If you want to get the most out of a WordPress site, it is pretty much essential to have at least a few widgets installed. The benefit of widgets is that they are an optional extra for your site. They won’t really fit the needs of every site, but they are enough of a game-changer to make them a real point of note for WordPress users.

A quick look at the most popular WordPress widgets is instructive in showing how beneficial they are, and the possibilities that they create for someone with enough web savvy.

Last Tweets Widget

The Latest Tweets widget is in many ways the Big Kahuna of the WordPress widget. Using this, you can show your readers the latest posts in your Twitter feed.

This is handy for many reasons – firstly, it alerts people to the fact that you have a Twitter account, and encourages them to visit your page, potentially adding your tweets to their timeline and giving you the marketing opportunities that that entails among other things. Secondly it demonstrates that you have an interactive web presence. If you don’t feel like blogging something, you can tweet it and your blog readers will still see it.

Blogroll Widget

The Blogroll widget is one which many bloggers like to use. Whatever your views on the “blogosphere” and whether bloggers are real writers, what cannot be denied is that there is a real community aspect to many of the best blogs. Chances are that if you write a blog, you will also read blogs. That being the case you can show some love for the bloggers you enjoy reading by including them in your blogroll.

People who like your blog may check them out, giving that blog more hits and making it more likely that the other bloggers will return the favor. Everyone gets more hits, and everybody’s happy.

Tag Cloud Widget

Adding a Tag Cloud widget is another blog-specific move you can make to give your blog that bit more user-friendliness. We would all like to think that our readers look at every blog post with the same degree of fascination, but the usual truth is that some readers find that a particular blogger will write merely well about some subjects, but brilliantly on others.

By adding tags to your blog posts, and including a tag cloud, you allow people to search for and read all your posts on a certain subject. The most used tags will end up larger and bolder, too, so people can see at a glance what to expect from your blog.

Book and Album Cover Widgets

There is also a range of Book and Album Cover widgets which allow you to link up with music and bookshop sites to display artwork on your site. This way if you are a music or literature buff, you can show people a little bit about what you’ve been reading or listening to recently.

This adds a personal touch and also gives people a bit of background to you as a person. Whether you are a blogger or just hosting a personal site, these widgets add depth to it.