The Essential Guide To Must Have WordPress Plugins
Have you ever installed WordPress and wondered what plugins you should be installing?
You’re not alone.
There are thousands of plugins you could install which means it can be challenging to choose.
I’ve built my fair share of websites and tested a lot of plugins in the past. This has led me to creating my own list of go-to WordPress plugins.
This includes plugins that improve user experience, security, make backing up your content easy as well as saving time and improving conversions.
But here’s the thing…
There are always alternatives and what plugin is right for one person isn’t always right for another.
So instead of putting together a generic “must have” or “essential” plugins list for you and saying “you must use this plugin for [insert helpful feature]”, I have put together a list that you will find far more helpful.
Below you will find a detailed list of the types of plugins that I usually install for each new blog I setup. I’ve included alternatives for each type of plugin as well as a brief comparison to give you a better idea of which plugin to choose.
Studies have proven this; TagMan found that just a one second delay could cause a 7% drop in conversions.
Google even incorporates page load times into its algorithm and with the use of mobile phones to access the web, page load times will only get more important.
I covered a number of speed enhancing WordPress plugins a while back, but there are generally two main plugins that I use for this:
This is currently my go-to plugin for improving page load times.
W3 Total Cache has a wide range of features and goes beyond just being a simple caching plugin.
I find that it has a reasonable impact out of the box but it’s best not to tweak any of the advanced settings unless you know what you’re doing.
Fully configured, this plugin can have a serious impact on load times.
Features:
This is a great alternative to W3 Total Cache.
It doesn’t have all the same features but it’s much more straight forward to use.
WP Super Cache will generate static HTML files and serve them to your readers, rather than using dynamic pages which take longer to load.
Features:
I’ve found that W3 Total Cache is easier to get running out of the box, but more advanced settings are best left alone if you aren’t sure what you’re doing.
WP Super Cache works really well but requires a few settings tweaks to get started, although after that it’s usually plain sailing.
So it’s recommended that you take action and get a security plugin installed to keep your site locked up tight.
I’ve had a positive experience with both of the plugins below:
I started using this plugin back when it was known as “Better WP Security”.
It’s straight forward to use and has a quick setup that makes a number of important security tweaks with a single click.
There are plenty of other security settings you can tweak to lock your blog down further.
Features:
This security plugin brings the kind of functionality that you would expect to pay a lot of money for.
It’s fairly straight forward to use and has an extensive set of features.
Features:
Wordfence does also have added performance benefits.
It’s true that a lot of web hosts keep backups but you should never rely on these. A company I worked with years ago had their entire blog deleted by their web host. Even the backups were deleted too.
Other web hosts I’ve known to make a tweak that breaks a website without taking a backup first.
Ultimately, you need to take control of the backup process and the best way to do that is to install a purpose built plugin.
It’s also important to make sure that you are doing full backups, rather than just database backups – otherwise you won’t be able to restore everything.
The two plugins below are solid options here:
This is my go-to backup plugin. It’s one of the first plugins that I install on every WordPress based website I build.
I use BackupBuddy because it’s reliable, comes with features that save me time and it’s very straight forward to use.
If you want to migrate a website to a new server, you can use BackupBuddy to run a full backup and then import your website onto the new server without even installing WordPress.
Features:
This is another great option that will ensure your blog is backed up.
It’s completely free and simple to use with some very helpful features. There is also an option to upgrade to a premium version which will give you access to support.
Features:
I personally use BackupBuddy and have done for over well over a year now.
If price is a consideration then BackWPup is a great option and should have the features you will need to schedule complete backups.
BackWPup does seem to support more cloud services (e.g. sending backups to the likes of Google Drive and more) but Backup Buddy covers the main ones.
The only downside to using a free plugin here is that you aren’t guaranteed support and we can’t expect this really can we? Their premium option will give you additional features and paid support.
When it comes to overall cost of the premium version and BackupBuddy, BackupBuddy works out cheaper in some circumstances.
