It seems like there are plugins to do almost everything except make coffee for the WordPress user these days.

Like people, some are right out in the front, visible to all of your visitors every time they log in; while others run quietly and unobtrusively in the background just making things happen and not expecting any thanks.

It’s the latter variety that I’d like to highlight here. These are 5 of my favorite plugins that do just that – help the blog run smoothly without anyone even realizing they are there.

• Akismet is the undisputed king of spam detection for WordPress. A bonus is that it is included in the default WordPress installation, so all you need to do is register and activate it.
  Download it here.
• All in One SEO Pack does a lot of the Search Engine Optimization work for you. All you need to do is fill out a few fields when you first activate the plugin, and then carry on blogging as normal.
  Download it here.
• Contact Form 7 gives your readers a simple contact form to complete when they want to contact you. There are a lot of contact plugins out there, but I think this one is one of the easiest to configure and use.
  Download it here.
• Google Analytics for WordPress gives you the easiest possible way to set up Google Analytics to track your blog statistics.
  Download it here.
• XML Sitemap Generator generates a sitemap in the accepted standard of Google, Ask.com, Yahoo! and MSN Search.
  Download it here.