WordPress is a powerful CMS. being the biggest in the CMS world and owning the elephant share of every now and then blogs and websites, Automattic the company behind WordPress had being boastful of being the big brother of all CMS and powering as many websites as possible.
WordPress dates back a long time and its history had made it just one of the ever great invention into the web development world.
Now in version 4.4 codenamed “Clifford” in honor of the man, The software is just a tool that makes everyone look like a professional in web development because of its ease of structure and straightforward usage. Remember even an old Ma can use the software.
Now, having WordPress loom premium like its made by a pro developer could be tedious if the right to and manner of development isn’t met.
Now what am saying is that to build an advanced website that looks very great and beautiful, you are gonna need some tools that would make that work out.
The extensiveness of WordPress is part of what makes very enjoyable and lovely. Anyway, lets get down to the business.
The lists goes here.
A. Mailing:
Mailing is very important as its a way of capturing your users for EMAIL marketings and a way of reaching out to them quickly to have a say in whatever offer you have. Well, WordPress makes this a very hasslefree task as the system had a way of handling this. Mailing would never be easy without these plugins:
1. Mailchimp: This is a very great mailing service provider offering both free and premium services. Specialized in mailing and delivering them straight into your user’s inbox and mostly not Spam box, the service would actually make lots of sense if used. With this, your users and subscribers are just within your very reach.
2. MailPoet: This is another great plugin.
Although using mailing service provider is very optional here, if you use a dedicated host, this is gonna just be very sweet because you own your entire server. With this plugin, you can just manage your newsletters and more directly from your WordPress admin panel. Its far easy.
B. Statistics:
Well, We know that Google analytics is a very great tool and so is Alexa but let me let you know that WordPress has its own way….via plugi s as usual. Now, having to visit Google Analytics every time might just not be your doing but by now, you have your entire website statistics reported directly in your website admin.
1. Wp Statistics: This 9MB plugin is such a beautiful plugin that makes the job very easy. Reading user’s ip-location, Map, Browsers, Most visited pages, Search engine searches, Referers and so many more are just the little out of what the WP statistics plugin is capable of. Try it out today and see it’s greatest value.
2. WordPress Statistics Analytics: This is another great plugin that functions exactly like WP statistics. With lesser weight, its almost capable of doing much as the Latter. Although you might feel the need for more better still, this great and extremely powerful plugin makes the job of analytics far more easy and you just would know exactly who,where and how your. traffics are driven on a regular basis.
[section label=”Community “]C. Membership:
Depending on the type of website you have, you might wanna create a website where users can be retained as users or as members or in a word, creating a somehow community website upon your website. Well, you don’t need to think of integrating with another social networking script or something. WordPress would again do it.
1. Ultimate Members: This plugin makes WordPress community a very easy thing to set up within moments. Being the great tool used by many great websites, the company behind the software are so boastful of its download rate since it’s little age of creation. Jut download and install and the software takes care of the rest just add some of your customizations and that’s all.
2. Ultra User : This plugin come in both free and pro but really, you might even wanna buy it later after experiencing its great usefulness but still, the free version does it way better because of its great functionalities. The. plugin had been downloaded a lots of times and being a huge success to the company behind its development.
[section label=”Downloads “]D. Download Management:
If you seek to add a function of download to your website, now it’s the chance. WordPress would again take care of that all in a box. With the extensions that just do that, you are somehow shinning and focusing more on your website rather than having to hire someone to develop another software for downloads for you.
1. Download Manager: This does just what its name implies. It helps you manage your downloads. You just install the small plugin and activate it. With lots and lots of extensions and addons, you can just take your downloading website anywhere based in it’s power and efficiency. The WordPress download manager does take care of the count, the management and so much more. Try it okay.
2. Download Monitor: With beautiful and intuitive ways of designs, you can now show your downloads in beautiful designs within your WordPress website. The plugin does the management of downloads and shows the analytics from Download time to a whole lots of others. Its being download many times in the WordPress plugin repository….so go get your copy too.
[section label=”Forums “]E. Question and Answer:
If you seek to add the type of Quora and or Stackoverflow in your website, then remember WordPress has got you covered again. Since WordPress had turned itself to an artificial intelligence with the instincts of an all doing purpose, then you need to give it a trial and see how it does its stunts.
1. DW Question & Answer: I would personally recommend this. Being powerful and easy to use and understand. All the functions of an advanced Question and Answer community all packaged in a box. No addons, no hassle. The Design Wall company behind the plugin did a very great job and innovation. Try it and enjoy it’s power.
2. Answer press: This is the close rival of DW Question & Answer community plugin. This does just what its said to do too. People post questions in a modern template which is beautifully designed with mobile functions in mind and People give answers to those questions. Its very simple and straightforward. No hassle.