This lets both search engines and users access the new URL. The potential fall out of not doing this can be huge and cause serious issues with user experience.
Generally you would add a 301 redirect which indicates that the URL change is permanent. Occasionally you may wish to add a temporary redirect if the URL will be switching back to the original at some stage, although that is typically used by ecommerce sites when products are removed temporarily.
It’s also important to monitor 404 errors; this will allow you to pro-actively add redirects to ensure a consistent user experience.
Unlike other plugin types, I’ve only found one that is effective for this:
This is a very handy plugin which will manage all of your URL redirects and makes it easy to add redirects for 404 errors.
All errors are logged and you can easily export your redirects if necessary.
Features:
This involves the likes of technical tweaks such as being able to “noindex” pages which you don’t want Google to index, setting canonical links and other aspects such as adding meta data.
There are a number of good options here, I’ve listed two below:
This is one of the most popular SEO plugins available.
I originally used All in One SEO on a lot of my sites but found WordPress SEO to be better equipped with the features I was looking for.
That and WordPress SEO also has a far higher rating in the WordPress plugin repository.
Features:
This is a premium alternative to WordPress SEO which comes loaded with an impressive array of features.
It is pitched as an all-inclusive SEO plugin although there are some features which seem like they would be done better by an external tool. For example, rank tracking etc.
Features:
WP Full SEO has a lot more features but I find some of them aren’t needed and I have other software that does this for me in a way that won’t put additional load on my server.
That’s just me though but it’s worth considering your options here. WordPress SEO is straight forward to setup and free so is worth giving a go first.
Two of the popular ones are Google Analytics and Clicky Analytics which I’ve listed plugins for below.
The reality is you don’t need a plugin for this, you can insert tracking code directly and some themes have an option for this.
However, using a plugin does allow for other functionality.
Both platforms can be used for free, although Clicky has more restrictions such as a limit of daily page views and no premium features but you can upgrade from $9.99/month.
This is a straight forward plugin that allows you to easily add your Google Analytics code and gives you an easy way of stopping logged in users (or specific user roles) from being tracked.
Features:
This is another straight forward plugin which will add your Clicky tracking code to your blog without any need to mess around with code.
Features:
Both are solid options, Google Analytics is more advanced but more complicated to use. I’ve found Clicky to be more basic in certain areas but the upside is that it’s much easier to find your way around the platform. And the premium features can be quite helpful!
These plugins come in more useful when you have more than one contributor, although I’ve found them to useful for single author blogs too.
This plugin is a complete solution for managing your editorial workflow.
You have a helpful calendar which overlays all of your posts so you can visualize your editorial calendar better.
You and your contributors can discuss posts via an editorial comments section which sends out email notifications when comments are added.
I particularly like the option to add custom post statuses which allow you to incorporate your own editorial process into WordPress.
Features:
This handy plugin will give you the ability to visualize when your posts will go live and makes it easy to drag and drop them onto different days.
It’s similar to how the calendar within the Edit Flow plugin works but without the extra editorial process functionality.
Features:
Even if you have a single author blog, I find that the custom statuses and post notifications can be great for keeping organized.
If you want a straight forward way of managing your posting schedule better, Editorial Calendar is a great choice.
Out of all the list building plugins on the market, there is one in particular that stands out:
I’ve used this plugin a lot in the past and achieved some great results.
It’s got some impressive features but out of everything I find the drag & drop interface extremely impressive – it makes form customization easy.
Most plugins are restrictive, they either allow you to edit limited portions of an opt-in form template or the customization process requires coding.
You also get a wealth of other features such as reporting, split testing and 2-step opt-in forms.
There are a lot of plugins on the market but there aren’t any that have such a solid offering. Thrive has it all, you have the features you need to grow your email list and the plugin is fast and you’ve got great value for money too.
You get all features available to you no matter which plan you go for.
Features:
The idea of a landing page is that distractions are removed and the entire page is focused on a single goal. That goal is to convert.
