What is a Word Press Plugin?
You all know by now that I am obsessed with Wordpress. I love what it can do, I love what you can use Wordpress for. I work with it nearly exclusively now and I liked it so well that I started teaching it, and building with it, and writing tutorials for it and working with the development of the documents for it.
Most of all I love the massive amounts of ultra functional plugins that WordPress can use and all the cool things they can be used to do. Wordpress has come into it’s own lately, is far more than the blog software it originated as, and while the use of Wordpress as a CMS is all too frequent, many people aren’t aware that it can be used as a cms. The plugin is a small piece of add on software, simply stated, that adds form or function to your site, and lets you customize it to suit yourself without a ton of effort or coding.
Akismet is probably less important than it once was, but whether blog or cms, do you really want all that crap to delete or would you rather have it done for you.?
Every CMS or blog software has it’s positve and negative side. Aside from the many things that the software itseld can do it is in part because of all the Wordpress plugins available today that wordpress has gained the popularity that it has. It is user friendly, easy to navigate and well laid out. Wordpress is far more positive than it is negative.
So What are the Absolute MUST-HAVE plugins for WordPress?
There are about a dozen of them that I totally love, but about 7 or 8 that you just can’t live without and they automate everything from your sitemap generation to preventing the Viagra salesmen of the world from taking over your space on the web. There are many more that will add incredible little tricks and tweaks, and a whole lot in between, such as making your site far more easily seen and viewed by the search engines.
Well okay fine, for the more literal among you, of course you can live without it. Nothing is essential but these are just nice to have. Some of these are more than a couple years old and they still fall in my . I want that on my Wordpress site” list each time I install a new one.
To run it down for you, the best WordPress plugins and the (almost) essentials for any wordpress site are:
Akismet -a hardnosed Spam killer, you can’t live without it. It requires a key to use and it comes with your wordpress.Use it!
Google XML Sitemaps-builds you a sitemap that lets Google see you more readily, spider you more cleanly, and is also a map that can be seen by Yahoo, Bing and several other search engines. Want to be spidered and visible… Use the Google XML Sitemap plugin for WordPress.
Wp_Page Navi- Instead of seeing “Older Entries” isn’t it much cooler to see them all laid out in pretty rows of small numbers. Page Navi does that for you.
ALL In One SEO-while its not the be-all and end all of plugins, for those who are new to WordPress, or just don’t have the time to spend, All In One SEO can automate a great deal of your search engine optimization for you, making you more easily seen online and getting your information, or at least your presence, seen online.’
WP-Security Scan- Literally alerts you to the little security flaws and holes in your site, letting you know in most cases h ow to close them.
WP-Cache-WP cache may not sound like something that’s going to make your site run at its best but the truth is, while it doesn’t pretty you up at all, it absolutely makes you more easily viewed and navigated. It helps your website to be more responsive and it lowers the load on your server so that your site isn’t as slow as.. well really slow.
WordPress Database Backup–Backing up your database is important for all of us, but its particularly important if you’re new to wordpress. Yet for those who are new to it, its also one of the most tedious and difficult things you can do. Wordpress Database backup allows for one click back up of your site which can take place from the admin panel in your WordPress site.
Google Analytics Plugin
Just what it says.As opposed to having to do the analysis of your google stuff by hand, adding the code and etc, you use the plugin. Simple, sweet, effective.
Those are the WordPress pluginsthat we think are the best, the ones you really need. There is another list we’d like to add. The WordPress plugins that are unique, add some real visual interest or functionality to your site.The ones we like just because they are pretty, make your site sparkle or add something fun to it are:
Featured Content Gallery-Great rotating gallery, easy to use, easy for new people to install. Nice plugin that adds some shine to your site. Fast becoming a very popular addition to nearly every recently built site we’ve seen.
WP Cumulus-rotating tag, categories, or both. Set the colors any way you want them, make them match your site, or all black and white. Leave the background transparent or set it to any color you’d like Customizable, unique and fun.
Video Widget_ Video widget is plain and simple. NO fuss, no frills, works with every instance of Wordpress that we’ve tried and beats the others hands down for ease of use for a new WordPress User.
How do you Add WordPress Plugins? Simple as pie. Either upload it to the plugins folder of your server or these days, simply search the plugins by clicking the Add New under the plugin category of WordPress and searching the plugins using key words. In many cases these will install themselves and you can configure most of them with minmal problems from the settings area in your Wordpress dashboard.
If you run into problems, drop us a line and we’ll be glad to help you install your plugin . Do bear in mind that not all plugins are functional with all versions of WordPress.
