7 WordPress Plugins You Ought to Know About

by Neil Patel

wordpress plugin

Do you know how many WordPress plugins are out there? Well, there are currently 11,247 plugins, which means there is no way you know which ones you should be using.

Heck, I don’t even know all the plugins I should be using. But I do know the plugins that will help boost your traffic. Here are the 7 WordPress plugins that are worth checking out:

Plugin #1: Sharebar

The easiest way to get more traffic to your website is through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. One way you can leverage these sites is to ask your friends for votes. But a better way is to place social media buttons on your website.

The cool thing about the Sharebar is that it places social media buttons on the left side of your blog post. And as your readers scroll down, the social media buttons move down so that they never leave their screen.

When using the Sharebar plugin, make sure you pick only a few social media buttons to place on your website. If you place 5 or 10, your readers will feel overwhelmed.

With my blog, I only place Facebook and Twitter buttons as they are the most popular social sites. Facebook is the 2nd most popular site on the web and Twitter is the 11th.

Click here to download the Sharebar plugin

Plugin #2: Google XML Sitemaps

You write blog posts so that people can find them, right? So why not help search engines index your blog posts so that they can feed your website to their visitors?

The chances are you either don’t have an XML sitemap and if you do you’re manually creating one. This plugin helps generate a special XML sitemap, which will allow search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask to better index your blog.

The reason you want to use this plugin is that it automatically updates every time you write a new blog post. If you end up creating the XML sitemap manually, you’ll have to recreate it each time you write a new post.

Click here to download the Google XML Sitemaps plugin

Plugin #3: Popularity Contest

A good way to grow your traffic is to get new visitors to your blog. But what you’ll learn quickly is that most of these visitors will never come back.

You only have a few seconds to convince a visitor that your blog is worth reading. One way that I do this is through the popularity contest plugin. It will allow you to show off the blog posts that your readers love the most and your favorite blog posts.

With Quick Sprout the most popular area on the blog is the most popular post area. It has been effective for me and other popular bloggers like Tim Ferris and Ramit Sethi.

Click here to download the Popularity Contest plugin

Plugin #4: Top Commentators

Through the Top Commentators plugins I was able to increase my repeat visitor count by over 6%. I know that may not sound that high, but every little bit adds up.

This plugin encourages your readers to come back to your blog and comment. If they come back and comment enough, they’ll be placed on a leader board which will drive visitors to their website.

When installing this plugin limit the leader board to 5 spots because it will encourage competition. If you create a 10 spot leader board, it will be easier for people to get on there so they won’t come back as often and comment. I also recommend resetting it once a week so new visitors have a chance of getting on there.

Click here to download the Top Commentators plugin

Plugin #5: All in One SEO Pack

Title tags and meta descriptions are something you take for granted, but shouldn’t. Small tweaks to your title tag and meta description can drastically increase your traffic.

For example, I was able to double TechCrunch’s search traffic in 30 days by only tweaking their title tag and meta description.

Neil has advised TechCrunch for more than two years and been an important part of the growth of the TechCrunch Network by helping us implement SEO best practices. Search engines have grown to be responsible for 1/3 of all TechCrunch traffic, so Neil’s ongoing support is critical to our business.

- Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch

This plugin allows you to modify your title tags and meta descriptions with ease. And although this may not sound that useful, it really is. I modified the title tag on my “4 ways you can become rich” blog post to “how to become rich”, which resulted in an extra 100 visitors a day through Google.

When using this plugin be careful because you don’t want to write title tags and meta descriptions just for search engines. You can do this by creating title tags that don’t just contain spammy keywords and are relevant to your blog posts.

Click here to download the All in One SEO Pack plugin

Plugin #6: Subscribe to comments

Why do you have comments on your blog? It’s because you want to create a conversation with your readers, right?

When your readers leave a comment, you should reply back to them because no one like talking to themselves. And even if you do this, your readers may not know that you are replying back to them.

The way I solve this is through the subscribe to comments plugin. Every time I respond to a commentor, they receive an automated email that I replied to their comment. This encourages them to come back to Quick Sprout and comment again, which helps increase traffic.

The plugin works by giving your readers an option every time they comment. The option is a small check box that says “subscribe to comments by email”. I personally use an older version of the plugin (2.1) instead of the newer one because the older one allows me to leave the check box ticked as a default.

Click here to download the Subscribe to Comments plugin (2.1)

Plugin #7: AWeber Integration

Your RSS subscriber count represents the amount of readers you have. The problem with RSS is that not everyone uses a RSS reader.