I’ve tried plenty of landing page creation plugins, even a few free ones but I’ve come away with the conclusion that paid tools do this far better.
And the free plugin I tried charged for integrations with email providers so it ended up being more expensive than the cheapest plugin listed below.
This is more than a plugin; it’s a complete landing page platform.
LeadPages handles everything from creating landing pages and hosting them to delivering digital assets.
The WordPress plugin is uploaded as most other plugins but the difference here is that the pages can be edited on the fly right from within LeadPages. This allows for split tests and important to be made within a few clicks.
Features:
This plugin goes beyond just a tool to create landing pages.
You also get a theme version with it which can power your entire blog as well as a membership plugin which can come in very useful.
There are plenty of templates to get you started. You get 30+ templates out of the box and you have the option of subscribing to the monthly club will give you access to 100+ more.
Features:
This plugin recently received a fantastic update.
It was originally focused on building custom page layouts but now has the added option to create landing pages with 2 step opt-in forms.
The visual editor is straight forward to use and can display page layouts using your existing theme.
Features:
On the downside there are long term costs involved and there isn’t much room to customize templates. Well, customization is easy but if you want to add an image to a template which has no image, you can’t add it unless you download the HTML version and tweak it.
OptimizePress is a more resource intensive plugin but has extensive functionality and the membership plugin makes it a great offering.
Thrive Content Builder is more lightweight than OptimizePress but still includes advanced customization options. It’s also more cost effective but it doesn’t have as many templates included, although they are very straight forward to create.
There are a lot of social plugins on the market, both free and paid but there are two which I have been using recently to great effect:
This is currently my go-to social sharing plugin.
It’s by far the most feature intensive social sharing plugin that I have come across.
One of the key features for me is the option to display unique social sharing buttons and advanced control over how total shares are displayed.
The problem with most social plugins that display counts is that when a post doesn’t have many social shares, it conveys negative social proof.
This means that it makes your blog look like its unpopular and that people aren’t sharing your content. In these situations its best to only display share counts after they hit a certain number.
Features:
Sumo Me have some pretty awesome tools and this is one of their recent additions.
You can easily add social sharing buttons to various locations on your posts including a floating social bar.
You do have to register an account to use this and it will display a powered by simple when people use the “more shares” option but it still packs a punch.
Features:
It’s very light weight and has some helpful features.
On the downside, it can be time consuming to exclude this from certain pages and it doesn’t come with a short code option.
There doesn’t seem to be an option that allows you to avoid negative social proof apart from disabling share counts altogether. Although, knowing what Noah, Chad and the rest of the team behind this plugin are like, I can imagine it being on their list of features to add (along with some other cool stuff).
I currently use Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress because of the additional functionality. Its $14 so it’s reasonably priced and I find that the developers are very open to feature suggestions.
They drain your server resources and take up valuable time if you were to moderate them all by hand. The plugins listed below will help you save a lot of time moderating them:
This is an easy to use solution that will stop most spam comments.
I hate the idea of users being impacted by spammers and a lot of other plugins tend to use complicated captcha’s whereas this uses a straight forward tick box.
The plugin will also add hidden fields that are only displayed to bots, when they are filled in the comment will be identified as spam.
Features:
This plugin will completely replace the native WordPress commenting system for a hosted system which has a huge number of features.
This does pose an additional hoop for readers to jump through, so it’s important to edit the settings to allow guests to post.
It’s worth considering that some people dislike the platform because it’s not as straight forward to comment as with the WordPress commenting system, although once you have an account commenting is very easy.
This is much more than a spam blocking plugin, but I’ve listed it because it’s the reason I went to 100+ daily spam comments to 0.
Features:
Disqus is slightly more effective at stopping spam comments and is far more feature intensive but some people are put off from commenting.
I would recommend trying G.A.S.P first and seeing how that impacts the number of spam comments you receive first.
