Third party plugins are the lifeblood of any successful WordPress blog. Whether your goal is to increase traffic to your blog through SEO, or if you want to block spam comments, you are likely to find the right plugin for you in the massive library of plug ins. Still, it can be daunting to try and navigate through the massive collection of WordPress recommended plug ins. Here are a selection of the top WordPress plug ins:

1. All in one SEO Pack – This popular set of plug ins automatically optimizes your WordPress blog or website to be viewed by all major search engines, including Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

Among the plugin’s many features includes automatic meta tag generation, duplicate content checking, support for WordPress-based eCommerce websites, and support for CMS-style WordPress installations. Add this to your list of WordPress recommended plug ins.

2. Akismet

One of the biggest problems with any blog comes in the form of "spammy" comments on your blog. In most cases, this includes any type of sales pitch or interaction that is not meant to contribute to your blog’s topic, but to promote or drive traffic to a website. Fortunately, the Akismet, one of the top plug ins for WordPress, has built-in tools for filtering, blocking and removing comment spam.

3. Google XML Sitemaps

One of the key components of any SEO strategy is sitemap development. Sitemaps organize each of your blog’s pages and links so that major search engines can find your blog. The Google XML Sitemaps, among the top plug ins for WordPress, does just that by saving you the hassle of having to generate your own XML sitemap code. This is among many WordPress recommended plug ins.

4. Share And Follow

Social media is at the heart of any effectively marketed blog. The Share and Follow plug ins let you add social media buttons to specific blog posts and pages. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and StumbleUpon sharing buttons.

5. Sexybookmarks

Sexybookmarks is a plugin that lets you craft and customize bookmarking tools for you blog. This plugin lets users share your content over just about any social network or web service, like Twitter, Gmail or Facebook.

6. Simple Facebook Connect

If you’re not an HTML, CSS or XML coding wizard, adding sophisticated Facebook buttons may seem daunting. Fortunately, with Simple Facebook Connect you can add flashy Facebook "like" buttons to your blog without a lot of coding know-how.

7. SEOPressor Unlimited

SEOPressor, may seem like just another SEO WordPress plugin for your self-hosted site, but it is a useful tool. It’s primary function is to not only make your content visible and searchable on search engines, but it also helps search engines quantify your content as relevant in search queries.

Check out Mark Ford’s SEOPressor review here

8. TubePress

If your blog relies heavily on video content, you may have wondered how to set up YouTube streaming on your site. With the TubePress plugin, you can set up YouTube galleries, thumbnails and pop-out videos on your blog. In addition, you can use TubePress to stream video from your Vimeo account.

9. WP Super Cache

According to the WP Super Cache plugin’s web site, 99% of your blog’s visitors will be served static HTML files while visiting your site. This can end up slowing down your site, which can result in lowered traffic. WP Super Cache generates static HTML files from web pages that already exist on your blog, which results in a faster website.

10. WP Ultimate

WP Ultimate, as the name suggests, is the ultimate plugin that automatically makes your site faster, more secure, optimizes your site for SEO and protects your blog from spam.