Essential WordPress Plugins | Joy Of Code

Today I start an intermittent series on great WordPress plugins. Some of these plugins will be mainstream and used by millions. Others will be more obscure but fun, useful or indispensable none-the-less.

A plugin works a lot like an app for an iPod or similar device. It allows you to extend a system’s core (default) functionality. Most WordPress plugins are free. All have decent documentation on how to install and use them. Some have good troubleshooting advice and still others have support from the plugin author.

If you have WP running on a server just go to the Plugins section in your Admin menu to seamlessly download and install any plugin. Otherwise you can get any plugin at the Plugin Directory section of the WordPress Mother Ship.

Here are some of the plugins that I love and I think you will too. Some of these are absolute musts. I don’t know why they are not part of the WP core.

Akismet

This plugin comes with WordPress out of the box, but you need an API key to turn it on. The key costs $5 a month and is worth it.

Once your site is up and running, you will get a fair amount of spammy comments. Spammy comments are comments from people who just want links from your site to theirs because inbound links are so valuable. Akismet will trap those worthless comments so you won’t have to read and trash them yourself. Don’t be scared about the API Key. It’s just a one time copy and paste operation.

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu

Fortunately, this was my first plugin.

If you don’t like the left side vertical admin navigation bar, then use this plugin. It will give you a horizontal nav bar. You can customize its appearance via Settings > Admin Menu.

Backup Plugins

There are a lot of them but whichever you choose, make sure that your database plus your theme, plugins, and media library get backed up. These two plugins below do just that. I have yet to see one plugin that does it all, but it probably exists.

WordPress Database Backup

This plugin will back up your MySQL database file which is the most important file in your WP site. It’s where all the content you create (and the comments left by others) is stored. You configure the plugin from Tools > Backup. Best thing is to have a copy of your database sent every day to an email address that you set up just for the purpose of storing your DB backups.

WordPress Backup (by BTE)

This plugin will backup your theme, plugins, and media uploads. To configure the settings go to Settings > WordPress Backup. The backups are stored in zip files on your server.

Subscribe2

Every time you publish a post (or even a page), this plugin will send an email to your subscriber list. Use your own list and have new subscribers enter their email address directly from your posts (or pages).

Almost anything you can think of can be set in the subscriber settings that are in several places in the Admin menu bar. From the messages sent via email to managing your subscriber list, a lot can be done with this indispensable plugin.

Exclude Pages From Navigation

If you don’t want a page to show up as a link in your nav bar, this is the plugin to use. All you need to do is to set the Exclude Page option accordingly for any given page. You’ll want to use this plugin when creating orphan pages (pages not connected to the site hierarchy).

This is only the start of the WordPress plugins that I’ll be recommending for you in future Joy Of Code Blog posts. If you have a plugin that you love â€" or one we should avoid â€" tell us in the comment box below.