e-Why, What & How · 2018-09-17

5 popular WordPress plugins – e-Why, What & How

popular wordpress plugins

WordPress powers 31% of the world’s Websites, be it blogs, e-commerce Sites or anything in between. The open-source Content management system with over 45,000 plugins is fast becoming the global choice for Website creation. Bloggers, particularly, rely on WordPress to publish their work Online.

But 1 of the things that make WP so endearing are plugins, or small pieces of software that can be added on to the main platform. Over the years, some of these plugins have gone on to become prima donnas in their own way.

Here, we feature some of the Popular WordPress plugins that have consistently remained high on the popularity chart. Not only do plugins add to the functionality of the basic WP model, they may also change it radically to suit a client’s needs. WordPress started out as a blogging platform, so most plugins aimed at this market tend to enhance rather than change the core structure.

Jetpack 

Jetpack, originally for WordPress.com, now offers multi-functional features & is a favorite among WordPress.org users, too. The plugin is free to install on any WP Site. There’s a paid version as well. The basic version proposes to add security to a Website in addition to serving up analytics & statistics on user activity. For bloggers, the grammar checking upgrade to the basic word editor installed on WP comes in handy in producing clear, well-written articles. The plugin also offers 100 free themes to beautify Sites & produce professional looking output.

Pixabay Images 

We all know of Pixabay for the copyright-free & other type of images it offers. But with over 1.5 million royalty free, free to use ‘without attribution’ images, Pixabay has also become a very popular go-to plugin for adding images to blogs posts. These CC0 images are all in the public domain & can be added anywhere in a blog post with no more than a click.

The Features

  • Search by image type & orientation.
  • Easy to upload to a blog’s media library.

Now, blogs would be very bland indeed without suitable, descriptive imagery & Pixabay has the problem solved.

WPForms 

Most bloggers need to add a contact form to their Website. WPForms, is easy to use & core features are free. The paid version will structure any form imaginable in minutes. The plugin allows bloggers to stay in contact with their users & even build a newsletter subscription list. Both of which are essential to the success of a blog.

Yoast SEO 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is of utmost importance to any blogger wanting to appear in search engine’s output such as Google’s results. Yoast SEO gives users power to manipulate Website ‘meta tags’ which are the secret to getting a site well positioned in search results. By optimizing a blog SEO, publishers might gain users readily due to the content of their site being more accessible to potential readers.

Social Icons 

The scale of social media content distribution is often the make-or-break of a blogging enterprise. Without the marketing enhancement added by social media interest, many blogs would fail. This plugin provides a method of easily displaying links to social Sites like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.

By clicking on an icon, users are easily able to convey Content & links to a wider audience, thereby creating social buzz & boosting the potential to gain new readers. Moreover, the icon size, color & layout are all customizable, giving the Site owner the ability to integrate these additions seamlessly.

The plugins featured here are simple to use & add vital functionality to WordPress. Apart from the ones mentioned, there are other useful add-ons too such as Akismet, which is an anti-spam comment checker, Google Site Maps that generate a map of your Site or Editorial Planner which assists in scheduling posts & pinning them to a date planner.

The list, therefore, is by no means exhaustive. WordPress offer a wide choice & you can choose to install any by searching its built-in plugin results.


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