Start off thinking about what you need a plugin to do for you first, then look at some specific options but consider which features you really need. For example if you need an SEO plugin, do you really need to be able to track your rankings? Or could another tool be more effective.
You’re not alone.
There are thousands of plugins you could install which means it can be challenging to choose.
I’ve built my fair share of websites and tested a lot of plugins in the past. This has led me to creating my own list of go-to WordPress plugins.
But here’s the thing…
There are always alternatives and what plugin is right for one person isn’t always right for another.
So instead of putting together a generic “must have” or “essential” plugins list for you and saying “you must use this plugin for [insert helpful feature]”, I have put together a list that you will find far more helpful.
Below you will find a detailed list of the types of plugins that I usually install for each new blog I setup. I’ve included alternatives for each type of plugin as well as a brief comparison to give you a better idea of which plugin to choose.
Speed up your blog
If your blog takes too long to load, you could be losing money because people expect blogs to load fast.Studies have proven this; TagMan found that just a one second delay could cause a 7% drop in conversions.
Google even incorporates page load times into its algorithm and with the use of mobile phones to access the web, page load times will only get more important.
I covered a number of speed enhancing WordPress plugins a while back, but there are generally two main plugins that I use for this:
W3 Total Cache
This is currently my go-to plugin for improving page load times.
W3 Total Cache has a wide range of features and goes beyond just being a simple caching plugin.
I find that it has a reasonable impact out of the box but it’s best not to tweak any of the advanced settings unless you know what you’re doing.
Fully configured, this plugin can have a serious impact on load times.
Features:
- Compatible with various hosting environments.
- Minification functionality.
- CDN support.
- Database caching.
- Object caching
- Browser caching.
- Advanced settings.
WP Super Cache
This is a great alternative to W3 Total Cache.
It doesn’t have all the same features but it’s much more straight forward to use.
WP Super Cache will generate static HTML files and serve them to your readers, rather than using dynamic pages which take longer to load.
Features:
- CDN support.
- Support for multiple caching types (Mod_Rewrite, PHP and Legacy).
- Choose who static files are served to.
Which should you choose?
Both plugins are great options; I have sites that run both of them.I’ve found that W3 Total Cache is easier to get running out of the box, but more advanced settings are best left alone if you aren’t sure what you’re doing.
WP Super Cache works really well but requires a few settings tweaks to get started, although after that it’s usually plain sailing.
Secure your blog
Security is a big issue on the web and WordPress is no exception.So it’s recommended that you take action and get a security plugin installed to keep your site locked up tight.
I’ve had a positive experience with both of the plugins below:
iThemes Security
I started using this plugin back when it was known as “Better WP Security”.
It’s straight forward to use and has a quick setup that makes a number of important security tweaks with a single click.
There are plenty of other security settings you can tweak to lock your blog down further.
Features:
- Ban IP addresses and hosts.
- Scans for changes to files.
- Built in brute force protection.
- 404 error detection.
- Helpful security logs.
- Malware scanning.
- White list your own IP address.
- Database backups.
- Strong password generator.
- Export or import settings in a few clicks.
Wordfence
This security plugin brings the kind of functionality that you would expect to pay a lot of money for.
It’s fairly straight forward to use and has an extensive set of features.
Features:
- Multi-site compatible.
- 2 factor authentication.
- Built in caching.
- Blocks malicious networks.
- Scans for file changes.
- Malware scanning.
- Blocks known attackers in real time.
- Disk space monitoring.
- IP blocking.
Which should you choose?
I’ve used both plugins and find iThemes Security a bit easier to find my way around but Wordfence is a very powerful plugin with features that I’d expect to pay a decent amount of money for.Wordfence does also have added performance benefits.
Backup your blog and get peace of mind
I can’t count how many times I’ve known people to forget to run a backup, update something and look on in disbelief as things fall apart.It’s true that a lot of web hosts keep backups but you should never rely on these. A company I worked with years ago had their entire blog deleted by their web host. Even the backups were deleted too.
