When it comes to having a great blog, WordPress may just be the best place to start, especially if you aren’t the most technically savvy person (and even if you are!). When you start off fresh with a brand new WordPress install, it is nice to throw a few great plugins on it to increase functionality right off the bat. Here are 5 of our favorites, let us know about yours below! (There are tons of great free plugins, that’s what makes WordPress so great!)
- WP Super Cache: This one is a great recommendation from our professional friends over at Odd Dog Media. They use this on the sites they build and it comes highly recommended. This plugin will speed up your site load times and make the whole process of delivering your web content and data to your visitors.
- Sharebar: This is a convenient way to add a nice little floating sidebar like the ones you see on sites like Mashable and TechCrunch. Make it easy for your audience to share your posts!
- Google Analytics for WordPress: Track, track, track! Quick way to properly install the necessary code for tracking numbers with Google Analytics? Yep! One click install and then an easy authorization process has you linked up with your GA account and off and running with all that important visitor information you need to stay on top.
- Viper’s Video Quicktags: Video is an important aspect of good SEO and not only that, it makes your site way more fun! This is an easy way to put properly sized videos right into your posts. Click the button corresponding to the site the video is from (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) and simply paste the url of the video. Boom, done.
- Disqus Comment System: The Disqus comment system is a well done one for collecting comments on your blog. It allows people to easily use social networks they already belong to, to log in and post reactions to your content. There is also a nice SEO boost when top commentors from Disqus share your or interact with your posts.
