11 Must Have WordPress Plugins For 2016
Whether you run your personal blog or business blog, you will inevitably expand the functionality of your site through WordPress plugins. We must solve the obvious, WordPress can not afford to offer a range of input capabilities. If this were the case, there would be a safe bet that this CMS fails to equip 23% sites in the world ...
The more we offer opportunities within a product, it is more complex to use.
Fortunately, WordPress contributors have understood. They prefer to keep a simple but extensible via plugins base. Thus, each user can customize his site according to its own needs and it is not cluttered with unnecessary features.
Now that you know more about the benefits of using plugins, let me introduce you to 11 which - in my experience - are essential for any blog with WordPress.
If piracy problem in your host or another, you'll be delighted to have a backup handy, trust me.
There are paid solutions but if you are starting out and want to have something good, the BackWPup plugin is perfect. In addition, it is available in French so you really have no excuse not to use it :)
I suggest you set up a daily backup of the database (schedule his execution around 3 or 4 am) and a full backup (database and files) weekly or biweekly.
Also be sure to connect a storage service (like Dropbox) for your backups are always accessible in case of failure of your host. One is never too careful ...
Download BackWPup
We do agree that installing this extension will not automatically mount your site in the search results (if it was that easy, we would know). No, he'll have to tame the beast to understand its operation and thereby make the most.
WordPress SEO allows among others:
Allocate titles and descriptions for each of your publications; Optimize the content of your articles (do not abuse) To generate a sitemap file (you will then need to provide Google Webmaster Tools); to add a breadcrumb on your site optimize your permalinks to avoid content duplication.
Download WordPress SEO
Google Analytics also enables measurement of your forms conversion rates, keep track of your sales, etc.
To access all this information from your Google Analytics account, you must insert the tracking code into your WordPress theme.
However, it is better to go through the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin to add this code.
The first reason is that this will get interesting options such as the exclusion of its own visitor statistics. Then use a plugin lets not lose data when the subject is changed.
Download Google Analytics for WordPress
The most important reason is that the topic should not impose a solution to the user. He must leave him free to create the form of his choice with the plugin that suits him best.
The best solution is in my opinion the plugin Contact Form 7. It allows you to define the fields of our choice (text fields, email, drop down menus, check boxes, etc.) and customize the email sent with data entered by the user.
Additional modules are also available to enhance the basic functionality of the plugin (they are under plugins if you want).
Download Contact Form 7
The visitor is forced to return to the home page of your site. In most cases it will risk leaving your site because its search has been fruitless.
It is therefore important to find out if your site has pages error and correct. This is where the Broken Link Checker plugin. It is a kind of error page bounty hunter if you want :)
Be careful though to well configure it does not consume too many resources.
Broken Link Checker
Therefore, having a site that loads quickly is imperative. To tell you a little more quickly means less than 1.5 seconds (two seconds maximum wide).
To reduce the display time of your site, it is recommended to use a caching plugin. One such plugin will somehow save the pages of your site to send them directly to your visitors without using your database.
Of course, the pages are automatically and regularly updated to their latest version is served to visitors.
Several free cache plugins are available but they are quite complex to configure. To save time and performance, it is best to go through the premium plugin WP Rocket. The basic package is 29 €. It is not unreasonable to have a site that is displayed quickly.
Download WP Rocket.
You should know that by default, WordPress does not limit login attempts. This gives the possibility to potential attackers to try again and again to access the heart of your site.
Login Lockdown with the plugin, you can set a maximum number of attempts to connect. For example, after 3 failures, the person will be banned for 30 minutes (or more).
Warning, this plugin does not exempt you from using usernames and passwords (ie different from admin and toto).
Download Login Lockdown
We must therefore make sure to set the sharing buttons at strategic places of your blog to encourage your readers to share your content. It is here that the Cocorico Social plugin comes in.
