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WordPress Plugins on the Blah, Blah! Technology blog
Tuesday, 1 January 2008 — by Wayne Smallman
I’m very particular about the Plugins I use with WordPress. Very particular. I’m a PHP developer and I know how an errant portion of code can wreak havoc. So my list of Plugins is small and select. But because I’m a sharing, caring soul, I decided to share with you — yes, you!
Well, not just you personally, but .. oh, let’s not start with that again…
WordPress Plugins used by the Blah, Blah! Technology ‘blog
Akismet 2.0.2 — Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. By Matt Mullenweg.
For those that are either new to ‘blogging or living under a stone in the middle of a desert somewhere, Akismet does a pretty good job of blocking comment spam.
If you’re not using this one Plugin at least, then you’re insane. Go see a doctor, immediately.
Democracy 2.0.1 — This poll plugin is easy to use, install, and manage. It uses AJAX to load data, making it quick and fun to use. By Andrew Sutherland.
Anything that encourages a little user-interaction is more often than not a damn fine thing! And for me, adding a poll is just the ticket.
Not only are you injecting a little fun, there’s also the chance of harvesting some interesting information about your visitors, too.
To see Democracy in action, pay a visit to the home page and place your vote!
Dofollow 2.1 — Disables the rel=nofollow attribute in comments. By Denis de Bernardy.
On the whole, I trust the judgement of those commenting on my ‘blog, and that the resources you choose to share are valued.
If you’re sharing an article of your own and that article is related to my article, then I have no problem with sharing the link juice around.
Domain Mirror 1.1 — Allows WordPress to be used with mirrored domains. By Dave McAleavy.
Because I wanted to create separate areas of this ‘blog for specific categories, I thought this Plugin would be a great idea.
However, in doing so, I would incur the wrath of the search engines — inviting duplicate content penalties. So this Plugin has since been disabled until I can figure out a way of not hurting my ‘blog.
FeedBurner FeedSmith 2.3 — Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. By FeedBurner.
If you’re a serious ‘blogger, then you use Google’s recently acquired FeedBurner feed management service.
By consolidating all of your different feed types into your FeedBurner account, you avoid scattering your readership hither & yonder.
Get Recent Comments 2.0.2 — Display the most recent comments or trackbacks with your own formatting in the sidebar. By Krischan Jodies.
There are many areas of a strong ‘blog where the added value is often buried behind a worrying number of clicks. Here’s where your comments are the valuable jewels unearth for all to see.
Google XML Sitemaps 3.0.2.1 — This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Configuration Page By Arne Brachhold.
So you thought having a feed was enough, did you? Hmm, not quite. By having a Sitemap, you’re making the job of the search engines that little bit easier.
Plus, there are ways of altering the ‘weighting’ of certain articles based on things like the number of comments.
Head META Description R1.1.2 — Insert HTML META description tag: excerpt/content brief for post/Page, description for category, and blog tagline for everything else. By Kaf Oseo.
Because the search engines are much like very, very fussy readers, they also tend to be quite lazy.
So unless the thrust of your missives aren’t outlined inside the first 60-odd characters of your article, then you’re inviting the search engines to make the decision themselves.
However, the much under-used meta description tag is a way of focusing the attention of the search engines, ensuring they go away with the right impression of your article.
Subscribe To Comments 2.1.1 — Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Based on version 1 from Scriptygoddess By Mark Jaquith.
You want to build community on your ‘blog, right? Then let people subscribe to the comments for each article.
Do this and you encourage a dialogue by reminding people of new comments via email, all of which are but a click away.
WP-Cache 2.1.2 — Very fast cache module. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system. By Ricardo Galli Granada.
If like me you’re running your own hosting, then cost is a very real factor.
And if you’re a rising star on the horizon, the surges in traffic you’ll no doubt be enjoying from time to time will be a double-edged sword — an increase in exposure also means a commensurate increase in bandwidth.
By using a good caching system, you avoid dishing out the same articles as if they were new born. Instead, you make use of a cached version, which avoids taxing your server.
There is a more robust caching Plugin out there, but there may be issues with my current set-up. All of which is to be investigated.
Just what Plugins do you use for WordPress?
Here’s your chance to share with the huddled masses which WordPress Plugins you use to power your ‘blog…
Recommended reading
Comment spam becoming conversational
How to deal with bad blog comments
Why blogging is like a deck of cards
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