Out of the box, WordPress sites are very easy to manage, and come with a lot of helpful features built in. Thankfully, the developers of WordPress don’t try to include every feature anyone could ever want, as this would make the CMS harder to administrate, and would decrease performance. If your WordPress site is lacking some features that you’d like to have, chances are there’s a quality, free, plugin available. Plugins are created by the WordPress community and allow site owners to add features to WordPress sites on an as-needed basis. This enables sites to run more efficiently, as system resources are only used by features the site owner actually wants.
We set up a lot of WordPress sites; as such, we’ve discovered a lot of great plugins over the years that make our sites more powerful and easier to manage. Here are five free, simple plugins you might not be aware of, but may want to try:
1. Duplicate Post
Sometimes I want to create a WordPress page (or post) that is very similar to one already on my site; some of the text or images may need to be changed, but the basic layout of the content is the same. The Duplicate Post plugin adds a “Copy to new draft” link to the page (or post) editing screen, making the process quick and easy.
2. Simple Backup
Keeping regular backups is important for every site owner, and Simple Backup makes is a quick and easy process. The plugin creates an archive (ZIP, TGZ, or BZIP) of all the site files and exports the database into an SQL file. The site owner can then download the files to a local computer and delete them from the server (all via the WordPress backend). This plugin is also very handy for moving a site from one server to another, as it greatly reduces download time over FTPing the site files without compression. A premium version is also available, which can run backups automatically at set intervals.
3. Lightbox Plus
By default, when an image is added to a page or post, WordPress simply creates a link to the full size version of that image. While this method serves its purpose, a lightbox can be a more aesthetically pleasing option and can improve ease of use for the end user, as it provides more options for returning to the content (clicking outside the image area, clicking the “X” icon, or pressing ESC on the keyboard). When the Lightbox Plus plugin is enabled, lightboxes are implemented automatically; simply add an image to a page or post as you normally would.
4. WP Maintenance Mode
One useful feature of Joomla (another open-source CMS that we’ve used extensively) is maintenance mode, which allows a site owner to hide the front end of the website to the general public while performing major updates or revisions. WP Maintenance Mode adds this feature to WordPress, and allows customization of the text and layout that is shown to a site visitor when maintenance mode is enabled. During maintenance mode, the front end of the site is still visible to logged-in administrators.
5. TinyMCE Advanced
This one isn’t all that simple. In fact, it has “advanced” right in its name. The WYSIWYG editor that is included with WordPress, TinyMCE, is fast, lightweight, and easy to use. Its rather limited feature set is sufficient for the needs of the average user, but isn’t terribly powerful. TinyMCE Advanced adds a ton of new features to TinyMCE, while still maintaining ease of use. New features include tables, inline CSS, and more advanced linking options. Individual editor features can be enabled and disabled from the WordPress backend, which is perfect for less experienced WordPress admins who want a few extra features but “don’t want to screw anything up.”
If you’d like to optimize the administration experience of your website, or if you want to replace your cumbersome, poorly designed content management system with an awesome WordPress site, give us a ring. We’ve been making great looking, easy to use WordPress sites for over five years and would love to design one for you.