Even though you may consider me as a sophisticated web user, I don’t user RSS and I never have. But what I do use is email.

The cool thing about the AWeber Integration plugin is that it allows your visitors to subscribe to your blog by email instead of a RSS reader. And when they do, those subscribers get automatically pulled into your Feedburner account so that you can have an accurate subscriber count.

With this plugin you can encourage visitors to become subscribers by offering them extra content for free. One idea could be to offer email subscribers a free eBook.

Click here to download the AWeber Integration plugin

Conclusion

Don’t clutter your blog with 100s of plugins because it will only hurt your readers’ experience. People visit your blog because they want to read your content, so don’t add too many plugins that distract them away from that.

I personally only use a handful of plugins and most of them help increase traffic. So if you are thinking about installing a plugin, first think about what value it will provide to you and more importantly your readers.

Do you know of any other plugins that can help increase traffic?

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{ 6 trackbacks }

{ 220 comments… read them below or add one }

Roy Rodenstein September 15, 2010 at

Hi Neil, longtime fan.

Good list. How do you feel about WP Greet Box or those types? They seem potentially effective in getting more visitors to become subscribers, although they can also be overdone/annoying.

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d3so September 16, 2010 at

That’s why you need to split test.
Compare how many visitors you get, how long they stay on your site, and how many subscribe.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Yes, split testing would be your best bet since it varies for people.

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Adam Siemiginowski September 24, 2010 at

Where can I find a good article on split testing with Wordpress sites?

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

look up the google website optimizer and start reading their instructions. That will be a great start.

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john October 21, 2010 at

Hmmm….Split testing is a great idea. You have to learn more about it and start using for your own benefit.

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Neil Patel October 26, 2010 at

It can do wonders for you business because it allows you to get down to the nitty gritty.

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Premium Links Directory September 17, 2010 at

I really wish I can have all of them, lols.

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Vik Tantry September 17, 2010 at

Cool stuff. I like the Aweber free giveaway idea. Actually building out a free ebook now on article marketing that will hopefully do the trick.

As always, great job Neil! Looking forward to the next post

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

It’s a great way to get yourself out there.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I think it’s a great plugin, but can get annoying at times, like you said.

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Alex Dumitru September 21, 2010 at

I believe that’s annoying and I prefer using a subscribe box in the sidebar and probably one at the end of the posts.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

It really depends on how much stuff you put out there.

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Sourish @ Ipod Touch 4G September 24, 2010 at

well , adding greetbox and such things just add up to the page load time , in my opinion using something [like offering the user some useful info if they join ur list] , or giving a message below every|alternative post to join for updates works well

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

Yeah, it’s not really necessary or known to help conversions drastically enough.

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Alex September 15, 2010 at

Thanks, Neil. I was wondering what Sharebar was called and now I know!

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

absolutely, let me know how it works out for you.

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Mayank September 15, 2010 at

Nice post Neil, Can you discuss the plugins for Joomla CMS?

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I’m actually not the best resource for joomla so I would suggest googling it.

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Sourish @ Ipod Touch 4G September 24, 2010 at

during my initial days og bloggging i though of moving to joomla or similar CMS . Im soo glad i ddnt make the move , Wordpress is the best CMS and SEO optimized. Its a wrong conception tht wp can host only blogs , i have few sites on customized wp … its very flexible …and the best thing about it is plugins

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

It was a good choice :)

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Alex Dumitru September 21, 2010 at

I suggest you to switch to Wordpress. It’s much better and scalable.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Agreed.

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john October 25, 2010 at

If you want to take the easy way choose WordPress but Joomla is more “feature-rich”. You can customize both of them and both can be SEO friendly. WordPress is SEO friendly as it is while Joomla requires plugin such as OpenSEF.

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Neil Patel October 26, 2010 at

Right, it all depends on your needs but usually most people simply need wordpress.

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David September 15, 2010 at

I have been seeing share bar pop up everywhere, I was wondering what plugin it was. I’m not sure if it would be a good fit with my site, I used sociable but keep it lite (only 4 buttons).

What is the difference between Aweber integration and blog broadcast (Awebers reporting service)?

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d3so September 16, 2010 at

Yeah, I wondered if sharebar was a JavaScript code rather than a plugin.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

No it’s a very simple plugin.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

One deals with emailing while the other one deals with collecting emails.

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Monji Dolon September 15, 2010 at

It’s an honor to have one of my favorite bloggers use my WordPress plugin. (Sharebar) Thanks for the mention, I appreciate it!

