It’s no secret that WordPress is a marketer’s best friend. This simple, free little piece of software can do just about anything, from forming the basis of a blog to providing a way to make sales directly to your readers. I’m lovin ‘it. But, WordPress alone is not necessarily a “complete” software tool. You need to do some tweaking and updating if you really want to get something solid out of it.
1. All in One SEO – This should be number one whenever you create a new WordPress website. It allows you to quickly and easily create titles, descriptions, and keywords for your post, index all of your categories and tags, and generate keyword-rich URLs. Ultimately, it makes sure that your content is seen on Google.
2. XML Sitemap – Google likes to see sitemaps on websites with more than two or three pages of content. For a blog, a manually created sitemap would be time consuming and likely to be inaccurate most of the time. XML Sitemap Creator will generate a new sitemap every time you write a post and submit it not only to Google but also to the other major search engines.
3. Ultimate Analytics: Google Analytics is the most powerful free tracking tool online. If you want to know where your visitors are coming from, what they see, and how long they stay on your site, you need an Analytics account. This plugin will place your account tracking ID on every page of your blog so you continue to get the data you need, regardless of the size of your site.
4. WP-Ecommerce – If you plan to sell something on your website, this free plugin will allow you to easily add a shopping cart that integrates with PayPal or Google Checkout. You can sell items directly from your site with a redirection to the payment processor of your choice. There is nothing easier than that.
5. AddtoAny/TweetMeme: AddtoAny is a tool that allows users to use a social bookmarking service like Facebook, Digg or StumbleUpon to share their posts. TweetMeme is a “retweet” button that will allow you to instantly retweet with shortened URLs. I recommend that you add both of them to your WordPress to maximize sharing of your content.
In a nutshell, you need to be willing to play around with some of the features and toolsets available for WordPress. If you do, the opportunities are nearly endless, plus it’s fun to see what you come up with with simple, free software.
