Five WordPress Plugins You're Missing Out On

WordPress is already a full-featured, powerful blogging platform, but to truly take advantage of everything it has to offer, savvy bloggers know to use the best plugins to power-up their site. Unfortunately, even some of the best and most popular plugins go unnoticed by novice bloggers. To help make these new blogs better, here is a list of five of the most all-around useful plugins for WordPress.

All in One SEO Pack

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best methods for bringing new readers to your blog, but the details of WordPress e-commerce sites, Google Analytics and other SEO tools can be daunting for new users. This plugin automates most of the process, allowing you to tailor your design and content, your links and your URLs to direct search engine traffic where you want it: your blog. Novices will also appreciate the user interface which automates most functions.

Add This

Add This uses an easy widget to automate sharing for your blog's visitors. The widget appears on your blog's sidebar and offers visitors the ability to share your content through over 330 popular social networking sites. Visitors can use your widget to subscribe to an Add This account for stats and other information. Best of all, this plugin "just works" and requires little to no configuration by the blog administrator. 

Feedburner

RSS remains one of the most popular ways to access content online, and Feedburner can help make the excellent Wordpress RSS features even better. A Feedburner-based feed will be accessible to almost any reader out there, and visitors will be able to seamlessly add your feed to their readers without any problems. Subscribers to your old feed will be redirected to the new version. Under the hood, Feedburner provides analytics so you can see how many people are reading your feed.

WASABI Related Posts

If you've pulled in a reader with great blog content, you want to keep them reading more. This plugin helps you keep visitors on your blog by offering them a selection of related content at the bottom of your posts. WASABI presents related posts in a neatly-formatted, bulleted list, and works out of the box without major configuration by the blogger. 

Akismet

Spam comments are a blogger's nightmare, but this plugin can eliminate this problem with ease. Akismet checks comments on your blog against the Akismet database and eliminates anything that looks like spam. Even better, the plugin actually gets better over time as the database improves. With less spam, your blog can look forward to a better PageRank and more traffic.

Plugins like these five are a WordPress blogger's best friend. Whether they automate common administrative tasks or improve the reading and sharing experience for your readers, they all serve one basic purpose: to improve your WordPress blog and bring more readers to your content. If your blog is still missing out on these useful plugins, don't waste any more time, and give them a try.

This post was written by Aubrey Phelps, a writer for Fibernet. In her spare time, she loves fishing and hiking with family.