WordPress Plugins Worth Your Time

When it comes to building your WordPress website, you’d want the best in all aspects- visuals, performance, security, functionality, marketing and the like. Thankfully, WordPress plugins exist to help with all that. Plugins are exceptionally helpful in enhancing your WP site by adding your desired feature and function. The ability to customize your site using plugins makes achieving your output faster and easier.

There’s an existing plugin for almost everything and depending on the quality and regular updates, plugins can do virtually anything smoothly. With over 40 thousand WordPress plugins to choose from, it could be confusing for WordPress managers. Here are five WP plugins you should test and try:

1. iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security)

One of the most important things to handle concerning your website is security. Numerous WordPress sites are targeted and attacked every day but you can rest easy managing your site when you know it’s protected and secure. The iThemes Security plugin provides over 30 ways of website protection including the ability to lock down WordPress to hide from intruders, block and stop automated attackers, and fix security holes or problem.

You can choose whether to upgrade iThemes Security and buy the iThemes Security Pro for more security features like protection from spammers and online viruses. Whether you go iThemes Pro or not, there’s no denying that making sure your site is secured is always at the top of priorities.

2. Snapshot by WPMU

It is smart to regularly create backups for files, just in case anything ever happens, or just for the sake of having a record of it. With Snapshot, backing up files will be a breeze; it’s literally like taking a ‘snapshot’. Since it is automated, the user will just have to configure the settings of what to back up in the WordPress site. Snapshot will do the rest. You get an easy to access backup which you can restore anytime.

Snapshot also has the option of backing up with other storage services like Dropbox and Amazon S3. There are options for users who don’t want to store their files locally. Having secure backups mean having no worries, and with Snapshot, you’ll be worry free.

3. BuddyPress (free)

Buddypress is a useful WordPress plugin in terms of functionality. BuddyPress features lots of benefits for building an online community. It has functions similar to social networking systems. Your WordPress site users can interact with people in groups, engage in discussions, and even receive notifications.

BuddyPress uses WordPress’ extensive plugin system which means more plugins can be used to enhance Buddypress’ functionality. Additionally, it’s an open source software. It is easy to use, and it’s also free.

4. Hummingbird

A lot of things happening in a WordPress site can slow things down and might even drive away potential viewers before seeing the content. A slow site is something you want to avoid, so with the help of Hummingbird, you get to monitor your site’s speed and at the same time locate the possible source of the issue.

If other plugins specialize in functionality, security and the like, the Hummingbird plugin deals with the performance of the website and how it is best optimized. It scans the site and gives a performance report along with suggestions for improvement. Server errors and disappearing pages? That’s not a problem with Hummingbird.

5. WP Statistics

Managing your site and being aware of your site statistics is very important. You get to see if the content you post actually reaches the target audience. You also get to study the audience demographics. WP Statistics is a comprehensive plugin where you can monitor your visitors all the while excluding the robots from the data collected. Page statistics and page tracking? WP Statistics has it, too. Manage both content of your site and the people who view that content easily with WP Statistics.