There’s 27,000+ plugins in the WordPress directory and a few more that aren’t! I spend a lot of time researching the “best” plugins to use for a variety of purposes, and am always adding to the list. I generally only use plugins that are in the WordPress directory, although there are a couple that aren’t. Ultimately, the aim of these is to enhance functionality, and make site management more effective for me and my clients.
Here’s 10 favourite plugins that I use almost on a daily basis (in no particular order!).
1. Wordfence
Often one of the first plugins I install with any new site, it’s great for monitoring site activity. In this day and age of spam, hackers and brute force attacks on hosted WordPress sites, it’s nice to know this one is available for free! [wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence]
2. Infinite WP
With an increasing list of sites to monitor, this one is an easy way to keep an eye on them all from one dashboard especially when I have bulk updates or backups to do – I can be sure that I haven’t missed anything! [wordpress.org/plugins/iwp-client]
3. Broken Link Checker
If you’re anything like me, I really don’t like broken links! Broken Link Checker does just as it says – monitors your site and alerts you whenever there’s broken links found. It’s a real timesaver particularly on big sites (or small ones!). [wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker]
4. Jetpack
I’ve started using Jetpack again, after a disastrous first attempt when there were some significant conflicts with a (free) theme I was using at the time. There are so may options to choose from and the only thing I can say here is that whenever you turn on any of the functions, make sure you test your site thoroughly … it can get ugly otherwise! [wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack]
5. WordPress SEO (Yoast)
I’ve been using this from the very first WordPress site I set up. Invaluable to analyse pages and fine tune. I’ve found it especially useful for clients who don’t always understand the benefits of well written and structured content. I know there are may other SEO plugins and I have tried a lot of them, but I keep coming back to this one. [wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo]
6. Quick Page/Post Redirect
Just as it says! Very handy especially if you’re dealing with pages that no longer exist from significant site changes. [wordpress.org/plugins/quick-pagepost-redirect-plugin]
7. Velvet Blues
This is a very recent addition to the list, but it seriously saved me a significant amount of work when I needed to find and update 800+ links when a recent site moved to a new domain. As with all global find and replace options, treat with care! [wordpress.org/plugins/velvet-blues-update-urls]
8. Meteor Slides
I often get asked to include slideshows to sites, but the “how to” isn’t always that intuitive. This plugin is easy to setup, easy to use, and clients have had no problems using it. [wordpress.org/plugins/meteor-slides]
9. Filebase
I recently had to find a solution to the need for a document library where there were likely to be several hundred documents that needed to be categorised, and ideally, provide some stats. You can include single or multiple documents within page content that are updated dynamically whenever you update documents in the library. This plugin ticked all the boxes, and is very easy to use and I’ve used it successfully on large and small sites. The added bonus for me (and clients) is that it removes documents from the WordPress media library which can get very messy when you’re trying to management hundreds of files. [wordpress.org/plugins/wp-filebase]
10. Shareaholic
I have very mixed feelings about this plugin – I’d been using it for some time, and loved the simplicity of adding share buttons to client sites. But with the last major update, ie a total rewrite, a few months ago, it caused havoc! It broke themes, didn’t display as expected, behaved very oddly. Soooo, I dropped it from my list and started looking at alternatives. But since some more recent updates to the plugin, I’ve started using it again, albeit with a much more cautious approach!
More next month including Digital Access Pass, Better WP Security, Custom Sidebars and others more.
What are your favourite/most useful plugins? How do you choose/research the plugins you ultimately use?
