Everytime we setup a new Drupal site, we dread having to find again all the most essential modules to install. In order to make this process easier and faster, we have created this list. Simply click the link to the module's project page on Drupal and then follow the installation steps. Nested bullets listed below  represent modules that require another module to be installed and enabled first prior to bve able to use the nested module.

Administration

• Module Filter - As soon as you start adding modules, you will be so happy to have this one. It organizes you modules into very clear categories and limits the amount of scrolling.
  http://drupal.org/project/module_filter 

• CKEditor - WYSIWYG HTML editor - http://drupal.org/project/ckeditor

• Workbench - http://drupal.org/project/workbench

• Views - http://drupal.org/project/views

• IMCE - http://drupal.org/project/imce

• Token - http://drupal.org/project/token

• Chaos tool suite (ctools) - http://drupal.org/project/ctools

Forms

• Webform - The beauty of Drupal is that everything is much easier to do in order to manage your website. The absolute best feature is the ability to create forms very quickly and this module is fantastic. You can create simple or complicated forms in minutes using drag and drop. 
  http://drupal.org/project/webform

  • Date - http://drupal.org/project/date

  • Webform Validation - http://drupal.org/project/webform_validation

  • CAPTCHA - http://drupal.org/project/captcha, OR Mollom - http://drupal.org/project/mollom

SEO

• Google Analytics - http://drupal.org/project/google_analytics

• Pathauto - http://drupal.org/project/pathauto

• Metatag - http://drupal.org/project/metatag

Quick add-ons

• AddThis - http://drupal.org/project/addthis