There are a lot of great plugins that can help you customize and awesomize your WordPress site. After lots of research and client work, I’ve compiled a list of our most used plugins and what they do.

Before we get started, you should know the fine print. While it may be tempting to find and install of lot of plugins that do all sorts of really cool stuff, you should know that the plugin’s code needs to be maintained through WordPress updates.  If the plugin’s developer stops upgrading their code, you may find the plugin doesn’t work the next time you upgrade WordPress.  (When in doubt ask for help).

I’ve listed WordPress Plugins that I like below.

Catalyst Template

Ok, so Catalyst isn’t really a plugin, but it’s a great template.  I explain why I love it so much in detail here, but the short story is it allows you can update your site’s design without knowing programming and it’s got wicked search engine optimization built in. Win!

Plugin Central

Plugin Central allows you to install your plugins in batches.  If the Plugins are listed in the WordPress Plugin directory all you need is the names of the plugins in a list format.  Once you enter the list, Plugin Central will find and install the plugins for you. This saves a whole bunch of time if you install a lot of Plugins (which I do).

Better Tag Cloud

As the name says, Better Tag Cloud is a superior alternative to the default tag cloud.  There are cool configurable options that you can define like the difference in sizes based on how popular a tag is, whether or not to include categories in the cloud and formatting options.

Disqus Comment System

The default WordPress Comment System isn’t very flexible, so 3rd party systems like Disqus have become very popular.  Disqus allows for some great extensions to comments such as threaded commenting,

What’s great about Disqus is if your blog reader already has a Disqus account, they can make comments on your blog and it will be associated with the account.  There are also some cool customizations you can do with Disqus.

Google Analyticator

You need Google Analytics on every page of your site so it can track effectively.  With Google Analyticator this is easy.  All you have to do is put in the unique code from Google Analytics for your website and Google Analyticator takes care of the rest.

A feature I really love about this tool is you can set tracking to exclude administrators.  This allows you to get true visitor analytics that aren’t skewed by the longer periods of time that site admins typically spend on the site.

Google Maps Anywhere

Google Maps Anywhere adds a nifty little button to your WordPress Page and Post editor to easily embed Google Maps into your content.  This particularly useful if you run events or have a office location.

Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps generates a sitemap made especially for search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.  A sitemap allows the search engines to see the complete structure of your site, making it easier for them to index you (this is good).  This plugin also notifies the search engines when you have new content so they know to come and reindex you (woot!).

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is a paid plugin but worth every little penny.  Starting from $39 for a single site licence, this plugin lets you create input forms with custom feeds for your website without a scrap of programming.  It’s all drag and drop.

I’ve used this plugin for nearly 2 years to collect workshop registrations.  Once the participant finishes with the registration form, I set Gravity Forms to send them to the payment page.  Gravity Forms then emails me the registration information.

I wish all plugins were made by this company, it’s fabulous.

Login LockDown

So I got my site hacked once and it started to get banned from search engines because there was spammy code in it.  Since then I never use the default admin account called “admin”, I make sure my passwords are at least 8 characters long and finally, I installed Login LockDown.

Login LockDown allows you to set how many times you attempt to login (default 3) before your account gets locked out (default 60 minutes).  It’s a great extra layer of security to have.

MailChimp List Subscribe Form

A plugin that helps you quickly and easily set up a Mailchimp subscribe form on your website.  The plugin settings let you configure how the subscribe form will look on your site and adds a simple widget for you to drag into your sidebar.

Outbrain

Outbrain has 2 main features.  The feature this plugin adds is suggested posts at the bottom of your blog post (you’ll see it at the bottom of this post).  This encourages your reader to stay on your blog for longer.  The other is a widget for Popular Posts.

Once you register with Outbrain you also get access to analytics to how many clicks you get on suggested posts.

SEO Friendly Images

SEO Friendly Images makes sure that all your images are search engine optimized based on the title of your post or page and the name of the image.  Once it’s installed, it does all the work for you.

SexyBookmarks

You’ve probably seen SexyBookmarks on blogs you’ve visited. You’ll also see it on this blog. It adds a row of social platform buttons at the end of your blog posts and encouraging your readers to share it via cute messages like “Sharing is Sexy!” or “Share the Knowledge”.  You can choose the buttons you want to display and select from 8 messages you would like to be shown.  You can also control how the message will be sent through Twitter and which URL shortener (like Bit.ly) to use.

Shockingly Simple Favicon

Favicons are the icons that show in your browser window beside the website address.  Customizing them can add a nice little touch to your website. Shockingly Simple Favicon widget makes it easy for you to change your website’s Favicon without having to get technical.

Social Media Widget

Social Media Widget is one of my favourite plugins.  It creates a widget that you can drag onto your sidebar (or any other widget area) and has a large list of Social Networks already plugged into it.   All you have to do is add the link to your account and you are good to go.  What’s great about this plugin is that you can select from 4 default icon types or upload your own to customize your look based on your brand.  You can also select what size you want the icon to be and how you want the icon to react when someone points at it – change size, change transparency etc.

TinyMCE Advanced

TinyMCE Advanced gives your WordPress Text Editor more wordprocessor type buttons.  This will allow you to change your formatting much easier without knowing HTML.  You can configure what buttons you want to show in the settings for the plugin.

I also recommend turning on the setting “Stop removing the <p> and <br> tags when saving and show them in the HTML editor for your own sanity.

TweetMeme Retweet Button

TweetMeme Retweet Button adds the popular Retweet button to you pages and posts.  You can figure some of the behaviour of the button and choose your URL shortener.

Twitter Widget Pro

This plugin allows you to show the last few tweets and add it to an widget area.  You can see the widget in action in my footer.

Vaultpress

Vaultpress is another paid plugin that is worth the money.  It automatically backs up your entire WordPress installation so if anything goes wrong you are covered.  You just install it and it does all the work.  Right now Vaultpress is in beta and you have to apply to get it.  I recommend applying and then Tweeting about it a few times including their name so they see it.

Video Sidebar Widgets

Video Sidebar Widgets adds a widget to add Youtube, Vimeo and other videos easily to your sidebar.

Viper’s Video Quicktags

Viper’s Video Quicktags video buttons to the page and post editor for Youtube, Google Video, Vimeo, Viddler and others.  The button allows you to easily embed a video into any page or post with a couple of clicks.

WP Email Guard

WP Email Guard is a godsend that will protect any email address on your website from becoming the target of Spam.  Hooray!

What others could you use?

Reply in the comments about what plugins you use and what they do or what you functionality you would love to add to your site.