The Best WordPress Plugins for Every Purpose (Recommended by Developers)

From http://www.meetup.com/Milwaukee-WordPress-MeetUp/events/228040925/

Geoff Myers, digital marketing consultant/strategist and president of SimDex LLC, will be presenting an overview of the best plugins that he – and many other WordPress developers – use regularly for client projects and highly recommend.

Geoff will present and discuss some of the best plugins available in each of the following categories:

• Analytics
• Backups
• Calendars/Events
• Comments
• Ecommerce
• Email Marketing
• Forms
• Forums/Discussions
• Galleries/Sliders
• Import/Export
• Migrations/Cloning
• Performance
• Security
• SEO
• Social Media
• Tools/Utilities
• Videos
• More!

Transcript

1. THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE (RECOMMENDED BY DEVELOPERS) GEOFF MYERS PRESENTS
2. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 BEFORE WE BEGIN… ABOUT GEOFF MYERS ▸ Founded SimDex in 2004 ▸ Web Solutions for Small + Medium Sized Businesses ▸ Digital Marketing Consultant + Strategist ▸ 10+ Years as Full Stack Web Designer + Developer ▸ 5+ Years of WordPress Development Experience ▸ 50+ WordPress Sites Built, Maintained + Marketed ▸ Formal Background in Computer Science ▸ Get In Touch: geoff@simdex.org or simdex.org or 414.455.6675
3. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE WHAT SHOULD I CONSIDER WHEN RESEARCHING A PLUGIN? 1. Features + Functionality 2. User Interface + Experience (UI/UX) 3. Customization + Flexibility 4. Responsive Design + Mobile Friendliness 5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 6. Performance + Speed 7. Security + Stability 8. Developer + Community Support
4. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK FIRST ▸ What features and functionality do you need? ▸ What integrations do you want with other plugins? ▸ How compatible is your theme? ▸ How technologically savvy are you? ▸ What is your budget? ▸ How willing are you to learn? ▸ How much support do you need?
5. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE WHERE SHOULD I GO TO FIND A PLUGIN? ▸ WordPress Plugin Directory (wordpress.org/plugins) ▸ WooThemes (woothemes.com) ▸ Elegant Themes (elegantthemes.com) ▸ WPMU DEV (wpmudev.org) ▸ CodeCanyon (codecanyon.net) ▸ Plugin Developer Websites
 (gravityforms.com, yoast.com…)
6. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE A SMALL SAMPLE OF PLUGIN CATEGORIES ▸ Analytics ▸ Backups ▸ Calendars/Events ▸ Comments ▸ Development ▸ Ecommerce ▸ Email Marketing ▸ Forms ▸ Forums/Discussions ▸ Images/Videos ▸ Import/Export ▸ Maps ▸ Migrations/Cloning ▸ Performance ▸ Security ▸ SEO ▸ Social Media ▸ Tools/Utilities ▸ More…
7. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR WEBSITE ANALYTICS + INSIGHTS ▸ Google Analyticator ▸ Google Analytics by Yoast ̣ ▸ Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
8. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR WEBSITE BACKUPS ▸ BackupBuddy ▸ BackUpWordPress ▸ UpdraftPlus ̣ ▸ WP-DB-Backup
9. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR CALENDARS + EVENTS ▸ Events Manager ▸ The Events Calendar ̣
10. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR USER COMMENTS ▸ Akismet ̣ ▸ Disable Comments ▸ Disqus Comment System
11. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR DEVELOPERS ▸ Advanced Custom Fields ̣ (create create custom fields) ▸ Child Theme Configurator ̣ (create child themes) ▸ Custom Post Type UI ̣ (create custom post types
 and taxonomies) ▸ Theme Check (check WordPress
 theme best practices) ▸ Types (create custom post types,
 taxonomies,and custom fields) ▸ What The File ̣ (identity templates)
12. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR ECOMMERCE + SHOPPING CARTS ▸ WooCommerce ̣ ▸ WooCommerce Premium Extensions ̣
 (many, many plugins with various features) ▸ Braintree (payment processor) ▸ PayPal Pro (payment processor) ▸ Stripe ̣ (payment processor)
13. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR EMAIL MARKETING INTEGRATION ▸ MailChimp for WordPress ̣ ▸ MailPoet Newsletters
14. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR CUSTOM FORMS ▸ Contact Form 7 ▸ Fast Secure Contact Form ▸ Gravity Forms ̣ ▸ Ninja Forms
15. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR FORUMS + DISCUSSION BOARDS ▸ bbPress
16. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR IMAGE + VIDEO GALLERIES + SLIDERS ▸ Gallery ̣ ▸ Image Widget ▸ Meta Slider ▸ NextGEN Gallery ▸ Slider ▸ Slider Revolution ̣
17. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR IMPORTING + EXPORTING DATA ▸ WordPress Importer ▸ WP All Import ̣
18. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR EMBEDDING MAPS ▸ Google Maps Widget ▸ MapPress ▸ WP Google Maps ̣
19. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR CLONING + MIGRATING WEBSITES ▸ All-in-One WP Migration ▸ Duplicator ̣ ▸ WP Migrate DB
20. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION (PART 1 OF 2) ▸ CloudFlare ̣ (content delivery network) ▸ EWWW Image Optimizer (image optimization) ▸ Imsanity ̣ (automatic image resizing) ▸ P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) ̣
 (diagnostics + troubleshooting) ▸ Query Monitor ̣
 (diagnostics + troubleshooting)
21. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE ▸ W3 Total Cache ̣ (caching + minification) ▸ WP-Optimize (database optimization) ▸ WP Smush (image optimization) ▸ WP Super Cache
 (caching + minification) BEST PLUGINS FOR PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION (PART 2 OF 2)
22. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR SECURITY + PRIVACY ▸ Advanced Automatic Updates (automatic WP updates) ▸ Easy Updates Manager ̣ (automatic WP updates) ▸ iThemes Security ̣ (security best practices) ▸ Login LockDown (login protection) ▸ Really Simple SSL (force HTTPS/SSL) ▸ Sucuri Security ̣ (malware scanner) ▸ Wordfence Security ̣
 (malware scanner)
23. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) ▸ All in One SEO Pack ▸ Google XML Sitemaps ▸ Yoast SEO ̣
24. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING + INTEGRATION ▸ AddThis ̣ ▸ AddToAny ▸ Custom Facebook Feed ▸ Shareaholic ▸ ShareThis ▸ Social Networks Auto-Poster ̣
25. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR SOCIAL NETWORKS + COMMUNITY BUILDING ▸ BuddyPress
26. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR TOOLS + UTILITIES (PART 1 OF 2) ▸ Admin Columns ̣ (view, edit, filter, and sort posts and pages inline) ▸ Better Search Replace ̣ (find and replace in MySQL database) ▸ Broken Link Checker ̣
 (find and fix links + images with 404 errors) ▸ InfiniteWP ̣
 (manage multiple WordPress sites) ▸ ManageWP
 (manage multiple WordPres sites) ▸ Multi Plugin Installer ̣
 (bulk install plugins automatically)
27. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR TOOLS + UTILITIES (PART 2 OF 2) ▸ Nav Menu Roles (control access to menus) ▸ Page Restrict (control access to content) ▸ Redirection ̣ (easily create 301 redirects) ▸ Regenerate Thumbnails ̣
 (recreate image thumbnails) ▸ Simple History ̣ (log user activity) ▸ User Role Editor
 (edit user + group permissions)
28. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR MISCELLANEOUS (PART 1 OF 2) ▸ Display Widgets ̣ (conditionally show widgets) ▸ Duplicate Post ̣ (copy posts and pages) ▸ DuracellTomi's Google Tag Manager ̣ ▸ Jetpack ̣ (many, many features) ▸ Page Builder by Site Origin
 (visual layout builder) ▸ Shortcodes Ultimate
 (pre-formatted modules)
29. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THE BEST WORDPRESS PLUGINS FOR EVERY PURPOSE BEST PLUGINS FOR MISCELLANEOUS (PART 2 OF 2) ▸ TablePress ̣ (create and edit tables) ▸ TinyMCE Advanced (WYSIWYG editor) ▸ Visual Composer ̣
 (visual layout builder) ▸ WPtouch (mobile-friendliness)
30. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THAT’S IT FOR NOW… THANK YOU! Questions? Comments? Get In Touch:
 geoff@simdex.org
 simdex.org
 414.455.6675
31. GEOFF@SIMDEX.ORG | WWW.SIMDEX.ORG | 414.455.6675 THAT’S IT FOR NOW… THIS PRESENTATION IS AVAILABLE ONLINE: simdex.org/plugins simdex.org/plugins.pdf Get In Touch:
 geoff@simdex.org
 simdex.org
 414.455.6675