There are close to 20,000 available plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory, but only 7 of them have made their way to my personal blog.
I consider myself a minimalist in life, and when it comes to extending WordPress and the functionality of my blog, it’s no different. In fact, I try my hardest NOT to use plugins, but in some cases, I’m left with no choice.
Here’s a list of the plugins that I use and cannot live without.
1. Scribe
The first and most beneficial one that I use is our Scribe Content Marketing plugin. Not only has it helped me with optimizng my content, but also with keyword research. It has allowed me to build my traffic in a way I couldn’t do on my own.
2. Akismet
Nobody likes spam, and I’m no exception. I have Akismet activated on all of my sites, and for the most part I don’t have to worry about managing and deleting spam comments. Once in a while a few roll through, but those are easy to delete.
3. Google XML Sitemaps
Everyone wants to make sure their content is indexed by Google. It’s pretty obvious why I use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. This creates an XML sitemap file which is placed on my server and accessed by Google when it crawls my site.
4. Gravity Forms
Easily the best contact form generator around, Gravity Forms was used to build the form on my Contact page. It’s extremely user-friendly, and simply just works. Highly recommended, and well worth the cost.
5. Jetpack Sharing Buttons
Believe it or not, I’ve only recently added a suite of social share buttons to my blog. It took quite a bit of searching to find one that did what I wanted it to, but I finally found the Jetpack Sharing Buttons plugin which allows me to equally space the sharing buttons. I have control with how it looks.
6. Subscribe To Comments
The Subscribe to Comments plugin notifies readers each time a comment is made on a post. Of course it’s not mandatory, but if a reader chooses to, they can optin.
7. W3 Total Cache
Any blog that gets decent traffic should be running a cache plugin. I’m currently using the W3 Total Cache plugin, which has served me without issue. It has also been optimized with our Synthesis Hosting that I’m on, which is an added bonus.
Discussion Time
So there you have it, these are the (only) WordPress plugins that are active on my site. If I had it my way, I’d be using less of them – but I supposed compared to others, this list is quite small.
Which plugins, and how many, are you using on your site? Are there any that you feel are “must haves”?
Let’s discuss WordPress plugins in the comments below.
Hang on There Amigo, One More Thing
If you’re looking for more geeky stuff, I recently posted some CSS best practices and Functions best practices for those who develop with the Genesis Framework.
Those are rolling lists, and I’ll be adding more so be sure to bookmark those pages.
For Mom Blogs who run a lot of giveways, I am constantly installing the Giveaway Countdown Plugin.
Interesting Matt, never used that before and will definitely look into it.
Thanks for these tips, Brian! I’m going to install Yet Another Related Posts right now on my blog.
Good stuff Jennifer, hopefully that works out for you, and keeps visitors on your site longer as a result!
Jennifer, I use the nrelate plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nrelate-related-content/) for one of my blogs. It can be text only, or can also include the post’s main image. You can choose how many links to include at the end of the post, and what size each image should be. I use six. And there is not much drag-time with this plugin.
Here’s an example of how it looks on my site. http://www.crazyaboutchurch.com/where-in-the-bible-does-it-say-how-to-find-a-wife/
I use that plugin too. It’s excellent. One thing I found out about that one is that your visitor stays on your website! Linkwithin, a similar plugin, actually has your visitor redirect back to their site and then back to you. (I happened to see their URL bouncing around in the status bar and wondered what was going on. I contacted nrrelate about something and mentioned that to support. They said they – nrrealte – do not redirect your visitors back to them…whereas Linkwithin does!) I hope all of that made sense
Another plugin I use is CommentLuv. I have only recently installed it and it is fantastic. It has cut my spam down to zero! It has people tweeting, G+ and liking my posts to get a dofollow link. (I must admit I bought the premium…although the free one is good too.)
I have installed it on a few of my sites so far…I don’t mind if you take a look and leave a comment to see it in action. I must warn you though I have it set so that people can’t leave a comment less than 10 words long…and its only made a dofollow if they read the blurbs I made.
I also love the Limit Login Attempts. Keeps the automated hackers out bigtime.
