Some of the wordpress plugins I use

I’ve been using WordPress for a number of years now and it’s safe to say I have a small of love for it. It isn’t a perfect solution but it is a step up from hand coding websites. It allows a large amount of control over your website and has a load of plugins that support it. This is also in turn a major drawback as plugin conflicts do occur and as more essential plugins switch to premium models their willingness to help solve these conflicts reduces leaving you in a position where you might have to replace a keystone plugin to solve conflict issues.

I have used many plugins for different reasons and to different degrees of satisfaction. The below list is something I have wanted to put together for a while now so below is the current list of plugins that I use on this site and the reasons why I use them. Some are premium but most are free.

ADMIN SECTION WORDPRESS PLUGINS

Admin Collapse Subpages

If you have multiple pages and posts that sit underneath a parent category and you don’t want to use the default filtering system inside of wordpress, then this plugin gives those categories a collapsible + and – sign. It has made shifting through pages/posts a lot easier as there is substantially less pagination to deal with.

Duplicate Page

If you need to duplicate a post or a page, this does exactly that. Handy for posts and pages that have similar setups and saves you time recreating those setups.

Link Checker

If you have a large site with many internal and external links, manually checking links to see if they work is an impossible task. Link checker does this for you and gives you a list of broken links and where they are on your site for you to fix. Will save years of time. Download it, use it.

Envanto Market

If you own wordpress, then you more than likely will have an evanto account. This plugin links directly into your account and allows you to install purchases directly on your site as opposed to download and then uploading them. A simple time saving plugin.

Simple Local Avatars

Having to create a gravatar account for each user to simply have an avatar for that user is just pointless. If you have a small portfolio based site like mine and you dont want yet another account to password protect in your browser then this plugin will be of use to you. This plugin allows you to assign an avatar to a user profile in the user tab in admin. It is simple and it works.

Post Type Switcher

If you are switching to, or operating with custom post types and want to switch content to a new CPT, then this tool makes that process easy. It can found in the publish bloc on all post/pages.

Taxonomy Switcher

Another tool for managing CPT switches. If you are using taxonomy tags with your posts then these will also need to be transferred to the CPT. This little plugin helps with that process. It can be found under tools and has a very basic interface that makes using it easy.

Show IDs

In order to make the above tool easier to use you will need to know the post taxonomy ID. This isnt displayed in an easy to use way in wordpress (you have to hover over the tag and read it from the url reveal in the bottom left of the browser) which makes life much harder when trying to transfer a large number of tags. This plugin adds the tag ID to the interface which makes the process of switch tags to a new CPT much easier.

CONTENT CREATION WORDPRESS PLUGINS

Elementor

Elementor is a bloc based page builder. I used to to use WP Bakery (which I used as an editor page based visual builder) but I made the switch when I changed theme from Jupiter 6 to Jupiter X. I have installed elementor multiple times and then uninstalled it. I didnt really understand the workflow relative to WP Bakery, so I figured I would force myself to learn how to use it with the theme switch. What made the process easier for me was using the flatsome ecom theme visual editor which is almost like for like in functionality.

So, is it any good? Yes. Once I moved past the teething problems, learnt where everything is and how to use it with the theme I have found that it is a step up compared to WP Bakery. It still suffers the built in padding and margin quirks all page builders seem to have and additional functionality is locked behind a yearly paywall. But the free version is a solid tool that will add to your workflow.

Elementor does have a reputation of affecting site performance, but this isnt something I have noticed. I have however had an issue where a strange conflict between Wordfence and Rank Math prevented Elementor from loading in. Customer support was not helpful in this case despite reporting workflows to establish the mechanism of the conflict.

JetPlugins for Elementor by Crocoblock

Prior to using Jupiter X I had never heard of crocbloc or their JET toolset. And to be honest, if I had not been trying to achieve specific functionality for the main section of these content posts I probably would never have looked in to using them. I am not an advanced user. Things like Custom Post Types and Advanced Custom Fields were for the next level user. Im still not fully up to spec on a lot of those features, but using JET Engines features has help considerably in solving many layout and functionality problems I have had with using wordpress as a CMS. I would even go as far to say that learning how to use JET Engine, along with elementor, has actually increased my enjoyment in building webpages and presenting content to be viewed.

