As I go on my journey learning about WordPress and what makes a functional website, I wanted to share some of the WordPress plugins I have been using along with a short description about their purpose. Knowing how many plugins you need, versus slowing your site down with unnecessary features is still part of my journey.
Here is my current list along with a few comments:
- Wordfence Security: Anti-virus, Firewall and Malware Scan.
- Accessibility by UserWay: Improved accessibility for user with disabilities ( ADA, WCAG2.1 )
- Automated Backups: UpdraftPlus – Website Backup/Restore, support for Dropbox, Google Drive and a host of others.
- Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights: Google Analytics (or website analytics):
- AMP: overall website performance, faster page loads.
- Simple Social Buttons: Social Media sharing with all major platforms.
- Akismet’s Anti-Spam: comment/spam management
- Blubrry PowerPress: embedding podcasts, support for major podcast platforms.
- Master Slider: HTML5 support, support for many devices.
- WooCommerce: robust E-commerce plugin, streamlining setting up an on-line store.
- Really Simple SSL: facilitates adding a SSL security layer to your website.
- Jetpack: Multi-faceted plugin support security, performance and many other features.
- WPForms Lite: easy to use contact forms, drag and drop feature.
- WP Activity Log: great resource to see who is/who should not be – visiting your site.
- W3 Total Cache: highly rated performance plugin, browser, page and database caching.
- Broken Links Checker: SEO – checks for broken internal and external links.
- All-in-One SEO: Great SEO insights for your posts and pages. XML sitemaps and much more.
- Gutenberg Blocks and Template Library by Otter: Enhanced Page builder for Gutenberg Blocks.
In closing I would like to mention I installed all my plugins from WordPress and all the plugins were free. I am always looking at better ways to develop a workflow when creating content and look at adding or changing plugins as an on-going process. WordPress Plugin Link – https://wordpress.org/plugins/