Wordpress is one of the most popular web publishing platforms due to its
ease of setup, low cost and customization potential. Since its
inception in 2003, it has been downloaded over 25 million times and
because of its mass appeal, developers have created a whole host of
plugins that add increased functionality and flexibility to the already
robust platform.
As of the time of this article, over 16,500 plugins are available with over 222,386,280 downloads and counting. Which plugins are top rated? Which ones will help your website perform optimally?
Though your specific type of website will outline the various plugins you will need, there are some top picks we feel you should consider.
If you have a favorite plugin that isn’t mentioned, please let us know in the comments!
With over 540,000 downloads and a near perfect rating, Wordpress SEO by Yoast is one of our top picks for SEO plugins. Here are some of its features:
Here is a snapshot of one of the admin screens:
JetPack is a plugin bundle that includes visitor stats, social media sharing tools and short codes. More features are planned for the future as well. See the screenshot below of what it looks like after first installation:
Disqus is a comment system which allows for a more interactive blog commenting experience. The system promotes online communities with ease of sharing and interaction.
Some of Disqus’ features:
With the newest technologies taking the mobile world by storm, this plugin can't come at a better time. I have not downloaded this plugin personally but with over 2.5 million downloads and rave reviews, it is worth a mention.
WPTouch transforms your Wordpress site into a mobile-friendly version when viewed from iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Palm Pre, Samsung Touch and Blackberry devices. You can customize your website's appearance and give your visitors the option to switch back and forth from WPTouch view and your regular theme.
This plugin promotes a more welcoming user experience for visitors by displaying messages for them when they land on your site. You have the ability to customize these messages based on the the website from which your visitors came. For example, if a user visits your site from Twitter, you can customize a message for them to tweet your post. You can also create default messages for new visitors who are not referred by another site.
Here are some of the default messages that come with the plugin. You can edit and customize as needed as well as remove the function from individual posts:
Recommended by some of the top minds in the industry, this plugin improves the user experience of your site by enhancing your blog’s performance, reducing download times and protecting your blog from unexpected high traffic surges.
Some of the benefits as listed on the plugin page:
If you are a current Wordpress user, you most likely have experienced at least one hacking attempt. To combat this heinous activity, this plugin limits login attempts once a specified number of times has been reached. You can customize the number of login attempts as seen in this screenshot of the admin panel.
Without this plugin, Wordpress allows unlimited login entries, which makes it easier for hackers to discover passwords.
Akismet is the most popular plugin to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. You can review each comment and approve/disapprove them before they are published. The plugin comes default with every Wordpress download. You will simply need to activate it and follow the instructions to retrieve and save your API key.
This plugin is simple and effective and gives users the opportunity to display a contact page without messing with any code. The forms are customizable and support CAPTCHA and Akismet spam filtering.
Sharebar adds a customizable share box to the left side of a blog post. I like this box because it moves with you when you scroll down the post and it is easily recognizable. You can also remove the sharebar from individual posts as well. When Auto mode is set to ON, the Sharebars are added automatically.
There are a few more plugins I must add to the mix. Every marketer needs to track visitors and stats to improve and grow. Here are my two top picks for analytics and visitor tracking:
Google Analytics for Wordpress
WP-Click-Tracker
By: Jenna Scaglione
As of the time of this article, over 16,500 plugins are available with over 222,386,280 downloads and counting. Which plugins are top rated? Which ones will help your website perform optimally?
Though your specific type of website will outline the various plugins you will need, there are some top picks we feel you should consider.
If you have a favorite plugin that isn’t mentioned, please let us know in the comments!
1. Wordpress SEO by Yoast
With over 540,000 downloads and a near perfect rating, Wordpress SEO by Yoast is one of our top picks for SEO plugins. Here are some of its features:
- Post Titles & Meta Descriptions -You will also see snippet previews of what your description will look like in the search engines
- Robots Meta Configuration – You can adjust nofollow options on a per post basis.
- Breadcrumb menus
- Robots.txt and .htaccess - You can edit your .htaccess and robots.txt files using the built-in file editor.
- 301 Redirects
- RSS Feed Options
- Many more features…
Here is a snapshot of one of the admin screens:
2. Jetpack
JetPack is a plugin bundle that includes visitor stats, social media sharing tools and short codes. More features are planned for the future as well. See the screenshot below of what it looks like after first installation:
3. Disqus
Disqus is a comment system which allows for a more interactive blog commenting experience. The system promotes online communities with ease of sharing and interaction.
Some of Disqus’ features:
- Threaded comments and replies
- Twitter mentions
- Approval or rejection of comments via email
- Aggregated comments
- Subscribe and RSS options
- SEO friendly comments
- Increased exposure and readership
4. WPTouch
With the newest technologies taking the mobile world by storm, this plugin can't come at a better time. I have not downloaded this plugin personally but with over 2.5 million downloads and rave reviews, it is worth a mention.
WPTouch transforms your Wordpress site into a mobile-friendly version when viewed from iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Palm Pre, Samsung Touch and Blackberry devices. You can customize your website's appearance and give your visitors the option to switch back and forth from WPTouch view and your regular theme.
5. WP Greet Box
This plugin promotes a more welcoming user experience for visitors by displaying messages for them when they land on your site. You have the ability to customize these messages based on the the website from which your visitors came. For example, if a user visits your site from Twitter, you can customize a message for them to tweet your post. You can also create default messages for new visitors who are not referred by another site.
Here are some of the default messages that come with the plugin. You can edit and customize as needed as well as remove the function from individual posts:
6. W3 Total Cache
Recommended by some of the top minds in the industry, this plugin improves the user experience of your site by enhancing your blog’s performance, reducing download times and protecting your blog from unexpected high traffic surges.
Some of the benefits as listed on the plugin page:
- At least 10x improvement in overall site performance (Grade A in YSlow or significant Google Page Speed improvements) when fully configured
- Improved conversion rates and "site performance" which affect your site's rank on Google.com
- "Instant" subsequent page views: browser caching
- Optimized progressive render: pages start rendering quickly
- Reduced page load time: increased visitor time on site; visitors view more pages
- Improved web server performance; sustain high traffic periods
- Up to 80% bandwidth savings via minify and HTTP compression of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and feeds
7. Limit Login Attempts
If you are a current Wordpress user, you most likely have experienced at least one hacking attempt. To combat this heinous activity, this plugin limits login attempts once a specified number of times has been reached. You can customize the number of login attempts as seen in this screenshot of the admin panel.
Without this plugin, Wordpress allows unlimited login entries, which makes it easier for hackers to discover passwords.
8. Akismet
Akismet is the most popular plugin to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. You can review each comment and approve/disapprove them before they are published. The plugin comes default with every Wordpress download. You will simply need to activate it and follow the instructions to retrieve and save your API key.
9. Contact Form 7
This plugin is simple and effective and gives users the opportunity to display a contact page without messing with any code. The forms are customizable and support CAPTCHA and Akismet spam filtering.
10. Sharebar
Sharebar adds a customizable share box to the left side of a blog post. I like this box because it moves with you when you scroll down the post and it is easily recognizable. You can also remove the sharebar from individual posts as well. When Auto mode is set to ON, the Sharebars are added automatically.
A Few More…
There are a few more plugins I must add to the mix. Every marketer needs to track visitors and stats to improve and grow. Here are my two top picks for analytics and visitor tracking:
Google Analytics for Wordpress
WP-Click-Tracker
By: Jenna Scaglione
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