When I setup a blog there are always the basic WordPress plugins I use. These plugins make up the basic structure of your blog and provides needed features.
Akismet
The nice thing about this plugin is that it comes standard with your WordPress installation. This plugin helps with spam filtering and can remove the need for CAPTCHA. You will need an API key (http://akismet.com/personal/) to use it but registration is free and easy.
All in One SEO Pack
This plugin is all you need for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). It ads options to the post page for Title, Desciption and keywords.
Contact Form 7
This is a great plugin to manage all your contact form needs. You can create custom forms for your readers to get in touch with you. You could even use it to create polls, surveys etc. It’s limits are your imagination.
Exclude Pages from Navigation
This plugin is great to get rid of main navigation pages. Sometimes you don’t want a page displaying in your main navigation and this plugin provides a check box to select if a page should be excluded.
Google Analytics for WordPress
You need to analise your traffic. This plugin ads Google Analytics to your blog. You will need an Analytics account (Google Analytics) to use this plugin.
WP-EMail
This plugin ads the ability for your readers to send the posts to a friend. Viral marketing is a powerful tool and this plugin helps with one aspect of it, referring friends to your site.
Google XML Sitemaps
Sitemaps allow Google to index your site better. It also lets Google know that your content has changed. By having a site map you make the search engine’s job much easier so get it now.
So there you go. Basic plugins to get your WordPress blog off to a good start. Every blog has it’s own needs and there are millions of plugins out there. Be carefull not to use to many, it can make your blog slow and unattractive.Please bookmark this post if you liked it. Thank you.