WordPress plugins are the ideal way to add functionality and improve performance to WordPress sites.

While there are thousands of free and premium plugins available, I have my own list of favorites. From clients’ sites to my own sites, I’ve used all of these on a regular basis.

Each adds something useful to the site. From ecommerce tools to improved SEO, each is designed to make the sites I develop even better.

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms provides a drag and drop interface for creating basic and advanced forms. It’s easy to build and customise forms to meet any site’s needs. You can even create your own fields and schedule how long a form is displayed.

Takeaway: If you’re building forms for WordPress, this plugin has you covered. It’s used on millions of sites for a reason.

WordPress SEO By Yoast

WordPress SEO by Yoast is one of the most popular plugins for optimising posts and pages. SEO can be confusing, but this plugin makes it as easy as filling in a few blanks. It double checks your content to ensure it’s optimised. It doesn’t just focus on keywords. It also creates XML sitemaps, provides meta and link element control and improves RSS feeds.

Takeaway: Don’t try to manage SEO fully on your own. Let this plugin give you the help you need for a more optimised site.

WooCommerce

Run a full ecommerce store with the WooCommerce plugin. You can manage inventory, accept payments, create sales reports, run marketing campaigns and much more. The long list of features provides everything you need for your store. Plus, there are hundreds of extensions available to boost the power of the plugin.

Takeaway: No WordPress ecommerce site is complete without this plugin. It currently powers 24% of all ecommerce sites.

Jetpack

Jetpack offers a wide variety of features for WordPress sites. My favorite features include WordPress.com Stats, Publicize and Sharing. The first provides detailed stats without degrading site performance. The latter two make it easy to automatically share posts and provide one click social media sharing.

Takeaway: Use just the features you need to optimise and learn more about your site. Plus, it doesn’t harm a site’s performance.

WP Migrate DB Pro

Migrating WordPress sites can be time consuming and difficult. WP Migrate DB Pro helps save valuable time so clients’ sites are moved quickly. It gives developers full control over the migration process, including backing up the database.

Takeaway: Reduce the stress and hassle of migration. Use this plugin instead.

Automatic Domain Changer

Automatic Domain Changer does exactly what the name implies. It’s a life saver for ensuring a smoother migration from one domain to another. The plugin detects domain name changes and updates all your WordPress tables to reflect any changes.

Takeaway: This is another must have plugin for WordPress migrations. It helps prevent annoying domain errors during the process.

Custom Sidebars Pro

Custom Sidebars Pro gives you full control over customising exactly how, where and even when widgets appear on a site. It integrates with the widgets area in WordPress to make it easier to manage complex widgets across the entire site.

Takeaway: Using this plugin gives you far more control over widget customisation. It also makes managing the look and feel of widgets even easier.

Easy Add Thumbnail

Easy Add Thumbnail automatically adds the feature image ID to posts, including old ones. It doesn’t actually change anything in your database. This removes the need to manually set it for every post. It’s ideal for any themes that don’t automatically add thumbnails for featured images.

Takeaway: Adding the thumbnail meta key for old posts takes hours. This plugin does it quickly and prevents you from forgetting to do it on future posts.

W3 Total Cache

A cache plugin is a must for optimising WordPress site performance. W3 Total Cache can boost page loading speeds by up to 10x when it’s fully configured. This helps improve a site’s rank and visitor satisfaction. It helps improve server performance and handles compression for optimal bandwidth savings.

Takeaway: Visitors expect sites to load quickly. This caching plugin gives site the extra speed boost they need to prevent visitors from leaving due to slow loading pages.

Post Thumbnail Editor

Some WordPress themes create thumbnail cropping chaos. Post Thumbnail Editor provides an interface to manually fix the random sizing and cropping issues of thumbnails on WordPress sites. This allows you to create a more uniform and professional look for thumbnails across the entire site.

Takeaway: Automated thumbnail sizing tools don’t always work as expected. Use this plugin to fix any issues left behind.

