Must UseWordPress PluginsNorth Jersey WordPress Meetup

3/27/2014

Erkan YildizManaging DirectorRocketWP WordPress Agencyhttp://rocketwp.com

Agenda● Presenter Intro● What are WordPress Plugins?● Pre-Installed Plugins● Must Use WordPress Plugins

○ SEO○ Backup○ Comment○ Cache○ Security○ Forms○ Bonus

Erkan Yildiz

● Organizer at North Jersey WordPress meetup

● Managing Director at RocketWP.com● Consultant at Avanade (Accenture/Microsoft)● MS Computer Science, Montclair State

University● 14 years experience as a Software Engineer● Love web and startups.

Future plans for the meetup:-Guest Speakers-More face to face meetups - but will do webinars too-Min: 1 meetup/month-Please send out your ideas

Terminology● Plugins: Think of extra options to your car or upgrades to your

computer● Themes: Kind of like the body of the car. It is the look and feel● Widgets: Placeholders for different functionality.

Demo- Demo

○ Install WordPress ( lab/pg )○ Show pre-installed plugins

Pre-Installed PluginsPlugins that come with a WordPress v3.8 install: (Demo)

Akismet: Blocks Comment and Trackback Spams. Free for personal sites. Starting from $5/Month for commercial ones. Keep this if your site is personal - if not use Disqus -FREE- (Disqus uses its own anti-spam software

to smartly combat comment spam)Hello Dolly: Random lyrics - plugin by WordPress founder

WP Super Cache: Can do the job - but there is a more popular one. Will go in detail on the “Cache” slide

Pre-Installed PluginsJetPack by WordPress.com: A plugin pack by WordPress.com. They called it : “Super Plugin” - 3.9/5 stars from 1300 reviews.

● It is a heavy multipack plugin and keeps getting bigger with new modules making the site slow

● All modules auto activated - deactivating them is a process

● Possible conflicts with other plugins● Requires a WordPress.com account● Marketing banners are annoying

Instead of going on the super plugin path, picking the best individual plugins on every area (SEO,cache etc.) is a better idea

Demo- Demo

○ Delete all pre-installed plugins (Select all/Deactivate/Delete)○ Delete all pre-installed sample content (Pages,Posts)○ Install Responsive Theme○ Import dummy data

■ Tools->Import->WordPress->Enable■ Import Dummy content ( WP Unit Test Data includes

Pages,Subpages, Post, Page Markup And Formatting, Categories,Sub Categories )

WordPress Unit Test Data XML File:https://wpcom-themes.svn.automattic.com/demo/theme-unit-test-data.xml

Search Engine OptimizationWordPress SEO by Yoast (Free)

● WordPress out of the box is already technically quite a good platform for SEO

● This plugin first and foremost helps you write better content by forcing you to choose a focus keyword.

● Using the snippet preview you can see a rendering of what your post or page will look like in the search results

● Page Analysis, Auto insert meta tags,SiteMaps, Breadcrumbs and more

WordPress SEO Tutorial • The Definitive Guide • Yoasthttps://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/Demo: Install/Tour/Blog Post Optimization

Database and File BackupUpdraftPlus (Free)● Easy complete backups and restore● Manual or automated backups● Backup locally or backup to cloud

○ Amazon○ Google Drive○ Dropbox and more

● Premium support and add ons available (migration etc.)

Demo: Install/Activate/Overview

CommentsDisqus (Free)● SEO Friendly● Supports login with multiple platforms

(FB, Twitter, Google, Disqus)● Aggregated comments and social

mentions● Fights with SPAM● Instructions:

http://disqus.com/admin/wordpress/

Demo: http://avc.com/2014/03/a-founders-notebook

CachingW3 Total Cache (Free)

● Trusted by countless companies like: AT&T, mashable.com etc.

● Improves the user experience of your site by increasing server performance, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration.

● Browser Caching, Minification, CDN, Database, Search Results caching

● Advanced config needs testing. Do little by little as you scale your website

http://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/

SecurityWordFence

● Free enterprise class security plugin that includes a firewall, virus scanning, real-time traffic with geolocation and more.

● Real-time blocking of known attackers● 2 factor auth (Cellphone+Password)● Block IPs● More at:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/

There are other aspects of securing your website - learn more here:http://rocketwp.com/wordpress/19-wordpress-security-tips-will-save-website/

FormsContact Form 7 or Gravity Forms

● Contact Form 7 is a free plugin with satisfactory features

● Gravity Forms is the #1 Forms plugin for WordPress ( $39 Personal License/ Year support)

● Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms● You can customize the form and the email contents● Flexibly with simple markup.● Supports Ajax-powered submitting,● Supports CAPTCHA● Supports Akismet spam filtering

Demo:Design a simple contact page Demo: http://rocketwp.com/request-free-quote/

Bonus TipsPlugins that will help drive traffic and improve User Experience● Visual Composer: Page Builder $30 - Demo● Sociable: http://wordpress.org/plugins/sociable/● NinjaPopups: Convert Visitors. $21 - Demo● Social Slider: Increase fan base. $15 - Demo● FooBar: Notification Bar. $14 - Demo

Thank you

For any questions contact: ideas@rocketwp.com