My Top 12 Free WordPress Plugins Every User Needs http://www.drostdesigns.com/my-top-12-free-wordpress-plugins/ WordPress has become a popular target for hackers due to it’s increasing popularity for building and managing small business websites. It’s very difficult to restore your site if it get’s shut down as a result of security flaws. Besides installing security plugins there are other “must have” plugins to make your site easier to manage. Here’s a list of the Top 12 Plugins I currently use based on their purpose.

1. My Top 12 Free
WordPress Plugins
Every User Needs
By Herman Drost
Web Design, Hosting, SEO
My Top 12 Free WordPress Plugins
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2. Table of Contents
1. Filter Out Comment Spam..............................................................................................1
3. Secure Your Site.............................................................................................................2
4. Social Media Sharing......................................................................................................2
5. Monitor Site Statistics.....................................................................................................2
6. Redirect Affiliate Links....................................................................................................3
7. Capture Contact Information..........................................................................................3
8. Build a list of subscribers................................................................................................3
9. Increase Site Speed.......................................................................................................4
10. Google XML Sitemap...................................................................................................4
11. Optimize WordPress Default Ping Services.................................................................4
12. Backup WordPress Files..............................................................................................4
Additional plugins to consider.............................................................................................5
* Welcome Gate..................................................................................................................5
* Add E-commerce Functionality........................................................................................5
* Create Membership Sites and Landing Pages................................................................5
* Site Maintenance.............................................................................................................5
WordPress has become a popular target for hackers due to it’s increasing popularity for
building and managing small business websites. It’s very difficult to restore your site if it get’s
shut down as a result of security flaws. Besides installing security plugins there are other
“must have” plugins to make your site easier to manage.
Here’s a list of the Top 12 Plugins I currently use based on their purpose:
1. Filter Out Comment Spam
Akismet
This is a free plugin that is installed by default on all WordPress sites. It automatically filters
out your comment and track-back spam.
Resources
How to Mass Delete Comments From WordPress Using phpMyAdmin
2. Reward Commenters
Comment Luv. This plugin rewards readers by automatically placing a link to their last blog
post at the end of their comment.
Comment Luv Premium is an alternative paid plugin ($67.00) that contains additional features
such as:
• Prevents human generated spam from ever getting near your blog.
• Automatically displays your Twitter name in the comments.
• Rewards readers by allowing keywords in the names of comment authors.
• Sends an email to users when they get a direct reply to their comment.
• Get advanced backlink features on EVERY CommentLuv blog when you comment
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3. 3. Secure Your Site
Better WordPress Security
This plugin protects your WordPress installation from attackers. It reinforces standard
WordPress security by hiding vital areas of your site, protecting access to important files via
htaccess, preventing brute-force login attempts and detecting attack attempts.
Wordfence
This plugin includes a firewall, anti-virus scanning, malicious URL scanning and live traffic It
can repair changed files that are security threats even if you don’t have backups. It includes
login security to lock out brute force hacks and stop WordPress from revealing info that will
compromise your security.
Resources
8 Steps To Protect Your WordPress Website From Hackers
4. Social Media Sharing
Social Profiles Widget
This plugin enables you to insert icon links to your social profiles in any widgetized area on
your blog.
Shareaholic
This plugin makes it easy for visitors to share your content with their friends. It places social
sharing buttons along the bottom of each post so a reader can simply click one of the icons
when they want to share the content they just finished reading.
Tweet, Like, Google +1 and Share Plugin
A very simple social share plugin with just 4 social icons. (i.e Twitter, FB Like, Google +1 and
FB Share)
Resources
Top 7 Reasons to Create a Social Media Presence for Your Business
How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day
5. Monitor Site Statistics
JetPack
This plugin creates a graphical display of your site’s statistics at the top of your admin window
for easy and immediate viewing. It shows how many daily, weekly and monthly views you
received, where your views came from (which post) and what search engine terms were used
to find your posts.
Resources
How To Monitor Website Traffic
Website Traffic Analysis Tool – Google Webmaster Tools
6. Redirect Affiliate Links
Redirection
If you want to track affiliate links within your posts and make them look pretty (easy to spell
and remember) install the redirection plugin. I currently use it to create and track affiliate links
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4. placed in YouTube videos I create or to track affiliate links within posts.
For example instead of displaying the long affiliate URL for the Subscribers Magnet Plugin
(http://www.maxblogpress.com/go.php?offer=baby2000&pid=3567) I shorten it to
http://www.drostdesigns.com//go/subscribersmagnet
7. Capture Contact Information
Contact Form 7
Installing a contact form enables site visitors to easily get in touch with you. This plugin has
the flexibility to add additional form fields besides name and email. It also has the ability to
add multiple contact forms to any number of pages or posts using short codes.