Conclusion

I don’t just use these on clients’ sites. I also use them on my own WordPress sites: Retro Race Cars and The Startup Pitch. Professional developers utilise these plugins and many others to provide the best sites for their clients. It’s important to have a developer set up these plugins to ensure a site receives the most benefit.

Thinking of using any of these WordPress plugins on your own site? Contact StuartMedia today to see which ones are best for your needs. 

Image: Rob Davies

For most WordPress users, the basic WordPress installation doesn’t include all the features they want or need to create their website.

While themes often include many of these missing features, they don’t include everything. The answer to increasing the functionality of your website is simple – WordPress plugins.

Much like themes, plugins help you create a more user friendly site that’s also easier for you to administer.

What Are WordPress Plugins?

Plugins are a collection of scripts and assets that extend the functionality of an existing WordPress installation. Since WordPress is designed to be lightweight in order to improve page loading times, you only have the most essential and common features and functions by default. When you need added features or want to improve upon a feature you already have, you can either install a plugin or add code to your existing theme.

WordPress only includes two plugins by default. The first is Akismet which helps protect sites against spam comments. The second is Hello Dolly which randomly displays lyrics from “Hello Dolly.” While you’ll likely never use the latter, it’s actually the first official plugin designed for WordPress. The former is widely used to help cut down on useless, spammy comments.

From analytics and security to forms and page sliders, plugins can help a WordPress site do almost anything. The key is finding the right balance of plugins to maintain optimal page loading speeds and function.

When Should You Use Plugins?

The biggest question surround plugins is when should you use them. With thousands of free and premium plugins available, it’s tempting to load a site with hundreds of them. After all, more plugins should equal a better site, right? Wrong. The right plugins make a better site.

You should only install plugins if they’ll truly add something beneficial to your site or make administering the site easier. The more plugins you install, the slower your site loads. While higher quality plugins typically don’t affect site performance much, lower quality plugins will noticeably slow down your site and drive visitors away.

How To Install Plugins?

The installation method depends mainly on the plugins you choose. Some require you to copy and paste the code snippet into your current theme’s code. Some walk you step by step through the installation process. Others are included with your theme and only need to be activated to be used.

If you’re not comfortable editing code, it’s highly recommended to hire a WordPress developer to install plugins for you. They know exactly where to place the code so the plugin functions correctly. Pasting the code in the wrong place could cause problems with your site.

What’s The Difference In Free And Premium?

Free and premium WordPress plugins are available all over the Internet. A search for WordPress plugin along with the function you want to accomplish could easily yield hundreds of results. Odds are, you’ll see both free and premium options. The main difference of course is price.

The quality of the plugin is also a big difference depending on where you find the plugin. Free sources are sometimes questionable as some plugins could be dangerous. However, some sources are highly reputable, such as official plugins from WordPress.

Premium plugins often provide special functionality you won’t find elsewhere. These plugins may also combine several functions into one plugin. Plus, they tend not to affect site performance nearly as much as their free counterparts.

Where To Find Plugins?

You have two main options for finding plugins – search online or hire a WordPress developer to create a custom one for your site. Custom plugins are usually the best choice if you can’t find a reputable plugin online and don’t want to settle for something that doesn’t do exactly what you need it to do. It’s also a good idea if you have a custom theme.

The following sites offer a wide variety of plugin options:

• WordPress.org – With over 30,000 plugins, WordPress is the most reputable source of free plugins.
• MakeUseOf Plugin List – Find the best plugins (free and premium) divided into categories such as social and core functionality.
• WPPlugins – This premium plugin marketplace has over 100 plugins to choose from.
• WPMUDEV – The site has an easy to search premium plugin list.
• Code Canyon – Find exactly what you need from hundreds of premium plugins.

Besides searching for specific plugins, you can also install a WordPress theme that already has all the plugins you’re looking for built-in. In most cases, you’ll need to buy a premium or custom developed theme to get exactly what you need.

WordPress plugins are ideal for taking a WordPress site from basic to professional and highly functional quickly. They’re easy to install and a must have for any real WordPress powered site.

Image: Harsh Agrawal