10 Free and Essential WordPress Plugins for 2012

With a growing list of over 20,000 plugins, every so often it is a bit complex figuring out just which plugins to use! This is a quick evaluation of 12 crucial WordPress plugins that every WordPress Blog have to have. The correct news is (at the time of scripting this) they are all completely loose. The under vital WordPress plugins relate to improving WordPress capability, security, SEO and Social Marketing.

#1 – Secure-WP

Security has to continually be your first challenge whilst something is reachable publicly on the net – this is why I rank Secure-WP as being one of the maximum crucial WordPress plugins accessible. Don’t get me wrong – WordPress does an exquisite activity natively of securing your Blog, providing that you maintain the version up to date.

However, Secure-WP bolsters that security further through getting rid of oodles of data that might be utilized by hackers and putting off some touchy cloth from person bills, whilst keeping this data in the administrator’s account. Good stuff!

#2 – Spam Free WordPress

Spam is a HUGE trouble with WordPress blogs, which makes an anti-junk mail plugin one of the most critical WordPress plugins. I use Spam Free WordPress, which seems to be doing pretty nicely. Over the direction of a 6-month length, it has blocked over eight,000 spam remarks, a variety of that seems to grow exponentially. Now consider having to go through 40-50 unsolicited mail comments in step with the day! One of the important thing reasons we use plugins is to shop time, and Spam Free WordPress honestly accomplishes this!

Essential WordPress Plugins #3 – W3 Total Cache

After safety and unsolicited mail are looked after, website velocity is the next issue that involves mind. No-one goes to wait around for 30 seconds for your website to load, so web page pace is crucial. I’ll now point out more than one important WordPress plugins that help supercharge your internet site.

The first is W3 Total Cache. This plugin is hugely popular, downloaded almost 1.2 million instances! It helps accelerate your web site by improving server overall performance, caching every issue of your website, decreasing download times and offering obvious content transport community (CDN) integration. In quick, it makes your WordPress Blog quicker!

#four – WP-Optimize

WordPress is database driven. The extra efficient the database is, the faster pages may be accessed from the database, the quicker your website loads in your site visitors. However, through the years, a WordPress database can end up polluted with unnecessary statistics (including deleted content material, junk mail remarks, vintage page revisions, and many others). This will increase the overall length of the database and will increase get entry to times to that database. The give up end result – your pages take longer to open.

WP-Optimize cleans up your database routinely and continues it streamlined through getting rid of unnecessary information on an ongoing basis.

#5 – WP Database Backup

In terms of essential WordPress plugins, backing up your information is proper up there. It’s something we all go away until it’s too overdue, and then desire we hadn’t. WP Database Backup makes it easy to back up the center. The key component right here is that you are capable of without difficulty backup your website online with WP DB – and if want be can rent a freelancer to restore your websites, I could imagine who might fee in the vicinity of $25-50 – lots much less of a headache than rebuilding your web page from scratch!WordPress tables.

The one drawback to this plugin is that it’s a bit elaborate to restore from if something does appear to your site. There are opportunity plugins available which are plenty more person friendly, along with Backup Buddy, but that is unluckily not a loose plugin, priced at $75 for 2 WordPress sites.

#6 – Broken Link Checker

There’s not anything more frustrating than clicking on a link and getting the “web page no longer observed” mistakes. While that is irritating for the visitor, it additionally commonly has the effect of pushing that traveller (and potential patron) away from your website. The Broken Link Checker can screen hyperlinks for your posts, pages, remarks, the blogroll, and custom fields and reports broke links to you both via your WordPress dashboard, or via email.

Essential WordPress Plugins #7 – Google XML Sitemaps

There are masses, if now not lots, of search engine optimization associated plugins. Only a handful of those I might don’t forget essential WordPress plugins. The first is Google XML Sitemaps. A sitemap is basically a road map of your website, outlining all the character pages and how they hyperlink collectively – their structure. Google and the other most important search engines like google and yahoo use such sitemaps to more efficaciously move slowly and index your website online.

Google XML Sitemaps automatically creates one of this sitemap and maintains it updated as you upload new content material. In addition, it additionally notifies all fundamental search engines whenever you create and put up new content material.

#8 – All in One search engine optimization Pack

All in One SEO is the maximum popular search engine marketing plugin for WordPress blogs. It lets you optimize pages and posts by way of mechanically producing meta tags and lets you optimize internet web page titles. The incredible issue about the All in One search engine marketing Pack is that it’s far fully purposeful out of the container, requiring very limited configuration, making it exquisite for those new to WordPress and search engine marketing.

#9 – Ultimate Follow Me

Perhaps my “favorite” of the critical WordPress plugins listed right here. Ultimate Follow Me is certainly a WordPress sidebar widget that links to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other Social media systems. It now additionally includes Google +1, which is normally regarded as a very outstanding way to increase you seek engine rankings.

I have demoed quite some of these Social advertising plugins. While all of them do quite an awful lot the identical element, Ultimate Follow Me usually provides the social media icons a touch “prettier”. There are numerous sizes to pick from and appears splendid in the sidebar – your traffic is positive not to miss them!

#10 – Shareaholic

Another of the critical WordPress plugins I can’t do without! The plugin automatically creates a suitable little social advertising bar at the lowest of your posts in which people can like your publish on Facebook, Tweet it to their Twitter account, or share on many, many social bookmarking websites.

At the time of penning this, Shareaholic helps eighty-five sites! It additionally comes in 3 flavors, classic bookmarks, attractive bookmarks, and sassy bookmarks. Once you’ve got determined which social websites to use, Shareaholic automatically posts the hyperlinks to the bottom of every page or post – although you do have the choice to override the plugin on an in keeping with page basis so it would not display.