In case you didn't know yet, Design Informer is powered by Wordpress on the back-end. The great thing about Wordpress is they have tons of plugins that you can download for free. From SEO to Analytics, if there is a feature that you can think of adding to your blog, there is probably already a plugin that was created for that purpose.
Today, I would like to share the 17 really awesome plugins that I personally use to run and operate this website. Without these plugins, this site would not have all the features that it does. Some of these plugins are extremely popular, while others are not as popular, but they are still quite useful.
Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments".
This is pretty much the best spam blocking plugin that you can install on your blog. I can’t imagine how much time it would take me to sort out through the comments without this plugin.
All in One SEO Pack
Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog.
This plugin is a very powerful plugin that if used correctly, can really help your site move up in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) by optimizing your site to use the proper title tags, alt tags and page titles. Every blog needs to install this plugin.
Clean Notifications
Make e-mail notifications for new comments/pings cleaner and more readable. No configuration necessary.
Wordpress sends us ugly looking emails when we get a new comment. This just makes the email that you receive in your inbox more readable.
CommentLuv
Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourage more comments.
A great plugin that will help you generate more comments and discussion by rewarding the reader with some link juice to their most recent blog post.
Contact Form 7
Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.
I use this plugin for the Contact page. The forms are easily customized with your own CSS.
Easy Popular Posts
An easy to use WordPress function to add popular posts to any theme.
This plugin is in use in the sidebar. It is a simple plugin that shows the most popular posts, and can be based on pageviews and comments.
flickrRSS
Allows you to integrate the photos from a flickr rss feed into your site.
I use this plugin to show the most recent images from our Flickr group. You can view the plugin in action in the footer of this site.
Follow My Links
Do not automatically add the rel=nofollow attribute to links in comments by the post author, strip nofollow from links to the post author’s web page.
This plugin is just for the readers. Removes the evil nofollow to the links in the comments section.
FV Community News
Let visitors of your site post their articles on your site.
This plugin allows the readers to submit recent news to this site. Check out the sidebar for an example.
Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics with extra search engines and automatic clickout and download tracking to your WordPress blog.
Easily add Google Analytics to your blog by installing this plugin.
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.
Another great plugin to download for SEO purposes. Submits your sitemaps to the top search engines.
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
Saves your wordpress blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin.
I personally use this in every blog to prevent multiple pings from the same post.
No Self Pings
Keeps WordPress from sending pings to your own site.
Without this plugin, I’d have dozens of trackback/pingbacks from our own blog each day, since I interlink our posts quite often.
Permalink Redirect
Redirects all crap away from the end of the URL.
This simple plugin removes all the junk in your URL’s.
WordPress Database Backup
On-demand backup of your WordPress database.
Everyone needs to back-up their Wordpress database. This plugin sends you a weekly email with a copy of your database. Very useful!
WP Page Numbers
Show pages numbers instead of “Next page” and “Previous Page”.
I use this to display pagination on this blog. It also comes with different themes to customize the look of the pagination.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds. A templating feature allows customization of the display.
This plugin will help your readers find content that is related to the post that they just read. Very helpful in keeping readers to your site.
So which one of these plugins haven’t you heard of before? Did you find these resources useful? Let me know by leaving your comments below. Also, you should re-tweet this article by clicking on the Tweet button below. Thank you very much for reading this list of plugins.