Essential WordPress Plugins
Studio Hyperset does a good deal of WordPress development for a number of different clients. And whenever I start a new WordPress project — just after completing the “Famous 5 Minute Installation” — I always add a the same set of plugins before going any further.
I’ve been doing this consistently for a good while, but it took me a considerable amount of time to collect the following plugin set and a considerable amount of heuristics to discover the most reliable versions of each type. As such, I thought others might benefit from, and save time as a result of, the following list.
In addition to Akismet and Matt Mullenweg’s Hello Dolly, of course, as TCM might put it, these plugins are the essentials:
SECURITY
- Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr’s Block Bad Queries (BBQ)
Protects WordPress against malicious URL requests. - bsndev’s Ultimate Security Checker
Identifies potential security vulnerabilities and suggests fixes. - WebsiteDefender and hallsofmontezuma’s WP Security Scan
ibid., but I like a second opinion.
UTILITY
- McShelby’s Exec-PHP
Allows developers to execute PHP (includes, WP functions, &tc.) in posts, pages, and text widgets. - filosofo’s WP-DB Backup
Schedules, backs up, and FTPs/emails a zip file of all WordPress database tables. - wpxue and ym99a’s WP PHP widget
Similar to Exec-PHP but creates a dedicated PHP-executing widget.
SEO
- arnee’s Google XML Sitemaps
Automatically generates and submits XML sitemaps to a number of different search engines.
There are several other WordPress plugins I almost always use (SteveSmith1983's List Tags; alexkingorg and crowdfavorite’s Twitter Tools), and some might suggest a mobile theme like BraveNewCode’s WPtouch Pro is de rigueur in the smartphone-n-tablet age.
But I’d never start any WordPress project without the above seven plugins in place.