53 WordPress Plugins You Should Be Aware Of
WordPress is today, one of the most popular platforms used for building websites. From a teenage kid in his or her bedroom to a large global organisation, WordPress is being used the world over!
One of the main reasons for the popularity of WordPress is it’s ability to support “plugins”.
These plugins make it really easy for someone who has little to no knowledge of coding sites, to implement a whole host of features including search engine optimisation, graphics, structural changes, social media integration, automated tasks and many more with new plugins being developed on an almost daily basis.
I’ve put together below, a list of 53 wordpress plugins that you might find useful. Just so you know there is no particular ranking order as they all perform different features that usually can’t be compared.
Hope you find this useful and don’t forget to share this list with your friends!
SEO Plugins
#1: All In One SEO – Multifunctional onsite SEO tool allowing you to optimise your site’s pages with ease. Essential plugin.
#2: Google XML Sitemap For Videos – Creates an XML sitemap for the videos on your site including ones from Youtube.
#3: Google XML Sitemaps – Creates an XML sitemap for Google. Helps search engines crawl and index your blog.
#4: SEO Smart Links – Automatically links chosen keywords across your site. Can also choose which url to link each keyword too if you like or just leave it random.
#5: WP Super Cache – Caching plugin to speed up page load time – load time is a factor in Google’s algo so important for SEO and rankings.
#6: Google Analytics For WordPress – Does way more than just install the Google analytics code. Check it out for yourself.
#7: Simple Tags – Easy generate tags for your posts and pages
#8: WPTouch – Automatically creates a mobile version of your site for visitors coming to your site from mobile devices.
#9: SEO Rank Reporter – Rank tracking plugin monitors your chosen keywords and can run on a schedule.
#10: Rank Tracker (Premium) – tracks actual search terms and the page they landed on. Quickly identify what terms are bringing people to what pages and tweak your campaign accordingly.
Security Plugins
#11: Antivirus – Think the name says it all!
#12: Secure WordPress – Improves security of your site.
#13: WordPress Firewall/Firewall 2 – Monitors web requests to help stop malicious attacks.
#14: WP-MalWatch – Scans your site for malware.
#15: WP Security Scan – Scans your site for security vulnerabilities.
Social Plugins
#16: FollowMe – Floating sidebar social widget.
#17: PubSubHubbub – Tell the world when your site is updated.
#18: Sociable – Allows you to add social sharing buttons in a floating sidebar widget and at the bottom of posts.
#19: Sharebar – Another social sharing floating widget.
#20: SEO Facebook Comment – Add a Facebook comment form on your site.
#21: Tweet Old Post (They Plan To Add Facebook & Google+ Soon) – Will automatically share your old posts periodically across Twitter and soon to be other networks.
#22: Disqus Comment System – Comment platform replaces WordPress comments. Community, spam blocking, social and more.
#23: Social Metrics – Social media analytics. Track your site posts and pages on social networking sites.
#24: Thank Me Later – Sends a thank you email to people that comment on your site.
#25: Subscribe to Comments – Allows people to subscribe to comment threads.
Conversion & Interaction Plugins
#26: GD Star Rating – Rating and review features for your posts and comments.
#27: What Would Seth Godin Do – Allows you to have a message to new and returning visitors displayed.
#28: Related Posts Thumbnails – adds related posts with thumbnail images at the bottom of posts. Encourages users to visit other pages and stay on your site longer and increase page views. This will help with SEO too.
#29: YARRP – Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Adds related posts links similar to the above plugin.
#30: Premise (Premium) – Helps create landing pages for conversions.
#31: Hello Bar – Adds a floating bar across the top. You can add calls to action and things here so can be useful to get peoples attention.
#32: My Live Signature – Adds a personal signature from http://www.mylivesignature.com
Functional Plugins
#33: Batch Categories or Bulk Move – Move posts between categories in bulk.
#34: Exclude Pages From Navigation – Choose which posts and pages show in the navigation.
#35: Mass Page Remover – Mass delete pages.
#36: p2pConverter – Convert a post to a page and vice versa.
#37: Random Posts – Displays a list of random posts in the widget.
#38: Really Simple CAPTCHA – Captcha works with contact form 7.
#39: Revision Control – More control over the post revision system in wordpress. Can delete previous saved revisions that wordpress automatically saves.
#40: Robots Meta – Robots plugin to easy edit your robots file.
#41: Search & Replace – As it sounds.
#42: Simple Sidebar Navigation – Easily add a navigation to the sidebar widget.
#43: Widget Context – Control the visibility of widgets across the site.
#44: WP No Category Base – Removes the “category” from your permalinks.
#45: WordPress Database Backup – Backups your site and has a schedule function.
#46: Redirection – Manage 301s and track 404 errors.
#47: Simple 301 Redirects – Easy way to handle 301 redirects.
Form Plugins
#48: Contact Form 7 – Contact form generator.
#49: Gravity Forms (Premium) – Advanced form creator.
Graphical
#50: Featured Content Gallery – Creates rotating image gallery.
#51: Zemanta – Finds related content, images and other things.
Retail
#52: WP e-Commerce – Shopping cart plugin.
#53: Shopp (Premium) – Shopping cart plugin
It is worth mentioning that WordPress plugins are developed by people the world meaning the quality will vary dramatically. There is also a small risk that the plugin could cause issues with your site so it is wise to back up your site before installing a new plugin. Also, not all WordPress plugins are compatable with each other so if your screen turns white it usually means there is a compatability issue.
1. Go into your cpanel-file manager and rename the plugins folder as plugins1 or something.
2. When you log into your site again you will see everything but all the plugins will be deactivated.
3. Rename the plugins folder back to plugins and then reactivate the plugins one by one until you find the culprit.
If you are looking for a new plugin then make sure it has a good star rating, personally I prefer 4-5 but absolutely nothing less than a 3 star rating. Also make sure it is compatible with the version of WordPress you are using. Lastly plugins do from time to time, become outdated and no longer work if the developers have ceased all updating. That is just the way it is.
High quality WordPress plugins can save you a lot of time, effort and if you don’t know code, expense too. With the help of plugins you can have a well optimised, feature rich site that visitors and search engines love!
If you found this list useful please share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or whatever other social network you choose to be a part of.
Scott
P.S If you want a know how we can improve your business presence on the web and drive a TON of relevant, high quality visitors to your site then call 0161 236 7161 or use the contact form.
P.P.S We welcome your comments and suggestions so if you know of a great plugin that is not on the list then post a comment below!
scott@upsearch.co.uk
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