Hi
Really useful discussion Brian. I think Limit Login Attempts is absolute necessity. I get regular attempts to a login as admin on my humble blog from all over Europe.
Web Site Defender is also useful as it keeps track of file changes, permissions and plugins not updated…
I recently installed Yoast for the SEO optimisation and this also has an XML site map.
+1 for nRelate(i use their “Flyout” version; it rocks)! Doesn’t effect page load either because the scripts are loaded on their servers, not yours
I have to add:
Genesis Beta Tester
&
Conditional Widgets
Conditional is so easy to use, and it allows my end users to graphically use a simple interface to specify per page/post etc that they want a plugin to use. No need to use the is_page(#) since it is all GUI clicks.
I suspect that most people’s plugins list depend on the type they are – user vs. developer. I’m guessing that most users have the same list installed, and developers likewise.
Good list, Brian. I use most of these plugins daily. Gravity Forms may be the greatest plugin ever released. SO flexible & powerful.
One other that I use on most of my sites is Pippin Williamson’s Easy Content Types (http://pippinsplugins.com/easy-content-types/). It makes setting up custom post types a breeze. I use it to create CPT’s for slides, testimonials, etc. Definitely a must-have for me.
Never heard of the Easy Content Types, but I suspect it’s something similar to the one that Brad Williams and the guys at WebDevStudios built.
I am also a HUGE fan of Easy Content Types – best CPT tool out there!
I’m weird though, as I’d rather throw some code in my functions file and have full control of the CPT. But again, most users don’t have that ability, which I’m guessing the plugin is aimed for.
Even though I built the plugin, I also prefer to do my CPTs by hand
CPT by hand is the way to go if you have a complicated one, but I find that pippin’s plugin is unrivaled since it automatically spits out quality code you could either use as a base to modify or just use outright in a template
Nice list. May I also suggest WP Super Cache as a good alternative to the W3 Total Cache when used in conjunction with BWP (Better WordPress Minify). Good call with the Gravity Forms, I am also a massive fan.
I used to use WP Super Cache, until I ran into a few problems a couple years back. Since then it’s been W3 and no issues at all.
WP Super Cache is great if you’re on Shared Hosting. Once you jump into VPS and can actually tweak your server, W3TC starts to become amazing. I can use it to cache with APC, cache a mobile version separately, and do some DB/Opcode caching. But each one has it’s place
All in one SEO pack is a first install, as is Lightbox Plus. I often use Spots and Custom Post Types UI because I am lazy.
I’ve heard Disqus is a must for blogging sites (I don’t build these 99% of the time though). Good list!
I had a lot of ‘problems’ with YARRP slowing things down and switched to Efficient Related Posts a couple years ago. I agree that the jury is out on those plugins. :/
Yeah, when I see them on other blogs I skimmed right past the lists, but figured most users don’t operate under the same pretenses as I do.
I use Gravity forms exclusively. I have tried others, but GF is simply the best. And I agree, it IS worth the cost.
I probably use more plugins than I should but as I learn more I find myself dumping some in favor of coding myself.
I try to keep my plugin list lean, but some offer functionality that is so compelling I just can’t resist:
1. wp-db-backup: I have it set to automatically email me backups, for the sites I manage, to a gmail account I have set up specifically for that purpose.
2. Yoast’s SEO plugin: I know Genesis has good SEO features included, but Yoast’s plugin offers some additional functionality in a convenient to use package. Plus I really trust the author.
3. Genesis Simple Aweber Form by Nick Croft: So easy to integrate with the latest Studiopress themes and one of the few easy ways for a user to create a horizontal Aweber form.
4. Genesis Simple Edits, Simple Sidebars and Simple Hooks: Cause I am lazy like that.
Thanks for the recent developer best practice tips posts Brian. As a “developer in training”, I am finding them really helpful.
Greg
You’re welcome Greg, I’m hoping that it can be a useful resource for developers and users alike!
Because I’m all about security (I’ve de-hacked countless blogs), I always install WordPress Firewall and WordPress File Monitor.
I notice that there is also a WordPress firewall 2 not by SEO Eggheads.
Any thoughts on that plugin?
It’s just more of a pita to configure so I stick with the first version. The first version does not ask for an upgrade to the second version, either.