Other web hosts I’ve known to make a tweak that breaks a website without taking a backup first.
Ultimately, you need to take control of the backup process and the best way to do that is to install a purpose built plugin.
It’s also important to make sure that you are doing full backups, rather than just database backups – otherwise you won’t be able to restore everything.
The two plugins below are solid options here:
BackupBuddy
This is my go-to backup plugin. It’s one of the first plugins that I install on every WordPress based website I build.
I use BackupBuddy because it’s reliable, comes with features that save me time and it’s very straight forward to use.
If you want to migrate a website to a new server, you can use BackupBuddy to run a full backup and then import your website onto the new server without even installing WordPress.
Features:
- Easy website migration.
- Free 1GB cloud backup (iThemes Stash).
- Supports multiple cloud storage services including Dropbox and Amazon S3.
- Scheduled backups.
- Full backups and database backups.
- Option to exclude any files you don’t want to backup.
BackWPup
This is another great option that will ensure your blog is backed up.
It’s completely free and simple to use with some very helpful features. There is also an option to upgrade to a premium version which will give you access to support.
Features:
- Supports remote backups to the likes of Amazon S3, Google Drive and more.
- Easy to use restore function.
- Schedule backups to suite you.
- Supports export of WordPress XML files.
Which should you choose?
Both are great options.I personally use BackupBuddy and have done for over well over a year now.
If price is a consideration then BackWPup is a great option and should have the features you will need to schedule complete backups.
BackWPup does seem to support more cloud services (e.g. sending backups to the likes of Google Drive and more) but Backup Buddy covers the main ones.
The only downside to using a free plugin here is that you aren’t guaranteed support and we can’t expect this really can we? Their premium option will give you additional features and paid support.
When it comes to overall cost of the premium version and BackupBuddy, BackupBuddy works out cheaper in some circumstances.
Manage redirects and monitor 404 errors
If you change a posts URL then you need to redirect it to the new URL.This lets both search engines and users access the new URL. The potential fall out of not doing this can be huge and cause serious issues with user experience.
Generally you would add a 301 redirect which indicates that the URL change is permanent. Occasionally you may wish to add a temporary redirect if the URL will be switching back to the original at some stage, although that is typically used by ecommerce sites when products are removed temporarily.
It’s also important to monitor 404 errors; this will allow you to pro-actively add redirects to ensure a consistent user experience.
Unlike other plugin types, I’ve only found one that is effective for this:
Redirection
This is a very handy plugin which will manage all of your URL redirects and makes it easy to add redirects for 404 errors.
All errors are logged and you can easily export your redirects if necessary.
Features:
- Monitor 404 errors.
- Import/export functionality.
- Add 301 redirects with ease.
- Other redirect types supported (301, 302 and 307).
- Automatic redirects added when post permalinks are changed.
- Redirect based on referrer.
Optimize your blog for search engines
There are a number of things you will need to do in order to optimize your blog for search engines which WordPress doesn’t support by default.This involves the likes of technical tweaks such as being able to “noindex” pages which you don’t want Google to index, setting canonical links and other aspects such as adding meta data.
There are a number of good options here, I’ve listed two below:
WordPress SEO by Yoast
This is one of the most popular SEO plugins available.
I originally used All in One SEO on a lot of my sites but found WordPress SEO to be better equipped with the features I was looking for.
That and WordPress SEO also has a far higher rating in the WordPress plugin repository.
Features:
- Helpful page analysis functionality.
- Basic on page SEO score.
- XML sitemap generator.
- Facebook OpenGraph support.
- RSS settings.
- Edit titles and descriptions in bulk.
- Edit .htaccess and robots.txt files.
- Import and export settings.
- Various permalink tweaks.
WP Full SEO
This is a premium alternative to WordPress SEO which comes loaded with an impressive array of features.
It is pitched as an all-inclusive SEO plugin although there are some features which seem like they would be done better by an external tool. For example, rank tracking etc.
