Well, in this blog I’ll share with you some of my very best WordPress plugins.
Tools I’ve tried, tested and proved the test of time in my 5 years WordPress journey.
If you don’t like the video, continue reading…
1. Elementor
I can’t mention more than enough the name Elementor. The come company just came not more than 4years ago but brand sounds like has existed for last 10yrs. Elementor is a theme WordPress page builder plugin.If you’ve had of page builders in the WordPress ecosystem, think of Elementor as one but out of the box. Before my journey set off with this amazing page builder plugin. I used Divi and WP composer for a number of client sites. Being honest, as a non-developer, I literary had to install a couple of other plugins to be able do simple tweaks that these tools wouldn’t offer. And please don’t get wrong, Elementor is not an ultimate install once and go but am trying to give you a picture of how it is to use a page builder plugin but when you’re unable to switch canvases, canvas size, tweak mobile and tablet displays separately. Unable to build a header or footer separately and allocate it to a special page or all. Hope you get me on that. Now, that’s where Elementor came in and changed the whole drag and drop game in WordPress. I have now redesigned my blog with Elementor and well switch a couple of other sites I run in the background. Elementor and the team have mastered one thing. They keep their ears on the ground. The keep listening to user and developer feedback and ask accordingly. In the recent past, Elementor has released an update where you can create pop-ups and opt-ins. This is a real game changer. Its bringing plugins like opt-in monster to knees.And for an ELementor Pro user, they’re getting more on quality yet keeping the same expense on a tool. Long story short, if you’re on a look for a page building WordPress plugin, then Elementor is the absolute solution you need.
2. JetPack
On the other hand, is JetPack.This is an all in one WordPress security and performance plugin.JetPack stands in for you when you’re not there. I have found JetPack very useful in times when a hosting provider switches of the servers for some reasons. JetPack takes the leap to notify you on every event as it unfolds. Furthermore, am always impressed when I get a downtime notification showing even number of minutes or hours my sites were down. On performance still. This amazing plugin monitors your website traffic performance. It tracks how your site visitors come, what they read and where they accessed your website and where they click when on your website. If find these stats very helpful as am not a daily google analytics fanatic. So through wordpress synced account with JetPack, am able to see how my sites perform on the go. On the other site, JetPack provides site security and in cases where unauthorized logins are attempted. JetPack locks out the visitor and prompts them to log in using their WordPress user account details.
3. WooCommerece WordPress Plugin
If there is one plugin that am very thankful of that’s in the WordPress repository, its definitely Woocommerce. Imagine how long and how much it could cost you turning your existing WordPress website into an online store? Yah, you heard it. Of course, the costs are countless. But hey, with Woocommerce, turning your existing or newly created WordPress website into an online is just a click away. Woocommerce has made selling online simple, easy and seamless. It makes small and big businesses create, manage and thrive online selling products and services. The other beauty about Woocommerce is that it’s super extendable. You can easily make/change it to how you want it to be. You can enable other businesses to extend their micro-services through already enable woocommerce websites. Just a point in case, Cashleo is a payment gateway company based in Uganda that supports woocommerce enabled website businesses to collect payments. With Cashleo’s woocommerce plugin, website owners only have to install and start to receive payments which would actually require them to build a separate platform just to process payments. So by Cashleo extending woocommerce, it makes business and life simpler.
4. Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin
Besides that, I put in time to write original and content that should bring you value. Yoast SEO has been that plugin that enables me to optimize each and every piece of content on my blog for the search. If you’re reading this blog due to a search query you made in the search engine. The results showing up where I appear is partly because of this awesome plugin. Yoast makes technical things simple and accessible to non-techies and beginners. With the free version of this seo pluign, you’re able to optimize your pages and blogs for the search engine, and get your website indexed among others. If you want to play the seo game, then Yoast SEO WordPress plugin is a tool you should consider checking out.
5. WordFence
How can I write off this blog without mentioning WordFence the king of securing our WordPress websites. And not some many years ago that this plugin was launched by Defiant Inc. WordFence has turned out to be the ultimate WordPress website security research and defense tool. I’ve use WordFence on all my website including this blog and the two most features I love are, 1. the ability to detect and stop attacks before they reach me (blog),2. ability to block unknown user or login attempts by brute force,3. ability to blacklist and/or whitelist specific IP address from specified attackers and finally4. the ability to have a dashboard to see all these reports as they happen. Those among other are interesting features WordFence brings to the WordPress website security table. Consider checking it out and there frequently updated security and well-researched blog for updates on security, attacks and reports as they unfold.
In closing,
Writing this has been one of those things on my bucket list for long. It would be endless but am considering those MAJOR plugins a WordPress user would equip themselves with. Let me know in the comment box your favorite WordPress plugins. Talk soon.
