So, here we are at the second part of “Essential Plugins for every WordPress Install”. In this part I’ll cover a list of essential plugins for preventing and blocking blog commenting spam and for better SEO for your WordPress blog.
Also, don’t forget to check out the firs part of the series if you missed it: “Essential Plugins for every WordPress Install – Part I: Security & Database”
WordPress Anti Spam Plugins
Blog commenting spam is an enormous problem for all bloggers, but fortunately spam protection is available and all you need to do is to install a few anti spam plugins. Check out below for a list of some of the most important anti spam plugins a WordPress blog should have installed.
Akismet
Akismet will greatly reduce or even completely eliminate the comment and trackback spam you get on your blog. Akismet is a default plugin that comes with the WordPress installation package. All you need to do is to activate it and insert your Akismet API Key after you previously registered, for free, at Akismet.com.
Requires any WordPress version.
WP-reCAPTCHA
This is a great plugin that integrates reCAPTCHA anti-spam methods with WordPress including comment, registration, and email spam protection. reCAPTCHA has earned a very prestigious reputation among the various CAPTCHA systems available and is used by such sites as Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon etc.
Requires WordPress 2.5+.
WordPress SEO Plugins
Even with great content on your blog it is unlikely you’ll have many readers without good SEO (search engine optimization). Luckily the WordPress community developed a number of plugins to help you with your SEO efforts.
All in One SEO Pack
All in One SEO Pack is one of the most popular SEO plugins. It is easy to set up and some of its functionalities include: title optimization, dynamic generation of keywords and automatically generation of meta tags.
Requires WordPress 2.8+.
Google XML Sitemaps
Google XML Sitemaps generates an XML sitemap in .xml or .gz format, supported by most search engines. It also notifies the search engines every time you publish a new post and even pings a list of popular websites using the Ping-o-Matic service.
Requires WordPress 2.1+.
Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
Sitemap Generator creates a custom sitemap of your blog. Unlike an XML sitemap, this plugin creates a sitemap for the visitors of your blog and not for the search engines.
Requires WordPress 2.1+.
Robots Meta
The Robots Meta plugin is the most simple solution to add robots meta tags. This plugin makes it easy to add the appropriate meta robots tags to your pages, disable unused archives, nofollow unnecessary links and more.
Requires WordPress 2.8+.
This is the end of the second part of my “Essential Plugins for every WordPress Install” series. Hope these plugins will help you with your WordPress blog.
Next: Essential Plugins for every WordPress Install – Part III: Efficiency and Social. Stay close for the last part!