Crystal, I use the original WordPress Firewall too, works great!
I use Relevanssi. If search results are important to you and if you want to include custom taxonomy terms, you need to be using it.
Broken Link Checker is also awesome.
I’m using Quickcache as my plugin and it’s great but will be switching to w3 Total Cache soon as I like that it includes easy ways to manage minifying CSS/javascript and CDNs.
I might also switch to “Really simple Facebook Twitter share buttons”. I’m using addthis at the moment.
I could be wrong but isn’t “Subscribe To Comments” built into WordPress now?
No, it still requires a plugin. At least from what I know.
If someone knows otherwise, speak up.
Someone mentioned below that it is included in JetPack. So it does require a plugin.
this is fun, I’ve got quite a few plugins isntalled actually.
Antispam Bee ( Akismet is no longer free )
Antivirus (security)
Cloudflare ( caching / performance )
Disqus (comments )
Embed Github Gist (for posting code snippets from Github)
Executtable PHP widget ( for custom fields in widget areas)
Genesis Widgetized not found and 404 ( great plugin to change the default search and 404 pages)
Gravity forms (nuff said)
Gravity forms mailchimp addon
Hotfix ( get WP security patches immediately)
Redirection ( manage redirections and prettify links)
Relevanssi (because default search results suck)
simple social buttons ( nice little plugin that adds sharing buttons )
a custom Testimonails plugin that I’m developing
User switching ( I write posts with a limited user account so I can quicky switch between accounts without logging out)
W3 Total Cache
Widget Logic
WordFence security ( incredible plugin for security)
WordPress beta tester ( living on the bleeding edge )
WordPress SEO ( does sitemaps and has a tool similar to Scribe for SEO )
WP Mail SMTP ( route emails through my google apps account )
Zilla Social (social buttons, not sure I’ll keep, may roll my own eventually to cut down http requests)
After reading on WPEngine about which plugins they’ve banned and why, I removed the Google XML Sitemaps plugin and switched to just using the sitemap generator in Yoast SEO. And for a normal HTML /sitemap/, I switched to a custom template which shows all the posts, categories, and tags — no plugin necessary for that.
Two suggestions:
WP-DBManager – This plugin is a must to go along with W3 Total Cache. You can setup automatic backups of your database to be sent to your email. It will also optimize and repair your database on your schedule terms.
Clean Notifications – Great little plugin that does one simple task. Makes the notifications you get from WordPress actually look nice.
Hi Brian!
Great list and I like gravity forms plugin mostly but could not use it yet.
Here’s a few of my favs you didn’t include…
SimpleMap Store Locator is an easy-to-use international store locator plugin that uses Google Maps to display information directly on your WordPress site.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simplemap/
Staff Directory is deigned to keep track of your list of staff members for easy display on your site.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/staff-directory/
Reveal IDs: Posts, Pages, Categories, Links, Media, and Users. Helpful for end users who need ID access and don’t know how to find it.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/reveal-ids-for-wp-admin-25/
Hey Brian,
Just an FYI but I’ve taken Adam Tootle’s Staff Directory plugin and reworked it using custom post types and drag-and-drop ordering. My plugin is called Simple Staff List, check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks!
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-staff-list/
Gonna give simple staff a test drive. Thanks for the tip.
Good list Brian
The subscribe to comments is a must if you want to keep the conversation moving along.
I use the GASP anti spam plugin, which gives me pretty good results.
Notice that you don’t mention any security plugins.
Does that mean you don’t use any or do you just keep quiet about them?
I’m running Synthesis, which has a ton of security features and scripts built in. Derick and his team have done an amazing job setting up the stack in a way that’s solid when it comes to security.
You keep tempting me Brian.
One day I’ll succeed.
Yes you will.
Great list. I’m a big fan of redirection, a plugin that allows you easily write 301 redirects. It’s invaluable for misspelled domain names or short, memorable landing pages that redirect to an “ugly” URL. Saved my butt a few times.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned BackupBuddy yet! I install it on every site we build. Saved my butt a couple times. Another one I’ve just started using is Social Metrics Pro. Great social media management tool right from within the WordPress dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro looks pretty awesome. Thanks, I’m going to check it out now.
