• The Best WordPress Plugins to use in 2012

    No Comments

    wordpress-plugins

    As 2011 nears its end, WordPress consolidates its place as the world’s number one open source CMS. You might already be planning a NYE resolution for starting a blog in 2012, or revamping your company’s website. One of the first questions people ask is what plugins they should install on their WordPress blog.

    Having the right plugins in place can give you a big head-start and can help you achieve all the functionality you every dreamed of. Today we therefore take a look at some of the plugins that will be hot in 2012. Most of these plugins have already been around for quite some time, and have been fine-tuned to perfection by their respective developers.

    Spam Protection

    For those having a blog, this is a top priority. You definitely don’t want a spam-infested blog, as this will make your site look cheap as well as increase the time needed to manage and weed out all those comments. A blog which does not have adequate spam protection can soon be inundated with thousands of spam comments. Our top recommendations in this area are:

    Akismet

    Akismet is probably the world’s most popular spam filter, and is free for personal use. It works by connecting to Akismet’s servers and comparing a comment’s content to identify patterns that reveal a spam comment. You will need an API key to start using Akismet, which you can get fromhere.

    Get Akismet  –  Free plugin

    Bad Behaviour

    Bad Behaviour is an open source solution for eliminating link spam, and is available natively for multiple platforms including WordPress. It works in a different way than Akismet but will complement it and act as a gatekeeper by preventing spammers from even gaining access to your site.

    Get Bad Behaviour  -  Free plugin

    Speed / Caching

    W3 Total Cache

    The leader in caching technology for WordPress. Take some time to read about caching technologies and how to set up this plugin, the drastic cuts in loading time that follow will amaze you. You can also take a look at our post about speed optimisation for WordPress.

    Get W3 Total Cache  -  Free plugin

    Backups

    BackupBuddy

    The undisputed king of WordPress backup plugins, BackupBuddy offers automatic offsite file and database backups. Possible backup destinations include FTP, Amazon S3 and Dropbox, among others. Definitely worth the price you pay, backups = peace of mind.

    Get BackupBuddy  -  Premium plugin

    Search Engine Optimisation

    WordPress SEO

    Optimising your site for search engines is likely to be one of your top priorities, so make your life easier and download this plugin, developed by SEO legend Joost De Valk. You can set up site-wide settings and also optimise page by page, as well as create XML sitemaps and a slew of other features. This plugin also helps you write better content. WordPress SEO forces you to choose a focus keyword when you’re writing your articles, and then makes sure you use that focus keyword everywhere.

    Get WordPress SEO  -  Free plugin

    Analytics / Visitor Statistics

    Google Analyticator

    Google Analyticator automatically inserts the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on your 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. That way you don’t have to login daily to Google Analytics in order to view reports, but get them directly in the WordPress dashboard.

    VN:F [1.9.13_1145]
    Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
    VN:F [1.9.13_1145]
    Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
    News SEO

    Share your thoughts on this article.

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>