My Favourite WordPress Plugins

Plugins can make any WordPress website better! They help add custom functionality to your website and can make the workflow of that backend of your site much more efficient. Below are some of my favourite WordPress plugins and explanations on how they can make your website and workflow more efficient. I’ve included two lists: plugins for WordPress users and plugins that help make WordPress easier to use for your clients, if you’re a developer.

Plugins for WordPress Users

• WordPress SEO by Yoast This plugin has no shortage of fans. It’s regularly touted as the best SEO plugin out there. In my experience, it has increased traffic to my blog posts and is fairly easy to use.
• Simple Page Ordering This is a very simple plugin, as the name suggests, and solves a fairly simple problem. Don’t you find it annoying that WordPress orders your pages alphabetically, instead of in menu order? This plugin will let you organize your pages in whatever order you would like them to be, meaning you spend less time looking through your pages when you just need to change an email address on the contact page.
• Editorial Calendar I’ve only recently starting using this plugin (back when I started getting more regular at bloggin’). This one helps you organize your blog posts in a calendar view, which somehow, makes you blog more and on a regular schedule (Who’d have thunk it?) This little gem will really get the blog ball rolling, helping you get your message out there.

Plugins for Developers to Help WordPress Users

• WP101This plugin is one that I include on all of my WordPress builds. It provides video tutorials for my clients on how to use the common features of WordPress. When my clients hire new people, WP101 helps new staff learn WordPress too.
• Advanced Custom Fields This plugin has a ton of fans. The first WordCamp that I attended featured several talks on this plugin, for good reason. This plugin allows for lots of custom functionality in the backend of a WordPress site, making your sites much easier for your clients to use.
• Post Types Order This plugin is one that I only use on sites with custom post types, which frankly, is most of my sites. I often create a custom post type for things like testimonials. This plugin allows my clients to order the testimonials anyway they like, since WordPress will only allow posts to be automatically ordered by date, alphabetically etc.

Those are the main plugins that I use to make my life and my clients’ lives easier. If you’re having trouble deciding if a plugin is right for your site, you can check out my guide to picking a quality plugin, here.

Any I’ve missed? What are your favourite plugins?

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* Image by Kris Krüg used under Creative Commons.