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29 Best WordPress Plugins For Your Site

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Here is a list of the best WordPress plugins that we use on many sites that we build and support. An ailing website has a difficult time at best to become useful and productive. We have had good experiences with all of these and recommend them for the purposes outlined here. 

  • If you are not paying for WordPress maintenance on your website, then you sorely need these plugins to keep your site healthy and safe.
  • If you are building or supporting a small number of websites these are a great way to gain a more professional reputation. If you are trying to maintain more than say 10 websites, you should seek tools (online or offline) that require less intensive labor on your part.

WordPress Plugins That We Use and Recommend

One caveat! Please don’t install a bunch of recommended WordPress plugins from anyone’s list without first learning what each one does and how to use each one. You will only frustrate yourself and have a really ugly time wrestling with your website.

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Why Did We Choose the WordPress Platform?

I’ve been building websites since 1995. Back then, I was working at Honeywell Aerospace. I was using a text editor and typing the HTML and CSS codes by hand to create each page for static, in-house websites. This was long before SonFisher Web Studios and before I’d ever heard of a content management system (CMS). Fast-forward a few years, and SonFisher Web Studios has grown into a team of designers and content management professionals, both specializing in WordPress for business.

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So Why WordPress?

In 2011 SonFisher Web Studios began looking into content management systems as the industry changed and our clients needs grew. We looked into a different CMS while we were still building static HTML and CSS sites. We knew the industry was moving to a platform based system and we wanted to be among the first to offer this to our customers.

With early platforms there were limitations, crashes, mysterious errors and long hours to get a working website. Finding experts that were willing or able to troubleshoot these issues was difficult, at best.

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Why WordPress Is A Great Choice

A while ago I read a post titled “Why I Hate WordPress.” The article hit me hard enough to weigh heavily on my mind for quite a while. It talked about how the core code had grown into a large lump of disorganized code that did not follow any of the accepted methodologies and that the core was antiquated. Perhaps that’s partly true.

In spite of the possible truth of that, here are some very recognizable names that are using WordPress today.

  • Techcrunch
  • The New Yorker
  • BBC America
  • Variety
  • Sony Music
  • MTV News
  • Beyonce
  • Ebay Inc

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You need a website. Why not do it yourself?

So you thought you’d find out more and googled do it yourself websites. From a commercial for WIX.com – “You need a website. Why not do it yourself?” and their home page says “Wix unites beauty and advanced technology to create your stunning website. It’s easy and free.” First I want to say that WIX, among others, does full a useful and needed niche on the internet. But I want to help business owners become informed about how services like theirs fit the small business owner.

So let’s answer the question “Why not DIY?”

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Why Web Content Matters

There’s more to a website than just design. For a website to be a successful marketing tool to business owners, it needs to go beyond the placeholder status. You need content. Valuable web content.

Let’s look at your site from another perspective; every visitor seeks out a website with a question in mind. Maybe they’re looking for location or contact information. Your visitor could be looking for details about a product or service and want to verify that you can get the job done for them. Or, they could be looking for an expert. We call them web authorities, offering tips, guides and vast amounts of knowledge that keep readers engaged and visiting your site over and over. If you don’t have incredible web content, you may lose traffic and potential sales.

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Free WordPress Plugins are Worthy of More

Free WordPress Plugins are out there by the tens of thousands (as of this revision 54,855 46,773 at WordPress.org alone) and each one is made up of thousands to hundreds of thousands of lines of code. All those lines of code didn’t just come into being from thin air. Plugin authors pour a lot of themselves into the writing and testing of all that code before you ever had a chance to read about it.

My sense of fairness and balance demands that I get vocal with the users of plugins to compensate plugin authors for their efforts. Hold on, I know you’re thinking, “I’m not paying good money for something that’s free!” or “Why compensate anyone for all those useless plugins?”

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