Over the years blogs have become some of the most popular sites visited by a large number of people and for good reason. The charm of blogs lies in that they can be a good source of information for visitors, and a great reason for blog owners to perfect their craft, to gradually become better at information gathering and its presentation.
WordPress is a great platform that allows people who have little to no knowledge in regards to coding to build great-looking and functional websites. Since most things on this platform are added through plug-ins, allow us to present to you some of those that are important for new bloggers that are aiming to grow their blog even further. There are many things one has to keep an eye on to lead a successful blog.
As an example, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is crucial in ensuring that your website ranks among the first in search results. Then there is the performance of the website, in other words how fast and responsive the site feels. A great user experience has to be a top priority, which is achievable with the right set of plug-ins. So let’s dive in and let us show you our recommendations.
Only a well-kept and optimized site is going to behave as expected and be responsive. For a great user experience websites have to quickly respond to any user request. And that’s where WP Reset comes in. A tool with all the necessary options to make your website as user-friendly as possible. It has great recovery tools in case something happens to the site and has all the necessary functionalities that serve as a safety net. When you have a website, you already have a list of plug-ins in mind. While adding a plug-in is easy, installing a large number of plug-ins can take a while. With only one click, you will create a list of WordPress plug-ins that you want to be linked to all of the websites under your license! Let’s say you want to check out a demo theme but then plan not to use it and uninstall it. The problem is that most plug-ins don’t clean up after themselves, leaving behind leftover files slowing down your site. WP Reset takes care of it with only one button press, saving you the time and effort of manually removing all the garbage. WP Reset, as previously stated, takes automated snapshots right before you implement changes to the site. These are then sent to WP Resets’ cloud or another common cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox. That is, the status of your website is stored and submitted to a dedicated server before any changes are made. There is also the emergency recovery script, a WordPress-independent script that can be used to recover a WordPress account in any conditions. It will run a search of the system’s core files and, if any are absent, reinstall them with a single click. You may order a database reset, as well as enable or deactivate plug-ins and themes, without logging into the site. These are only a few of the many choices available in the script!
Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode
It’s an incredibly simple tool to use, that only has the functionality you need, and has themes that are suitable for your needs. As a plug-in, it is there to help you easily create “coming soon” or “under maintenance” pages, in case your website is undergoing some changes and therefore not ready to be seen by visitors. As mentioned before SEO is quite important, and the great thing about this plug-in it has a built-in “Page SEO Score” meter that gives a real-time score and suggestions on how to improve the SEO. Users can be whitelisted, and as such can see the site instead of the “coming soon” page. There is also the maintenance mode which hides a non-functional site, while some updates are done to it.
A plug-in made to prevent loss of traffic on the site. Old or bad links can be the cause that your site experiences a drop in visitor numbers. The 301 Redirects plugin was created out of the need to address problems that every website has. Other websites are directing visitors to pages that do not exist! Redirect visitors to the website they needed to see instead of confusing them with “clever” 404 pages. It doesn’t matter if your URL structure has changed or if you need appealing outgoing associate links. Handle any redirection with ease. Built-in charts have the data you need to understand what’s going on without the need to use Google Analytics.
A newer website design trend is sticky elements. These are elements that stay fixed on the user’s screen while they scroll/navigate through the page. If for example, you want to highlight some important buttons (or some other elements) you can use this plug-in and make them sticky. The plug-in is made in such a way that any element can become sticky in a minute or less. No need to have any coding knowledge, you just pick the element that needs to be sticky on the screen. And the great thing is that one can make as many sticky elements as wanted, and it works with all page builders, plug-ins, and themes. Over 100 thousand users have made it their go-to solution, and in case some problem occurs there is still their support to extend their helping hand.
The easy solution for those who want to publicly display their business address. It is so easy to use that after the installation of the plug-in you can have the map in two minutes displayed on your site. You can add as many maps as you want, with as many pins(pinned locations and addresses) as you want. The maps are mobile responsive so that users who visit your site via smartphone can have a nice experience. All maps are easily customizable, allowing you to make maps that match the overall theme of your site. There is no shortage of places where maps can be added, be it posts, pages, menus, etc.
Conclusion
All of the above-mentioned picks are tools for those who take the maintenance of their site seriously. Having a blog and website can be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing of being able to freely express yourself on something you can view as your personal space. The curse being all the work that is needed to grow and more importantly maintain an already existing site. That is why our pick of plug-ins is meant to introduce you to great tools that can greatly alleviate the hardships of website maintenance. Tools made by professionals and loved by many. We hope that you will join them in regards to being a satisfied user.