[section label=”Social Login/Sign up”]F. Social Login/Sign up:
Many times, your community website would need this functionality. Because you are so scared and wished to have learnt PHP while in school so as to be able to build an Oauth server was just a topic that roams in your mind all the time but see, WordPress still got you covered.
1. WP Social login: well, it doesn’t just do the login thing as its name implies but also Sign up too. Now, with as many social networking websites integrated I to the single plugin, your community registration would be so easy and straightforward to join.
2. WordPress Super socializer: Well, apart from being the guy that socialises your user and encourages them to sign up with their old account, it still creates an interface whereby all can share your content and get them published to the world all around.
[section label=”Security”]G. Admin Security and Spam control:
WordPress has a way of helping you keep your Admin safe and calm from hackers and spambots. While there are people attempting to hack your website down, WordPress with its plugin extensiveness would get you covered ones again.
1. WP all in one Security: Well, this plugin does just one thing….it secures your website. Apart from securing your password in your database, it also block spambots and view IP locations. you being the Admin can tell it which location you want blocked and which you do want blocked. Its capable of doing exactly what its made to do and efficiently.
2. WP SpamShield: The company behind this project did a very grey job. Well, not every startups can afford Akimset…..well, you can use something that does or nearly do it. The spamshield covers your website against spammers and bots. In a word, your website would be 85% secured from spambots and hacking powers.
[section label=”Widgets”]H. Widgets:
There are lots and lots of widgets plugins for wordpress…it so depends on which one you want and what you want it to do. WordPress being the Bridger is back again here. Well, if you don’t understand me, Widgets are those things you place beside or below or above your website. It could be calendar, menus, Post and or comments. Whichever, you’ve got your cover with WordPress.
1. Posts
a. WordPress Recent post extended: This isn’t like the WordPress basic recent post widget. This post dies what its made to do. You can just design it to suit whatever need you want. The widget has a CSS editor where you can create your own CSS style from the default one. This plugin offer many great functions and thus making your theme looks like a premium theme and design.
b. WordPress Top 10 Posts: What this meant is that it does count visits on posts and pages and creates an overall of the top most viewed in a widget. You can then stylize it to your very own taste and feel. Its a great tool for advanced websites with lots and lots of articles and its a way of saving the old articles. You can set days as time limits.
11. Social Share:
With social share, you can just have more audience and taking your posts to the outside world is just gonna be a simple and straightforward thing for your users. And also, your social pages would just have more likes and follows.
1. Accesspress Social share: This plugin does add a nice and beautiful share/like and follow button on your widget and from there, your users can share your pages and or like it with ease. Its straightforward with many designs which you can just pick out of and then get the game straight out.
2. Jetpack : Jetpack doesn’t only contain share functionalities but lots and lots of it. The plugin is made by the WordPress developers and its so great and had been used by lots and lots of people. Its share functionalities is just one of a kind and it’ll be easy for your users to share your contents to the world.
[section label=”Featured Image/Video”]I. Featured post image / videos:
Featured post images are parts of what makes WordPress theme loom great with articles. Now, in many cases, you might be thinking that hosting all of your featured images might be somehow strenuous as you have to download and reupload which would be boring. So there are still plugins that cover that task too.
1. Neilo Featured image: The plugin is very basic and does what its made to do. Upon activation, it creates a link just above the native WordPress featured image area and within the kink, just type in your Featured post image URL and it would appear and then publish….that’s all.
2. Featured VIDEO: This plugin is very similar to the Neilo plugin too. The difference is its just a Video URL linker. Now, if you want to use a video maybe from YouTube or Vimeo, its just gonna be easy and then set them in the URL box and they would show up. That’s just all. its fast and its easy.
[section label=”Comment “]J. Comment system:
With the native WordPress comment system, your users might see it as too tasking to type their emails, full names and other stuffs which would just make them leave the comment most times. Since the engagement of users are very important, then There are plugins that cover the dent.
1. Wp Disqus: This utilises the Disqus API and therefore users can comment with their Social accounts directly so far they are logged in already on the browser and even if they are not, thy are quickly shown which way to log in without much hassle.
2. WP Discus: This plugin does almost the same with the earlier but the difference is that it doesn’t use any API but if a social networking plugin is installed, then you can add straight to the plugin and then users can comment in a more simple but beautiful way.
[section label=”Pop over”]K. Pops:
Pops are way by which you can display website’s news, newsletter sign up forms and or ads in a more intuitive way. WordPress pops are great plugin that doesn’t only pop out in ugly form but in a way that makes sense…
1. Displet pop: This plugin though come in pro and free version but despite free, you would enjoy the way it works. WordPress makes it way easier to have pop outs and the Displet plugin does bridge those gaps. You can then easily place any widget on the plugin upon activation and then make some settings and that’s all.
2. WordPress pop : WPMUDEV did this one. It has premium too but believe it, the free version is as powerful as anything. Simply place some shortcodes or whatever info you wanna place and then set it out straight. It’ll be working like a charm.
