My Preferred WordPress Plugins

These days, most of my website projects are developed with WordPress.  I use these plugins in many of my WordPress websites. They are all free of charge.

• ThreeWP Activity Monitor – Tracks all user activity including login attempts.  If someone atttempts and fails to log in to your site, you can see what password they tried.  If you are setting up WordPress sites with an ‘admin’ username, I suggest you use something else.  Accounts named ‘admin’ are heavily attacked.  One of my clients sites was hacked because it had an ‘admin’ username.
• WP-DBManager – WordPress’ content is database dependent.  If you’re running WordPress, you definitely want to have your database backed up.  The State of Georgia called me in to restore one of their WordPress websites, and luckily, I was able to accomplish the task because they had multiple backup copies of their database.  With that being said, this plugin can automatically back up your database and store the backup on your server or email a copy to whoever you choose.
• Custom Sidebars – You may not want the same sidebar widgets throughout your entire website.  Javier Marquez’s plugin takes care of this problem.  With his plugin, you can have a different set of widgets on each page if you so choose to.
• WordPress SEO by Yoast – This is a must have if you want your website optimized for Google and the other search engines.  Joost de Valk’s plugin shows a preview of what your listing will look like in Google.  His plugin also lets you know if too many characters are being used for your title tag or meta description.  If you’re optimizing your site for a certain keyword or keyword phrase, the plugin gives you a checklist of what needs to be done.

Many of these WordPress plugin developers will ask for a donation, and many times I will give a donation.  I feel good about it, and I’ve learned that nothing in life is free.