WordPress PlugIns
Over the past year or so we’ve designed and/or installed over 50 WordPress sites. We find ourselves using a couple of plugins all the time for various tasks and added functionality.
These are our favorites that also have never given any issues.
Contact Form 7
Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.
Create your form, not necessarily a contact form and put the generated [shortcode] in a post or page
Visual Form Builder
Dynamically build forms using a simple interface. Forms include jQuery validation, a basic logic-based verification system, and entry tracking.
This one is also suitable for very extensive forms and looks great on the front end. Like this one on an upcoming website.
PayPal Donations
Easy and simple setup and insertion of PayPal donate buttons with a shortcode or through a sidebar Widget. Donation purpose can be set for each button. A few other customization options are available as well.
Input your PayPal e-mail in the plugin’s settings and place the widget that comes pre-installed with the plugin in your sidebar
Akismet
Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam.
This one is actually pre-installed with every WordPress installation. You need a key to make it work. If you don’t have an API key yet, you can get one at Akismet.com.
Ultimate Follow Me Plugin by Free Blog Factory
Showcase any or all of your facebook, twitter, linkedin, youtube, and buzz profiles with your choice of button design.
No settings for this one, just add the widget in the sidebar and input your credentials for the various social media. It also has a link for your e-mail and a nice RSS-feeder to keep your visitors up to date.
Ultimate Maintenance Mode
Displays a screenshot of website with an overlayed window with the reason your site is down.
ShareThis
Lets your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites.
W3 Total Cache
The highest rated and most complete WordPress performance plugin.
A lot of overwhelming settings but very beneficial to make your site fast loading. Remember, a fast site not just relies on a well setup server but also on an optimized website. Think of optimizing images, combining css, js, css placed in the <head>, scripts (generally) placed just above the </body> and caching of (static) content. If you need help, give us a holler!
WordPress SEO
The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.
Again a plugin with a plethora of options but again, well worth it if you care about good indexing on search engines like Google. Read Farah’s ‘Improve your succes on the web‘ for more info on SEO.
TinyMCE Advanced
Enables advanced features and plugins in TinyMCE, the visual editor in WordPress.
Some of the useful features are: working with tables and copying text from Word without the clutter of the notorious hidden makeup in html.
We hope you find some of this useful for your own website. Any questions and comments are welcomed.
Cheers!