We share with you our top ten favorite WordPress plugins. These are the plugins that we have found to be the most useful when extending the core functionality of WordPress.
1. WPTouch
We use this plugin to deliver the mobile version of our Wodu Media site.
More than just a plugin, WPtouch is a mobile theme for your WordPress website. Modelled after Apple’s app store design specs, WPtouch loads lightning fast and shows your content beautifully, without interfering with your regular site theme.
WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress blog into a web-application experience when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch, Android, or BlackBerry Storm touch mobile device.
2. Meebo Bar
Meebo lets users share and communicate with friends via the Meebo Bar at the bottom of the page of your site. We use this for Wodu and a lot of our clients WordPress installations. Amazingly simple to setup, with built in analytics to get a handle on what people are sharing on your site.
3. All in One SEO Pack
A must-have plugin for every WordPress installation. Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization). Features include:
- Advanced Canonical URLs
- Support for CMS-style WordPress installations
- Optimization of your page and post titles for search engines
- Automatic generation of META tags
- Removal of duplicate content typically found on WordPress blogs
4. Google Sitemap Automator
This plugin will generate an XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.
5. Nextgen Gallery
NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a Flash slideshow option. You can view a working example of it here.
6. Redirector
With this Plugin you can redirect a page in your WordPress installation to any other URL, to a page in your WordPress installation or to the first child page. A great tool if your goal is structuring navigation in an intuitive way.
7. Category Visibility-iPeat Rev
The main purpose of this plugin is to give more control over what categories are seen and where. It is highly usefully in using WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System), especially if a non-technical person is doing the content management.
8. Branded Login Screen
This plugin provides a great way to create custom graphics for the login screen to get that last finishing touch to a blog. Take a look at it in action here.
9. Simple Post Template
A plugin that allows you to create post templates in order to save time writing posts having the same structure.
10. Simple 301 Redirects
Simple 301 Redirects provides an easy method of redirecting requests to another page on your site or elsewhere on the web. It’s especially handy when you migrate a site to WordPress and can’t preserve your URL structure. By setting up 301 redirects from your old pages to your new pages, any incoming links will be seemlessly passed along, and their pagerank (or what-have-you) will be passed along with them.
