25 WordPress Plugins to Complement Your Site
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The document is authored by Anthony Hortin, a designer and developer at Maddison Designs, highlighting 25 essential WordPress plugins that enhance site functionality. It discusses various plugins including Wordfence for security, WP Super Cache for speed, and WooCommerce for e-commerce, each with links and alternatives. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of plugins in tailoring WordPress sites to meet specific user needs.
25 WordPress Plugins to Complement Your Site
- 1. Anthony Hortin @maddisondesigns maddisondesigns.com 25 WordPress Plugins to Complement your Site
- 2. About me Designer/Developer @ Maddison Designs WordPress Theme & Plugin Developer WordPress Theme & Plugin Directory contributor Provides support on official WordPress Support Forum Created Easy WP Guide (over 140K downloads) Co-Organiser Melbourne WordPress WordCamp 2013 Co-Organiser for monthly WP Melbourne WordPress Meetups
- 3. Plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. The core of WordPress is designed to be lean and lightweight, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins then offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs. “ ”
- 4. 36,450 Plugins* * In the WordPress.org Plugin Directory as at March 5, 2015
- 5. WordFence Security “Wordfence Security is a free enterprise class security and performance plugin that makes your site up to 50 times faster and more secure.” Real-Time blocking of known attackers Scans for Heartbleed vulnerability and many known backdoors Scans for malware and phishing URL’s Scans core files, theme & plugins against WordPress.org Rate limit or block security threats like aggressive crawlers, scrapers & bots See real-time site traffic Falcon caching engine Free plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence Security Alternatives iThemes Security - https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security All In One WP Security & Firewall - https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-security-and-firewall
- 6. WP Super Cache “A very fast caching engine for WordPress that produces static html files.” Generates static HTML files to improve speed Easy to set up and very fast Works with WooCommerce when dynamic files are required (eg. cart/checkout) Compresses pages Free plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache Caching Alternatives W3 Total Cache - https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache WordFence Security - https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence
- 7. WordPress SEO by Yoast “Improve your WordPress SEO: Write better content and have a fully optimized WordPress site using Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin.” Helps you write better content View search engine preview rendering of your content Page analysis Generates XML Sitemaps Built-in breadcrumbs functionality Social integration Free plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo SEO Alternatives All in One SEO Pack - https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack SEO Ultimate - https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-ultimate
- 8. BackupBuddy “The best way to back up (and move) a WordPress site.” Database or full backups Offsite storage (Stash, Amazon S3, Dropbox, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, email) Schedule backups 1GB of free BackupBuddy Stash storage Ability to exclude files & tables Easily migrate sites between domain names (incl. URL replacement) Email notifications Paid plugin https://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy Backup Alternatives VaultPress - https://vaultpress.com WordPress Backup to Dropbox - https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-backup-to-dropbox
- 9. WooCommerce “WooCommerce is a powerful, extendable eCommerce plugin that helps you sell anything. Beautifully.” Sell physical and digital products Smart Dashboard widgets and reports Manage stock levels Multiple payment gateways Can be extended with free & paid extensions Flexible and customisable Free plugin http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce eCommerce Alternatives Easy Digital Downloads - http://easydigitaldownloads.com Jigoshop - https://www.jigoshop.com
- 10. Gravity Forms “Advanced Forms for WordPress Websites Just Don't Get Any Easier than Gravity Forms” Drag ’n drop visual form editor Multipage forms Easily create order forms Conditional fields Schedule forms Can be used to create user generated content (eg. create Posts) Numerous add-ons to extend functionality Paid plugin http://gravityforms.com Forms Alternatives Contact Form 7 - http://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7 Ninja Forms - https://wordpress.org/plugins/ninja-forms
- 11. Envira Gallery “Envira Gallery is a responsive WordPress gallery plugin that creates incredibly simple and easy workflows around building and managing galleries in WordPress.” Create responsive image sliders and galleries Simple drag ’n drop interface Multisite compatible Customisable Numerous add-ons to extend functionality Paid plugin https://enviragallery.com Sliders & Galleries Alternatives Soliloquy - http://soliloquywp.com Meteor Slides - https://wordpress.org/plugins/meteor-slides
- 12. Black Studio TinyMCE Widget “The visual editor widget for WordPress.” https://wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-tinymce-widget Image Widget “A simple image widget that uses the native WordPress media manager to add image widgets to your site.” https://wordpress.org/plugins/image-widget Regenerate Thumbnails “Allows you to regenerate your thumbnails after changing the thumbnail sizes.” https://wordpress.org/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails Widget Logic “Widget Logic lets you control on which pages widgets appear using WP's conditional tags.” https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-logic Adhoc
- 13. I’m Anthony Hortin You can find me here @maddisondesigns maddisondesigns.com @easywpguide easywpguide.com