Features:
- Manage redirects.
- Social signal tracking.
- Track your websites rankings.
- Run backups.
- On page SEO scoring system.
- Add Rich Snippets.
- Twitter Card support.
- Facebook OpenGraph support.
- Add meta data like descriptions etc.
- Run your own reports.
Which should you choose?
I’ve heard good things about WP Full SEO but I’ve decided to stick with WordPress SEO, it’s free to use and has all the important features.WP Full SEO has a lot more features but I find some of them aren’t needed and I have other software that does this for me in a way that won’t put additional load on my server.
That’s just me though but it’s worth considering your options here. WordPress SEO is straight forward to setup and free so is worth giving a go first.
Monitor your progress with analytics
There are a lot of analytics related WordPress plugins, but I prefer to use external tools for analytics because they offer much better functionality.Two of the popular ones are Google Analytics and Clicky Analytics which I’ve listed plugins for below.
The reality is you don’t need a plugin for this, you can insert tracking code directly and some themes have an option for this.
However, using a plugin does allow for other functionality.
Both platforms can be used for free, although Clicky has more restrictions such as a limit of daily page views and no premium features but you can upgrade from $9.99/month.
Google Analyticator
This is a straight forward plugin that allows you to easily add your Google Analytics code and gives you an easy way of stopping logged in users (or specific user roles) from being tracked.
Features:
- Option to not track particular user roles.
- Support for universal and traditional tracking codes.
- Dashboard widget.
- Link tracking options.
- Option to add additional tracking code.
Clicky by Yoast
This is another straight forward plugin which will add your Clicky tracking code to your blog without any need to mess around with code.
Features:
- Adds tracking code automatically.
- Option to avoid tracking stats from admins.
- Support for disabling the use of cookies.
- Goal tracking functionality.
- Easy download link tracking.
- View basic statistics in your dashboard.
Which should you choose?
This depends entirely on which analytics platform you want to go with.Both are solid options, Google Analytics is more advanced but more complicated to use. I’ve found Clicky to be more basic in certain areas but the upside is that it’s much easier to find your way around the platform. And the premium features can be quite helpful!
Manage teams and improve editorial processes
WordPress doesn’t come with anything to help manage teams or editorial processes so it’s worth considering using a plugin to add this functionality.These plugins come in more useful when you have more than one contributor, although I’ve found them to useful for single author blogs too.
Edit Flow
This plugin is a complete solution for managing your editorial workflow.
You have a helpful calendar which overlays all of your posts so you can visualize your editorial calendar better.
You and your contributors can discuss posts via an editorial comments section which sends out email notifications when comments are added.
I particularly like the option to add custom post statuses which allow you to incorporate your own editorial process into WordPress.
Features:
- Add important details can be added to an editorial meta data section.
- Editorial calendar allows you to visualise and tweak when your posts will go live.
- Add custom statuses with descriptions in a few clicks.
- Notifications are sent when comments are added or post statuses are changed.
- Subscribe to the editorial calendar with Google Calendar.
Editorial Calendar
This handy plugin will give you the ability to visualize when your posts will go live and makes it easy to drag and drop them onto different days.
It’s similar to how the calendar within the Edit Flow plugin works but without the extra editorial process functionality.
Features:
- Change when a post will go live with the drag and drop interface.
- See post statuses from the calendar.
- Quick edit function works from within the calendar.
- Manage posts for multiple authors.
Which should you choose?
If you have a blog with multiple contributors, Edit Flow would be a great choice due to its level of functionality.Even if you have a single author blog, I find that the custom statuses and post notifications can be great for keeping organized.
If you want a straight forward way of managing your posting schedule better, Editorial Calendar is a great choice.
Grow your email list
If you want to grow your blog, you need to build an email list because it’s the most effective way to reach your audience. It’s also a great way to sell products almost on auto pilot.Out of all the list building plugins on the market, there is one in particular that stands out:
Thrive Leads
I’ve used this plugin a lot in the past and achieved some great results.