+1 for Backup Buddy!! It saved me once too….big time, and call me crazy, but I actually started using CodeGuard instead. It’s MUCH lighter of a plugin (I am a page load freak) and does the exact same thing. Both very good options!
I’ve found BWP GXS – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bwp-google-xml-sitemaps/ – to be a better solution than Google XML Sitemaps. It runs dynamically.
I can’t remember the last time I installed WP without Gravity Forms.
Thanks for your list, Brian. Happy to have your recommendations for the Really Simple Facebook Share Button and the Google XML Sitemaps. Good discussion too. I have bookmarked the page.
I can’t do without Broken Link Checker, Genesis Simple Sidebars and Reveal IDs. So very useful.
I’ve been using Scribe for a few months and it’s really helped me build my traffic and optimize my posts. I’m also using Akismet and this weekend I’m completing my migration to Synthesis hosting so am looking forward to my site using W3 Total Cache.
One of the best plugins I’ve seen is Premise, Copyblogger’s landing page and membership site software. The functionality is fantastic and I’ve found the training materials very useful for both learning more about the software and learning more about conversion optimization.
I think using the as few plugins as possible is definitely the best way. I’m using ten and trying to get that number lower
I’m glad you mention Premise, Robert, because yes – it’s an awesome piece of software. While I personally don’t have a need for a membership site, I’ve heard a lot of people using it whole appreciate the latest round of features we’ve put into it.
Awesome to hear you’re moving onto Synthesis. I’ve been running it on my site now for more than 6 months, and the load times still amazes me.
I’m really pleased to be moving to Synthesis. I can concentrate on growing my business knowing that my site is being looked after, is secure and won’t fall over at the first sign of increased traffic
List of security plugins I use on every site (after being hacked):
Block Bad Queries
Ultimate Security Checker
BulletProof Security
Secure WordPress
Other misc ones I use:
All-in-One Calendar
BackWPup
WP Ultra simple Paypal Cart
Viper’s Video Quicktags
GT Tabs
Ultimate tinymce
we are on the right track — we use 5 of the 8 and we adore Gravity Forms on all of our sites now — a referral thanks to you! off to check out the other 3 — thanks for the tips, as always!
Anytime, that’s why I’m here. To help.
Surprised you’re still using W3 Total Cache (updated 2011-8-26) instead of http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/ last update 2012-6-13
What say you?
When the last update on a piece of software is doesn’t necessarily reflect on it’s quality. On the contrary, it shows at times, just how stable it is.
I agree. W3 Total Cache is absolutely rock solid, and is the caching plugin for some of the highest traffic websites on the Internet (css-tricks.com).
It will auto upload all your files to your favorite CDN, automate the minification of files, then upload those too. The only thing I don’t use with this plugin is the Database Caching.
Here’s my old list in no specific order:
1. AIO Webmaster: For sites registrations, analytics and everything else I don’t want to code manually.
2. Broken Link Checker: Still helps me from time to time to keep track of any broken link so I can fix it or replace it.
3. Genesis eNews Extended: Since I moved to Genesis, this is the plugin I use for email subscribe list.
4. Simple URLs: Genesis based, great for affiliate’s and that stuff.
5. W3 Total Cache: Enough has been talked about this one.
6. YARP or WP Popular Posts with thumbnail slider: Increase time on site and pageviews.
7. Akismet
8. XML Sitemaps
The rest are additional and can be used depending on the design (social icons and all that stuff goes here).
Brian,
which one would you recommend for backup all your blog? Does synthesys has a function like that? You’re tempting me to move to your hosting solution as I’ve been very happy with the Genesis Framework, even though recently renewed my Hostgator payment!
Synthesis does nightly backups – you can view more of the reasons you should make the switch by going to our Plans and Pricing page.
Brian,
That is a very short list! I too try and use the minimal amount of plugins for my sites. However, I would say that you have to evaluate the project and determine your client’s needs. Plugins can be a blessing or a devil in a Sunday hat!
For example, I just built an e-commerce site using the Serenity theme. I had to install five Genesis plugins in addition to my standard set.
Because I know in advance that this client does not want to pay for future modifications, I opted to install several additional plugins to make back-end management easier for my client.
