Kori gives her updated list of her favorite top WordPress Plugins for 2016. If you missed the list from 2014 – Here’s the first ever WordPress Wednesday video https://youtu.be/rAD30-V45mA
Hey y’all welcome to another WordPress Wednesday. My name is Kori Ashton. We’re going to do it. I’m going to update- (I know it’s been two years since I’ve done my list of favorite plug-ins) I’m going to give you 10 (maybe a few more here and there) of my favorite WordPress plugins for 2016.
1. Yoast
It’s my favorite (still to this day) SEO plugin. If you’re not using that please look at this one. Be sure that you’re using this specifically for search engine optimization. There’s all sorts of tutorials on how to use this plugin.
2. Gravity Forms
This is a premium form builder program. If you want a contact form on your website, this is a really great program to use.
Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is probably still my favorite free form building plugin.
3. Foo Gallery
If you’re looking to do a gallery on your website, (a photo gallery)Foo Gallery has really surpassed a lot of the other options on the market right now. It is super easy to use, highly flexible, fully responsive and has a really slick lightbox that opens these images up.
4. Instagram Feed
If by chance though you’re interested in having kind of a “hands off” scenario when it comes to adding photos to your website and you’re really active on Instagram, Instagram Feed allows those images to appear on your website. This is good for search engine optimization because that’s fresh content. It is fully responsive and you can customize how the feed displays on your WordPress website.
5. Google Places Reviews
If you’re utilizing Google+ for any of your reviews, be sure to not send people away to read your reviews. Instead have your reviews listed on your website directly. This plugin allows you to do that. They have a video that will walk you through what it looks like to have your reviews appear on your website. It is widgetized so you can just place this widget wherever you’d like it to appear on your WordPress website. You also have a couple of different layouts. This plugin has a pro version and a free version as well.
6. UpdraftPlus
It’s super important that you always have a backup in place especially before you do any updates. UpdraftPlus is a free plugin (it has a paid version as well) and it allows you to set an automatic backup. There is a one click restore to backup your website. The restoration process in this plugin is free.
7. MailMunch
If you’re interested in grabbing more leads though and getting people to ‘subscribe’ to your blog, this is a really non intrusive-really great way of having people sign up to your website. Our web list has just grown out of nowhere from us installing this. It’s a free installation/program (up to a certain point) and you have paid options.
8. Hide Featured Image
If you have a featured image you’re using for your blog and you don’t always want it to appear in your post, this plugin solves that problem. It allows you to have a secondary field that when you choose to add a featured image, it will appear in your thumbnail view. If you don’t want it to appear large inside the post, this will give you the option to hide that featured image.
9. What the File
This plugin is for all you nerds who want to go deep into development. It allows you to figure out what PHP file or what exact file is manipulating the area on the website that you want to change or affect. Again, this is for the “nerd coders” who want to go a little more advanced inside of WordPress.
10. Responsive Menu
If you want an option to have the “hamburger icon” or want a menu that’s fully responsive so it looks great on a cell phone (when you click on the icon it slides out really nice,) this is a plugin that is free for you to use. It does have a pro version as well. It gives you many features to change the style of the menu. This allows you to have more control over your menu.
11. Easy WP SMTP
This is specifically for sending emails through your website. If you find that people aren’t receiving autoresponders or you aren’t getting leads from your form builder plugin, there may be an issue with your mail server. This plugin allows you to adjust your settings to redirect your emails through a specific SMTP account that you can allocate. It may seem advanced but their instructions are easy to follow.