It’s got some impressive features but out of everything I find the drag & drop interface extremely impressive – it makes form customization easy.
Most plugins are restrictive, they either allow you to edit limited portions of an opt-in form template or the customization process requires coding.
You also get a wealth of other features such as reporting, split testing and 2-step opt-in forms.
There are a lot of plugins on the market but there aren’t any that have such a solid offering. Thrive has it all, you have the features you need to grow your email list and the plugin is fast and you’ve got great value for money too.
You get all features available to you no matter which plan you go for.
Features:
- 30+ templates.
- Supports various opt-in form locations: popovers, sidebar, after post and slide-ins.
- Supports 2-step opt-in forms.
- Shortcode support.
- Advanced page targeting functionality.
- A/B Split Testing.
- Supports most popular email providers.
- Easy form customization.
- Easy to use interface.
Build high converting landing pages – fast
Whether you want to sell a product, sell a service or build your email list – landing pages work well.The idea of a landing page is that distractions are removed and the entire page is focused on a single goal. That goal is to convert.
I’ve tried plenty of landing page creation plugins, even a few free ones but I’ve come away with the conclusion that paid tools do this far better.
And the free plugin I tried charged for integrations with email providers so it ended up being more expensive than the cheapest plugin listed below.
LeadPages
This is more than a plugin; it’s a complete landing page platform.
LeadPages handles everything from creating landing pages and hosting them to delivering digital assets.
The WordPress plugin is uploaded as most other plugins but the difference here is that the pages can be edited on the fly right from within LeadPages. This allows for split tests and important to be made within a few clicks.
Features:
- 70+ templates with more added each month.
- Built in statistics.
- Built in split testing.
- Templates are arranged by conversion rates.
- Pages are mobile responsive.
- Digital asset delivery.
- Compatible with most popular email providers.
- Add landing pages within Facebook.
- LeadBoxes feature allows you to utilize 2 step opt-in processes.
- LeadLinks allows subscribers to join a list by clicking on a single link.
- Pages are hosted for you.
- Use LeadPages with HTML based websites.
OptimizePress
This plugin goes beyond just a tool to create landing pages.
You also get a theme version with it which can power your entire blog as well as a membership plugin which can come in very useful.
There are plenty of templates to get you started. You get 30+ templates out of the box and you have the option of subscribing to the monthly club will give you access to 100+ more.
Features:
- Theme version included.
- Drag and drop editor for easy page building.
- Add OptimizePress elements to posts using shortcodes.
- Fully mobile responsive.
- Membership plugin included.
- 40+ custom elements to add to your pages.
- 30+ templates.
- Support for 2 step opt-in processes.
- Support for most popular email providers.
- Support for popular membership plugins like DAP, MemberMouse and Wishlist Member.
Thrive Content Builder
This plugin recently received a fantastic update.
It was originally focused on building custom page layouts but now has the added option to create landing pages with 2 step opt-in forms.
The visual editor is straight forward to use and can display page layouts using your existing theme.
Features:
- Several templates included.
- Easy to use interface.
- Event manager allows creation of 2 step opt-in forms.
- Various design elements for your pages.
- Built in API can be used to add your own custom elements.
- Undo/redo functionality.
Which should you choose?
I find that LeadPages is quickest overall and has some features that save me a huge amount of time. For example, the A/B split testing feature is brilliant.On the downside there are long term costs involved and there isn’t much room to customize templates. Well, customization is easy but if you want to add an image to a template which has no image, you can’t add it unless you download the HTML version and tweak it.
OptimizePress is a more resource intensive plugin but has extensive functionality and the membership plugin makes it a great offering.
Thrive Content Builder is more lightweight than OptimizePress but still includes advanced customization options. It’s also more cost effective but it doesn’t have as many templates included, although they are very straight forward to create.