While I prefer to make the majority of changes in CSS or PHP for my personal sites, I believe the type of site, your client’s needs, and skill level will determine the amount of installed plugins.
Cheers, Todd
Here are 6 of the 20 or so I use for my site. I know I should cut down but the site I run is not a blog and requires quite of lot if e tea functionality which only premium plugins offer.
1)Another shout for “Gravity forms”-I love the way you can add conditionals to get some super complex forms going.
2)I’m on shared hosting so use “Vaultpress” (by Automatic, the guys behind wordpress) for backups. Daily backups are ok but vaultpress saves changes instantaneously which, if you doing a lot of changes in a day is a real bonus. For 15dollars a month, well worth it. It is integrated with “Jetpack” so managing the plugin is simple and secure.
3) “Featured posts Amplified” (by Nick Croft) is essential if you are managing a lot of posts and pages to be displayed in different widget areas on your homepage. The options available makes displaying any variety of post, page combos a breeze.
4) Pippin Williams “Easy Content Types”- I know it’s a kop-out from coding yourself but it has some great features for not only adding custom post types but displaying custom meta data. For each field you create you can specify where it appear (posts, pages, custom post types etc etc) and exclusive classes are created so styling the meta is simple too.
5) Genesis slider – has come a long way since it was first created and as its a genesis core plugin, sits nicely in the genesisenu options and is 100% reliable to use. All the effects you need and no unnecessary frills.
6) The Event Calendar / Event Calendar Pro ( by Modern Tribe) – I like it as it offers a versatile way to display events including a large calendar, list view option,upcoming and next events widgets, integrated google maps, recurring events, saved venues and organizers etc etc. the plugin is being continually developed which is also a plus.
Noticing that Robert included the Event Calendar. Problem is, it doesn’t play well with Genesis. A mmmaaajjjooorrr bummer. Requires oodles of tweaking, bubble gum and dental floss. I wonder, as a Genesis fanboy who would really LOVE to integrate the Event Calendar, is there a more user-friendly solution in the future? Or perhaps Genesis will be debuting their own super-duper calendar?
Hi VirtualDavis,
I agree, it didn’t work so well and took a lot of tweaking in the beginning. I think they have worked very hard on improving genesis integration though. I personally filed quite a few forum posts their way and they have recently released tutorials for genesis users. I agree though, a genesis events calendar (even if premium) would be fantastic!
So what are you using to completely backup your site and database??
I’m with Robert and I have Scribe which still amazes me and is brilliant for promoting SEO blogs for clients (which reminds me, I must write a blog about that *adds to to-do-list* and promote more as not many people in the UK seem to use it – Who wouldn’t want a spot-on SEO report with every blog post??) and Premise which I am just getting to grips with and am loving so far. Trying to keep things simple.
Thanks for the heads up on a good Twitter/FB Plug-in Brian. Most of them do too much or put the icons just where I don’t want them.
Have a great weekend.
Brian,
I like you list – nice and short.
Of the ones mentioned, I also use Akismet (no-brainer), Gravity Forms (no-brainer), Really Simple Facebook Twitter Share (nice small footprint), and Subscribe to Comments.
Following are some others that I usually install on most WP installations: -
- WordPress SEO by Yoast (no-brainer)
- Google Analytics for WordPress Yoast
- Premise (great for crafting landing pages)
- Widget Logic
- Genesis Child Theme Settings (Specific for Genesis Themes – http://trotterway.com/genesis-child-theme-settings-plugin/ )
- Genesis Simple Sidebars
I still don’t understand what the benefit of using Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast gives you. What is the difference between the plugin and just putting the code in the footer.php file yourself?
In my opinion, it abstracts (simplifies) the whole GA setup. Setting up (most used) custom variables is as simple as checking a box, tracking certain file extensions as downloads is easy, and tracking links as outbound is also very easy to setup. Whilst all this can be done with vanilla GA, it is much more time consuming to do so.
Hey Brian, Have you or anyone of your friends ever used http://hootsuite.com/ for Sharing?
Excellent list. I am always looking for the Top Ten WordPress Plugins but most of the lists out there are old.