A paid plugin alternative to consider with more advanced features is
Gravity Forms.
Here are some of it’s best features:
• Create multi-page forms
• Add pricing fields
• Add check boxes, drop-downs, radio buttons
• Create WordPress Post (great for user-generated content)
• Developer version allows you to create polls, quizzes, capture signatures online and
enable user registration.
Resources
How to Collect Email Addresses From Your Website
7 Tips For Creating Effective Autoresponder Messages
8. Build a list of subscribers
Subscribers Magnet
Learn how to double or triple the number of subscribers to your blog or without getting any
additional traffic. This plugin enables you to place opt-in forms at the top, sidebar, bottom of
your blog or even as a pop-in. Each form can be monitored to see which one performs the
best. All forms utilize responsive design which means it will display correctly on all devices (ie
computers, tablets, mobile phones). it works with most major email list providers (ie Aweber,
GetResponse, etc)
A free alternative (ie if you already have an Aweber account) for building a list of subscribers
is to simply install the opt-in forms that are included with your Aweber account.
Editor’s Note:
Read my Review of Aweber
33 Points To Consider Before Choosing An Email List Provider
Resources
5 ways to build a relationship with your autoresponder list
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5. How to Build an Email List……And Actually Make Money From It
9. Increase Site Speed
W3 Total Cache
Site speed is one of Google’s main ranking factors. A slow loading site will cause visitors to
lose patience and drive them away. This plugin will improve your visitor’s experience by
increasing server performance, and reduce load times.
Resources
5 Ways to Decrease Your Website Loading Time
How to Calculate and Speed-Up the Download Time of Your Website
10. Google XML Sitemap
Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator
XML-Sitemaps helps your blog get indexed by the major search engines It helps web crawlers
to discover pages from links within your site.
Resources
How To Create a Google XML Sitemap
How to Add a Site Map to Your Word Press Blog
11. Optimize WordPress Default Ping Services
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
WordPress automatically pings your blog whenever you add a a new post but it also pings
whenever you edit and update any existing post.
This plugin corrects WordPress’s pinging system by:
• When you create a new post, your blog will ping and notify all the ping services that it
has been updated. This encourages search engines and different blog
directories/services to index your updated blog properly.
• When you edit an existing post, it won’t send an unnecessary ping to ping services and
saves your blog from getting banned.
• When you post a future post by editing the time stamp, it will ping only when your post
appears in future. It won’t unnecessarily ping many times when you schedule posts as
WordPress does by default.
12. Backup WordPress Files
WordPress Backup
This plugin creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your
choice in the same database.
A great alternative for backing up all your WordPress files and databases (if your hosting
provider utilizes cpanel) is to do a one click backup every month and save all the files on your
hard drive.
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6. Resources
How to Backup SQL Database – 4 Top Methods
How to Backup mySQL Database With phpMyAdmin
Additional plugins to consider
* Welcome Gate
Welcome Gate
This plugin is a cross between a popup and a squeeze page but less annoying and
aggressive. When visitors go to your home page they’re redirected to a squeeze page (ie
http://www.YourSite.com/WelcomeGate) which they can either skip or opt-in. A visitor will only
see your Welcome Gate once in their lifetime (unless your site is accessed from another
computer).
Resources
View How The Welcome Gate Plugin Backend Works
* Add E-commerce Functionality
Shopp
This is an e-commerce plugin for WordPress that enables you to easily create and manage a
storefront catalog of products and take care of customers and orders.
Read my Review of Shopp E-commerce Plugin for WordPress
Resources
How to Create Your E-commerce Website
How to Set up an Online Store Step by Step
* Create Membership Sites and Landing Pages
Premise
This plugin allows you to build secure membership sites, sell ebooks, software, do advanced
lead generation and take recurring payments with secure log-in-protected member gateways.
It can also quickly and easily create 8 different types of landing pages (so you don’t have to
waste time designing your own).
* Site Maintenance
Maintenance Mode Plugin
This plugin replaces the front page of your blog with a splash page that lets visitors know your
blog is currently under construction or down for maintenance. It comes in handy when you’re
in the process of building or redesigning a blog and don’t want to display the unfinished site to
your customers.
Resources
Moving WordPress to a New Server Step by Step
Website Maintenance Tips
Why You Need a SEO maintenance plan
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7. And now I’d like to invite you to SUBSCRIBE to my FREE E-COURSE
21 Highly Effective Ways To Generate Free Traffic To Your Website
Warm Regards,
Herman Drost
Web Design, Hosting, SEO
www.iSiteBuild.com
Copyright 2013, iSiteBuild.com All Rights Reserved