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

No problem Monji, I think it’s a great plugin. Thanks!

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Rob Birgfeld September 15, 2010 at

Great post– Love Sharebar. I’ve also been looking at Tweet Old Posts a little recently– as I hate to see good content die just because it’s “old”– but don’t know if others have good/bad experiences with the functionality or response from readers. Anyone?

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Not sure, I haven’t heard anything about it.

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Alex Dumitru September 21, 2010 at

Why not do it manually ? I believe you shouldn’t tweet a low quality post over and over again. Just tweet your best ones manually.

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john October 26, 2010 at

I think he speaks about good quality old tweets, the ones that deserve to be remembered. I don’t think that anyone would want to retweet insignificant old tweets :)

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Neil Patel October 26, 2010 at

True for the most part, unless those tweets have good unique information.

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Nick Tart September 15, 2010 at

Hey Neil! It’s outside the scope of this article, but I was wondering… When you updated TechCrunch’s title tags and meta data, did their search traffic drop as Google re-indexed their pages? Or did it immediately start to rise?

As always, I really appreciate your advice. Going to look into the Aweber integration plugin.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

It was a long time ago, but it made a significant difference over a relatively short period of time.

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Gary Ng September 15, 2010 at

Hi Neil, can you share more details on how to tweak All in One SEO, like with what you did on TechCrunch? Cheers, and keep up the amazing blog.

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Internet Marketing For Newbies September 16, 2010 at

Under you settings menu there is an option for All In One SEO. Click on that and you’ll be able to edit all of the options. Just click “update changes” or whatever the button says at the bottom when you’re finished.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Well I did it a long time ago with out that plugin, so using the plugin makes it a lot easier.

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Andrew Warner September 15, 2010 at

I wondered how mashable did that. Cool. Thanks for linking to sharebar.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Absolutely Andrew :)

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Brian P September 15, 2010 at

About to try out that aweber service.

There are a lot of things I still do not understand but thanks for the best plugins.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

You’ll pick it up over time, it’s pretty easy!

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Steve @ 2009 Tax September 15, 2010 at

I started using MailChimp instead of AWeber to create list from my site traffic. They have some javascript you can add to your site for forms. Hopefully their free version is enough for me for the time being.

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Pam Komarnicki September 17, 2010 at

I use MailChimp as well, since you really can’t beat their free account when you’re just starting out trying to build an email list. I’m really happy with it, but I’ve never used AWeber.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Well if that works, perfect. I think they’re awesome too.

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Nima Heydarian September 15, 2010 at

I had been meaning to install the subscribe to comment one for a while now. I just did.
Thanks Neil

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Better late than never ;)

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Tristan September 15, 2010 at

Wow, I find Sharebar really annoying.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Really, I haven’t heard many people say that.

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d3so September 15, 2010 at

Nice list of plugins. I too wonder what plugins are best for a specific job. Right now, I’m wondering which plugin is best for wp backups.
I already use most of the ones listed here and plan to use the ones I don’t use.
But I can see how sharebar can be annoying.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I would just limit the number of items I put on it.

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John September 15, 2010 at

Hi Neil, thanks for the info – i have some of these already, but its good to know about the others.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Great, than you’re already on the right track.

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Web Design LA September 16, 2010 at

Very perfect list from SEO point. I still need to try the AWeber one. Well thanks for such good list.

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d3so September 16, 2010 at

Yeah the aweber one is interesting. I use two forms for both my feed and newsletter.

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Web Design LA September 16, 2010 at

Even I was wondering initially for sharebar that what it was called. Then I was told by one was the blogger. Good to use.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Yeah give it a shot and let me know how it works out for you.

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Purushottam Kushwaha September 16, 2010 at

nice post Neil, can u help me with joomla and drupal plugins/modules. or if possible, can you provide link for some best modules/plugins for drupal and joomla

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I’m not too familiar with those two, so I would suggest googling it.

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Jonny Gibaud September 16, 2010 at

Thanks for the list. I appreciate the time and effort it takes to put these things together.

I have integrated a fair few of them.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Great, let me know how it goes and if it provides your users with a better experience.

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Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing September 16, 2010 at

Listen up! All in One SEO is old school. You need the Platinum SEO plugin.

Platinum IS AIO and MORE.

Short version: the creator of Platinum LOVED the All in One SEO plugin, but wanted more features. You can even import from AIO so you don’t have to redo any settings. :)

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iYingHang September 16, 2010 at

I don’t really know why but Platinum SEO just can’t work on my blog. Maybe it’s a theme problem.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Hmmm, interesting, I’ll look into it.