[section label=”Layout Builder”]L. Layout builder:
Well, with the new advances technology, you dont have to learn PHP to make your website look premium and exactly how you want it. WordPress system makes those tasks far easy with the intuitive WYSIWYG builders.
1. Site origin Panel: This freemium plugin does what it does. You create layouts within pages and thus making your website look beautiful and nice and premium. That’s the power of WordPress though.
2. WordPress Aqua Page Builder : JUST like SO panel, this plugin does make page building a very beautiful and hasslefree task because of its WYSIWYG capabilities. Its straight to understand and no need to go to school for it.
[section label=”Cache”]M. WordPress Cache system:
You might at a point want a very super fast website. Cache are like tools that help in the reduction of load times and http requests. With the WordPress cache system, you just stand the lead and this is a very good advantage to you if you run a very big website.
1. W3-Total-Cache: This is made by the WordPress company itself. Made to cache out your website straight in your user’s browser and so when next they are visiting your URL, it just feed them the updates of the saved HTML page on their browser and this makes the load time far faster and this makes your user stand back and not angrily closing the window.
2. Super Cache: This is another plugin that does the caching job very effectively. The Zen cache is used by many people and its a way by which their websites are delivered quickly to people without having to wait their entire battery out before your website loads out.
[section label=”SEO”]N. SEO tools:
Search Engine Optimization is a way of getting quick rankings and quick indexation from search engines e.g Google, Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, Baidu etc. With this WordPress plugin, your users would just easily find you via search keywords right in the internet and with ease, you would be located and that makes the job quiet encouraging.
1. Wp SEO by Yoast: This plugin does help you get quickly recognized and crawled by Googlebot. With the plugin, you can set out how you want your website to appear in search result as you see it directly while you edit. The plugin has been download thousands of tines and used by many WordPress users worldwide.
2. WordPress SEO Pack: This is another plugin in its prime. Making it easier for your website to he crawled. This plugin creates a sitemap.XML for your website and that would be easily submitted to search engines and then Indexing is just a few steps away.
O. [section label=”Ads “]Advertisement:
At a point, you might want to advertise and or have advertisers wanting to use your platform and so you need not just paste some codes somewhere but instead need a tool ghat you can use to nanage the entire process. Clicks, Hits and all that.
1: WordPress simple Ads: Well, its name sound simple and basic but let me let you know that this is one of the best plugin in the field. With lots of download, the plugin simply makes it possible to add ads, and auto insert ads in pages and posts anywhere from top, middle to below posts. The plugin also has widget functionalities and that makes the right tool.
[section label=”Weather “]P. Weather:
You might wanna display weather updates and or forecasts in your website.
This gives a better way of expressing the weather news as your users sees the whole thing in a graphical interface.
1. Wunderground weather: This plugin does what its made to do. It displays latest weather updates and forecasts in user sidebars. With it’s quality styles, you can chose which suites you from the small to big and decide which location is to be shown or let it detect user’s location automatically.
2. Awesome Weather: Well, its awesome too. With its beautiful layout design, its so cute and makes the weather display a very realistic thing for you. Now, your website would show a weather of your set of your user’s location in an awesome way.
[section label=”Mobile “]Q. Mobile:
Well, not every themes are responsive and even the responsive ones are usually to large and scrolling to the bottom is just a strenuous thing. So this is where the WordPress mobile plugins cover the mess.
1. Wp Touch: This is the most widely used mobile plugin for WordPress. That’s what we use on Netgills too. This plugin makes it easy for mobile users to view your website in a very beautiful way and less voluminous interface. This plugin is just the thing you need to mobilise your website. Install and activate and add some tweaks…that’s all.
2. Wp Mobile pack: if you seek a mobile HTML5 web app, then this advanced tool might be what you want. What it does is that it simply creates a version of mobile for your visitors using mobile native browsers like Internet explorers, android, blackberry, IOS safari etc. that’s how it goes.
[section label=”Related Posts”]R. Related posts:
Most default theme usually have the next and previous post section below your post but that isn’t a good way of making users select which post to read. That’s why plugins to fill the gap were made.
1. Yuzo related Posts: This plugin is very great and powerful. With just a click of install and activation, you then decide how you want the system to crawl your related posts and display them. You make those tweaks and other tweaks like how you want it displayed and etc. This plugin is just a very effectful plugin for blogs and website with contents of many categories.
2. WP related post: This plugin does display related posts for you in an intuitive manner. In a way you would love and care for. The plugin also has the Zemanta API which enables the pulling of other related posts from external websites while your own can be pulled to other’s website.
The plugins picked are assumed to be the best free we could pick from their categories. And wordless is such a very easy to understand plugin, you can make it to your very own by customizing every bit of the software to suite your own taste. WordPress is great and powerful. Its power makes it the nest among the best.