SpeedHost.in Blog Hosted on WordPress

You’ve probably heard this a zillion times “WordPress is the most popular and used Content Management System”.  There are many factors that play a vital role in the success of WordPress and one of them has got to be the thousands of plugins that are freely available. Although having so many plugins is a good thing, deciding which ones to use for your first ever WordPress website is going to be a bit intimidating. But we’ve got you covered with this list of must have plugins for your website.

1] BackUpWordPress [Backup] – When you’re site breaks due to a bad code or a hacker attack, the one thing that will save you from starting all over again is a backup of your website. BackUpWordPress plugin is a simple plugin which can help you take backups of your website. You can schedule and also exclude files and folders from your backups. You also get an option to send your backup file to your email which is a welcome feature. If you’re not sure how to take a manual backup of your WordPress website then this plugin is what you’ll need.

2] WordPress SEO by Yoast [SEO] – Optimizing your WordPress website for search engines is not an easy task. There are loads of things involved when it comes to SEO and getting them all right is going can be a daunting task. Fortunately, you can use WordPress SEO by Yoast for all your SEO needs. This plugin combines all required settings under one roof making it easier to manage your SEO efforts. We loved the simplicity of this tool and the way each and every setting is explained with warning notifications.

3] BulletProof Security [Security] – Security has always been a major concern with WordPress websites. If you don’t take adequate measures to fortify the security, your WordPress website is going to take a beating for it. You can safeguard your website with the BulletProof Security plugin which just needs one click to setup. This plugin modifies the .htaccess file of your website, which probably is one of the best ways to secure a WordPress website. The plugin can also take backups of your website and display a under maintenance page when you’re working on a major upate on your website. You’re website is also safeguarded from Bruteforce attacks thanks to the Login Security & Monitoring Website Security features included within the plugin.

4] Akismet [Comment Spam] – No sooner you launch your WordPress website, you’ll notice that your website’s hit with loads of spam comments. If you want to avoid comment spam, simply install Akismet plugin and you’re good to go.

5] Share This [Social] – Most of the new WordPress themes come along with social media buttons for sharing. In case if your theme doesn’t include it, you can use the plugin Share This to add this functionality to your website. Social sharing buttons gives your website visitors an easy medium to share your content. This gets you more visibility and hence installing this plugin is definitely a good idea.

These five plugins will give you a head start with your new WordPress website. You can explore more plugins as and when you need it. Just a tip, always update all plugins and delete unwanted ones to avoid any potential issues.

Do you know of any other awesome WordPress plugins that we’ve missed? Share it with us by leaving a comment below.

There is no doubt that WordPress is the most loved CMS out there. One of the reasons for its popularity is the availability of thousands of plugins. They just improve the functionality of WordPress ten folds. We have compiled a list of the most popular plugins for all you aspiring WordPress Developers. Check them out right here:

1] Debug Bar: This plugin adds a debug menu to the admin bar that displays cache, total queries, total queried time, and memory usage that will be very useful in the debugging process. This makes it a must have plugin for all WordPress developers. In addition to this if the function WP_DEBUG is enabled then it also helps to track PHP warnings and Notices to make them easier to find.

2] Theme Check: If you’re a WordPress theme developer then this plugin is a must have. It measures your theme against the current WordPress coding standards and best practices. Your theme also needs to be checked for required elements such as licenses, author information and screenshot which this plugin does with ease.

3] User Switching: If you want to swap quickly between multiple user accounts in WordPress then User Switching is the plugin to get. This allows you to quickly move from one user account to the other with the click of a button.  This comes in super handy for test environments where you regularly have to log out and in between different accounts or for administrators who have to switch between multiple accounts.

4] WordPress Beta Tester: This plugin lets you update to the latest Nightly version or the Release Candidate at the click of the button using the built in upgrader. This comes in handy especially when you want to test the compatibility of your plugin or theme with the upcoming WordPress versions.

5] Query Monitor: Query Monitor adds a new toolbar at the WordPress admin bar and shows query data such as HTTP Requests, Ajax Call, Redirects, Hooks, Transients and PHP Errors. This is a very good pick since a lot of the features included in this plugin have not been found with other debugging plugins.

So if you are game to become the next best WordPress theme or plugin developer, don’t forget to give these masterpieces a try.

Do leave a comment below if you have any similar WordPress plugin that you wish to share with us.

A lot of times when you look at your website or your blog, you will feel that the content looks a tad bit boring and you need to add a little flair to it. You might feel encouraged to tweak the theme a bit but the lack of CSS knowledge might let you down. That’s when you look out for plugins that can help you achieve that.

It is really difficult to find good plugins out of the thousands available. But fear not because we have done all the searching and have brought it down to the 5 best WordPress plugins that will help you enhance your website.

1] Simple Pull Quote: This plugin will become your favorite if you like sharing a lot of quotes within your blog post. It allows you to easily insert pull quotes into your posts and in a stylish way. The end result makes the quotes stand out and really gives it a great look.

2] Wp Google Fonts: With an aim of making the web more beautiful, Google launched the Google fonts program making really cool fonts available for free to everyone. Though very easy to implement in your website a little coding knowledge can help. For the ones that do not have coding knowledge, the WP Google Fonts plugin will help you achieve the same results. Simply install and select the font that you need to use on your blog.

3] Text Hover: By using this plugin you can now add hover text to any regular text in your posts. This is a great tool especially when you need to provide quick explanations of names and terms mentioned in your posts.

4] Smart layers by ADDTHIS: This plugin will give your website users an easy to use social sharing buttons. These social buttons will not disturb your design as it overlays your website. You can also recommend additional content from your website which floats at the bottom of your website to promote engagement. A must have tool if you are serious about engaging with your users and promoting your content through social media.

5] WordPress Canvas – Shortcodes: You can call shortcodes a kind of a life saver. They allow you to implement complex functions with just a simple addition to your post. We dug deep into the WordPress Plugin directory and found a gem even we could not get our eyes of. We are talking about the WordPress Canvas which is a cool Shortcodes plugin with the following features [you can thank us later :-)]

• Accordion
• Tabs
• Toggle
• Columns & Sections
• Testimonials
• Borders
• Buttons
• Full Width
• Notifications
• Google Maps
• Social Icons
• Progress Bars
• Pricing
• Images with Flags
• Highlights
• Countdown
• RSVP
• Custom HTML
• Code Snippets
• Isotope / Masonry Posts

You can check each of these short codes in action here.

These plugins are guaranteed to make a positive difference to your website. So what are you waiting for? Head out to the WordPress Plugin Directory and start using them right away.

Do drop in a comment if you have any questions around these plugins.

According to me WordPress is one of the best things to happen to the Internet, it has enabled millions of people to express their thoughts online without having to worry about programming / web design etc but as your WordPress blog grows, you might experience a little slowness or a delay from the server, this is because if you have thousands of people visiting your blog everyday, each time your page is rendered for the visitor, this would slow down your blog and even cause temporary outage if your are on shared hosting.

But since you are working on WordPress and it being the God of all Blog softwares, there are various solutions available to this problem. You can install a Plugin called WP-Cache which will cache your dynamic pages and render from from cache, instead of calling them from the database. This will significantly reduce your server load and speed up your website performance.