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starstruck September 16, 2010 at

Neil,

I don’t think that “top commentators” plugin should be on anyones Wordpress plugins list… unless its a list of harmful plugins.

Right now, purely because of that plugin, you’ve got two spam links on your homepage, one to “web design LA” and one to “instanbul tours”. If it all goes wrong, you could end up with your own website punished for linking to a bad neighbourhood, purely because of this plugin.

I would never recommend installing a plugin like this to anyone at all. Worst case is potential penalties, best case is actively encouraging spammers to wreck the flow of conversation at every opportunity.

If someone insisted on using it, I would say they should be enforcing comment rules a bit more – that field says “name”, not “spam your anchor texts here” :D

If you want to reward people for adding content how about this – (disclaimer: this is my own site/plugin) – http://www.searchengineoptimisation.org/contributors-plugin/

This way you’re giving links to guest contributors, rather than comment spammers… I guess you don’t have trouble attracting guest posters but for smaller blogs, being able to offer someone a homepage link along with their guest post can be the difference of whether they take you up on it or not.

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iYingHang September 16, 2010 at

I might sound stupid but this is my opinion. If you do think that “web design LA” is a bad spammer and commenter so why not delete the comment off? Are you that thick to allow a stupid commenter to top the commentator list or are you just doing that to counter back a link for us to read your post?

By the way, no hard feelings.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I do delete the comment off if it isn’t adding any value to the conversation. It just takes me a while as I get on average 50 plus comments per day.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I think as long as you moderate the comments and delete the junk ones you are fine. Yes it does take time to do so, but it also helps increase comments.

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Ayush Kumar September 16, 2010 at

I still like to create xml sitemap by free toll rather than through plugin and All SEO Package plugin is one of my favorite plugin, please share something more interesting that helps us.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Well whatever works best for you is what counts right :)

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Jermaine Young September 16, 2010 at

This is a great list. A few I use all the time but a couple I think I’ll give a try (popularity contest and top commenters). We are always looking for ways to get more repeat traffic to our blog and those might be the ticket.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

That’s great because those plugins will help you do just that. Let me know how it goes.

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sell textbooks September 16, 2010 at

Those are good plugins. I am not a fan of the way sharebar looks. There is a new one that has buttons on the right side of the page, i have been trying to figure out which one it is but like you said there are so many out there.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

If you customize it the right way and remove most of the junk, it helps.

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Jay Tillery September 16, 2010 at

Decent list. WP DB Backup http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/ is a must have too.

If you plan on using SEO All-In-One do not allow automatic generation of meta descriptions.

Just my .02

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

hmm… yeah great, thanks for sharing that. Always important to back up.

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Chris September 16, 2010 at

Great list! If you want to get even more out of an SEO plugin and you don’t want to pay for it, I would suggest the HeadSpace2 plugin. Many more features than AIOSEO.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

hmmm, any particular reason it’s better than allinone?

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Used Cisco September 16, 2010 at

great plugins, good information and interesting, thanks for sharing, and i will try

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

perfect, let me know how it works out for you.

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iYingHang September 16, 2010 at

Double thumbs up Neil! I was always curious about the Sharebar plugin but now I know.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Great, apparently a lot of people didn’t know about it.

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Simon Duck | Profit Duck September 17, 2010 at

I use the majority of them, but you’ve brought a couple to my attention. Installing the top commentator one currently!

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Yes, that’ll definitely help you create more interaction

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Premium Links Directory September 17, 2010 at

All in One SEO Pack is Good!

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Yes, very simple and easy to use… does the job!

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Premium Links Directory September 17, 2010 at

Thanks for the post I love the new itunes and the nano gonna get it once it hits stores

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

thanks for sharing that lol. Let me know how they are…

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Add your Site September 17, 2010 at

Great plugins!

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

They are aren’t they!

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Chris Moline LEED AP September 17, 2010 at

Life-saving comments. Thanks to Tim Ferriss for pointing me your way! Great blog ya got here.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Tim’s a great guy ;)

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Spears Marketing September 17, 2010 at

A couple other good WP plugins for functionality are
Broken Link Checker and WP Optimize. Both of these have helped my site immensely.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I agree, those are pretty good! THanks for sharign those.

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Syaz - JumpSac Baby September 17, 2010 at

Am pretty new to all of these.
Thanks for the help! :)

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Then I’m sure this post was helpful! Let me know if you have any trouble trying anyone of them out.

