WordPress SEO by Yoast is one plugin I cannot do without as an SEO specialist. If you want your site to be search engine friendly, then it needs to have the right keywords in your article title, the content, the images and the meta description. This plugin allows you to add all these with ease, and also analyses your SEO performance for each post/page on your website.
2. Digg Digg
Great content needs to be shared. Digg Digg is a share bar plugin that you can add to the top or bottom of your posts/pages, or as a floating bar alongside your content. By default, it also shows the number of times it has been shared on each social media channel, and you can customize it for only the networks you want.
3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a very handy plugin that easily transforms your WordPress website into an online store. There are built-in shortcodes and widgets to help you easily design your eCommerce store. This plugin is also integrated with popular payment gateways and shipping methods to ensure seamless service for customers.
iThemes Security was formerly called Better WP Security and it offers a number of ways to protect your WordPress site from external attacks. It changes the login URLs, renames the admin user ID, performs routine site scans, bans suspicious bots and strengthens server security.
This is one plugin I use almost on a daily basis. The editorial calendar help me plan all my blog content even months in advance. I can easily create quick drafts for each blog post and expand on it when I get the time. It is also very easy to reschedule blog posts using the drag and drop functionality.
6. BackWPup
This backup plugin can be used to schedule automatic backups of your WordPress site. The backups can be sent to your email, Dropbox or S3 services. This will prove to be very useful if your site is down or there is any loss of content.
7. Pinterest Pin It Button For Images
I am a huge fan of Pinterest and many of my readers are too. This plugin allows readers to easily pin articles from my site by hovering over any of the images. It is also possible to hide the button from selected images if required.
Contact Form 7 is a plugin that allows you to easily customize and manage several contact forms on your website. I haven’t used it yet but it does come highly recommended.
This is an image gallery plugin that allows you to easily upload, manage and display image galleries on your site. It also has the provision to create slideshows of images that can be viewed on your website.
This is one plugin I’ve been planning to install but haven’t got around to it yet. It is an unobtrusive call to action box that is triggered when a visitor has scrolled down to a certain point on your webpage. It’s a great way to get conversions without annoying readers.
No doubt there are dozens of other good WordPress plugins available online. But do take time to research if the plugin is from a reputed source, and install it only if you really do need the functionality it provides.
Are any of these plugins active on your site? What more would you add to this list?
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BackWPup is ok but I’ve found it doesn’t get the whole site. Backup buddy is the one to go for. Yes, you have to pay for it but it’s so easy and just works.
Thank you John for pointing that out. I will keep your suggestion in mind.
This post just helped me help a client of mine that needed a very complex form in their site. I was struggling to get 3 plugins to do the job, and it still wasn’t what they were looking for. After reading this, I downloaded gravity forms, and 2 hours later, their perfect form is up. They think I’m a genius! Thanks for this post!
There are pieces of information in here that I would have to read a few times just to get an idea of what they really are and how I’ll be able to utilize them effectively. I’m not really that tech savvy. However, I’m quite familiar with the ‘All In One SEO Pack’ and ‘WordPress SEO by Yoast’. I’m glad that you took the time to compile this information for bloggers like me. I really appreciate it.