WordPress Plugins are bits of code added to your WordPress installation. Plugins are used to add functions to WordPress that is not covered by the features in the basic install.
One must-have-plugin is Akismet. If you allow visitors to comment on your posts, spam reduction software is a must. The Akismet plugin is highly recommended to combat all the real estate, viagra, and XXX spam comments that otherwise will clutter your comments section.
Another great plugin is All in One SEO Pack. You can set individual titles, descriptions and keywords for every post and page on your WordPress blog/website. Every time you are about to publish a new post, make sure you have an unique title and permalink, and that you have a descriptive category as well as a couple of tags. Then you make use of the All in One SEO plugin and add a second title (max 40 characters), add a description (max 160 characters) and add second set of “tags” but now they are called keywords (no more than five).
To prevent unwanted access to the control panel you should get rid of the default “admin” account login. New in WordPress 3.0 is the option to use your own administrator login name when you install WordPress for the first time. To make your WordPress installation even more secure you should add the LockOut plugin (works with WP 3.0) that locks out unauthorized users when they try to guess your password. Usually they (the bad people trying to crack you login) begin with the username “admin” so if you do not have that on your system it will help you a lot.