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Derrick September 17, 2010 at

Thank you for this valuable post. I’m becoming more serious about blogging, and am now using the Get Social app for my Wordpress.com blog. I understand that “plug ins” are for Private/Wordpress.org users – and I’m not that serious/ able yet.
Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on tools for Wordpress.com users? Maybe even a redirect to another post? Thanks

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

The redirect is great if you need to use if for something specific. As a general plugin, it’s probably of no use to you.

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Pam Komarnicki September 17, 2010 at

Another plugin I’d recommend is Qoate Newsletter Signup. It adds a checkbox to your comment section (like Subscribe to Comments does), allowing commenters to sign up for your newsletter when they leave a comment without having to fill out any additional forms.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

hmm, that’s pretty interesting. Great way to increase readership.

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Tevya September 17, 2010 at

Popularity contest doesn’t appear to have been updated in a while, and doesn’t show support for WP 3+. I get “Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.” when trying to activate in in WP 3.0.1. Anyone else seeing this? Would be great to have it updated.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

I think the older version still works perfectly fine though.

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ali - mobileexpert September 18, 2010 at

Tevya. The plugin is ok, and work well even we get the comment “Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.”

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

You do get that error?

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ali - mobileexpert September 20, 2010 at

Ya. I get the error too. But still ok. Because the popularity word show up in every page. I don’t know if the data accurate or not..

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Hmm, you may just need to consult with your hosting company

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Amanda McCormick September 18, 2010 at

This is a great post, lots of very useful advice. I was wondering though, how do you find a wealth of plugins affecting site performance? A number of wordpress developers I’ve spoken too like to keep plugins to a minimum because at time they can affect load times. Obviously a lot of the plugins you mention here are extremely important, but does this ever figure into your strategy?

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

You definitely don’t want too many plugins as too many will just make everything much confusing as well as possibly hurting the performance of the site in general. use what you need.

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Dan September 18, 2010 at

Neil,
thanks for the list. I’m always looking for WP plugins that are useful. I have a few that I use for social bookmarking, but really like Sharebar because of it’s persistance! I’ll have to see how well it integrates with the themes I use.

I would add an automated database backup plugin to the list – I use WP-DBManager which allows me to automate the process and get the whole thing in an email.

Thanks
Dan

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Yeah, that’s definitely a great way to make sure everything’s backed up. Very important to have.

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ladder September 18, 2010 at

Great list Neil. All the plugins are awesome. This is a really excellent read for me. Must admit that you are one of the best blogger I ever saw. Thanks for posting this useful article.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Thanks for that, I really do appreciate it. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

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How To Increase Sales September 18, 2010 at

Thanks for sharing the plug-ins, I didn’t know about the
Plugin #7: AWeber Integration –

Thanks for sharing :)

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

It’s a great way to build your list.

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Compare Hotel Prices September 18, 2010 at

I’ll add these plug-ins this afternoon, thanks Neil :)

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Awesome, keep me posted with how they go.

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Perth Sheds September 18, 2010 at

Thanks for sharing the plug-ins, I like the one on
Plugin #7: AWeber Integration –

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

Yeah, it looks like a lot of people do. It’s a great way to build your list.

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Atlanta SEO September 19, 2010 at

I like Popularity Contest and the Aweber Integration. All – in – One SEO seems to still be a favorite though I don’t need it because I am clocking Thesis 1.8

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

oh, perfect, let me know how the popularity contest works out for you.

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Steven Horner September 19, 2010 at

Excellent list. I have been trying to figure out the plugin used by Tim Ferris to display the most popular posts. This appears to be from your excellent article “Popularity Contest” which displays Current Hits, All Time & your favourites or so I thought.

I installed Popularity Contest but the Widget for the sidebar only adds a list with %. Not a tabbed cutomisable box like yours and Tims. Is this an extra plugin, reading the information on Popularity Content doesn’t mention anything like this?

Please help, thanks.

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Jason Batten September 19, 2010 at

I second steve’s request. Been looking for the tabbed box format for popular posts as well.

Jason

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Silver Hage September 19, 2010 at

+1 same problem here.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

If you want the tabbed look, go for a theme like woot themes or just hire someone on elance to whip one up for you real quick.

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Neil Patel September 19, 2010 at

The box I’m using one custom, created by my developer.

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Timothy Sykes September 20, 2010 at

Neil teach me to be as polite and patient as you with readers and commenters–whats your secret?

