Okay, so this is my first “listing” post ever, so don’t get your hopes up too high.  Most (if not all) of these are being used on this blog site.  I emboldened any that I thought should ALWAYS be installed on any Wordpress blog site.

Note: Actually, I have to cross some of these out since some of them have some pretty awful markup… great functionality, if they worked correctly.

1. I need a good recommendation on a solid contact form.
2. Addthis Social Bookmarking Widget
   1. This has one error if you’re running xhtml strict 1.1 and that is “border=none”.  Easy enough to remove.
3. Admiyn Juitter Wordpress Plugin
   • Had some validation issues and caused some conflicts for me.
     
4. All In One SEO Pack
5. Apture
   • Had some validation issues and caused some conflicts for me.
     
6. AskApache Crazy Cache
7. AskApache Google 404
8. DISQUS Comment System
9. External Links
10. Google Analytics OR Ultimate Google Analytics
    • Google Analytics sets up the code right before the ending body tag as Google suggests, but Ultimage Google Analytics has a lot more features for what it’s worth.

The other however many I ended up with…

1. Google Syntax Highlighter for Wordpress
2. Google XML Sitemaps
3. Make Me Social
4. Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu vs. Lighter Menus
   1. Both do about the same thing.  Check them out and let me know which one you like better.
5. Redirection
6. SEO Slugs
7. Twitter Tools
8. WP-Cumulus
9. WP Super Cache
10. Search Excerpt
11. Page Mash
12. Mobile Press
13. Wordpress Automatic Upgrade
    1. Some people have had issues with this one.  Please let me know what you think.

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For SEO purposes, a good trick to use in your .htaccess file is to add a permanent redirect from any version of your site to it’s www version.

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.yourwebsite.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourwebsite.com/$1 [R=301]

Note:  It’s just as valid to force the domain without “www”.

Tags: optimization, seo wordpress, twitter tools, wordpress plugins

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Web Development, Wordpress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.