WordPress Plug-ins You Need to Install RIGHT NOW New Media Journalism & Public Relations
WordPress Plug-ins You Need to Install
RIGHT NOWNew Media Journalism & Public Relations
What’s a Plugin?• Small app that performs
specialized functions.
• You can’t manage the site well without them.
• Search for and install via Plugins tab
Install these plugins NOW.
Jetpack• One-stop shop for TONS of cool
plugins
• Installs immediately with WordPress
• Comes with video tutorials for each feature
Jetpack• Recommended:
• Site Verification - Verifies site w/search engines
• Publicize - Enables auto-sharing via Social Media
• Custom Content Types - Organizes content types, in addition to posts and pages
• WordPress.com Stats - Provides basic analytics
• Subscriptions - Enables email subscriptions
• Sharing - Enables ‘Share’ buttons on content
• Related Posts - Displays links to related content under each post
• Spelling & Grammar - Spell checker!
• Extra Sidebar Widgets - Enables Twitter, Facebook Like, Image and other widgets
WordPress SEO by Yoast• Creator: Joost de Valk
• Plugin checks each post for optimization
• Conditions you to think about SEO.
• Also helps with your writing.
Wordfence Security• Monitors your site for any funny
business
• Automated security scan
• Simple one-button scan feature
• Email alerts
• Login attempts from people who are not you
• Plugin Updates
Akismet• Recommended for install with
WordPress (like JetPack)
• Anti-Spam plug-in
• Install this right away.
• Get a WordPress key from Kismet and connect your site using the plugin.
• Akismet guides you through the process.
Backup Wordpress• Creator: Human Made Limited
• Because you never know
Google Analytics by Yoast• Connects your site to your Google
Analytics account with a few simple clicks.
• Made by the same guy who makes SEO for WordPress.
• Coming soon: Analytics on your WordPress Dashboard
• But in the meantime…
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
• Google Analytics plugin doesn’t show analytics on your WordPress Dashboard.
• This plugin does.
You might want to think about installing these
plugins too.
Social Media Widget• Creator: Blink Web Effects
• Creates a widget where you can put your site’s social media links
• Make sure the accounts are set up (More on that in a bit)
• Click here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-media-widget/screenshots/
• May be unnecessary if your theme already includes Social media buttons
WP Smush.it• Sometimes images you take are
too big to upload to WordPress.
• This plugin compresses those images automatically.
• Saves you space and loading time.
Optional plugins
Admin Management Xtended
• Quickly edit and manage metadata
• Toggle visibility of posts
• Make a post “sticky” on your home page.
• Change numerous other small but helpful options
TinyMCE Advanced• Adds more buttons to the Visual
Editor toolbar
• Alignment, font, tables, etc.
• Helps add some Word-like qualities to your text.
SNAP• Social Network Auto Poster by
NextScripts
• Automatically posts to your social networks.
• Allows you to customize those messages as well.
NextGEN Gallery• Allows you to embed well-
designed galleries from photos.
Disqus• Comment system
• Threaded comments
• Notifications by email
Facebook• Use Facebook’s official plugin
• Make sure your Facebook Fan Page is set up first
• Set up Likes, Shares, and Recommendations.
• NICE OPTION: Use Facebook to administer Comments
• Make sure you deactivate WordPress Comments if you want only Facebook to administer them.
Contact Form• Creates easy, no-frills Contact
page.
TablePress• Creates embeddable tables
• Table features can be customized
Blubrry• Podcasting plugin
• Includes player
• Enables iTunes compatibility
• One-stop shop if you do podcasts.
Post Type Switcher• Switch between pages, posts,
media, topic, replies, etc.
• If you put your posts as pages (tsk tsk), this will fix that.
Always update your pluginsDouble-check your site and update plugins every time.
Click the button and perform all updates.