Starting A WordPress Blog: Your First Plugins
// May 18th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Plugins, WordPress Basics
When starting a WordPress blog you’re bound to come across a lot of plugins you’ll be tempted to install right away. There are thousands of free plugins available for WordPress that add an incredible amount of functionality to your website. But sometimes people get ahead of themselves and try to install all these “must have” plugins they’ve been told every blog needs before they even write one post. Suddenly, instead of blogging, they’re playing around with settings and functions they have no use for.
That’s why I suggest keeping the amount of plugins to minimum when starting a WordPress blog. Every time your website is loaded, your server has to load all those plugins and having too many can slow your site down. It’s also easier to add plugins as your need for them arises; this way you can learn to manage each plugin as it’s installed instead of learning multiple plugins at the same time. This is not to say you shouldn’t have any plugins, otherwise you wouldn’t be making use of WordPress’s capabilities. Here are a few plugins that I feel are worth having once you start your WordPress blog (even if you haven’t written one post):
- Askimet – Included with WordPress, this is as good a spam blocker as you’re likely to find. As soon as you start your WordPress blog you can sign up for a free account with WordPress.com and they’ll supply you with your API key to get Askimet up and running.
- All In One SEO Pack- Once you start your WordPress blog you’ll probably be concerned with SEO. This easy-to-use search engine optimization plugin allows you to insert keywords into your homepage and every post. Once installed, access its options under the ‘Settings’ tab and enter all the applicable keywords for your site in the ‘Home Keywords’ field. Whenever you write a new post, enter that post’s keywords in the SEO fields at the very bottom of the ‘Edit Post’ page.
- Google Analytics For WordPress – Google Analytics is a free, powerful way to track and analyze your website traffic. This plugin makes it easy to install the necessary tracking code in your site without your having to edit your site’s HTML files. Accessible from the ‘Settings’ tab, you simply enter your Analytics ID in the appropriate field.
- Google XML Sitemaps – When you start your WordPress blog you’ll want to get it indexed by Google and other search engines as quickly as possible. This will automatically generate an XML sitemap for your site which helps search engines like Google and Yahoo index and search your content. It also notifies search engines whenever you update your site. In addition, you can submit this sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools which helps you manage your site’s search engine results. It can be configured from the ‘Settings’ tab, though you’re probably best leaving it at its default settings.
What other plugins do you find necessary when starting a WordPress blog?
