Top 10 WordPress Plugins 2012: Read2Learn’s Top Picks
In our eBook published February 2012, we listed our top 10 WordPress plugins. Below you’ll find an updated list of our recommended WordPress plugins as of October 20th, 2012.
1. Add Meta Tags - (by George Notaras)
The “Add Meta Tags” plugin helps search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing find your website.
2. All in One SEO Pack - (by Michael Torbert)
S.E.O. stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” This is another plugin that will help search engines find your website/blog so it’ll
be displayed in their search results. I show you how to set up this plugin in our eBook.
3. Force Gzip - (by Justin Shreve)
This plugin will help speed up your website.
Top 10 WordPress Plugins 2012
4. Google XML Sitemap – (by Arne Brachhold)
This plugin will help search engines like Google find all your blog posts and pages.
5. Hyper Cache - (by Stefano Lissa)
Hyper Cache Extended is a cache system for WordPress to help improve its performance and save resources. There are a lot of other cache plugins for WordPress too, but I cant get any of them to work correctly. This is the best one for beginners.
6. Related Post Thumbnails - (by Maria Shaldybina)
At the end of each blog post, this plugin will show an image and a link that redirects readers to related blog posts on your website. This is an amazing plugin that will keep people on your website longer.
7. Shareaholic - (by Shareaholic)
This plugin will allow other people to share your blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, and other popular websites.
8. WP-PageNavi - (by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan & scribu)
This plugin will add a numbered page navigation toolbar to the bottom of your website.
9. Anti-Captcha - (by Fili Wiese)
Help eliminate spam comments. This is an excellent alternative to the default “Akismet” plugin. I’ve never received any spam comments after I installed this plugin.
10. WordPress Backup To Dropbox - (by Michael De Wildt)
You can use this simple plugin to backup your website! It’s very easy to use, and it only requires that you set up a free account at Dropbox.com. If you already have a Dropbox account, then you can use your existing account.
Top 10 WordPress Plugins 2012
Bonus Plugin
WP Maintenance Mode - (by Frank Bültge)
This is an optional plugin that you can install. This plugin adds a “Maintenance Page” to your website that lets your visitors know that your website is down for maintenance.
This is a useful plugin if you’re transferring your old website over to WordPress. You probably don’t want your website “live” if you need to make major changes to your homepage.
Security Plugins
In our book, I recommended a plugin called “Loginlock.” I no longer recommend this plugin because it has too many issues. This plugin might lock you out of your own site, and it’s not worth the headache.
If you want to help prevent hackers from logging into your admin area, then use a long password combined with symbols, capitals, numbers, and lower case letters. Here’s an example of a good password: K3nt!M@ur3zm0L0V3zT0R3@dBoOkz!
Most people use a cheap automated software to try to hack your website. I’m 99% sure that an automated software will not hack a password like that. Also its a good idea to change your password once every 30 days.
As a bonus tip, avoid logging into your admin area when using public computers. A lot of public computers will save your username and password info. Okay that’s it. If you have any questions, send me an email. If you know of any other cool plugins, then let me know. Thanks!
-Kent Mauresmo
Good list…thanks! I had a lot of problems with Loginlock too. When wordpress updated, that plugin broke my website.
Same here! Or I get an “endless loop” error
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Really good post. I didnt know about the Dropbox plugin. That’s really good as I already have a dropbox account.
Yea..its easy to use too. Just click a couple buttons and its done
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Excellent! You’re the man
Haha. Thanks!
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I like your tip about the password, but I would never remember a password that complicated. I keep all my passwords the same all the time
Just save it to your notepad. Or if you have personal computer, you can set it to save your password. But even if you forget your password, WordPress has the “forgot password” option that will send you a link to reset your password.
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Anti Capcha looks cool. I will try that….but I dont see that plugin on your comments form. Where is it?
Its an invisible plugin. I dont know how it works, but it works
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Very nice list! Thanks. I was looking for a good cache plugin.
It’s the best i could find. Some people recommend that W3 Cache, but I can’t get it to work.
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SEO pressor is a good plugin too. For keyword density. I really like that plugin, but its paid though. What this plugin on the bottom of your page? The tool bar?
Yea I know about that plugin. And the plugin on the bottom of my page is Social Toolbar Pro. Its a paid plugin for $25, but they have a free version too.
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I was looking for a good backup plugin. I will try your suggestion.
Let me know how it works out!
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Wp Auto Affiliate Links Basic you can add affiliate links, along with the keywords selected from your articles where you want your links to be displayed.
For those who find it difficult to add content to your site but are very active on social media, you should check out this WP plugin my team and I created. It’s called Tint, and we help aggregate social feeds into your site so you’ll always have a more dynamic and less static site.
Check it out here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tint/
Looks pretty cool!
Thanks, we’re all ears if you have any feedback or questions.
-Tim
Hi Kent,
I’m following along in the book, and several of these plugins give me the following warning when looking at the description – Warning: This plugin has not been tested with your current version of WordPress. And some of them haven’t been updated in years. Something to be concerned with?
Corl
P.S. T0R3 is lucky to be immortalized as a password.
Hi Corl,
All those plugins are good!
For the Cache plugin, use “Hyper Cache” by Stefano Lissa. I just updated this post right now to reflect the change for the cache plugin.
You might need help with the hyper cache plugin because you have to add something to you wp-config file for it to work.
You can email me at contact@read2learn.net and if you need help with these plugins.
Just don’t use the LoginLock plugin! =]
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Nice Information!!!
thanks a lot!!!