I recommend YOAST WordPress SEO Plugin.
Hands down the best SEO plugin that offers intuitive suggestions and on screen insights on your posts’ Title, Description, keyword research and density, and ease of reading score.
The YOAST plugin has just been updated and includes a better site map implementation and an easy way to enable Google + author rel on your individual posts.
This one plugin obviates the need for separate SEO and XML Site Map plugins.
Best of all GENESIS is well designed to run YOAST without forcing title rewrites.
The author Joost de Valk makes this plugin free – SWEET!
My runner-up for plugins is SLIDEDECK – this is the king of sliders – so many cool features it keeps visitors coming back for more.
1. Linkwithin – related posts with thumbnail images
2. ContactMe – contact form which archives all incoming emails…you’ll never lose your inbox messages and allows for social media buttons.
3. Digg Digg – social media buttons on posts…normal/floating.
4. Link to Post – for linking to internal posts
5. Livefyre Realtime Comments – commenting
6. SEO Post Link – Removes unnecessary words from your post slug
7. WPtouch – formats site with a mobile theme
8. MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate – Automatically convert keywords on your blog into money making affiliate links.
9. Twitter Tools – automates the publishing of blog posts into twitter
Hi Brian nice list of plugins, I don’t use very many in fact I try to keep it to a very small list about #12. There are a few you listed I also use like Akismet, although it works great I also use MP Spam Be Gone, also with it because the two together works great I don’t see any spam in my list.
I was having a lot of problems a few weeks ago with editing come to find out it was a plugin I installed so now I am kinda caution which plugins I install.
Great post my friend.
I use Hypercache. Tried both WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache, and I kept switching back to Hypercache. W3 Total Cache, in particular, was eating too much server resources.
If you use Jetpack then you don’t need subscribe to comments as its already included.
Here’ s my top 7 Essential plugins that i recommend for beginners http://wpsites.net/best-plugins/7-must-have-plugins-for-new-wordpress-bloggers/
What do i use for backup and security Brian?
Hey Brian
having morphed a couple of themes into a photography site, I cannot live without Admin Thumbnails. It shows the featured picture in the post admin screen and is a great way for visually identifying posts – or in my case one of many photo albums. Would be interested to see whether it is of any benefit for the real estate sites/themes.
Hmm… Tried to add the Yet Another Related Post Plugin and it works for posts for not for PAGEs.
The developer says: “YARPP does not display automatically on pages. You have to add the code related_posts() or related_pages() in your theme’s single page display files (probably called page.php). ”
Now how do I do this on Genesis Theme? There is no page.php that I can see when I go to the Editor and look at the Child Theme pages.
Another good plugin for displaying related post thumbnails is nRelate who offer 3 different options for this purpose.
Hi. Looked at nRelate but it gets low grades from YOAST:
http://yoast.com/wp-plugin-review/nrelate-related-content/
Got YARPP working for Posts and Pages on our Genesis site with help from Nick at the StudioPress forums and looks OK but needs some fine tuning. The latest version caches most of the data and no drag so far.
Thanks for sharing this review Belize. I know nRelate lots great but didn’t know about the SEO side of things
One other thing i would like to add to this is the date of the review which is over 21 year old.
Yoast doesn’t allow discussion on his plugin reviews either which doesn’t help.
The owner commented on my site about this plugin yesterday so i’ll find out what his side of the story is.
I prefer Yoast SEO which itself includes Google XML Sitemaps
After having been hit once by the dreaded pharmahack exploit (pre-Genesis), I learned the hard way to be really selective about using plugins on my site. One that I’ve become a big fan of is Wordfence. It looks after four things that matter to me: daily scans for malware in the database, instant notification to illegal login attempts, the option to block offending IPs and a list of 404s in real-time. It’s like the swiss army knives of security (for those of us who aren’t on Synthesis, that is).
All in One SEO is my fav. I need to try Gravity Forms I keep hearing great things about it.
As I was looking to your 8 WordPress Plugin I think we have the same in common. But Contact7 form is what I’m using at this time. I would also try the form you have it here. Thank you.