This plugin will allow you to position the sharing buttons of your choice (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and some other networks) above and following your articles. Several display modes are available to best match your blog.
Last thing, it is also possible to display sharing counters on each button.
Download Cocorico Social.
By default when you write an article, WordPress automatically backup regularly. This allows you to recover a previous version of an article in case of problems.
The worry is that in the long term it clutters the database. Fortunately the plugin WP Optimize is to remove these unnecessary revisions (that's how we call these automatic backups).
This plugin also helps to optimize other aspects of your database to improve performance.
Download WP Optimize
Subscribe to Comments Reloaded allows commentators to subscribe to a comment thread just. We have the choice of receiving any future comments or just those that are written in response to the initial comment.
The plugin will automatically create a page for managing subscriptions so that the commentator can unsubscribe notifications when no longer will want to receive them.
Download Subscribe to Comments Reloaded
Indeed, its aim is to fight against spam. You know all those unwanted comments by robots around the net. Once a suspect comment will be detected, Akismet will mark it as Spam and it will never be published on your blog.
This plugin is not perfect (there are sometimes false positives) but this is a great way to protect themselves from spam comments.
Download Akismet
The 11 plugins in this article will help you to focus on what really matters: writing quality articles on your blog.
The more we offer opportunities within a product, it is more complex to use.
Fortunately, WordPress contributors have understood. They prefer to keep a simple but extensible via plugins base. Thus, each user can customize his site according to its own needs and it is not cluttered with unnecessary features.
Now that you know more about the benefits of using plugins, let me introduce you to 11 which - in my experience - are essential for any blog with WordPress.
WordPress Plugins For 2016
1. BackWPup
If there's one thing you need to do on your blog is back up regularly.If piracy problem in your host or another, you'll be delighted to have a backup handy, trust me.
There are paid solutions but if you are starting out and want to have something good, the BackWPup plugin is perfect. In addition, it is available in French so you really have no excuse not to use it :)
I suggest you set up a daily backup of the database (schedule his execution around 3 or 4 am) and a full backup (database and files) weekly or biweekly.
Also be sure to connect a storage service (like Dropbox) for your backups are always accessible in case of failure of your host. One is never too careful ...
Download BackWPup
2. WordPress SEO
To optimize your SEO, WordPress SEO plugin has become unavoidable. To date, it has been downloaded over 15 million times. Yes yes, 15 million.We do agree that installing this extension will not automatically mount your site in the search results (if it was that easy, we would know). No, he'll have to tame the beast to understand its operation and thereby make the most.
WordPress SEO allows among others:
Allocate titles and descriptions for each of your publications; Optimize the content of your articles (do not abuse) To generate a sitemap file (you will then need to provide Google Webmaster Tools); to add a breadcrumb on your site optimize your permalinks to avoid content duplication.
Download WordPress SEO
3. Google Analytics for WordPress
Knowing how many people come to your website is an essential element. This allows you to know what are the popular items, where your visitors come from and how long they spend on your site.Google Analytics also enables measurement of your forms conversion rates, keep track of your sales, etc.
To access all this information from your Google Analytics account, you must insert the tracking code into your WordPress theme.
However, it is better to go through the Google Analytics for WordPress plugin to add this code.
The first reason is that this will get interesting options such as the exclusion of its own visitor statistics. Then use a plugin lets not lose data when the subject is changed.
Download Google Analytics for WordPress
4. Contact Form 7
Increasingly WordPress themes choose to not include contact form. The contact form is a feature, in its place is a plugin. Each topic should not reinvent the wheel when plugins do that very well.The most important reason is that the topic should not impose a solution to the user. He must leave him free to create the form of his choice with the plugin that suits him best.
The best solution is in my opinion the plugin Contact Form 7. It allows you to define the fields of our choice (text fields, email, drop down menus, check boxes, etc.) and customize the email sent with data entered by the user.
Additional modules are also available to enhance the basic functionality of the plugin (they are under plugins if you want).
