There are literally hundreds of plugins and widgets available for free, and each of them will do something different for your wordpress blog. From SEO to tagging to adding fun stuff into your sidebar, there’s a plugin for just about anything you can imagine.

Following is a list of my favorite plugins. Some of them I’ve implemented on this blog, and some will be coming in the following week (I’ve been testing them on another blog):

1. Akismet – The ultimate spam solution for Wordpress. The Akismet plugin is automatically installed with Wordpress, you just have to activate it by grabbing a WordPress key (the link is provided and it’s free). I haven’t had any problems at all with comment spam on any of the blogs I operate since installing Akismet, and it lets all the real comments through – saves me a ton of time!
2. All In One SEO Pack – This is a terrific package and I strongly recommend it for everyone. It generates Meta Tags, automatically optimizes your post titles (or you can specify the title), and it helps to avoid having duplicate content indexed.
3. WWSGD – The ‘What Would Seth Godin Do’ Plugin. By default, new visitors to your blog will see a small box above each post containing the words “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!” After 3 visits the message disappears. You can customize this message, its lifespan, and its location.
4. Share This – This plugin will allow your visitors to share your content via social bookmarking sites and/or e-mailing the post to a friend. See it in action at Enchanted Greetings.
5. Related Posts – Show the last 5 related posts from your blog to entice the viewer into reading older posts in the same topic.
6. Google XML Sitemap Generator – Basically, a Google Sitemap is a file which contains URLs and some additional information for all public pages or documents of your website. Google can read this file and add the defined pages to their index.
7. DoFollow – By default Wordpress is equipped with the NoFollow tag in comments, meaning that if you submit a comment on a blog, search engine spiders will not follow the link to your website or blog. There was good reason for coming out with this (to cut down on the comment spam), however it also penalizes the legitimate commentor. Used in conjunction with Akismet, the DoFollow plugin is definately one to have.
8. SiteMap Generator – Not to be confused with the XML Sitemap Generator, Dagon Designs has created a very slick Sitemap that will be displayed as an additional page on your website. It’s got a very nice layout to it too! Have a peek at the Enchanted Greetings sitemap.

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