5 WordPress Plugins Every Blogger Should Know

It’s difficult if not impossible to run a WordPress blog without at least one plugin. I recommend the following plugins as plugins that can benefit every blogger, but the only one that is absolutely essential is the first one on the list. All others are helpful and I’d strongly urge you to consider them:

• Akismet - Akismet is WordPress’s default spam catcher. It will catch about 90% of your spam. If you set your WordPress settings to require a moderator approval before a comment goes live then that should get all the rest. Don’t run any kind of blog without a spam catcher.
• All In One SEO Pack – Your SEO will be tremendously improved with this plugin. Each post will have its very own title and description.
• AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget – You can also use other social widgets that do the same. I like AddThis. It makes it easy for your readers to bookmark your posts.
• SRG Clean Archives – If your WP archives doesn’t work, this plugin will save the day.
• Feedburner Feedsmith - Run all of your RSS feeds through Feedburner for easier tracking and better stats. Good plugin to have, especially if you want to include links in your feed footer.

There are many more plugins that can be useful for WordPress, but I’d say these are the five most basic plugins for any WordPress user. Akismet is a necessity, the others are a strong recommendation.