Probably my absolute favourite thing about WordPress is the fact that it is so easy to extend its functionality, with currently over 9000 plugins included in the WordPress Plugin Directory, with that number increasing every day.
But which plugins are the most useful? Here are 11 great hand-picked plugins that I personally use at Web Design Boise.
- Akismet: Unfortunately, spam is a frequent occurrence for most bloggers, and it can be very time-consuming to sift through all of your comments to weed out the spam. Akismet takes care of spam by checking all comments against a spam filter, and marks each one as either “spam” or “ham”.
- WP Super Cache: By default, every page in WordPress is generated on-the-fly. It is important to use caching, to help reduce the time it takes for pages to be generated. The WP Super Cache plugin automatically stores HTML files in your blog’s cache, which can then be accessed much more quickly than with the default configuration in WordPress.
- All in One SEO Pack: If you’re like most bloggers, you probably don’t have mich time to worry about search engine optimization. The All in One SEO pack helps take care of this job for you, allowing you to have more time to actually write.
- WP-Syntax: Where would a blog about web development be without syntax highlighting? Syntax highlighting done with WP-Syntax is, in my opinion, much better looking than other syntax highlighting plugnis for WordPress. It is based on GeSHi, with support for many popular programming languages.
- BackType Tweetcount: You probably know that almost all bloggers use Twitter to help get their blog posts out there. This plugin inserts a helpful little Retweet button into each post to allow readers to share it on Twitter very easily. Many aspects of the button can be configured, including the size, colours and placement of the button.
- Google XML Sitemaps: A very important part of SEO is having a sitemap, which allows search engines to easily crawl your site. Because nobody wants to spend extra time managing and updating a sitemap themselves, this plugin handles generating an XML sitemap for you.
- Gurken Subscribe to Comments: Allowing users to subscribe to comments is a great way to have them coming back to your blog. With this WordPress plugin you can allow your readers to subscribe to any follow-up comments on one of your blog posts, for example to be notified when someone answers their question.
- Contact Form 7: Everyone likes receiving email. This WordPress plugin allows your readers to easily contact you through an easy-to-setup contact form on your own customized contact page.
- WordPress Download Monitor: I frequently provide downloadable versions of tutorials here at FWebDe. To make uploading and managing downloads easier, I use the WordPress Download Monitor plugin. Probably my favourite feature of this plugin is the way it keeps statistics of how many people download your files.
- Category Pagination Fix: If you are using custom permalinks on your WordPress blog, you can end up with 404 errors when browsing through your categories. This plugin fixes this, so that readers can browse through your categories’ archives without any problems.
- WordPress Database Backup: Making frequent database backups is crucial to the security of any website. Because it can be easy to forget to make backups of your database, this amazing plugin can make them for you, and it even includes helpful features such as sending you your backups via email. Now you have no excuse to forget making backups!
Plugins are really some of the best features in the WordPress blogging platform. Which WordPress plugins do you use, and do you use any of the plugins mentioned in this list? Be sure to leave a comment and share which WordPress plugins you would recommend.
So, what exactly is a “landing page”? A quick Google gives us this answer.
A: The destination web page for people responding to an advertisement, designed specifically for that campaign and audience.
The key difference between a home page and a landing page is that the former must be all things to all visitors, while the landing page should be narrowly defined to optimize conversion for a specific campaign.
Typically, a landing page has only one action on it. No links, no way (besides the back button) to get off the page. Just buy now, or sign up here, or give us your email address, or download our informative report.
When would I need a landing page? Maybe you have a special event happening and you decide to advertise on the radio. Rather than directing people to the home page (say coolsite.com), you would direct them to a landing page specifically designed to address the event and why it’s important to them (coolsite.com/1coolevent)
You see this on TV all time. Go to http://buysomethingcool.com/greatoffer. Now when people go to the URL you can track exactly how much traffic the ad generated. Try doing that with a Yellow Page ad.
Before you hire a website firm or website developer to build or update your website make sure you get the answers to these questions.
1. Will my website work in all browsers?
Although you may only use one browser (let’s say Internet Explorer), it doesn’t necessarily mean your audience uses it. Apple users primarily use the Safari browser which is different from Internet Explorer in both function and the way it displays pages. Firefox is the second leading browser with about 25% market share worldwide (IE is number one) and also displays pages differently than IE. Some people use mobile phones and PDA’s to view pages. And don’t forget the handicap people that use screen readers (blind people) other specific handicap-enabled browsers. Your website needs to be correctly coded to ensure it works in all browsers!
2. How visible will my website be on Google?
Of any visitor that comes to your site, Google is the most important. Google (and other search engines) will usually be your primary source of traffic to your site. While there are many techniques for increasing search engine visibility, there are some basics that many website developers simply don’t get right. Using valid standard based code greatly increases the visibility of your site to Google in comparison to older development techniques (think Frontpage, tables).
3. Will we be able to easily update our site?
Most companies want the ability to update the pages and content of their website. Ask your website designer to demo their backend application that allows you to do this. Some systems are too simple and may not meet your needs and some systems are overkill and packed with features you will never use. If you are going to be doing a lot of creation or editing of your own website make sure you understand up front how easy (or difficult) it is to modify your web pages.
4. Can you provide 5 (10, 20) URLs of websites you have built like the one you are proposing to build for me?
Ask for the URL’s of the websites the developer or designer has created. There is a lot of great website designers out there, but there is also a number of inexperienced newcomers. Find out what type of components or custom programming they have experience with. E-commerce, forms, database applications, email marketing integration are a few important skills your website designer should possess.
5. Will my website work with any hosting provider I choose? What specific platform will you be using?
1. Define your audience.
Just who are you trying to get to visit your website? Define one primary audience. Lump everyone else into your secondary audiences. Create an audience questions document. For each audience, list every question you can think of for someone in that audience that is visiting your site? “What do you do”, “Where do I start”, “How can I contact you”.
Creating these questions will produce a powerful tool to evaluate all your content against. Does your content answer these questions? If not, then get rid of it. Use these questions to help create a sitemap (high level menu view of your site) for your website.
2. Define your goals.
Just what is it your are trying to do with your website? You can get elaborate or keep it simple. “We want to capture 25 emails per week.” “We want to have our PDF report downloaded 50 times per month.”
Be specific. Be measurable. There is plenty of tools available for tracking your web statistics, including the free Google Analytics.
3. Create a content schedule.
An important document. It simply defines the content item, person(s) responsible, and due date. You may choose to include budget as well if you plan on using a copywriter.
4. Collect and create content.
Stick to your content schedule and begin to collect and create your website content. This may include old web pages, documents, images, logos, and pdf’s.
5. Create an ongoing content strategy.
To keep your site up to date, ensure you establish publishing procedures for your business. This may be simply all content is delivered to one of your employees that has tech skills and will directly update the website. Or you may choose to have a full-time editor – copy is submitted to the editor, they do writing and then pass to a HTML/developer/designer that adds your content to your website.