7 Clutch WordPress Plugins

In the past couple of weeks I've concentrating a bit more on Gaming news than on some of the other topics that I had originally wished to cover. While I did want Gaming to be a major topic, I didn't want it to be THE major topic for this blog. That said I wanted to get back to including WordPress related posts. That said, I thought I'd start by running down some of the plugins that are currently used on RotW and a few of my other blogs.

1. Akismet: I've only really tried using one WordPress Anti-Spam plugin. After installing Akismet and getting it running I found that there really wasn't a need for trying out any other. Occasionally it catches a comment that isn't spam, and occasionally it misses one that is, but that's really rare. On this blog alone Akismet has blocked nearly 300 pieces of junk, elsewhere its blocked well over a thousand. Akismet is also included in the WordPress 2.0 package (which should stand as another glowing review.) It's easy to install and very will make monitoring your comments very easy.
2. WordPress Database Backup: Whenever you want to upgrade your WordPress install, edit your database, or even install new plugins you should backup your database - why not make it as easy as possible? This plugin by Scott Merrill automates the whole process letting you save to the server, download or even email the backup file for later use.
3. Google Sitemap Generator: Sooner or later you want your site to start turning up in Google - right? Getting your page indexed and turning up in Google is almost essential for any successful blog or website. The Google Sitemap Generator by Arne Brachhold automatically generates a Google compliant sitemap for use by Google. Setup is very straightforward and highly customizable - it also can generate a new sitemap everytime you post getting your site indexed that much quicker.
4. Feedburner Feed Replacement: This plugin by Steve Smith automatically forwards all feed traffic through Feedburner.
5. WordPress Related Entries: This plugin is part of a 1- 2 punch of plugins for suggesting posts to your readers. Using this plugin you can generate a list of posts that are related to posts currently being displayed. You can see it in use at the bottom of this page under the "Related Posts" heading.
6. Landing Sites: Based on the Related Entries plugin above, this plugin helps create a list of related plugins based off of search results which lead to your page. If a user is running a search for a keyword and lands on your site, this plugin creates a list of similar posts/pages that might cover the topic they searched for. You can use this a variety of different ways but I keep it on my 404page (for when links get broken) and my index page (for those rare occasions where posts on my index page are accidentally indexed by google). The link above provides some great suggested usages.
7. Jerome's Keywords: This is by far my favorite WordPress plugin for integrating keywords. You can see it used at the top of my sidebar and also at the top of all of my posts & pages. Besides allowing for simple listing of keywords, you can also create a "cloud" view to show the popularity of each.

Generally speaking I like plugins that are install and forget. While Jerome's Keywords requires setting keywords when you post and WordPress Database Backup needs to be activated when used, all the others run in the background until you need to activate them. You may need to add one or two lines of code to include them in a theme file but otherwise they run on their own int he background making your blog or website that much more versatile.