Favorite WordPress Plugins
WordPress offers an infinite number of ways to configure a website. Plugins make this possible by adding all types of functionality. Below are some of the most popular plugins that we use at Ramp.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is highly regarded as the best plugin out there for easily managing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for WordPress sites. They help you create the proper meta titles and descriptions for each page as well as creating the sitemap for Google to index.
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms offers beautifully simple forms that are easy to style and customize for each website. There is incredible functionality available through a suite of add-on plugins to connect with MailChimp, Stripe, PayPal and many others. While this is not a free plugin it’s worth the price as it has the ability to do just about anything!
Jetpack
Jetpack is one of the most customizable plugins out there. It is an all-in-one solution to many different functionality requests. A few of the common uses are:
- Comments – allows readers to comment through several different login options.
- Custom CSS – allows for custom CSS changes to override a theme.
- Sharing – adds buttons to your articles for social media sharing.
Page Builder by SiteOrigin
Page builder plugins are very popular as they let you build custom designs without editing code. Using the “Page Builder” option you can create custom layouts and embed widgets on pages. There are several of these plugins out there but this is one of the best free ones available.
Simple Custom CSS
Many times there are a few simple CSS changes that are needed to customize a standard theme. Instead of going through the process of creating a child theme you can use Simple Custom CSS to easily make these changes.
Akismet
Popular websites generate a lot of spam/bot visitors and comments. Akismet is one of the best plugins at filtering through these comments and removing the ones that are obviously not relevant.
Advanced Custom Fields PRO
ACF Pro is a great plugin for developers to build custom websites by adding options to the posts and page templates. The possibilities with this plugin are endless! There is a free version of this plugin but it is limited in it’s functionality.
Simple 301 Redirects
When building a new website the page structure often changes. Instead of sending visitors to a blank 404 page when a URL doesn’t exist you can use Simple 301 Redirects to send them to an updated page that contains the relevant information.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most popular plugin for selling products through a website. There are so many options for building out a store front with this plugin. Also, many developers have created custom WooCommerce themes that style out your store in different ways.