The only plugins that you really need

Posted in: Plugins

Mar 31

Many people go overboard when installing plugins to extend WordPress’s functionality. Unless you are adding functionality that you really need, then it isn’t necessary. One of the main reasons to avoid overloading WordPress with a plethora of plugins is performance. It’s pretty simple; the more plugins you are running means your site requires higher horsepower, so to speak. Additionally, the more plugins you run increases the odds that one of the plugins will conflict with another. In a perfect world all plugins and themes would be developed following a particular set of standards that would help insure conflicts would be avoided, however that isn’t currently the case. That’s why I’ve put together this short list of plugins that I actually recommend you run. Some of these aren’t necessary if you don’t require their specific features, so use your own judgment.

All In One SEO

All Shaken & Stirred Themes are optimized for search engines (like Google and Bing), however if you’d like more control over Search Engine Optimization, I recommend that you install this free plugin. It will automatically generate META tags for you and gives you the option to create your own META description and META keywords.

Google XML Sitemaps

“This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.”

If you are running on a multisite version of WordPress, use this version of Google XML Sitemaps. If you don’t know what multisite means, you probably don’t need to worry about this.

Google Analyticator

This is one of those plugins that you may or may not need depending upon if you are interested in tracking your web analytics and have a Google Analytic account.

“Google Analyticator adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on any WordPress blog. This eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging. Google Analyticator also includes several widgets for displaying Analytics data in the admin and on your blog.”

WP-DB-Backup or BackupBuddy

It’s always a good idea to backup your website. WP-DB-Backup will do it automatically for you, and you can even schedule it to do it on a weekly basis. It will only send you a copy of your database, which may not be that helpful if you aren’t familiar with things like mySQL or if something happens to your files. If you want to go with a more robust and bulletproof backup plan, I would go with BackupBuddy.

Gravity Forms

If you are in need of a contact form, this plugin is for you. Although it costs $39, it is well worth the investment. The power and reliability of the forms you create with the Gravity Forms plugin is out of this world. Not only can you create contact forms, but also multi-page forms, order forms, registration forms, posting forms, and more. I recommend checking out their website for more information.

If you don’t feel like dropping $39 for a professional plugin and only need a basic form creator, I recommend checking out Contact Form 7

Akismet

“Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s ‘Comments’ admin screen.“

Last time I checked, this plugin comes bundled with WordPress by default.

About us

Shaken and Stirred Web is dedicated to creating kick-ass WordPress themes and is operated by Sawyer Hollenshead, a NY based web designer. We believe in quality over quantity and are constantly striving to create unique products that are beautifully designed and functional, without being bloated. All of this while also adding value to our existing products and user base.

Discussion

Bas Apr 21, 2011 at 9:50 pm #

Excellent of necessary plug ins. thank you

Paco Apr 26, 2011 at 4:49 pm #

What about a plug-in (or other solution) to do word searches within Shaken skin? I badly need one, let me know!

- Sawyer Apr 26, 2011 at 5:51 pm #
  
  Not totally sure what you mean. There is a search widget that comes with WordPress.
  
Paco Apr 27, 2011 at 12:22 pm #

Sawyer, you are right, I’ll get that one.

A.Hagag Apr 29, 2011 at 2:13 pm #

thx for the ideas and plugins very helpful

Mark Jul 15, 2011 at 3:08 pm #

I’d recommend using “SEO Ultimate” instead of All In One SEO. It has far more features that let you fine tune literally anything SEO related, plus has many modules with very helpful and often necessary options.

- Sawyer Jul 15, 2011 at 3:14 pm #
  
  I’ll have to check that one out. Is it regularly updated and maintained? All In One SEO is really well built and maintained, which is the main reason I recommend it. I’ve never ran into conflicts with it.
  
  - Mark Jul 15, 2011 at 4:11 pm #
    
    Oh yes, SEO Ultimate is also updated very often, and is up to date with WP 3.2.1
    
    It’s worth looking into, since it has so many useful features. I still recommend All In One SEO to my clients who want to manage their own SEO, but if I am doing it myself, I use Ultimate since it is more advanced.
    
- Dylan van der Heij Jan 6, 2012 at 6:31 am #
  
  I would recommend using WordPress SEO by Yoast, amazing plugin and updates every week =)
  
  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/
  
Michiel Oct 4, 2011 at 8:35 am #

What about w3 total cache? I think that is an important standard plugin to have as well. Or do you think else?

- Sawyer Oct 4, 2011 at 2:38 pm #
  
  Cache plugins are acceptable, they tend to optimize your site and allow it be downloaded quicker, sure.
  
Apostolos Karakoussis Oct 15, 2011 at 3:42 am #

Akismet not Aksimet

Oh and why not YOAST’s SEO plugin instead of AIO SEO?

- Sawyer Oct 15, 2011 at 1:23 pm #
  
  Yoast’s plugin is good too. I prefer All In One SEO, but it really just comes down to preference. Both are great.
  
Jamie Jones Nov 1, 2011 at 6:08 pm #

I have stuck by contact form 7 for some time now. I also include my Google maps within the form function so our clients don’t acidently remove it from their page. I think the AIO SEO pack has been a god send for SEO agencies who are using WordPress more often than not. Especially teams who don’t have a handy HTML/PHP coder on hand