Encourage social sharing
You need to make it easy for your readers to share your content so it’s worthwhile getting a plugin installed for this.There are a lot of social plugins on the market, both free and paid but there are two which I have been using recently to great effect:
Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress
This is currently my go-to social sharing plugin.
It’s by far the most feature intensive social sharing plugin that I have come across.
One of the key features for me is the option to display unique social sharing buttons and advanced control over how total shares are displayed.
The problem with most social plugins that display counts is that when a post doesn’t have many social shares, it conveys negative social proof.
This means that it makes your blog look like its unpopular and that people aren’t sharing your content. In these situations its best to only display share counts after they hit a certain number.
Features:
- Support for 20 social networks.
- 12 native social buttons.
- 12 templates for social sharing buttons.
- 10 display options including shortcode placement.
- Bit.ly support.
- Social metrics included.
- Advanced control over how share counts are displayed.
- And lots more.
Share by Sumo Me
You can easily add social sharing buttons to various locations on your posts including a floating social bar.
You do have to register an account to use this and it will display a powered by simple when people use the “more shares” option but it still packs a punch.
Features:
- Supports 16+ social networks.
- Various visual placement options.
- Option to exclude URL’s.
- Mobile responsive.
- Display total share counts.
- Track total shares.
- Automatically optimizes based on which networks refer the most traffic.
- HTML version.
Which should you choose?
If you’re looking for a straight forward plugin that is completely free, Share by Sumo Me is a solid option.It’s very light weight and has some helpful features.
On the downside, it can be time consuming to exclude this from certain pages and it doesn’t come with a short code option.
There doesn’t seem to be an option that allows you to avoid negative social proof apart from disabling share counts altogether. Although, knowing what Noah, Chad and the rest of the team behind this plugin are like, I can imagine it being on their list of features to add (along with some other cool stuff).
I currently use Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress because of the additional functionality. Its $14 so it’s reasonably priced and I find that the developers are very open to feature suggestions.
Block spam comments with ease
Spam comments are still a serious problem.They drain your server resources and take up valuable time if you were to moderate them all by hand. The plugins listed below will help you save a lot of time moderating them:
Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin (G.A.S.P)
This is an easy to use solution that will stop most spam comments.
I hate the idea of users being impacted by spammers and a lot of other plugins tend to use complicated captcha’s whereas this uses a straight forward tick box.
The plugin will also add hidden fields that are only displayed to bots, when they are filled in the comment will be identified as spam.
Features:
- Forces user to tick a box stating they are a real person.
- Adds hidden fields to trick bots.
- User referrer check.
- Maximum comments in moderation function.
Disqus
This plugin will completely replace the native WordPress commenting system for a hosted system which has a huge number of features.
This does pose an additional hoop for readers to jump through, so it’s important to edit the settings to allow guests to post.
It’s worth considering that some people dislike the platform because it’s not as straight forward to comment as with the WordPress commenting system, although once you have an account commenting is very easy.
This is much more than a spam blocking plugin, but I’ve listed it because it’s the reason I went to 100+ daily spam comments to 0.
Features:
- Moderate comments offsite.
- Easy comment subscription for users.
- Comments can be voted on and featured.
- Whitelist and blacklist commenters with ease.
- Comment notifications are taken care of.
- Earn money by displaying related content below your blog posts.
Which should you choose?
Both plugins are free. If you want a straight forward spam blocking plugin then G.A.S.P is the most straight forward option.Disqus is slightly more effective at stopping spam comments and is far more feature intensive but some people are put off from commenting.
I would recommend trying G.A.S.P first and seeing how that impacts the number of spam comments you receive first.
Over to you
I’ve listed a lot of plugins and all of them can be effective in their own way.Start off thinking about what you need a plugin to do for you first, then look at some specific options but consider which features you really need. For example if you need an SEO plugin, do you really need to be able to track your rankings? Or could another tool be more effective.
Are there any particular challenges you’ve faced and overcome with WordPress? Let us know more in the comments below.
