Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is coming. This is a good time to continue my Take 5 Series by focusing on five free tools and plugins for which I’m thankful, because they make life easier.
1. WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin
WordPress as a blogging and CMS platform updates often, some say too often. The latest upgrade fixed a few critical bugs and a security issue. The updates were minor, but the time to upgrade the software can be time-consuming. Alas, I’ve learned to rely upon my trusty plugin - WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Updating to WordPress 2.6.5 took 5 minutes instead of 30 minutes or more. This is one plugin to which I’ve donated in support of their efforts. Here’s why:
- The process of uploading to new versions of WordPress software are almost automatic.
- WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin also backs up your WordPress files!
- It automatically puts your site into maintenance mode, downloads the latest version of WordPress, copies the files over to your server, makes the site live again, and then cleans up all your old files. Whallah!
2. All-in-One SEO Plugin
Every time I create a new post, I’m thankful for “out-of-the-box SEO” provided by the All-in-One SEO Plugin. WordPress is not search-engine-friendly by default. WordPress page names contain question marks without keywords. Each WordPress post shows on the home page, category and archive pages. Content that is shown in multiple places like this presents duplicate content issues, which is bad for search engines. Such issues are not a concern when you use this plugin.
Of course, All-in-One SEO plugin DOES NOT do keyword research for you, or write content that is keyword-rich or get incoming links for you. But it does “fix” the structure of WordPress so your site is “friendly” for the search engines to find your keywords and content. It’s a great plugin for those who are not technical. It’s also worth giving the developer a donation!