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Drink a couple beers ;)

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ladder September 20, 2010 at

Thanks Neil for such awesome post. I’m learning these days on working with wordpress. I like your post really helpful for me..
You are really a great blogger.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

I’m glad you found them to be useful. Keep me posted on your success.

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career guidance September 20, 2010 at

I dont use all in one SEO these days, I have also heard that it is harming the PR of sites.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Not that I’m aware of… do you have any sources for that?

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Andrew @ Blogging Guide September 20, 2010 at

Great list of plugins. I am definitely using all of those. They sure are helpful plugins.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

You’re definitely on the right track :)

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Liposuction September 20, 2010 at

I am using Akismet for about 2 months. This is good but I am not satisfied. What next should I choose?

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Not sure… Akismet is the best solution out there. I don’t have many problems with it.

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cataract eye drops September 21, 2010 at

i am agree with liposuction, Akismet is not good plugin
as per my experience, because after this plugin i have lose
my user visibility on website..

anyway thanks for sharing the information Neal

Cheers

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Web Design LA September 21, 2010 at

You will lose the users as it will stop spam and user will not comment again on your blogs. It has many tests to run on comments to stop spam.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

I always suggest that you still check your spam box.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

What do you use?

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Team Activity September 21, 2010 at

One of the best blog post I read in recent past. This post have great content. I can stand up and say superb! There is sufficient reason why you got more than 7K visitors to your article.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Thanks, my goal is to just give me readers the advice and knowledge they need to succeed.

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ladder September 22, 2010 at

Great plugins are. Very good article. It always come down to good content that people are interested in. Thank you for the guidelines.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Right, that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day.

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Online Air Ticket Booking September 22, 2010 at

Thanks for reminding me about these plugins but these are basic plugins for a wordpress blogger.

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Neil Patel September 22, 2010 at

Sometimes it’s the basics that matter the most. The most complex plugins can end up taking up more of your time then helping you. Keep it Simple Stupid ;)

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ladder September 22, 2010 at

Your idea is really appreciable. Actually building out a free ebook now on article marketing that will hopefully do the trick. Keep on like that..

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

It can definitely help yes and go a long ways.

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Web Hosting Chic September 23, 2010 at

These are really must-have WordPress plugins. I love all of them and have tried them all except the Aweber thingy. :)

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

Aweber is only good if you actually use awebber…haha

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Sourish @ Ipod Touch 4G September 24, 2010 at

i have been using platinum seo instead of AIO seo plugin , because it offers more features + indexing option of reach pafe.

This plugin can also migrate ur settings from all in one seo …

btw , why dont you add the video sitemaps plugin introduced by mt amit of Labnol …..

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

My posts do better for keyword purposes.

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ladder September 24, 2010 at

Thanks for all the awesome tips. I am pretty much pleased with your good work.You put really very helpful information. Keep it up. Keep blogging. Looking to reading your next post.

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

Thanks, looking forward to more of your comments also.

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chris September 24, 2010 at

Has anyone else had an issue with Google Xml Sitemaps breaking their image captions in Wordpress?

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

not that I’ve heard of…

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chris September 24, 2010 at

^^^ I seem to have an issue with All-in-one SEO and Google XML site map not playing well together – thus the caption issue.

Do you run both plugins Neil?

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Neil Patel September 24, 2010 at

I do have both and don’t have any issues. Type in your exact problem on google and see what comes up.

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Cash Genie September 27, 2010 at

Nice list Neil.. actually it will quite help people to model their blogs on yours..I think its very clean and user friendly.. how wd you feel abt it? :)

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Neil Patel September 28, 2010 at

I think it’s great and I hope they use these plugins as best as they can.

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Robert Jakobson September 27, 2010 at

A Google Website Optimizer plugin(s) needs to be on the list.
So should a caching plugin.
And a Minifying plugin.
A Video plugin is a must as well, for beginners it is essential. If one is advanced one can order a custom one or build up one´s own.

People do not need a sharebar or a popularity contest. They need well illustrated content with as little design and social networking features as possbile and fast. Neil, with all due respect, You are living in 2006 in the confines of this list.

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Neil Patel September 28, 2010 at

Plugins like the Google Website Optimizer aren’t the best for blogs. A/B testing blogs isn’t something that most people can easily do.

There definitely are good plugins that I missed, but I think the ones I mentioned can help people get more traffic.

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Premium Links Directory September 28, 2010 at

A Google Website Optimizer plugin(s) needs to be on the list.
So should a caching plugin.

