There are dozens of great Plug-Ins that make WordPress really sing. A Plug-In is functionality that you can drop into your web site (or blog) to make it have a new functionality. Don’t have WordPress yet? I highly recomment it because not only is it a great tool for it’s simplicity of use, but I believe that it’s the future of web sites. This is obviously my personal opinion, but many share it. You don’t need to be a high level programmer, and you can take your web site and turn it into a truly dynamic marketing vehicle for your business. We have a bunch that we pull from on a regular basis for our client’s web sites and I want to share my favorites with you (in no particular order). Like the idea? Click the name of the plugin to download it.
- SiteMap Generator
If search engine ranking is important to you, you’ll want to have this handy plug-in because it does the work for you that the search engines want you to do. Search engines look at your home page, your titles, your tags, and to a large degree, your content, but they also rely on a quality site map. Our web site (bottom) features a great example. - Page Links To
Ever want to create a link on your navigation, but have that link go to an external location on the web, or someplace else like a file? I love this plug-in because it’s straightforward, simple and adds a tiny little box to your editing screen at the bottom to use. Two words sum it up: easy, useful.
Featured Content Gallery
Need something really slick on your home page that highlights some of your biggest or brightest points? A slideshow is a great solution, and I couldn’t love this one more. Very easy to use and manipulate, you can edit almost everything about it to make it do exactly what you want and how. Our own home page features a great example.- Embed Iframe
Sometimes you want to put the content of another location on your web site. Facebook is doing it, why shouldn’t you? How about a Flash movie that you can’t figure out how to download? This is a great solution and it’s very easy to use. - Cforms (for forms)
This is so useful because if you want to have a really robust form on your web site, this is your best way to make it happen. You can create a quick and short form or a very lengthy robust form, complete with redirects upon submission, etc. Can’t love this one enough. It does take a little patience to work with, but it’s really good. You may have a small learning curve to deal with here, but not too much. There are so many options, but once you know what they are, you’re good to go. We feature examples all over our web site. - Facebook Comments for WordPress
This is my newest favorite because it makes commenting a much more user-friendly process for your visitors. It doesn’t play nicely in the sandbox with other Facebook plug-ins for your web site, so you need to pick this one and only this one (unless future releases let you), but so far, I’m a fan. A word of caution, don’t upgrade this one until you read the support page and they say it’s OK to go. I haven’t had good luck with the newest version, but the older one is fine. An example is right below this post! - Auto Thickbox
If you want to add a little something special to your standard photo gallery, the coolest way to do it (in my opinion) is this great little plug-in. It takes the page your on and creates a pop-up window, graying out the rest of the page. Very elegant and clean. An example is on our portfolio page. - All In One SEO Pack
For SEO, in my opinion, this one couldn’t get any easier. You still need to closely pay attention to titles, tags and descriptions and this helps you do it with ease. Very simple and user friendly. I’ve talked with others and they endorse some over this one, but I’ve tried them and really can’t agree. This one is really simple, really approachable and makes doing it a breeze. - WordPress Backup
This one really speaks for itself – it helps you to back up your site. Backups are critical. Don’t go without it! - WP Cumulus
What’s a list without a fun plug-in that doesn’t really hold any sort of necessity? This would be it. If you’re looking for a fun way to manage your tags or categories, this is it. And it adds to the “cool” factor of your site. Why explain when I can just show you? Check out the funky moving box on the bottom right of our web site and go ahead, play with it. You know you want to!
What are your favorites? What’s that one plug-in that you can’t live without? Share your opinion below!
