10 must have WordPress Plugins
There are millions of websites and blogs on WordPress – it’s one of the world’s most stable platforms.
If your new website is being designed on WordPress, there are some great plug-ins out there which your agency could use to improve its speed, appearance, and security.
Yoast SEO – This plug-in helps you write better website content. It will focus your mind on your main keyword, check you’ve used your alt tags correctly, and that your meta tag contains your main keyword. Yoast automatically creates XML site maps which help the visibility of your images and text, and it tells search engines about them. There are many online tutorials for Yoast and it’s user-friendly. Find out more here: https://yoast.com/
UpdraftPlus – You can create automatic back-up schedules with UpdraftPlus and ensure you back up your site before making any major changes. Multiple Cloud storage providers are compatible, and it uses multiple layers of encryption. Discover more here: https://updraftplus.com/
NextGen Gallery – This gets more than 1.5 million downloads every year for a good reason. It’s perfect for everyone from the general public to professional photographers. It allows you to upload batches, sort and arrange images, upload meta data, group images into galleries, and edit the thumbnails .See more here: https://www.imagely.com/wordpress-gallery-plugin/
Kraken – If you have lots if images, you’ll need a great image compression and storage plug-in like Kraken to give you as much bandwidth as possible. You won’t lose image quality and your website’s upload speed will improve. Discover more here: https://kraken.io/
WPTouch Mobile – Makes your WordPress website or blog mobile friendly without changing code. The theme will pass the Google mobile test, as the plug-in is Google recommended. You can customise the appearance, too. Its pro plug-in also offers options for WooCommerce users. Find out more here: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/wptouch/
iThemes Security – Helps to lock out those guessing your password using WordPress brute force protection, gives different users different password strengths, detects file changes, bans those on a bot blacklist or those who have large numbers of failed password attempts, and locks out IPs whose bots create a large number of 404 errors looking for vulnerabilities in your system. You can also make your site inaccessible during some times of the day – when you’re likely to be asleep, for example. See more here: https://ithemes.com/security/
Easy Google Fonts – Allows you to add Google fonts to any WordPress theme. You get control of your typography without writing code. You can choose from more than 600 Google fonts and are able to preview them in real time without refreshing the page. Find out more here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-google-fonts/
Wordfence – Another great security plug-in. Free to install and use, it checks to see if your site is infected with malware, then secures it and makes it run faster. You get support and can block IPs from individual countries. It audits your passwords, schedules scans, and checks whether your IP address is being used to push out spam advertising. It supports a number of other plug-ins including WooCommerce. See more here: https://www.wordfence.com/
Editorial Calendar – This is great for scheduling all of your blog posts. You can drag and drop posts to change the days they’re posted and change posts within the plug-in. Read more about the plug-in here: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/
Bloom – Build your email subscriber list with posts which can appear on specific posts or pages. You can create a pop-up opt-in form when a user hits the bottom of a page, leaves a comment, or scrolls. You can also build in timed delays. You can design your own forms – putting your personality into them. See more here: http://www.elegantthemes.com/plugins/bloom/