Five WordPress Plugins You Should Install Before Starting Your Blog

There are a lot of (very good) posts floating around the blogosphere suggesting which WordPress plugins you should add to your blog. But I've never seen one outlining the plugins you should install and activate as soon as you start your blog. Yes, even before your very first post.

Exec-PHP

What it does- Exec-PHP is short for "execute PHP code" and the plugin executes code in your posts, pages and text widgets.

Why Install Before Blogging- Exec-PHP should, without a doubt, be the very first plugin you install and activate. While it is an "activate and forget" plugin, it's absolutely essential to so many things a WordPress blogger does that it really should be part of the WordPress core. Even if you don't know the first thing about PHP this plugin will still regularly aid you in your blogging journey. Aside from that, many, many plugins require that Exec-PHP be installed on the blog. In fact, so many require it, that it has become simply assumed that you'll already have it installed and few mention the requirement, leading to no end of heaaches for the uninitiated. Save yourself stress - install and activate Exec-PHP before doing anything else on your new WordPress blog.

Google XML Sitemaps

What it does- An XML sitemap is like the directory at a large shopping mall. It includes the link to every page on your site (both posts and pages) with special meta data about each page in order to help webcrawlers (like GoogleBot) more easily track down all the bits and pieces of your blog. XML is the standard for sitemaps and is used by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search, and YAHOO!

With this plugin you don't need to ever worry about your sitemap. Not only does it create one for you automatically, but it constantly updates it (and notifies Google!) with every change you make to any page.

Why Install Before Blogging- I assume that if you're publishing a blog you want "the public" (aka complete strangers) to find and read it. In this day and age that means being indexed by Google. By installing this plugin before writing even your first post you ensure that Google will be with you every step of the way, reporting it to any websurfer interested in your topic(s).

All In One SEO Pack

What it does- The All In One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin does exactly what its name implies. This one plugin will automatically improve the search engine optimization of your WordPress blog. Specifically, here's the highlights-
- Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
- Generates META tags automatically
- Avoids the typical duplicate content found on Wordpress blogs
- For Wordpress 2.3 you don't even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
- You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.

Best of all, this is all 100% customizable for those who have an understanding of SEO techniques.

Why Install Before Blogging- It's never too early to start worrying about search engine optimization. With the All In One SEO Pack you can just install it, activate it, and ignore it while still receiving maximum SEO benefits while you concentrate on the quality content that will keep readers coming back. The last plugin I recommended will make sure Google (and other search engines) knows about your website. This one will make sure you show up near the top of relevant searches.

I've been running my primary blog for about three years now and only started worrying about SEO in the last few months. When I went to research and test how effective my current SEO tactics have been I found they were considered near perfect by most online tools! At first I credited this directly to the WordPress platform itself, but after checking a few of my other blogs one was ranked down around 70% instead of the 95%-98% of the majority. While investigating what was different about that site I realized that I had never activated this plugin. After doing so that site as well jumped into the 90th percentile!

WP-PostViews

What it does- WP-PostViews tracks the number of times each post or page on your blog is viewed. This information is stored in your WordPress database so can be easily accessed and posted just about anywhere on your blog.

Why Install Before Blogging- You may or may not be interested in sharing a list of your 10 (or 23 or 147) most popular posts on you rblog right now. Especially as you have zero posts at the moment. However, once your first post goes public views will start coming in. And if you wait to install (or activate) this plugin you'll never have accurate data again. Install and activate it now, then the data will be ready for you whenever you're interested.

CommentLuv

What it does- CommentLuv is designed to encourage fellow bloggers to comment on your blog by rewarding them with a link back to their latest post. It accomplishes this by accessing their blog's RSS feed.

Why Install Before Blogging- Much like WP-PostViews, this plugin is unable to "go back in time" and add the links after the fact. Since it gathers the data as the comment is posted there is no way to append the commentor's latest blog post to a comment that has been left in the past. Additionally, there is a growing CommentLuv community of bloggers that you will be plugged into as soon as you start your blog should you enable this plugin before writing your first post.

There you have it. Five more things to do before you even write your first post. Obviously, after installing the WordPress software you'll be anxious to get those first few posts out the door, but taking the time to add these five plugins will get you started ion the right foot. All together it shouldn't take you more than a half hour to install and activate these plugins, and down the line you'll surely consider it time well spent.