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GDI WP 101 - Week 3 - Plugins

GDI WP 101 - Week 3 - Plugins

Plugins slides for GDI Class #3.

Karen McCamy

March 02, 2015
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  1. Agenda  Brief Plugin Review  “Best Practices”  Caveats

     Configuring Plugins  My Recommended Plugins ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com
  2.  2 categories of Plugins  Front-end: ◦ Appear to

    your site visitor ◦ Impact site loading speed  Back-end: ◦ Think of these as “admin” uses ◦ For editorial and/or organizational purposes ◦ Don’t impact site loading ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com Plugin Review (continued)
  3. Plugin Review: Some Common Uses  Caching  Backup 

    SEO  Contact Forms  Admin Functions  Security  Social Buttons  eCommerce (true storefront) Shopping Cart (simple)  PayPal Button  Tool Bars  Membership & many more… ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com
  4.  Where to find plugins  Only the WordPress Repository:

    www.wordpress.org/plugins  Researching plugins  Take your time…sometimes lots of time!  See previous slides: Basic WordPress Elements ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com Plugin Review (continued)
  5. Best Practices  Source from the Codex  Take time

    to research completely  Some quick tips: • Do your research! — This takes time, sometimes a lot of time! • Is it current, up-to-date? • An old or out-of-date plugin can break your site! • What are the support issues? • how many are unresolved? • who does the support? • Read the description, FAQs, look at the screenshots • Is it easy to configure without "coding"? ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com
  6.  Avoid “Too Many” Plugins!  Avoid Duplicating Plugins! 

    Remove Unused Plugins!  Avoid Slowing Your Site!  Check your site speed & function after every plugin addition  Understand Configuration  …before installing!  Handling Site Load Issues…Class #4 ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com Caveats
  7. Configuring Plugins  Process of “setting it up”  Every

    plugin is different!  Examples: ◦ Dashboard Site notes: no config ◦ YARPP: minimal config for placement ◦ WP SEO by Yoast: uber-heavy config (with doc’s)  Some general rules:  Understand what you are doing!  Read the docs before downloading  Get support from plugin author ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com
  8. My Recommended Plugins  Akismet: prevents comment spam, comes with

    WordPress  W3 Super Cache: caching plugin, site speed improvement, FREE  Google XML Site Maps: zero config, FREE!  Backup Buddy (or backup alternative)  Dashboard Site notes: zero config, FREE!  WP SEO by Yoast  Fast Secure Contact Form: minimal config, FREE  Editorial Calendar: for multiple authors & scheduling  P3 Performance Profiler: checks plugins for site speed impact  YARPP: for displaying related posts *Helps your SEO*  WordFence: Security  “lorem ipsum” – when designing; zero config, FREE  Clone posts – when designing; zero config, FREE ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com
  9. One Final Caution  Check your theme for desired function

     If it’s already in your theme, don’t duplicate through a plugin!  Disable theme function if you choose to go with a plugin!  Common theme inclusions:  Social buttons  SEO  Related posts ©2014 Karen McCamy  FreelanceTechnologyReview.com