What WordPress plugins should I use?

I get that question a lot.

The best answer is, “That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.”

However- when it comes to Thought Leadership marketing, and the kinds of things I try to accomplish for my clients over and over, I’ve developed what I consider the “base install.” That is- we set these things up automatically unless we have some big reason not to.

So here goes my overly long list of WP Plugins I use (Almost) every time:

Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button

Help readers share, save, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service.

You can fill up your posts with little icons from everywhere, or you can be judicious and only include a few. OR you can put in one small button that allows people to pick which Social Networks they want to share/save to. They claim that they move the sites the viewer uses to the top, which sounds awesome.

All in One SEO Pack

Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog.

Easiest way I know to add meta-data to every page and post. I know that stuff doesn’t affect Google as much as it used to, but it’s still good practice to include it.

Contact Form 7

Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.

This is, by far, the best Contact and Feedback form I have ever used. It is easy, flexible, and just works. Also- you can have multiple forms in different places on your site. You can use it for way more than just a Contact Form.

Events Manager

Manage events specifying precise spatial data (Location, Town, Province, etc).

A key component of Thought Leadership is public speaking and networking. This tool allows you to easily keep an event calendar, push invites, manage RSVPs, and all the great things you need for running events. It even integrates with Google Maps.
One question: Has anybody integrated it with PayPal (or whatever) to charge for events? I’d like to know.

Flexi Pages Widget

A highly configurable WordPress sidebar widget to list pages and sub-pages. User friendly widget control comes with various options.

I’m not a fan of the Pages widget that comes with WP. This allows you to set up specific versions of sidebar page menus. It was one of the first plugins I started using, and I really like it.
I’ve been thinking about switching to the Simple Section Navigation Widget plugin, so if anyone has experience with that, please let me know.

Google Analyticator

Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics. After enabling this plugin visit the settings page and enter your Google Analytics’ UID and enable logging.

I know people who like to add this code by hand, but I don’t touch code unless I have to. It is much easier and faster to let other minds do my work. Also, I just want my clients to have something that works, not something they have to understand.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.

Sitemaps are very important for indexing by Google et al. Turn this on and DO NOTHING- just let it do it’s thing.

Link Library

Functions to generate link library page with a list of links.

I use this for outbound links pages, and other “Resources” sections. The functionality is great, and I can run multiple Library pages on a site. I’ve found it a little difficult to explain to clients, so if I can find something that works almost as well, but is easier to understand, I’d switch.

My Link Order

My Link Order allows you to set the order in which links and link categories will appear in the sidebar. Uses a drag and drop interface for ordering. Adds a widget with additional options for easy installation on widgetized themes.

The Link Library plugin can use your My Link Order info to keep your links in the order you want them in. Helpful.

My Page Order

My Page Order allows you to set the order of pages through a drag and drop interface. The default method of setting the order page by page is extremely clumsy, especially with a large number of pages.

WordPress’ native page ordering capability is “janky.” This corrects that problem. Most useful in context of the Page Menu Navigation Bar

Page Links To

Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

Want to set up a redirect page? Want one of your NavBar buttons to go offsite? There are other ways to do it, but none so easy as this plugin.

Page Menu Editor

Allows you to customise the title attribute and menu label of each page link in wp_list_pages.

Navigation menus are important, and this givs you one more level of control over what gets displayed.

Profile Pic

Allows authors to add a picture to their profile and automates the process of displaying profiles. Highly configurable via plugin and widget settings.

If you want people who visit your site to know who you are, use this plugin. I kept thinking there must be a way to add a photo… I assumed it was native. Maybe there is one, deep in there. But this plugin made it fast and easy- for me, and my clients.

TS Custom Widgets

This plugin enables you to select which widgets appear on specific posts, pages, categories,author’s posts and tag pages. By default, all widgets appear wherever the sidebar is loaded within your theme. With this plugin, you can configure where widgets are displayed on a per post or per WP Template(Using conditional Tags) basis.

I HATE the default “display on every page” nature of Widgets. That almost okay for a pure blog, but if you’re using WP as CMS, then you need this plugin.

Wordpress Google Analytics Reports

This plugin helps to get Google Analytics reports overview to your dashboard using Google Analytics Data API.

I just don’t feel like logging into Google Analytics every morning. And I know my clients are not going to wade through the data over there. This plugin displays a basic report telling most people what they are looking for: How may people visit my site? How long do they stay? Where do they come from?

WP to Twitter

Updates Twitter when you create a new blog post or add to your blogroll using Cli.gs. With a Cli.gs API key, creates a clig in your Cli.gs account with the name of your post as the title.

How do I automatically update Twitter when I post a blog? This is how. Runs on autopilot, or you can send custom Tweets with a post. Every option you would be looking for in a Tweet-when-I-post app, including analytics integration.

[GWA] AutoResponder

A plugin to add a powerful Double Opt-In Mail List Builder and AutoResponder to your Wordpress Weblog.

All my clients want an email newsletter subscription function. Here it is. I’ve had a few problems with it, and it isn’t all that user-friendly- but it’s the best I can find (for free). Any replacement suggestions?

That’s my list. Every single one of those is installed and activated before I even begin design or content work on a site. Sometimes it feels like a bit too many, but we (my clients and I) really use all those functionalities. And so far, I haven’t had any weird interference problems.

I’d appreciate comments regarding alternatives (especially to the ones I mentioned I’ve had trouble with), as well as questions, ideas, and other “must-have” plugins.