Essential WordPress Plugins Byte of Texas 2015 Austin Food Blogger Alliance Margaret Dornbusch MadSweetWorld.com

madsweetworld.com Agenda About Me What are plugins? How to use plugins Essential plugins

About Me And a Disclaimer

madsweetworld.com About Me Started with hand-coding in 1990s Didn’t really know I was blogging Used free Greymatter Database not required, output HTML Couldn’t afford other blogging solutions WordPress in 2003 – free, barebones, no plugins WordPress in 2014 – Wow! Still free! Lots of plugins!

madsweetworld.com Disclaimer I’m not an expert We are merely scratching the surface

What are Plugins?

madsweetworld.com What are Plugins? Dependent component Adds features to an existing applications Enables customization Some plug-ins have plugins BuddyPress – Provides an entire ecosystem for groups communications

madsweetworld.com Plugin Example

How to Use Plugins

madsweetworld.com How to Use Plugins Finding Installing Configuring Adding code (if necessary)

madsweetworld.com Finding Plugins 33,485 plugins available WordPress plugin search Star ratings in search results Popular or Favorites tabs Google “best plugins for food bloggers” “best seo plugins” Recommendations from other bloggers Austin Food Blogger Alliance Austin Bloggers Facebook page Austin WordPress meetup

madsweetworld.com Installing Plugins Installing plugins is easy 1. From the Plugins page, click Add New. 2. Search for the plugin you want to add. 3. Click Install Now. 4. Click Activate Plugin (or activate later if you want).

madsweetworld.com Configuring Plugins Follow any directions 34 Settings!

madsweetworld.com Configuring Plugins (cont.) Some plugins require adding a bit of code to your template or uploading a file to your website Some require adding short codes to your template Bits of code that represent longer sections of code Example: [donate] adds a Donate button

Installation Demo

Essential Plugins

madsweetworld.com Absolutely Essential Comment Spam Sign up with Akismet (Automattic) Activate the plugin Click Get your API key or enter your API key manually

madsweetworld.com Absolutely Essential (cont.) Backup VaultPress (Automattic) subscription backup service Security Wordfence Security free security scans

madsweetworld.com Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Yoast WordPress SEO (requires verification from Google Webmaster Tools) Google Analytics Google Analyticator Other analytics plug-ins Share buttons (Pinterest/Facebook/Twitter, etc.) Simple Share Buttons

madsweetworld.com Blogging Event Calendar Google Blog-only Editorial Calendar Editorial Calendar 3.3 – Manage posts from a calendar view

madsweetworld.com Food Recipes Easy printing Shopping lists Google Recipe Search format (rich snippets) Example: EasyRecipe

madsweetworld.com Food Nutrition Enter all data; doesn’t calculate it No Follow for Sponsored Posts Example: Ultimate Nofollow

madsweetworld.com Administration Speed Enhancers WP SuperCache (Automattic) Generates static html files Multifunction JetPack (Automattic) Importers and Cross-posters Import from other WP installations or other blogs Cross post to other blogs/social media

madsweetworld.com Miscellaneous Contact Management Contact forms subscriptions Bulletin boards Donation Form

madsweetworld.com Miscellaneous (cont.) Ecommerce WooCommerce WP Customer Reviews App Creators Wiziapp Mobiloud Ebook Creators PressBooks Bookpress Client

madsweetworld.com Tips (Recommended) Set up a test installation of WordPress to test plug- ins before you add them to your blog Backup your WordPress installation before you activate a plugin Keep WordPress and any plugins current Use plugins tested with the version of WordPress you are using Recovering from the White Screen of Death

madsweetworld.com Tips (cont.) Deleting plugins Deactivate first How to find out the name of a plugin Online tool View source code Search for the word “plugin” Examine /wp-content/plugins/ to view a list of plugins

madsweetworld.com References Austin Food Blogger Alliance Austin Bloggers Facebook page Austin WordPress meetup How to use shortcodes Google Rich Snippets and Google Recipe View Margaret Dornbusch

madsweetworld.com Questions?