Here is the list of the most important plugins for WordPress. Keep in mind, however, that there are many, many plugins available for a wide variety of tasks, so feel free to check them out at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.

Make sure any plugin you use has at least three stars; if it doesn’t but you really want it, make sure you do the research.

Also, check to see what version of WP you have. When you follow any of the links below to download a plugin, double check to make sure it’s compatible with your version of WordPress.

With plugins, the process is pretty simple in general:

1. Download the file;
   
2. Extract the files from it if its zipped to your Plugins folder on your computer;
3. Upload the files to your wp-content/plugins folder;
4. Activate it in the WordPress manager under “Plugins.”

Here are the top 20 WordPress plugins you can’t live without:

Some of these plugins like the WordPress Print Post Plugin have special instructions, so make sure you read them carefully. Otherwise, enjoy and have fun playing with them.

PLUGINS I CONSIDER NECESSARY

Advanced TinyMCE Editor
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tinymce-advanced/

Adds advanced features to the standard TinyMCE WordPress rich-text editor.

Akismet
http://codex.wordpress.org/Akismet

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.”

Anarchy Media Player

http://an-archos.com/anarchy-media-player

Plays mp3, flv, mov, mp4, m4v, m4a, m4b, 3gp, avi, asf and wmv hypertext links directly on your webpage. Adds buttons to the post editor for embedding swf movies including Google Video etc. Edit all player options in Options > Anarchy.

cforms II
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cforms/

cforms II offers unparalleled flexibility in deploying contact forms across your blog. Features include: comprehensive SPAM protection, Ajax support, Backup & Restore, Multi-Recipients, Role Manager Support, Database tracking and many more.

Clean Archives
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/clean-archives-reloaded/

Displays a compact monthly archive instead of the default long list.

Sociable
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sociable/

Automatically add links on your posts to popular social bookmarking sites like Facebook, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Digg and many many others.

GeoPress
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/geopress/

GeoPress adds geographic tagging of your posts and blog. You can enter an address, points on a map, upload a GPX log, or enter latitude & longitude. You can then embed Maps, location tags, and ground tracks in your site and your blog entries. Makes your feeds GeoRSS compatible.

Google Sitemaps
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

This generator will create a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog.

Flickr

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tantan-flickr/

This Flickr plugin for WordPress will allow you to pull in your Flickr photosets and display them as albums on your WordPress site. There is a pretty simple template provided which you can customize to 100% match the look and feel of your own site.

Gregarious
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/gregarious/

Allows you to add social media bookmarking buttons to your posts or pages.

Head META Description

Insert HTML META description tag: excerpt/content brief for post/Page, description for category, and blog tagline for everything else.

Jerome’s Keywords
http://daven.se/usefulstuff/wordpress-plugins.html

Allows keywords to be associated with each post, which can be used as meta keywords and for creating a local tag system.

Random Posts
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/random-posts-plugin/

Displays a configurable list of random posts.

Samsarin PHP Widget
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/samsarin-php-widget/

A text widget with support for codes including HTML and PHP. Good for adding buttons and links to a widget and customizing it; snippets of code and etc.

All-in-one-SEO
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines

WordPress Reports
http://tantannoodles.com/toolkit/wordpress-reports/

Generates reports from Google Analytics and Feedburner data .

WP-PostRatings

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-postratings/

Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog’s post/page.

“Print My Post” Plugin

http://www.ivonson.com/wordpress/wordpress-print-post-plugin

WP-Polls
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-polls/

WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you want. It now supports multiple selections of answers.

Recent Comments Plugin
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/get-recent-comments/

This plugin shows excerpts of the latest comments and/or trackbacks in your sidebar.

OPTIONAL PLUGINS

Smart Youtube

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/smart-youtube/

Smart Youtube is a WordPress Youtube Plugin that allows you to easily insert Youtube videos in your post, comments and in RSS feed.

Exec PHP Plugin
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exec-php/

The Exec-PHP plugin executes PHP code in posts, pages and text widgets.

Umapper

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/umapper/

The UMapper plugin is a universal mapping platform that makes it a snap to create engaging maps and add them to your blog posts. Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Maps, and OpenStreet are all supported by this truly universal plugin.

Wp-Gravatar

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-gravatar/

This plugin lets you use Gravatar, MyBlogLog, OpenAvatar, Wavatar, Identicon, monsterID or Favico.ico files with your comments. But that’s not all; scroll down to see what else this plugin does for your site. The plugin has been tested on version 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3 and 2.5. Should work on all versions from 2.1 and upwards. It will also detect the Prologue theme from Automatic.

Twitter Tools
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/

Twitter Tools is a plugin that creates a complete integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account.

Author Image
http://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/author-images/

Adds the author’s image to posts if wanted.

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