I’ve been researching Wordpress plugins and I’m just like a kid in a plugin candy store. There are so many plugin goodies on offer. Like candy, I know too many plugins (like too many widgets) are not good for me. So I have to cull the list.

I’ve scoured the net for the best “tried and true” plugin recommendations. Take a look and see if there are any here you like for your own blog.

My Long Long Short List

Here’s my long long short list. Have you used any of these? Any thoughts? And how many is a sensible number of plugins? Certainly not as many as I have here.

Comments Plugins

Anything you can do to make your blog more comment friendly is a plus.

Akismet
The king of spam killers and a must have. I’m not sure if it is standard in WP 2.2. If not, it should be. It’s saved me from over 2500 spam comments.

Brian’s Threaded Comments Plugin
This is a keeper. Now your comment appears beneath the one you are replying to. Court Tuttle offers a comprehensive review of the threaded comment plugin, complete with tips. Make it easy for commenters to be part of your conversation.

Better Comments Manager v1.3
Reply to comments from within the admin panel. You can see all comments related to a specific post together. This is compatible with Brian’s Threaded Comments above.

Comments With Avatars
Includes the MyBlogLog avatar next to a reader’s comment. Firestats enables the flag of the commenter’s country to appear next to the comment.

Do Follow
This disables the No Follow attribute in WP, and reward your commenters by giving them some Google Juice. If you join the Do Follow movement, be sure to grab one of Randa Clay’s nifty free “U Comment, I Follow” badges to let readers know.

Subscribe to Wordpress Comments Plugins
Notifies commenters when a follow up comment is received. This one is a must as not everyone checks back. Keep the conversation going.

Contact Forms Plugins

Contact Form
A custom form from Dagon for readers to fill in - no need for clunky email address disguises to beat spambots. Blogging Expertise outlines the spam free WP Contact Form (Akismet Edition) - still in alpha.

Site Navigation, Organisation & SEO Goodness Plugins

Breadcrumb Plugin
Like the breadcrumb trail from Hansel & Gretel, this is a site navigation aid to show you where you are and where you’ve come from. Breadcrumb navigation is often used on websites. Now you can use it on your blog.

Sticky Post Plugins
Is this option included in WP 2.2? If not, try Adhesive to make any post sticky and stay at the top, as on forums.

Related Posts
This in just about every list - a definite must, not just to let your older posts see the light of day, and to give added value to your readers, but also for interlinking and site stickiness.

Semiologic CMS
Gives you more control over customisation. News Forge has a good overview of how this works in his excellent 2 page plugins recommendations roundup.

Plugin Suggestions from Daniel at Daily Blog Tips
Read his full list with very user friendly explanations. This is one of the best lists around. I’ve listed a few I’d like to cherry pick from his list. For fuller explanations, read his post.

Clean Archives
This is one of my favourites from Daniel’s list. This is what he says -
“Most blogs have a Monthly Archives section on their sidebar, displaying a huge list of months and wasting some precious space. A more efficient structure for your archives would be a single page where all the posts are displayed, month by month. That is exactly what this plugin will do (you can see an example here). Notice that you might need the plugin below to install this one successfully.”

Exec-PHP
Daniel says “….Once installed the plugin will enable PHP code on virtually all the pages of your blog. There are similar plugins available, but this one is the most reliable.”

Jerome’s Keywords
I’d been thinking of Ultimate Tag Warrior but Daniel says this is more user friendly.

WP-Cache

I’d been concerned about a huge number of posts, pages and photos over a number of years slowing things down. WP-Cache may help as it “will increase the responsiveness of your website and reduce the server load.” Sounds good to me.

SEO Title Tags & Permalink Redirect Plugins

Optimal Title Tag places your blog name at the end of the page title instead of having it appear first. You need to consider whether the SEO outweighs the branding aspect of having your business or site name appear first.

SEO Title Tags
Optimises title tags. That should help build search traffic. Say no more.

Head Meta Description
Creates a Meta Description Tag for every post and page. Here’s another Meta Tag Plugin to compare.

Permalink Redirect Plugin
I asked Carl about my non SEO friendly numbered permalinks. He recommends the permalink redirect plugin for lots of SEO juice without losing your old links. That one’s a must. Thanks Carl.

Wordpress Made Easy Plugins

Wordpress Upgrade Plugin
For non techies like me, if it makes the upgrade process easier, I figure it’s worth a try.

Sitemaps Plugins
Dagon Sitemap Generator is a reader friendly sitemap. Here’san example Dagon has a number of interesting plugins. Here’s the Google XML Sitemap Generator, designed to be loved by search engines.

Stats Plugins

I’m very happy with WordPress Stats but Firestats gives some additional useful information. and here’s the Ultimate Google Analytics Plugin. Do you have other stats recommendatons, either plugins or other options?

Which Wordpress Plugins Can’t You Live Without?

I’d love to hear your favourites… the ones you feel really add value to your blog, for your readers and yourself.

Blogging Know How, Cool Tools