Download Contact Form 7
5. Broken Link Checker
Whether for your visitors or search engine robots, error pages (404) are very unpleasant. Remember, these error pages are pages that do not exist (or more).The visitor is forced to return to the home page of your site. In most cases it will risk leaving your site because its search has been fruitless.
It is therefore important to find out if your site has pages error and correct. This is where the Broken Link Checker plugin. It is a kind of error page bounty hunter if you want :)
Be careful though to well configure it does not consume too many resources.
Broken Link Checker
6. WP Rocket
You do not perhaps know but the display speed is a factor taken into account by Google to position the sites in search results.Therefore, having a site that loads quickly is imperative. To tell you a little more quickly means less than 1.5 seconds (two seconds maximum wide).
To reduce the display time of your site, it is recommended to use a caching plugin. One such plugin will somehow save the pages of your site to send them directly to your visitors without using your database.
Of course, the pages are automatically and regularly updated to their latest version is served to visitors.
Several free cache plugins are available but they are quite complex to configure. To save time and performance, it is best to go through the premium plugin WP Rocket. The basic package is 29 €. It is not unreasonable to have a site that is displayed quickly.
Download WP Rocket.
7. Login Lockdown
Whether alone or not to post to your blog, there will always be crafty to try to connect to the administration of your site.You should know that by default, WordPress does not limit login attempts. This gives the possibility to potential attackers to try again and again to access the heart of your site.
Login Lockdown with the plugin, you can set a maximum number of attempts to connect. For example, after 3 failures, the person will be banned for 30 minutes (or more).
Warning, this plugin does not exempt you from using usernames and passwords (ie different from admin and toto).
Download Login Lockdown
8. Cocorico Social
If there is another signal that the search engines (and Google in particular) take into account to position content, it is the popularity of social networks.We must therefore make sure to set the sharing buttons at strategic places of your blog to encourage your readers to share your content. It is here that the Cocorico Social plugin comes in.
This plugin will allow you to position the sharing buttons of your choice (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and some other networks) above and following your articles. Several display modes are available to best match your blog.
Last thing, it is also possible to display sharing counters on each button.
Download Cocorico Social.
9. WP Optimize
We spoke earlier of how fast your site. Do you know that it is possible to improve the speed of your site by alleviating database?By default when you write an article, WordPress automatically backup regularly. This allows you to recover a previous version of an article in case of problems.
The worry is that in the long term it clutters the database. Fortunately the plugin WP Optimize is to remove these unnecessary revisions (that's how we call these automatic backups).
This plugin also helps to optimize other aspects of your database to improve performance.
Download WP Optimize
10. Subscribe to Comments Reloaded
Normally, when someone leaves a comment on a blog, it can not be accused of following comments. Everyone goes about his business and if the person does not return on the item, it will never see a response has been made to it.Subscribe to Comments Reloaded allows commentators to subscribe to a comment thread just. We have the choice of receiving any future comments or just those that are written in response to the initial comment.
The plugin will automatically create a page for managing subscriptions so that the commentator can unsubscribe notifications when no longer will want to receive them.
Download Subscribe to Comments Reloaded
11. Akismet
Akismet is one of two plugins installed by default with WordPress. This gem will be your companions throughout your career blogger.Indeed, its aim is to fight against spam. You know all those unwanted comments by robots around the net. Once a suspect comment will be detected, Akismet will mark it as Spam and it will never be published on your blog.
This plugin is not perfect (there are sometimes false positives) but this is a great way to protect themselves from spam comments.
Download Akismet
Conclusion
With over 30,000 plugins available at this time, it is not easy to know what plugins to use on blog.The 11 plugins in this article will help you to focus on what really matters: writing quality articles on your blog.
11 Must Have WordPress Plugins For 2016
Reviewed by Nicole
on
10:56:00
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Reviewed by Nicole
on
10:56:00
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