My Top Ten Essential Plugins For WordPress Blogs Performance, Results and Security

Article by Barry Wells

As we know there are literally Thousands of plugins for our WordPress blogs, some people love them and some people loath them. But there are some that, love or loath, we simply have to have installed on our blogs if we really want to see results from our blogging efforts.

Listed below are the Top Ten Plugins that I think are essential for my blogs performance, results and security.

Akismet Anti Spam filter: This plugin is pre installed on WordPress but may need activating. This is a must have plugin for your blogs security as it stops most spam comments from appearing on your blog, I say stops most spam as the odd one does slip through but this is where you need to train your eye to detect spam comments. A simple way of doing this is to read the comment and see if it could relate to any post on any blog. If it can then they are just after a back link to increase their blogs ranking, so mark the comment as spam and Akismet will recognize the commentator in future comments.Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin will generate an XML sitemap of your complete blog which helps search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com with indexing your blog. All types of WordPress generated pages and custom URLs are supported by this plugin and in addition it will notify the major search engines of the new content when you add a new post. When I first installed this plugin I saw my Alexa ranking improve by nearly 40,000, which goes to show just how powerful the plugin is.All in One SEO Pack: In addition to XML sitemaps, which indexes your blog, this plugin will help get your blog posts found by the search engines based on the keyword content within your posts. Once you have installed the plugin and wish to add a new post you will find additional text boxes lower down the Add New Post page of your admin panel. These additional boxes are for the Title, Description and Keywords for the new post and are submitted to the search engines.Google Analytics for WordPress: The simple way to add Google Analytics to your WordPress blog. It is extremely important that you use Google Analytics to check on your blogs performance. The plugin has custom variables but the default settings will suffice for 90% of users. It can also add tracking to outbound links and downloads from your site. As I said it is very important that you check your stats in Google Analytics so that you are aware of what is giving you the best results from your blogging efforts, thus allowing you to concentrate on those areas.SEO Super Comments: This is a neat little plugin that allows you to use your blog comments to generate more traffic. What it actually does is give the impression that every commentator has their very own dedicated page containing all of their previous comments, with a do follow link at the top of the page back to the commentators website. When I first started using this plugin I noticed an increase in traffic of between 20 and 25%.WordPress Database Backup: On-demand backup of your WordPress database, which also allows you to set up an automated back up of your blog on an hourly, Twice daily, Daily or Weekly basis. Allowing you to keep your Back Ups up to date automatically.CommentLuv: This is the plugin that shows a link to the last post on the commentators blog. It does this by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment. Which rewards your readers and encourages more comments. Also, if you register with commentluv then you will be able to select any of your previous five posts when submitting your comments, which is very handy if the post you are commenting on relates to a post that you have previously written.Fast Secure Contact Form: This plugin will place a Contact Me link on your blog to let your visitors send you a quick email without revealing your email address. Supported by Akismet it includes a CAPTCHA and will block all common spamming tactics, meaning spam is not a problem. It is extremely important that you have some way for your visitors to contact you in private as there are often times when people wish to say things that they are uncomfortable saying in a public comment. To suggest a few: errors in your post, errors on your blog, offers of guest posting, offers of Joint Ventures, request for further advice, assistance the list goes on….but I am sure you grasp the importance of making yourself available to your readers, privately.WordPress Thread Comment: I simply love this plugin as it allows me to reply to comments and places my reply directly beneath the comment, no matter what the time gap is between the comment being left and my replying to it. It also sends the commentator an email containing my reply, which helps continue the conversation. Please Note: WordPress does have a built in function for replying to comments however it is not compatible with all themes, where as this free plugin is.Subscribe To Comments Reloaded: This one does what it says in the title, it allows our readers to subscribe to comments, so that when future comments are made they will receive an email to notify them of additional comments and each email will contain the comment. This is extremely beneficial to our readers as they can keep up with the conversation and gain additional info on a subject of interest to them. It also encourages them to come back and continue the conversation.

All of the plugins can be installed within the plugin section of the WordPress admin panel, just copy each name and paste them into the search box. Once installed remember to activate them. As I said at the start of this article, I think these plugins are essential for my blogs performance, security and of course my peace of mind.

About the Author

Looking for more great ideas for your blog? Visit Barry Wells’ Blog for free blogging and video tutorials, plus news and information that will help your blog stand-out. Be sure to sign-up for our free Blog newsletter and download my Brandable eBooks and URL Cloaking Software.

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Organic SEO Traffic: How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog Using SEO Plugins!

Article by Chadrack

Do you want a simple system that will help you funnel some organic seo traffic with ease by getting your wordpress blog to rank high on the search engines?

