Importance and Necessary WordPress Plugins
Basic WordPress installation does not come with everything that a website essentially needs. But WordPress does provide the ability to bring in those necessary and important functionalities with the help of Plugins. From the previous article, plugins help extend the functionality of your WordPress Website.
You will get to learn about few Must Have Plugins and how to configure them.
1. JetPack
Jetpack is a plugin designed by the WordPress itself. It is a plugin, which itself contains more plugins. With ‘Jetpack’ you can install and configure plugins provided under it.
To install Jetpack:
• Go to Plugins – > Add New
• In the search bar, enter “Jetpack”.
• Click ‘Install Now’ once the search result appears.
• It will appear new page, click on “Activate Plugin”.
• Once the installation done, you will find an option called “Jetpack” on the left menu bar in your backend panel.
2. WP reCaptcha
Basic WordPress does not come with any feature that can help you block spam comments. If you ever came across of some websites, have more than 1000 spam comments in just a week. To prevent it, you can use a Captcha plugin that allows you to block spam comments. One of the plugin I recommended for this is WP reCaptach.
3. Simple LightBox
When someone clicks on any image on your website, the images will open up in the new tab. That would be troublesome for your readers. The only way out is using a plugin called “Simple LightBox” that popups the images in the light box when someone clicks the image. People can view the image in larger size and also does not leave your website.
4. Restrict Widgets
Restrict Widgets is all in one solution for widget management in WordPress. It lets you easily control the pages that each widget will appear on and avoid creating multiple sidebars and duplicating widgets. You can also set who can manage widgets, which sidebars and widgets will be available to selected users, which widget options will be available and how it will be displayed.
5. Grab & Save
Many times you would want to add images to your WordPress post from some other website. One of the possibilities is to insert the URL of the image. The problem with that is if the image from that URL is removed by the owner then the image will not show up on your website. The options to solve this are ‘Download the image’ and then upload it on your WordPress website.
‘Grab & Save’ makes the task too easy for you. You need to type in the URL of the image and the plugin will automatically store the images from that website on to your WordPress website.
To use the plugin, click on “Add Media” on the post or page editor. Click on “Grab & Save” from the options on the left. Paste the URL from where you want the image and plugin will do that rest for you.