Vote for Subscribe to Comments , In fact, It’s hard enough to encourage visitors to your blog to take a few minutes to submit a comment to one of your blog posts, but it’s even more difficult to entice them to come back and follow up on the conversation. The Subscribe to Comments WordPress plugin
Really true, we can’t live without having akismet plugin installed on our blogs. Its helping me to beware of spam comments. Nice share
I’ve replaced all the sites that had YARP with nRelate now. You should check it out – I hope that company goes far!
I host with WP Engine so I don’t need caching and regular backup plugins such as Backupbuddy (it’s banned on WP Engine servers anyway). They already use their own custom caching solution and they have memcached covered. They do recommend using VaultPress because it’s a real-time backup service, which means the site is backed up every time there’s a change made such as new posts being published. Most backup plugins don’t provide this functionality.
But I do use a lot of plugins and my favourites currently are:
Scribe SEO
Social Metrics
WordPress SEO
I’m also looking into Gravity Forms, amongst others.
Although it is convenient to use a plugin for social media, it does not place the scripts in the footer which has a negative effect on the rendering time of your website. Therefore I definitely recommend to do it manually.
i know this post is old but i just stumbled upon it while carrying out a search for plugins to use on my site. Mine is a new site hosted on synthesis and for a newbie to wordpress, i was amazed at the ease of using the genesis framework and the magazine child theme in setting and customizing my site. I got awesome support and guidance from the synthesis admin right from the purchase of my hosting subscription up to the pointing of the dns which i found confusing. Thanks for all the useful tips on here and u guys help us make our dreams come true…..fantastic blog
I just got premise today, after reading about it on this blog. Although I was wondering is it compatible with caching plugins such as wp total cache. I am asking this because I have had a lot of trouble with caching plugins in the past plus premise does have a membership portion as well, which kind of worries me.
What’s your advice on premise and caching plugins?
Great post, I am considering trying out scribe SEO. is it compatible with YOAST SEO or should only one SEO Plugin be installed?
Yes, it can work alongside Yoast’s plugin.
Somehow I cannot use scribe. I have installed none other plugins which are stated in this post.
I tried deactivating the W3 total cache, yet it does not work
Brian , thanks for a great post ; should a edited single php file be considered over the plugin for social sharing ….somehow i feel the plugin would slow down things
It can slow down a bit, but as long as you have an optimized hosting environment it shouldn’t be a problem.
I have installed google sitemaps two days ago and it was just terrible. The very first day I was using it my blog traffic was drastically reduced. I had three times less visits per day than usually. I did set priorities in the settings, but, my traffic was still very low. So, I deleted it yesterday. Now I can only hope that I will get old number of visits. I hate this plugin. I like other recommendations from this list.
Hm, not sure why having a Google Sitemap plugin would affect traffic, it’s meant to provide an easy way for Google to index your site.
Can we use w3 total cache and cludflare together .
This is one of those posts where the article is good, but the follow up comments are almost just as valuable.
Like many others I’m a huge advocate of the Yoast SEO plugin, as well as the Yoast Google Analytics plugin. I think they’re both no brainers. I’ve actually had quite a bit of trouble with the XML sitemap functionality that comes with Yoast, so I like the Google XML Sitemap one instead (which you’ve mentioned in this post).
Fantastic write up. Very thorough!
I hear ya. I love it when these types of
postscomments happen!@Brian, instead of subscribe to comments we prefer JetPack as this is available in JetPack and JetPack offers other cool functions, right?
Great list! I’ve been on the fence about Gravity Forms, but I think I’m sold now.
That’s great Kyle, they come highly recommended by me.
I was just wondering what plug in is used for the email optin box on copybloggers right hand side (and the one on the “Boost Blog Traffic” on the side bar and the top opt in box).
I’ve been trying to find it but I’m thinking it’s a plug in for Genesis themes.
Can anyone help?
That was a custom styled Aweber form that we built using a text widget.
Is WP Super Cache superior to W3 Total Cache? Because have seen a few hosting companies recommending WP Super Cache over W3 Total Cache.
We prefer to use the W3 Total Cache plugin.
