Over the past few years, WordPress has managed to grow from a simple blogging solution into one of the world’s most powerful website and blogging tools available. Besides being completely free and easy to use, WordPress also offers ample customization through installation of themes, plugins and other accessories that let each webmaster create their own unique portal for content distribution. In 2012, we saw many new features added to the WordPress resumé. Below are a list of what we consider to be the five best WordPress features and plugins to manifest in 2012.

NextGEN Gallery

For those who operate websites with high amounts of multimedia content, NextGEN Gallery was a godsend. This plugin allows webmasters to quickly rearrange existing images into albums, as well as delete or add new images and photos in the blink of an eye. Anyone who deals with photography or image-related topics will appreciate the ease of use that this plugin provides for dealing with images – as will any blogger or webmaster who incorporates images on a regular basis.

Jetpack

Built as an “all-in-one” sort of plugin, Jetpack brings a variety of features that other existing plugins offer – except that in the case of Jetpack, it is all included in one simple plugin. You can view any and all notifications for your site (including comments), activate subscriptions, view in-site WordPress stats that are not available otherwise and continue pinging lists of your newly-updated pages to major search engines. With over two dozen unique features packed into one interface, it is hard to list them all here but quite easy to recommend that you add this plugin to your site ASAP.

All In One SEO Pack

This impressive addition to WordPress’ lineup in 2012 allows those without search engine optimization experience to improve the overall performance of their blogs with sites like Yahoo and Google. This plugin can either be used by professionals to implement precise settings or can simply be activated and allowed to work on “autopilot”, making tweaks as it sees fit. Whether you are pinging lists of content to search engines or simply wanting analytics for your site, the All In One SEO Pack does a great job.

Akismet

Those running WordPress sites know how frustrating it can be to receive those silly spam comments at the bottom of each blog post – along with the emails alerting you to them. Fortunately, Akismet is an intuitive add-on that can sense which comments are “fake” and which ones are legitimate. The add-on then proceeds to block those that are spam, making your blog appear to be more professional due to the absence of shoddy sales pitches.

Google Analyticator

Our final recommendation is the Google Analyticator plugin, which allows you to view Google Analytics code on your website. By adding in pieces of code to each page and syncing the plugin with your Google account, you can quickly view stats directly from the WordPress control panel – all without disclosing said information to your visitors. This plugin is easy to setup and a must for anyone using Google Analytics.