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ladder September 29, 2010 at

It is always good to share the innovative ideas with others on our demand.That is the main way for the people to know about the useful types of techniques to equip it. It will really gives the crucial moments for others to know about it. It is a useful passion for the people to select the beneficial categories of the stories on the requirements of using it…

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Neil Patel October 4, 2010 at

Sharing is a great way to learn new things. Being too secretive will prevent you from growing.

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Joseph September 30, 2010 at

Isn’t a Wordpress.org account required in order to use plugins like this? That’s my understanding. I really need to set one of those up…

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Neil Patel October 4, 2010 at

No, you just need a wordpress blog…super easy to setup.

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ladder September 30, 2010 at

Great article. Very well-written. I am always interested in learning something new with wordpress. Seems like you have the depth knowledge of it.

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Neil Patel October 4, 2010 at

It’s endless…but as long as you stay on top of it, you’re golden.

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David Hurley October 1, 2010 at

These are great. I’d love to see some follow up articles on other CMS system solutions too. For example, Joomla! is a great CMS and I think it would be helpful to have a short list of extensions to know about for it as well. (Personal favorite)

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Neil Patel October 4, 2010 at

Well if it works for you that’s great, but most of the developers are going to continue to make things for wordpress as there are just many more people using it.

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Alex Panait October 1, 2010 at

Popularity Contest and Google XML Sitemaps are my old time favorite plugins, I don’t install a Wordpress without those two. Now All in One SEO Pack is the same for me… is everywhere.

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Neil Patel October 4, 2010 at

Yep, they are like the new standard :)

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Juan | Acne No More Info October 1, 2010 at

WP Super Cache is worth it too.

~~Juan~~

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Neil Patel October 4, 2010 at

Yep, a very good plugin to have, especially if you’re hitting digg.

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Alex Panait October 11, 2010 at

You should also check W3 Total Cache, I think is very useful.

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Neil Patel October 19, 2010 at

I’ll take a look at it, thanks.

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Buy Facebook Fans October 7, 2010 at

The top commentators plugin I have installed on a few of my blogs (and of course sitemap and all in one seo), but never tried the popularity contest or even heard of it. I’ve found with my main blog the top commentators and recent comments plugins bumped my repeat readers to nearly 8% which is impressive in my opinion.

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Brian P October 12, 2010 at

So Neil,

I keep reading meta tags are dead. So you are saying they are def alive?

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Robert Jakobson October 12, 2010 at

They have never been in a healthier state and a more substantial part of Google´s way of displaying results or of their competitors. The source of this myth comes from the fact that Google does not count meta keywords but it does use meta description prominently as well as the competitors (Bing for example) using meta keywords.

If You want to earn an income on the web, def. the meta tags are not dead for You at all.

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Neil Patel October 19, 2010 at

I wouldn’t spend too much time trying to work with meta tags… focus on link building.

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Rush2Gaming December 2, 2010 at

Absolutely right Neil.Many people try months after months for SEO where they mainly focus on keywords and meta tags etc…BUT they never think about the importance of LINKS or BACKLINKS & Pageranks.

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Neil Patel December 4, 2010 at

Which are the most important…

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Alex Panait October 13, 2010 at

meta tags are not dead instead their value in the ranking algorithms is very low

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Neil Patel October 19, 2010 at

They aren’t very significant

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Neil Patel October 19, 2010 at

They aren’t significant enough for you to worry about.

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Software Reviews October 22, 2010 at

Sharebar is a very good plugin which actually does make it look stylish as well. If there is one plugin that I would add to that list then it would be a related post plugin!

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Neil Patel October 26, 2010 at

I agree, I think it’s a fantastic tool!

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ChrisAzzari October 29, 2010 at

I have used all in one and xml sitemaps for years now! The aweber plugin is ok for me, I find its better if I get them to susbcribe via aweber first then send them to a “secret registration” page so at least I get them in my list. Know what I mean?

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Neil Patel October 31, 2010 at

Yeah I get what you mean… so it sounds like you definitely do a lot of email marketing?

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Rush2Gaming December 2, 2010 at

Pretty helpful.I think WP has the most users than any other CMS services, so these plug-ins/widgets are important to keep your blog HEALTHY & revisited.

One question to Neil : Thanks for your top commenter List. How many days have you set your widget to reset again ?
Sorry if I asked you a confidential question, I am just curious and want to be regular here.

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Neil Patel December 4, 2010 at

It is simply because it’s the easiest to learn. The list resets every week.

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Amit Bhawani December 18, 2010 at

Ouch you have given the download link to the older version of the plugin which i thought would be hard to find, hence never updated the plugin to ensure the commentators are auto notified.

