Top WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using

One of my top ten favorite blog post to read are those of “top wordpress plugins“. I believe that I have read almost all of the top wordpress plugins posts online! Anyway, it would be no surprise that, if you ever wrote a post like this, I will be there to read it and share.

Top WordPress Plugins

Having a great list compiled of all of your top wordpress plugins that you can share with other people is an important post to have.

Everyone loves other people’s viewpoints and ideas of what works for them in the form of plugins.

You will always find different views on different blogs of what the top wordpress plugins are for that one particular blog. It is not saying that these ideas are set in stone, it’s just that once someone get’s in the groove of marketing their blog, they tend to get comfortable in what their strategy is, so they cease to keep looking for improvements for their blog in the form of plugins.

I am one of the worst people to do this. I would rather plank a bed of nails as change anything! However, it’s when I read these “Top Plugins” posts that I realize what I need to change in my site or at least try it out to see how it works out.

Let’s be realistic. Not every plugin works for everyone. As of this moment, I am on the fence about my social sharing plugin. Is it what people like? Is it share friendly? I struggle with this, and, from time to time, I will change the social sharing icons on my site.

Here are the top social/interaction wordpress plugins that work beautifully for me

1. Cash Donator- Probably the best plugin that you can use for advertisements on your site. Cash Donator is a paid plugin, but worth every penny, and you won’t believe how cheap it actually is.  As far as displaying your ads in your posts or sidebar it is excellent.  However, if you are wanting to review a product, Cash Donator works great as well.  Read my post about my review of Cash Donator
2. CommentLuv Premium- Another great plugin!  I am sure that you have already saw, or even have, the regular version of CommentLuv.  It enables you to display your latest post on other people’s blogs when you comment on their site.  However, I want to talk about the premium version of the CommentLuv plugin.  This is a must have for your site!  Why?  Because when your visitors go to comment on your post, it prompts them to share your post to social media.  This is by far not the only thing that it does, but it is probably the most powerful.  It also monitors spam comments at a much higher level and allows your would-be commentor to display their Twitter account when they comment.
3. Comment Redirect- This is a great plugin!  After the user comments for the first time on your site, it redirects them to a separately created page(that you will create on your blog) where you can offer them a free copy of your ebook, or whatever you have in mind! Comment Redirect is another free plugin by Joost De Valk, which I will introduce another plugin by him in the next series.
4. Shareaholic- Also known as “sexy bookmarks”, Shareaholic looks great on your site.  Sleek and easy to use, they are a great addition to any blog.  What I like about Shareaholic is the look and ease of use.  What I don’t like, as I mentioned above, is it goes down more often than not.  It kinda get’s aggravating, but this is what I’m using now, but looking into other options.
5. Aweber Comment Opt-in- If you have started your email list with Aweber, then you will be happy to know that you can add a tick box in the comment section that the reader can click to opt in to your list.  You can find this plugin here.
6. The Slide by Simple Reach- Another great plugin that will engage your reader while they are reading.  If you will notice the little slide out box that pops out in the lower right hand of this screen, you will see that it prompts you to read another post related to this category.  Yet another way The Slide keeps your readers engaged.

The next set of plugins are what I like to use for SEO related purposes.  These are, in my book, some of the top wordpress plugins that I use to help me get noticed quickly and efficiently by the search engines.

Top wordpress plugins for SEO:

1. External Links- This is a plugin for people who don’t want to give away links for free.  You can monitor the External Links plugin easily and effectively from your dashboard to monitor which links get juice and which one’s don’t.  I use this to take away link juice from all of my ads on my site.  A great way to help your site’s page rank.
2. Google XML Sitemaps- One of the best ways to get the search engines to index your site posts faster and more effectively.  No more no less.  You need this plugin.
3. Pingler- You know when you write a blog post, you must ping your post to different feeds so that it can be indexed faster.  No need to do this anymore.  With Pingler, there is no need to waste all of that time doing that.  Set it up, and when you hit “publish” on your post, it automatically pings all of the major feeds.
4. SEO Friendly Images- If you understand SEO at all, then you already know that your images must have ALT tags written on them.  This takes all of that work out. ALT attribute is important part of search engine optimization. It describes your images to search engine and when a user searches for a certain image this is a key determining factor for a match.

These are just a few of the plugins that I use to be successful on my blog.  Sure, there is more to it than just having the right plugins, but it is definitely one piece of the puzzle that will fit together to make your blog successful.

If you don’t have some of these I suggest that you get the one’s listed here that you don’t have.  They are definitely the top wordpress plugins for my site and I know that they can help your site too!

There are more top wordpress plugins that you can find, and I recommend that you keep searching. Never let change interfere with your strategy. There is always other bloggers that can teach you lots of cool things!