There is a more extensive list of wordpress plugins in my blogroll links section. But here are my personal favourites…

Akismet; Vital for protecting from spam.

All In One SEO Pack; This beauty makes it simply to organise your keywords to best optimise your post for search engine rankings.

Google xml Sitemap Generator There is always a need to create a sitemap for your website, and it can be complicated to create one manually, even though there is software available. But with this plug in, it’s simple, just install, activate it, go to options to write the sitemap, and add it to your google webmaster tools account.

Vipers Video Quicktags: Allows you to embed video easily to your posts, by simply copying the video url, from youtube, yahoo, of flv video into the post tag.

Contact Forms: This enables generation of a contact form in the sidebar. Ever think it would make life easier if you could contact the author of a site you stumbled on? By other than commenting on a post? You can look around a site for ages and still not find a way of contacting the author. But this plugin makes it easier. Note; If you don’t want a contact form, consider other ways for your readers to find your e-mail address easy. Even if only in the about me section.

My Link Order: Ever liked a wp theme, only to be rattled by the order your links and categories are placed by default? It may be that you are not proficient enough in php coding to change the order around, but not to worry, this plug in will allow you to sort the order your links appear in.

Database Back Up: Enables you to back up your database tables.

As I use them, more plugin recommends will follow.

Whatever plugins you choose, it’s vital to check first the version of the plugin is compatible with the version of wordpress you are using.