Before I even begin, I wanted to mention that this isn’t another “Top-10” list. There are thousands of different plug-ins out there, and there is bound to be one that works well for your needs. However, these 7 may be a bit under the radar and perhaps deserve a place in your blog. Mind you, these aren’t in any particular order.

Google XML Sitemaps

Google, Yahoo! Ask.com, and Bing all like to see a sitemap when they crawl your site. It’s all SEO’y and whatnot. Now, you could go through the effort of making your own XML file. Or, this plug-in can do it for you. Automatically. As you update. So what’s not to like? (Download here)

Exclude Pages From Navigation

Many themes now automatically include static pages in a navigation bar somewhere. That’s all well and good, but what if you have pages you don’t WANT to be in there? You could hand-code your theme to exclude them (look it up in the codex if you’re so inclined), or you can use this. This plug-in adds a checkbox to the page that’ll allow you to either include it or exclude it. (Download here)

WordPress Mobile Pack

Do you have a swanky internet-capable phone? So do I. (and no, it isn’t a damn iPhone). Now have you tried to look at some sites on the mobile browser? Let’s just say they weren’t meant for 4 inch screens. This plug will automatically detect the incoming browser and converts the layout on the fly, without having to change anything about your “main” theme. (Download here)

Contact Form 7

A contact form. I believe you all are familiar with them. If not, then…well…I can’t help you. This plugin allows for multiple forms to be embedded using shortcode, without the need for any third-party mailing systems. Simple and straight forward. (Download here)

WP No Category Base

Do you want the ability for people to focus on one portion of your blog? Do you use the posts section as a “news and events” location? Well, as I am sure you’ve notices, WordPress adds in the /category/ to each one. It’s ugly. This fixes that. One bit of advice, though, you don’t want to have a category and a page named the same thing. Confusion will occur. (Download here)

Gigs Calendar

While this is intended for musicians, I’ve found that it has a lot of uses outside of that. Great for a business that has numerous events during the week, or someone that does a lot of appearances. Links to the specific venues, complete with maps. Even gives you the option to sort by “tour”, for all you rockin types. (Download here)

NextGEN Gallery

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve found the built-in image / video gallery in WordPress to be a bit…lacking. NextGEN does everything…and lets you use shortcode to embed images, slideshows, and much more. There are add-ons for it that include video players, sidebar galleries, and I think there is even one for that pony you always wanted. (Download here)