When I first switched over to WordPress from Blogger, I went a little plugin crazy. It was just so fun to try out all those awesome little snippets of code that could make my blog do tricks. That was long before I understood that load time matters, that an endless supply of plugins isn’t a great idea and that there’s lots I can do by just tweaking my CSS or PHP code.
I still love WordPress plugins as a quick fix when I just can’t wrap my brain around the code I need or when they provide functionality to the back end of my blog. I just have to remember to use them sparingly. I think I read somewhere you should have less than 10 installed on your blog at any given time. Currently, I have 15 which is significantly less than I had a year ago.
Better Delete Revision – – This is fairly new to my WordPress plugin arsenal. I discovered it a few weeks ago when I was running into some issues with my load time and was Googling possible solutions. With WordPress 2.6 came auto-saved revisions of our posts. If you’re like me and make a kerbillion changes to each post before hitting publish this could mean TON of revisions clogging up your corner of server space. I had almost 1,000 versions of various posts. One thing I love is that this plugin doesn’t do anything until you tell it to – I prefer to be in charge of my own destiny like that.
Genesis Simple Edits – – This plugin is a great example of something you could probably do without if you have a little coding knowledge, but honestly, I keep it around because it just makes my life easier. It gives you a key to the short code that can be used to edit various functions, footer text or post meta info for example. These are things that can be hard to change on the CSS/PHP side so this short cut can be super useful.
WordPress Editorial Calendar – – Back in the not-so-distant past, all of my blog posts were done on the fly. They were also few and far between. These days, I try to be significantly more consistent and the key to keeping my ideas organized had been this calendar that is found right under the “Posts” tab on the WordPress dashboard. This plugin has drag and drop functionality, allows for quick edits and shows you what’s pending, what’s been posted and even posts that haven’t been assigned. Life saver. Seriously.
– – Most bloggers I know like to keep in close contact with their stats. Logging in to Google Analytics to find them, however, can be a bit of a pain. Enter the Google Analytics Dashboard plugin. Now when I open my dashboard, I can see both my WordPress stats and my Google Analytics stats. Such a simple plugin, but so useful.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – – I used to think that related posts plugins were silly. I mean, I always had one but I was never sure how useful they were so when I did my most recently redesign, I left the one I was using off. You know what’s weird, though? My pageviews took a dive and my bounce rate went through the roof. So, lesson learned. I like YARRP because they allow quite a few customization options plus there’s the opportunity to earn a little money with it. Win/win.
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Ooo. I’m excited about some of these, especially Genesis Simple Edits and Better Delete Revision. I’m with you, plug ins can be either amazing or load time sucks. I’ve been trying to cut down my PI list too.
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