Now, you dont need these to plugins to get your own site up and running. I would describe these as a next level tool set that will add to your websites functionality.

All of Crocoblocs tools are paid for, but you will find them bundled with Jupiter X at a fraction of the cost which will give you a solid introduction to their tools and their use.

Classic Editor

Guttenberg, the new block based editor/page builder from wordpress was supposed to give a ‘visual composer’ like experience. The reality for me is that it fails miserably as the layout of tools and options are confusing and hidden. It’s a good idea, but with extremely poor implementation (this still applies for me in 2024). My first issue with it is it takes over new post/page creation which does get in the way of my own particular established workflow for pages. The classic editor plugin gives you the ability to select the classic editor for both page/post creation and editing.

iframe

Iframes are generally old methods of presenting content on pages. The method is now largely obsolete and is being heavily discourage by Google. I use it for very select reasons as creating an iframe in-code on a page/post can be a chore. This plugin creates a short code and does the work for you should you need an iframe.

This plugin appears to have been abandoned by the developer. Use at your own discretion.

PanoPress

This plugin is used specifically to display the virtual tours I have produced. Its years out of date, but it still works.

TinyMCE Advanced

This plugin adds functionality to wordpresses classic text editor by adding additional controls to what you see in the navigation section. It’s a staple of many wordpress sites.

Timetable Responsive Schedule For WordPress

This is a responsive timetable plugin that lets you create a singular shortcode based timetable that degrades nicely from PC format to a usable phone size format without the you having to create two separate instances of the same code. I use it specifically for class times but its has considerably more features including bookings and payments. It’s the best timetable plugin I could find but it is extremely clunky under the hood with creation of events and the timetable itself split into multiple sections in admin. If the devs swing past this page and read this the plugin needs workflow consolidation. It also lacks in depth visual customisation features that would allow someone like me to truly customise the appearance to the clients overall brand. Despite these gripes it does the job and does it well.

SEO WORDPRESS PLUGINS

Rank Math SEO

Note: I am not an SEO expert. I have been using this plugin for a while now and based on its features I have managed to improve rank position for several sites and reduce bounce rates. The features I appreciate the most include: sitemap and redirection features which mean I don’t need separate plugins for either. The sitemap itself also does not list wordpress core pages from what I can tell, which means the next plugin in this list is not negatively affected by it;

It works relatively well with page builders and the default classic editor, allows you to establish a keyword(s) for a page, correct/edit/add content based on its checklist of recommendations; You can also tailor which image is to be displayed on social media sites and it provides default editable schema format for multiple types of post specifically aimed at search engines.

There have been two main issues I have had with this plugin. The first is a conflict issue with Rank Math and Wordfence that prevents Elementor from loading on pages and posts. The second, is that it keeps on disconnecting from you Rank Math account. Also, if you disable the Rank Math plugin and the pro plugin (why does it need two?) this will also disable your link to your Rank Math account. And this isnt a new problem, its been reported for over half a decade now and still no fix in site.

SECURITY WORDPRESS PLUGINS

As a sidenote for this section, the fact wordpress requires security plugins is baffling to me. Site security should be a top priority of development, yet to me it has always felt like it isnt with the core dev team. As of updating this post in 2024 I have incorporated Seccuri to further harden the site after the first admin breach I had had in over ten years.

Wordfence

Wordfence is one of the more well used security plugins. It allows me to lock login attempts to a fixed number and permanently ban (including myself on occasion) any ip attached to a failed login. Since I started using this plugin hacking runs on my sites have virtually disappeared. I also use the Wordfence Login Security plugin which adds additional featurers. There is a free version and a paid for one. If you are running a larger business on the wordpress platform then the paid version is worth the money.

WPS Hide Login

Security. The default wordpress login page is known by anyone who has ever installed wordpress: sitename/wp-login.php. Leaving this in place creates backdoor access for hackers.

There are three things you should always do when creating a new wordpress site:

Change the default database table name to anything other than ‘wp’.
Set a nickname to your main admin account that isnt the username (WordPress has a tendency to display usernames).
Change the url of your login page (the function of this plugin).

There are several odd decisions wordpress core devs make, and not allowing you to easily define the url name of your login page during setup is one of them.

