Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress. There are over 32,000 plugins available in the WordPress repository (https://wordpress.org/plugins/). With so many different ways to achieve the same result, here are a few popular recommended wordpress plugins (usually your web designer will take care of this for you):
Akismet
This is a recommended wordpress plugins because it protects your website against any automated spam via comments on your blog.
BackupBuddy
A paid plugin which makes it very easy to automatically backup your website, restore it and migrate it. Best of all, these backups can be stored in the cloud using services such as dropbox.com, Amazon S3 or other FTP server. You can never have too many backups!
Disqus
This plugin integrates with the native WordPress comments but provides a more feature rich commenting experience.
Google XML Sitemaps
A plugin which will create a structured file in XML format which can then be submitted to Google to aid in the crawling of your website.
Gravity Forms
Advanced form creation plugin that makes beautiful looking, powerful forms. It has a drag and drop interface making it very easy and quick to build simple, multipage forms and order forms.
Image Widget
Upload images to the widgets section within the WordPress administration panel.
iThemes Security
This plugin protects against hackers on your site. It improves the security on WordPress by modifying the configuration settings, hiding certain components and detecting brute force attempts (when your website gets flooded with traffic by a hacker).
Redirection
Manage 301 redirects (tells a search engine when a page moves from one location to another) and track any 404 errors (when a page is missing).
Share This
A way of adding social media sharing links such as Facebook, Twitter and Share via email to your blog posts.
Shortcode Exec PHP
A technical plugin for adding scripting code to posts and pages further expanding the functionality of WordPress.
WordPress SEO
A comprehensive SEO plugin for managing the on-site optimisation of your website. This includes a content analysis feature which gives you feedback on the optimisation of each page.
WooCommerce
E-commerce plugin which will transform your website into a fully functioning online store. With tons of features this plugin delivers an enterprise-level shop for free. Great for selling physical, virtual or downloadable products. There are hundreds of ‘extensions’ available which further increase its shipping, payment and configuration capabilities.
WP Smush.it
Automatically reduces the file size of images so they load much quicker.
WP Super Cache
Instead of running intensive scripts every time someone visits your website, a smaller more efficient HTML file is generated and sent. This smaller file reduces the load on your server and speeds up your site.
Types & Views
A WordPress development toolset allowing for the customisation of the WordPress backend by creating customised ‘posts’ containing unique predefined fields.
