After being asked a few times and then seeing so much BS released, I decided to pass on some of my WordPress knowledge. Not saying that I am a WordPress god and know everything about it, but have been using in since way back to version 1+.

So with that said, here are my free recommended WordPress plugins:

- SEO Plugins

The All-In-One SEO Pack. is used on this site and highly recommended. Install, turn it on (activate), and leave the “out of box” settings as is – no configuration needed. There are many options if you want to tweak them but I have never touched and been very happy.

One thing to remember though: No matter how well optimized your site is, the search engines have to find and know when you update it. Install Google Sitemap Generator. Specifically designed to notify Google, Bing and Ask.com. The plugin use to also knock on Yahoo’s door but they now seem to be in bed with another search engine provider.

- Networking

The hard work is done for free traffic right, or is it?

Social networking is a very time consuming process and can bring in tons of free (and instant) web visitors. I personally know people that spend at least 50% of their time working on nothing but networking for free traffic. Crazy if you ask me when most can be automated with WordPress plugins.

Now the question is which to use and how?

Drum row please… Google seems to once again popup and for the time being is a heavy hitter.

The Google +1 Button will allow your visitors to ‘like’ and tell Google that you have information worth telling the world about. Do not, and I mean it, do not pass up putting a +1 button on your site.

“Like” these days seems to belong to Facebook, so lets not forget the giant of social networking, get the Facebook Like Button. Although I am not a huge fan of FB, I still use it and love the free visitors it brings to my site(s).

There are hundreds of “FB Like” and “Google +1” plugins. Take your pick but the two above are the best and easy to use from my experiences.

Oh yea, lets not forget the Tweeters and Twitters out there. Often over looked but Twitter can bring in lots and lots of “instant” traffic. Used correctly you can get some long lasting links for the search engines also. WP Tweet Button is one of my choices, although I do not use it on all my WordPress installs.

I recommend that you include the above social network systems on your WordPress site in some form. Now to throw a wrench in everything, check this out:  AddThis (will need to sign-in or up).

- Speed Up Your Site With Caching

The search engines will like your site better if it is responds quickly. That is a fact and I do not care what any of the “experts” have to say. Caching is a great way to speed things up. Plus if you use shared hosting like at (WebHostRecon) they will love you also.

Second reason I use caching is when posting on sites like Twitter and Facebook it can flood your site with instant traffic. I bring these two up but there are many more and wanted to make a point…

By caching you are ready to get hammered and still serve pages. I will repeat: this is really important when on a shared server. It will make the most important, your visitors happy to have a responsive site and could keep your host provider from sending the dreaded message:  you are consuming too much resources.

I use WP Super Cache plugin on this very site. I have heard and read on forums it is not the best one. But I am old school and it has served me well. Kind of like a older brother, maybe not the best brother in the world but has stood by me.

Rumor (well actually testing) has been posted that Hyper Cache plugin is around 10% more efficient at caching. Setup is simple as can be but like the other plugin above there are lots of extra settings.

Bottom line, use one of the above cache plugins to speed up your site and get some love from your hosting company.

– Spam Protection

Dang spammers! They seem to be everywhere these days and it can ruin a good WordPress site it left open. There are many times you want to have comments turned on, but can be very time consuming to clean them up.

The universal spam stopper plugin Akismet is my pick and use it on all my installs. You will need an Akismet API key to make it work and is free for most. You can donate and help put spam in its place!

Although many do not like the Captcha forms,  SI Captcha for WordPress plugin is my choice on some sites I run. These days spammers can buy programs to bypass most all captcha setups, so keep that in mind. The best way is to use plugins that block spammers by IP’s and email addresses.

For those that allow signups to their WordPress system, I recommend the Stop Spammers Registration Plugin. You can install and register at the recommended databases and cut out most all spammers from getting inside.

These are just a few ways that I optimize my WordPress installs for SEO and user experience. You want to please your visitors and the search engines. Your visitor is number one of course, but the search engines bring you visitors:)