Your list is pretty close to what many other developers advertise that they use. I know Genesis has some of it’s own built-in SEO ability, but I’m sure most developers would also add the WordPress SEO plugin, to this list. Personally, I haven’t started using Scribe or W3 Total Cache yet. I plan to, in the near future, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
As for Gravity Forms, I’m not convinced it is the BEST contact form option. I agree that it is quite user-friendly and it just plain works, but there is a significant cost, beyond dollars and cents, to using Gravity Forms, which most GF users, don’t pay any attention to.
The cost I’m referring to, is load/strain on the administration area. Gravity Forms uses a really absurd method of making sure it is registered. That method runs a bloated and unnecessary script, checking/validating against their remote server, when the Plugins Page or any part of GF Admin Area is accessed.
In addition, Gravity Forms often reports a false positive when identifying unregistered use, within the Plugins/GF Admin area. This can often cause the plugins page to stop loading before the whole page has finished and/or significantly slow the loading of the page. This happens multiple times each day and I can duplicate it on a vanilla WordPress/Genesis install, yet they refuse to address the issue.
All that being said, I still use Gravity Forms for my client’s websites, because it is easier for them (the user) to use. However, Contact Form 7 has way less cost of ownership (dollars and cents as well as load/strain on the admin area)… and, as a developer, using Contact Form 7 is just as easy to control, through the magic of CSS.
Having a problem with Jetpack it is showing me error in IE at my comment box working fine in Chrome. error is “Invalid request signature or no blog id supplied.”
Using all of them except Scribe. Time to try it out that too. I don’t have any doubt about the quality as it is from Studiopress.
This is a useful plugin list and great comment feed as well. Thanks to all who’ve contributed.
This list doesn’t contain two of the best plugins imo,
Advanced Custom Fields
and
Backup buddy
These two plugins plus gravity forms are standard on every single site I build and optimise, I could not live without these! Check them out!
many of the plugins i already use on my blog network, few like scribe and gravity forms are knew to me.
wonderful share thanks
Great list, and love the dialog here in comments area! Can you (Brian) or anyone recommend the best slider plug-in to use IN posts? We like doing product reviews and would like to implement a slider to showcase the un-boxing… photos… etc. Many thanks in advance!
I agree with Brian less is more when it comes to plugins. My clients often ask me to recommend them the “best plugin out there.” There is no simple answer to this as everyone uses different plugins based on their needs. That being said, plugins such as Akismet and W3 Total are must have plugins.
Thank you all for sharing your favorite plugin list, some of which i never heard.
I am looking for a simple store locator plugin for my wife’s business. I tried the “Store locator” plugin but it caused all sort of problems so I had to abandon it.
Any suggestion?
FYI – I have found great use for P3 – Plugin Performance Profiler. It enables me to look at all the plugins running on my site and see what the load impact is. I have used it to replace slower plugins with similar and more efficient plugins.
Brian: Are you still using the really simple facebook twitter share buttons plugin?
I read your post on your site here: http://www.briangardner.com/social-share-buttons/
An Excerpt: Sharing from Jetpack for WordPress
You might be wondering which social share plugin I’m using here on my blog. Until recently, I was using the Really Simple Facebook Twitter Share Buttons plugin but there were a few things I didn’t like about it.
So I dug a little deeper and found that the Jetpack Plugin for WordPress had a “sharing” component that provided exactly what I was looking for.
____
But I had heard some not so nice things about JetPack and “issues/bugs” but respect your opinion.
Hi Brian!
Great writing there. Huge fan of yours. Really love the Jetpack Social media thingy. Nice and sweet.
I wonder why (or did you) remove YARP? Using it on my post pages only though. What you wrote about Scribe really made me think if I wanna invest! My site is just up but in the next 3 months, I would probably get it. Who knows right?
Oh yes Brian, just a little favor to ask (if you have the time)! Have a quick glance on my site http://www.estudiowerk.com and do give me your honest feedback on how I can improve.
Again, many thanks for your time writing and thanks big…big time!
Regards,
Reginald
I stopped using YARP because I switched paths with my blog and my goals aren’t to string people along a certain path now.
Hi Brian, A great list but what about the mailchimp plugin, I thought this is a good one missing from the list. Also as regards the XML sitemap thing doesn’t Yoast SEO have this built in.
Great List though thanks!