Plug-In Help

I have a blog that I updated from 2.8.5 to Wordpress 3.1.3, then I deactivated plugins and I added what I felt were the most important back and checked pags load speed each time. The following is what I reinstalled.
Akismet
Auto Link Juicer
Auto Social Buddy
Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
Easy Privacy Policy
fbLikeButton
Google XML Sitemaps
NoSeeLinks
Pretty Link
Ultimate Google Analytics
W3 Total Cache
WordPress Database Backup
WordPress Duplicate Content Cure
WordPress Video Plugin
WP-Sticky
I know each plugin takes away a little speed. Any imput I would be grateful for Pro or Con on plugins that I need or plugins that I can do without.
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This is my current test
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110613_GK_TJHT/
The first three categories are great the last three I need help with.

It looks like you have a conditional comment for loading css that is blocking the loading of resources after the first css file. Here is a good blog article that Stoyan wrote on it: Conditional comments block downloads / Stoyan's phpied.com

Just add an empty conditional comment up near the top and that should fix it.

From the looks of it, the VAST majority of the remaining time for your page to load is from the ads and facebook widgets. Try blocking them (using the “block” tab in advanced settings) to see what your actual page itself looks like but I don’t think there is going to be much more you can do about it.

Thank you for the reply, I’ll use those tactics as well.

Yesterday my blog, that I had not done anything to in months ranked 96 broad match.

I updated the blog and got rid of a few plug-ins, upgraded the ones that were left. I just checked my rankings and the blog has moved up to number 6 broad match.

It seems that Google gives a huge amount of weight to page load time.

Speed is a ranking factor, but a minor one, based on what Google reps have said. It only affects a small number of sites.

But if a site loads faster, it may contribute to people staying on it longer, reading more pages, and returning more often. The increased user interaction may send signals to search engines, which may in fact be a part of the algorithm.

Web Page Test after I cleaned up the header. http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110616_8R_VBRC/

Much better, looks like you’ve got some good parallel action going on now (perhaps a little more blocking in with the javascript but still looking good).