WordPress designers gather a lot of plugins over the years. Mostly they have one or two uses that make them worth having around, but occasionally a plugin comes along that a designer sticks in a folder to install every time WordPress gets deployed on a server. While these plugins may not be new, they are a true test on how great they are due to the fact that lots of people install them on a new installation every time one is needed.
This particular list belongs to Mitch Canter.
1. All-In-One SEO
The All-in-One SEO pack optimizes your blog for search engines. You can add titles, descriptions, and keywords down to the post level, and the options screen contains lots of great features that you can configure (although, the out-of-the-box settings work fantastic)
2. Twitter Tools
One of the first, and still one of the best. It does one job – displays your twitter status in the sidebar (or anywhere in the template thanks to a template shortcode). Options are set inside of the options page, and a widget can be deployed with a custom title.
3. Ad-minister
A lesser known, but mega-useful plugin that adds the ability to rotate advertising (or quotes, or pictures, or whatever else you need rotating). You can either use widgets or a template shortcode to define regions, and it controls weighting, impressions, and even scheduling. Have two ads you want to randomize? It does the heavy lifting for you!
4. Sociable
One of the best “share this” systems, it gives you over 84 different choices for social networks. I didn’t know there were that many out there worth mentioning! Also included are printer friendly posts and an “email this” button.
5. Google XML Sitemaps
Another “SEO” boosting plugin, this one automatically generates an XML sitemap for your site. Submit it to Google, and every time you post, it’ll update itself and allow Google to index your site faster.