The following plugins are “must haves” in my book and all have been tested for Wordpress 2.5 compatibility. For those of you interested in Alex King’s Popularity Contest, I have blogged elsewhere on patching it to WP2.5 status.

• Google XML Sitemaps
  If you see today’s earlier post on using Google Webmaster Tools, you should grab this plugin. It will build an XML sitemap of your entire blog, refreshing it with each update while also pinging relevant servers with your updates.
• All In One SEO Pack
  Customise the title tags, meta keywords, description and more for each individual blog post as well as your blog on a whole.
• Popularity Contest
  When it comes to promoting older posts to new readers, you can’t go wrong in choosing Alex King’s Popularity Contest plugin.
• Share This
  Another nugget from Alex King, the Share This plugin allows your readers to ’share’ your blog posts and pages across a variety of networks including Digg, Facebook Stumbleupon, del.icio.us, Technoriti etc. or simply to email each post to a friend.
• Secure And Accessible PHP Contact Form
  Everyone needs a contact form, I choose this one. Detailed, customisable and comes with an optional captcha element as well (security question)

If I’m starting any new blog or assisting anyone with getting a blog up off the ground, you can be sure that I’ll have these plugins included in the install.

What about you, have you any “go to” plugins that you recommend to everyone?

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