
    March 13, 2012 at 6:44 am

    Great list of plugins Ryan … Although I feel the plugins numbered 3,4,6,8 are not much important to me. Gonna try socialize and social profiles widget plugins !

    Thanks for the share
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    Reply
  13. Amit Shaw says:
    March 13, 2012 at 6:40 am

    Hi Ryan, Great List already i have all but i am disappointed with my theme.
    Your theme is really awesome. Thanks Ilean for sharing this link.
    Amit Shaw wants you to check out… How to Speed Up your Computer in 5 Easy Way?My Profile

    Reply
  14. Suresh Khanal says:
    March 13, 2012 at 6:32 am

    Ileane shared this post over Facebook and I agree with her that the theme is superb. It looked so simple, friendly to read and yet elegant.

    Found most of the plugins I’m using from you list and some are new to me but I’m scared, I also have too many in my list.

    Reply
    • Ryan Hanley says:
      March 13, 2012 at 7:02 am

      Suresh,

      It’s great to have you stop by. I think that “Too Many” is a relative term. If all the plugins are playing an important role in your website than you don’t have too many. Only if you’re carry fluff plugins that don’t really do anything or don’t add any value to your blogging experience.

      Thanks!

      Ryan H.

      Reply
  15. Ileane says:
    March 13, 2012 at 5:59 am

    Hi Ryan, great list of plugins. I need to take a look at a few of these, but I admit that I have most of them already. :) I’m using Thesis theme with the Awesome Blogskin from Hesham and you are right when you have a great theme you don’t need the All in one plugin. I don’t use that one either.

    I have Pretty link pro but I could have stuck with the lite version, most of the time I don’t use the advanced features anyway.

    Thanks for the great post Ryan!
    Ileane wants you to check out… My Routine for Blog Maintenance on Basic Blog TipsMy Profile

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    • Ryan Hanley says:
      March 13, 2012 at 7:00 am

      Thanks Ileane!

      I considered Pretty Link Pro, but I honestly don’t use it that much. There are places on my site where I do but for the most part it plays a minimal role so I didn’t think I needed the Pro version.

      Having a premium theme is SO important.

      I appreciate you stopping by! Have a great day

      Ryan H.

      Reply
  16. Valentine Belonwu says:
    March 13, 2012 at 1:51 am

    This is huge! and definitely must have plugins for any bloggers who want to enhance their blog sites.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Valentine

    Reply
  17. Lisa says:
    March 12, 2012 at 8:37 pm

    I’m bookmarking this post – I just went from blogger to self-hosted WordPress and I found out there are thousands of plug-ins today. Nice to see some recommendations for some here. Thank you!
    Lisa wants you to check out… New Time, New Look, What’s New With You?My Profile

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    • Ryan Hanley says:
      March 13, 2012 at 6:56 am

      Lisa,

      Congrats on making the switch to self-hosted. There is more to think about for sure but also so much more you can do!

      If you have any questions please feel free to ask…

      Thanks

      Ryan H.

      Reply
  18. Brent Kelly says:
    March 12, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    Thanks Ryan, this is a huge help ln the new blog I am working on. Rock on.
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  19. Damon Billian says:
    March 12, 2012 at 6:09 pm

    Hi Ryan,

    No problem. I just wanted to help clarify so people didn’t just install the plugin & wonder why no caching was actually happening. Thanks for the mention in the blog post.
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  20. Damon Billian says:
    March 12, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    Just a quick note that the CloudFlare WordPress plugin alone doesn’t make your site faster (you still need to signup for CloudFlare). The primary purpose of the plugin is to restore visitor IP at the WordPress commenting level.
    Damon Billian wants you to check out… Launching at SXSW? Use CloudFlare to Stay Online!My Profile

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    • Ryan Hanley says:
      March 12, 2012 at 6:05 pm

      Damon,

      Great point that I did not mention. Cloudflare includes signing up for the service on their website… Which I did but did not mention.

      Thank you!

      Reply
  21. Akos Fintor says:
    March 12, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    Hey Ryan,

    Those are some handy plugins, I have about half of them so far.
    I should jump on Commentluv since bloggers raving about it.

    thanks for the insight!

    Akos

    Reply
    • Ryan Hanley says:
      March 12, 2012 at 5:29 pm

      Akos,

      Thanks for stopping by buddy… Regular CommentLuv is great but if you’re willing to spend a couple bucks the Premium Version is fantastic.

      Good luck!

      Ryan H.

      Reply
  22. Bishwajeet @Comptalks says:
    March 12, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    32 plugins is too much for a site to handle,it would be great if you reduce your plugins and try using direct code whenever possible it will help improve your site loading speed
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  23. Ryan Hanley says:
    March 12, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    Dawn…

    First what did you think of the comment redirect?

    Second, eleven40 is a mobile theme which automatically formats to any mobile format. That is part of the reason I switched to eleven40. Love Studiopress themes…

    I also agree on site speed. That is something I am working on very hard…

    Thanks!!

    Reply
  24. Dawn says:
    March 12, 2012 at 9:24 am

    That’s a lot of plugins! :-) Like you Ryan, I have a few. It’s always about testing – I count the seconds it takes after I click on a link until the page fully opens and downloads. I say less than 5 seconds, I know my behaviour if a site doesn’t load quickly…I’m off! What about having 33? A mobile plugin? (Maybe the eleven theme has it built in.)
    Nice post — a couple I’ve not heard about, like the Comments Redirect. Which I will see in action when I click ‘post comment’.
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