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Neil Patel December 21, 2010 at

Do you have the updated link?

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DNS Hosting January 6, 2011 at

The Aweber plugin is great. RSS is kinda old school and not many people use it anymore.

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Neil Patel January 9, 2011 at

Surprisingly there are still a vast amount of users who do use the rss.

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Sonu January 18, 2011 at

I will definitely use sharebar plugin, on your blog the sharebar looks so decent useful list of plugins.

I have started to use Wordpress SEO plugin Good Bye All in one SEO and Google XML Sitemap Plugins

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Neil Patel January 19, 2011 at

Sharebar is amazing and has definitely helped my blog grow! The other plugins are a wise move too.

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Neon SRT4 February 3, 2011 at

W3 Total Cache is the Best Plug in, because every time user visits the site, it comes from database. Query from database is not problem for small sites.

When comparing to large sites, static HTML is the best to save server issues.

This Plug in made my site load faster before then. Because, this is showing simple HTML file, when the visitors load the page. So, normally all the plug ins don’t load, instead they will be appear in static HTML page.

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Neil Patel February 7, 2011 at

Good job… yes the faster your site loads, the better it’ll do with search engines.

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GSA Schedules February 16, 2011 at

Really, you provide us great information about word-press plugin becuse i don’t know how to use it. I know just one thing that is word-press is SEO friendly tool. Thanks for sharing this information.

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Neil Patel February 21, 2011 at

That’s a great tool to start with as it helps you with some really important things that you need.

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caroline March 7, 2011 at

I have downloaded ” AWeber Integration” plugin to few of my blogs because I have not aware of it before. Is there any other plugins more than this?

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centrophenoxine March 9, 2011 at

Almost every plug in is very useful , All in One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps are very necessary plug ins for any site. But XML siteamap should be update automatic . And for every seo task All in SEO pack is very useful plug in.

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Neil Patel March 13, 2011 at

Yeah they’re your basic essential plugins.

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jasmine March 22, 2011 at

i m running a free domain blog, but is that any possibility to get free seo wordpress plugins ,

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Neil Patel March 25, 2011 at

I don’t think you can do plugins with the free domain blog, but I maybe wrong.

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All Indian T.v Serials May 15, 2011 at

Reading the Guest Posting Guidelines is probably the most imp. thing to do before writing a Guest Post. I had my written my first guest post @ SML & I had no problems because I didn’t have to email and ask. But I will remember your tips if I find a blog which is closed to registrations & wherein I would need to drop-in an email.

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Adrian Cole July 9, 2011 at

I actually have all of these installed already, very effective plugins.

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Neil Patel July 11, 2011 at

Awesome, glad it works for you :)

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Sahil Kotak July 16, 2011 at

I am using 2nd and 5th currently and would like to check others as well.

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Shaun Oshima September 6, 2011 at

I became looking at a handful of your site content on this website but this site is quite enlightening ! Keep hold of adding. Rather fantastic info can be obtained regarding webpage. I’m keen on that world-wide-web website significantly, The an actual awesome placement to study and discover data.

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Witty Artist September 19, 2011 at

I use the Top Commentators and the All in One SEO Pack plugins. Gotta check the others, too. Thanks, Neil!

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Neil Patel September 19, 2011 at

Sounds good. Glad I could help.

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Jacques van Heerden September 22, 2011 at

Great Plugins you mentioned Neil.

Its vitaly important to make sure you get your users attention and have some form of capturing tool to reel them back in.

Thanks for the list.

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Neil Patel October 27, 2011 at

Thanks, I hope you found them useful.

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Jasmine Henry February 10, 2012 at

I’ve spent the past few days going through all of the QS posts (I’m on page 18 now!) and I wasn’t going to comment until I saw the comment leaderboard so that’s definitely somthing that works, clearly.

I use the Yoast SEO plug-in, which comes recommended from a lot of great bloggers so there’s an alternative to the All In One package plugin if anyone wants it.
I use the ‘Call to Action’ plug-in too. It costs money but its worth it. It basically integrates a highlighted box at the bottom of each post, telling readers to do something, hence the plug-in’s name. It lets you pick from a range of colours and it doesn’t have a fixed size, so it just changes to fit your blog. It increased my conversions by over 100% so yeah, it’s a must-have in my opinion!

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Neil Patel February 13, 2012 at

Awesome!

Thank you for your support. I appreciate you taking the time to go through and read Quick Sprout. Thanks for your recommendation, I will be sure to check it out.

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