The Must Have WordPress Plugins

Using WordPress alone limits the user to just plain blogging. So I've listed down  some of the plugins every WordPress site should have. Use this to extend the functionality of WordPress. I've listed 9 of them below. In case some of them does not work on your current site due to compatibility issues from upgrades in WordPress core or other plugins, you can always search for an alternative with the same functionality. To install them, just go to plugins > Add New then type in the title of the plugin.

1. OZH Drop Down Admin Menu

 

The default sidebar menu of WordPress tends to take up a lot of space and some people experience some difficulties in navigating. To make navigation faster, OZH Drop Down Admin

  2. TinyMCE Advanced

 

 Control the buttons that would display on your post editor. It also lets you unlock some buttons that you don't see on the default setting of TinyMCE like the smileys button and other settings. Easy to use since you'll just have to drag and drop the buttons and you can also arrange it.

  3. User Role Editor

   

 Extend the capability of controlling user roles. Lets you set some permissions for each user role. User Role Editor also lets you create a new custom user role.
 4. Quick Cache
 This plugin is very useful in speeding up your webpage loading. Quick cache creates static pages instead to reduce loading time spent on trying to access the database.
  5. Dynamic Widgets

This is one of the stuffs Wordpress is missing that gives you full control on your widgets. Dynamic widgets lets you assign your widgets to appear on a particular page, category, tag,  search page, period of time, and much more...  
  6. Configure SMTP

   

 Just in case you need to connect to a different mail server, this could come in handy. It also has a setting for connecting to Gmail SMTP.
  7. User Avatar

   

 If your users would complain in creating their gravatar account for an avatar, this plugin lets users upload their avatar. It also lets users crop their uploaded images.
  8. Better WordPress reCAPTCHA

   

 Block spam by integrating Google's recaptcha. It prompts user to enter two words that appear. It also works with Akismet, where you can make it appear only when it detects a spammer, making it convenient for users.
  9. Better Delete Revision

 

 Everytime you edit your posts, Wordpress creates a revision log for your post so that you would revert back to the previous post. Revisions were intended to automatically back up your work. Although from time to time editing might cause a lot of space in your database. Say you have 20 posts and did let's say 10 edits, that would make up 200 posts stored in your database. To removed those unused backups, you need Better Delete Revision to delete the previous revisions except the most recent. Just backup your database before doing this because you might still be needing your previous. It also has a feature that purges.