How about being able to intelligently assist the search engines to understand what your blog content is all about so that they can rank it high?

If your answer yes to any of these questions then I encourage you to read every word on this article because you’re about to discover a simple strategy that will help you optimize your wordpress blog for some free organic seo traffic.

No doubt about it. The search engines love blogs but unfortunately, wordpress sucks seo-wise when used with the default settings. The good news however is, with a little help you can garner some more love for your wordpress blog!

The Essentials of Organic SEO That Works!

The first thing you need to know when it comes to strategizing for your blog’s seo is the fact that there are some essential elements you need to concentrate on. These essential elements are basically your blog’s title, the description meta tag, the content, keyword density and links.

These are what the search engine spiders focus on when they crawl your blog. The information from these elements is used in indexing your blog and whenever someone performs a search for any information, they simply respond by referencing this indexed information.

The search engines do not “cook up” their own content but only check the keyword phrases used by the searcher against the information indexed and then returns the pages that best suit those keyword phrases. This is why it’s important that you focus on these elements whatever the niche you’re targeting with your blog.

The good news is that though wordpress sucks when used “as is”, there are 101 plugins out there that will help you correct this “defect”. Once implemented your blog will be able to deliver its content to the search engines in a way that will make it much easier for them to read, understand, digest and then rank it high on the search engine SERPs!

The 3 Areas to Focus On

As seen from above, your optimization strategy should be directed at 3 major areas. These are:1. Operation Related WordPress SEO Strategy

2. On-Page WordPress SEO Strategy, and

For each of these areas there are various options of plugins you can use. What you need is a clear understanding of how to use them. For example, about operation related wordpress seo strategy you simply need to optimize your blog to reduce its load time because Google considers a slow loading blog as poor in terms of site usability.

Unfortunately, most of the content on your blog are a culprit as far as this problem is concerned. For example, if your blog has been online for some time chances are that it has acquired a huge load of pages, images, flash, videos and javascripts. As much as these have their good uses they nevertheless have negative effects on your blog’s load time. But there are few things you can do to correct this. For example, you can use cache to retrieve information and optimize your blog’s database.

Once these optimization strategies are put in place your blog will be enhanced to load faster and gain some more points with the search engines thereby helping it to rank high in search engine SERPs.

But for all of these to work effectively you definitely need a wordpress SEO strategy in place. It doesn’t matter your level of expertise in using wordpress, with the right plugins you can put together a powerful strategy that will help you optimize your blog for the search engines.

For a full guide on using plugins to handle these 3 areas of organic seo strategy for your wordpress blog, click on the link and read the detail article on my blog.

About the Author

Chadrack is a blogger, web entrepreneur and niche marketer with special interest in helping online entrepreneurs succeed online. He passionately shares his knowledge and marketing tips at his blog http://webincomejournal.com

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5 Blogging Plugins You Must Use

Plugins for the WordPress platform are tons of fun and incredibly useful. You’ll find everything you need to turn your blog into something amazing that is every bit as great as you would have imagined. While there are many plugins out there that are worth your while, the five that follow are the cream of the crop.

Akismet

This plugin actually comes standard with your WordPress installation. You will have to get a WordPress.com API key to make it work, but after you do it’s pure bliss. This will help keep spam comments away automatically! Akismet is smart enough to put suspected spam into a separate folder, and it even learns from you as you go. You should always activate this plugin for the best results with your blog. It saves you a ton of time too!

Related Posts

Linking to different pages in your blog from every page is a great search engine optimization tactic. The problem with blogs is that it can be so hard to dig through old posts that are related and manually link them in your new post. Related posts solves that problem! This will automatically insert some relevant posts for your blog. It’s very hands-off and very effective. Both visitors and search engines love this plugin.

All in One SEO Pack

Once again, optimizing your site for the search engines is going to be one of the best ways you can make money with your blog. The higher you rank, the more traffic you recieve. The more traffic you receive, the more money you make! The All In One SEO pack makes your life easier because it allows you to specify the title, description (that will show up in the search engines), and keywords.

WordPress Database Backup

Backing up your blog is crucial if you value your business. You never know what could happen to your server, and it would be awfully devastating to lose everything. You can easily back everything up by pressing a few simple buttons with this effective and very useful plugin.

Top Commentators

This plugin is greatly effective and it encourages a lot of interaction on your blog. It lists the people who have the most comments within your blog. They love this because they get the extra exposure. You love it because people really get into posting to try and be at the top. It also gives social proof. When people visit a blog for the first time they are more likely to stick around if there are clearly other people there who value your content. The fact that they can see others participating is a great thing.

There are an incredible number of different plugins out there that are ready for you to use. Install these essentials and you’ll be well-prepared to become the great blogger you’re going to become.

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