In honor of the new WordPress 3.6 release, I’d like to call out the WordPress plugins that I just can’t live without. Plugins are like apps that add almost limitless functionality to a WordPress site and the following are my favorites:
Akismet comes included with every new install of WordPress. It’s there for a reason; it works. Akismet plays an important role as it filters the spam out of your website comments. Automattic, the same group that’s responsible for bringing us WordPress, is also the team behind Akismet, which is a key reason behind how smoothly they interact.
Ever needed a contact form for your website? Contact Form 7 is the answer. It’s possible to have multiple contact forms, styled exactly to your needs. Whether you’re looking for a simple contact option or a fully detailed questionnaire, Contact Form 7 can handle it all with its simple to use and fully customizable options.
Of this entire list, BackupBuddy is probably my number 1 plugin. Simply put, if you’re going to have a website, it needs to be backed up. BackupBuddy is a trusted option for handling this all-important task. There are many backup options out there, but few that backup the complete website from theme files to the database such as BackupBuddy. There are options for manual backups or scheduled backups with the ability to save to server, download to computer, or push to DropBox. It’s also a valuable tool for migrating a site. It’s the simplest way to do a complete backup of your entire website.
Having a website is great, but you want other people to see it. WordPress SEO by Yoast is the leading option to accomplish this goal. You’ll have complete control over meta titles, descriptions, and keywords for all your pages, posts, categories, archives, media, and more. Another useful feature is the ability to optimize content for the leading social networks. It also includes features to optimize content for social networks and automatically update sitemaps which are pushed to Google on your behalf. These features all work together to help raise your ranking for search engine results.
Another important aspect for any website is to be proactive with security. Login Security Solution will help to secure any website. It is an ideal option to protect against brute force attacks, requires the use of very strong passwords, and offers an idle timeout feature. It will also send notifications to the website administrator in the event that there are any attacks or breaches. It’s also worth mentioning that in addition to a plugin such as this, staying up to date on WordPress updates and plugin updates is another valuable step to prevent against suspicious behavior on your website.
If you find any of these to be useful (and really, you will), consider contributing to the developers as a way of thanking them for their tireless efforts to bring you the functionality you needed.