There isn’t a shortage of WordPress plugins, including free ones – but what about the free ones that really work and make a difference? Those can be hard to weed through, especially if you want to make sure they work with the newest version of WordPress (3.1.1, currently) and if you want to see other users’ reviews. We’ve checked out all the reviews for you, and while they’re not perfect (of course), here are 12 great plugins that might become your next favorite!
Usability
Everyone wants a fast site, right? Especially one that doesn’t crash when that perfect post of yours finally goes viral. Caching your pages allows your server to serve them much faster. With a huge number of ratings and an outstanding score, this plugin has a history of providing great speed and stability.
This plugin also caches your site and allows for a faster load time. Still coming highly recommended, this plugin requires very little customization.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Display related posts from your blog below each post. Considers titles, content, tags, and categories, and displays more or fewer matches depending on how many match the post well.
Management
It’s simple: this handy plug-in creates improved page navigation that lets users jump around between pages instead of just showing “last page” and “next page” arrows.
If you are frustrated by attempts to create page hierarchies in WordPress, use this plugin to drag and drop your pages and add new ones. Creates a simple-looking view so you can know where all your pages are at a glance.
Schedule future posts with drag-and-drop ease, and get a quick overview of what is going to be posted when. A great resource for multi-author blogs, or individual blogs with a backlog of posts.
SEO
It’s the most popular SEO plugin – because it works. You have so many options to customize, and yet it works out-of-the-box, too. Set default meta tags and customize titles and descriptions. There’s no excuse not to fine-tune each page now!
Another way to customize your meta tags, titles, and much more. It even extends the canonical features of WordPress, making sure that you never have a problem with duplicate content. It isn’t as widely used as the All in One SEO Pack, but SEO Ultimate can use your All in One SEO Pack settings, if you want to switch.
With a huge following, this plugin has plenty of support for older and newer versions of WordPress. It creates sitemaps readable by all the major search engines, and automatically resubmits your site if it detects a major change.
Social
Adds several social media sharing buttons wherever you want them: at the beginning of a post, floating in a sidebar, in small or large sizes. Make it easy for others to share your work!
When a user leaves a comment, this plugin shows a selection of latest blog post titles to display under the comment. A quick way to see what your community is blogging about, and help them engage each other!
A subscription management plugin, this lets you send e-mail digests of your content. Bulk manage your subscribers and settings, and generate e-mails in multiple formats. However, to access a full set of features, you need to purchase the extended plugin – but this free version lets you see if it would be worth it to do so!
More recommendations
Here are some other resources for WordPress plugins you might love!
- 11 Top WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have (via Yoast)
- 8 Excellent WordPress SEO Plugins (via Six Revisions)
- The 15 Best WordPress Plugins to use in 2011 (via Site Sketch 101)
- 48 WordPress Plugins to Branding Perfect Blog (via Vision Widget)
Have you used any of these plugins? Which ones are you installing right away?
its great having these useful plugins-in assembled in a single post..esp Digg Digg is awesome..