3 Types of Plugins Every WordPress User Absolutely Must Install
If you are developing a website, there is a good chance that you are using WordPress as the content management system. This is a safe assumption to make considering most of the large scale websites are powered by WordPress as well as millions of other websites as webmasters quickly recognize the benefits of the CMS when they start building websites. One of the primary reasons why individuals utilize WordPress is the multitude of plugins available offering unimaginable features. If you are just starting out with WordPress, instead of trying out the various trivial plugins, there are a few plugins that you should install right from the get go.
- A Backup plugin
Maintaining frequent backups is a necessity when launching any project. We’ve seen time and time again the horror stories of individuals using several months of work because they failed to perform the simple task of backing up their data. Whether you are simply launching the site for recreational purposes or you are serious about building a network of successful, profitable websites, installing a backup plugin takes just a few minutes to setup and will keep all the content of your WordPress website safe. Most of the backup plugins are designed in a manner that automates the entire process. The plugin generates a backup periodically (based on the preference you set) server side and then either uploads it to a folder on your server, an email address or a third party file storage service such as Dropbox. There are a number of backup plugins available in the WordPress plugin database. A quick search for a backup plugin will reveal them.
- An anti-spam plugin
Spam is one of the primary negative that you will need to continually counter when running a blog or forum or any site that accepts user submissions for that matter. Spam can build up at an alarming rate even if you have just started out. To combat this, install one of the powerful anti-spam plugins available. Akismet is always the primary choice as it is installed by default but many fail to activate the plugin until your comments section reeks of thousands of spam comments. There are other efficient alternatives as well if you fail to warm up to Akismet.
- (An) SEO plugin(s)
If you are looking to garner visitors from search engines, installing an SEO plugin will pretty much take care of the on page SEO for you and give you a head start. WordPress is quite SEO friendly out-of-box but installing a plugin or two for SEO will tweak the site even further in favor of SEO. You should be looking to install an all-in-one plugin that customizes the overall SEO aspects of the site as well as other specific SEO optimizations if you need them such as a sitemap generator or a robots.txt file generator.
The implementation of all the aforementioned types of plugins should leave your blog more powered up and ready to face your visitors.
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