This plugin mixed with a login limit/ban plugin will beef up the security of your site. There are other ways in, but good security plugins will start to patch those holes that should be patched by the devs.

Website Optimisation WordPress Plugins

SG Optimizer

This is specific to anyone using the Siteground hosting platform. It’s a functional plugin that boosts your sites performance by tapping into siteground server features. If you are on Siteground and you do not have a WPRocket license then you should install this.

Ive tried many other plugins to optimise wordpress sites in the past and the core crux of site speed comes down to the localisation and quality of your server host above all other things. Optimisation plugins cannot improve a rubbish server.

Stop Generating Unnecessary Thumbnails

This little wonder is my personal holy grail plugin.

I didn’t know about wordpress’s obsession with thumbnails until I downloaded the media library from my old wedding site. WordPress will allow every plugin on your site to create any and all sizes of thumbnails the plugin authors think they need in order for their plugin to operate. Simple question: why? Admin sections need one reference thumbnail in-order to operate correctly. This single aspect of wordpress will fill your site server allocation up faster than anything else. In some instances I had 60 replications of a single image on a site that had thousands of images. Once I had sorted everything out I worked out that wordpress and the authors of all the plugins i use (except this one, this person is a god to me) had turned 2 gigs worth of images into around 26gb.

Let that sink in.

This entire aspect of wordpress will ruin your server performance and severely limit your site if it’s based, like mine is, on large numbers of images. This one single plugin is the most important one for me when using wordpress. It does exactly what it says, it stops wordpress and the plugins you use from filling your server with unnecessary images. Every time I upload an image it creates a single 160×160 thumbnail for use in the admin section. I have not noticed any performance issues since using this plugin, and all the other plugins work fine. So dear plugin authors, your plugin does not ned 20 different sized thumbnails in order to operate correctly. It just needs one.

This one is a no brainer, download and use it.

MEDIA LIBRARY MANAGEMENT

WP Real Media Library

WordPress out of the box is absolutely useless at organising images. By default your images will be put into a month/year folder order that you can see via some ftp software. Logically this does give a structure to image storage that prevents replicated url’s but it provdes no url structure for seo or any type of structure to logically manage all of your image files. This plugin (along with the next one on the list) gives you the ability to organise your media uploads into a file category similar to how you would do on your computer. If you produce a large number of images that follow a sequential numbering system, then there is an option to organise those images by that number system which makes adding them to posts or page en masse much easier. This plugin is essential for media heavy sites like portfolio based sites and ecom stores.

This is a paid for plugin and it is worth the money.

WordPress Real Physical Media: Physical Media Folders & SEO Rewrites

The meat on the bones of the above plugin. This is not required for the above plugin to work but if you want to give your media folders a physical structure on your site for seo and ftp organisation then it is required. It has moved from being free (there is still a free version but it is out of date) to a paid for version, but as with the above plugin it is a solid investment.

Plugin Types I don't Currently Use

Back-up plugins

I don’t use a backup plugin as my host does daily backups, and i don’t post daily to the site so if it was ever brought down, running a backup is an easy task. HOWEVER! If you run a site that is generating content daily or uses woocommerce as an ecommerce platform, look into the multitude of back-up options available. Most of them now link with one of the many cloud storage options available. Having data redundancy is key when operating a website that is pivotal to your businesses operation.

Revision & Database Optimisation Plugins

Revisions occur whenever you save a page or a post and they get logged in the database. The more pages and posts you have, the more revisions there will be and the more your database becomes bloated and slow. Ive just started using WP Sweep to clean revisions from the site and clean up the database in general. But, if you do use one of the many database optimisation plugins make sure you back your website up first because some of them have been reported to break peoples sites.

I am also trailing a code edit in the wp-config file which has been working nicely over the past couple of years

“define (‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, 3);”

As with all plugins, install them one at a time and test them. WordPress is notorious for plugin conflicts causing site to break. Installing one at a time allows you to see if the new plugin causes are any adverse effects to your site.

Do you have any wordpress plugins that you use that you couldn’t live without? Post them below in the comments section and let us all know why you use them and what makes them so god damn awesome.

BLOG POST Tags

admin plugins back-up plugins content creation plugins list media plugins security plugins tokyomagic blog wordpress wordpress plugins

Some of the wordpress plugins I use.