As a general guideline most errors you'll encounter together with your WordPress blog are the result of excessive or incompatible plugins. While many find the selection of essential plugins a conundrum I believe in testing each plugin one-by-one with the latest version of WordPress so I can isolate the situation to ascertain the reason for the slow load times, call function errors or php memory limit warnings. The absolute most valuable tool I can tell you as it pertains to plugins is that whenever possible search for existing code that could accomplish the same result.
Of course there are certain plugins that even I use in my WordPress Blogs. I've compiled a list below of the very best 10 plugins that I use on a daily basis that I think can help any tech blog:
* AdSense Now - There are many ad insertion plugins for WordPress, but if your tech blog is using AdSense - here is the plugin I will suggest https://onetech4.com/.It lets you insert your ad blocks aligned left, center or middle in 3 parts of a post. In addition, it provides you with the option to suppress ads on pages, category pages, tag pages, archives and more.
* Audio Player - To be able to insert mp3 clips or podcasts into your blog could be a problem. Audio Player is really a plugin which makes this technique simple - simply develop a music folder on your internet site via FTP and then upload mp3 tracks to the directory. You are able to insert the built-in audio player into any of your posts or pages with a simple line of code - painless, simple and easy.
* Facebook Sharecount - It's no secret that social networking sites like Facebook are effective ways to create a fanbase, but being able to harness that power utilizes a simple way to fairly share your great content. Facebook Sharecount will make it possible for visitors share your posts and monitor your content.
* Foliopress Descriptions - Once your tech blog has hundreds or even a large number of posts you will need a way to mass edit your descriptions. Whilst the importance of meta descriptions is debated https://linustechguru.com/, I still believe a hand written summary should really be written for every post. Foliopress Descriptions supports post excerpt, These and All In One Seo meta description fields.
* Google XML Sitemaps - If you've read my previous post on how best to get indexed by Google and Yahoo you know that having a sitemap is essential. This plugin auto generates your sitemap in a good and neat XML file and let's search engines understand the content on your tech blog. After installing and activating the plugin Google XML Sitemaps will look after the rest.
* NextGEN Gallery - Managing your images and photo galleries could be a pain, but NextGen Gallery makes this simple. With features like auto resizing, watermarks, thumbnail creation along with gallery effects - NextGEN Gallery is a must have plugin.
* Star Rating for Reviews - Whenever you run a tech blog ultimately you'll start receiving products for review. Creating a solid review is the maximum amount of about content since it is approximately presentation http://housebeautifully.com/.Star Rating for Reviews lets you create ratings for these products you review or even rate different areas of the product and averages the ratings to ascertain one last score. The number of choices are limitless with the plugin - a must have for everyone looking to review tech.
* TweetMeme Retween Button - If you go through the posts on TechBlogStartup you'll notice a yellow Retweet button aligned to the right. The power of Twitter is growing each day so rendering it easy for your reader to ReTweet great content can prove very valuable. If you've installed Google Analytics like I explained in my own previous post here, then you definitely will have a way to monitor precisely how many visitors enter your post through Twitter. If you're wondering why I haven't included ShareThis it's because I manually insert the code rather than using a Wordpress Plugin.
* WP Super Cache - If you've heard of Digg then chances are you've heard of the Digg Effect where a write-up on a web site becomes so popular so quickly that the flood of traffic to the web site causes the server to crash. Since WordPress blogs are made on SQL Databases they are highly susceptible to the condition, but installing WP Super Cache can almost eliminate this threat. The plugin builds a cache of your posts and creates a fixed html page so the server load is reduced and your internet site can handle more visitors http://allibmblog.com/.If your tech blog is brand spanking new I'd install the plugin but not activate it until I started to see spikes in traffic or certainly one of my articles was picked up with a major tech blog like Engadget or Gizmodo.
* All in One SEO - Search Engine Optimization is really a key ingredient to driving organic traffic to your tech blog. Writting great content is key, but after you have created that content you will need to ensure that it targets keywords and includes some basic optimization to ensure it is se friendly. All in One SEO does this job very well. If you're utilizing the WordPress theme I use (Thesis) then you definitely won't need this plugin, but also for pretty much every other WordPressTheme I will suggest installing it straight away in order that you can start writing your custom meta descriptions
All the plugins I've mentioned above could be downloaded manually and then uploaded via FTP to your blog or you could add them from within your WordPress Dashboard - personally I prefer the latter. If you're wondering why certain plugins are not listed on my top 10 list - I just don't locate them necessary to a tech blog. You'll observe that I do somethings with TechBlogStartup that numerous people use Plugins or Widgets to do - eg. the very best 6 articles aligned horizontally at the top of the site or the Recent Posts section in the medial side bar. For tech blogs that receive a big volume of traffic, limiting the plugins helps decrease the SQL memory load and if you've ever had a web site crash you know precisely how important this is.
No comments:
Post a Comment