Note: this post was revised in 2020 to remove some outdated plugins and to add in some new, great options.
As you get up and running with your new WordPress website, you might find there are small tweaks or additions you’d like to make to give your site some extra flair or to extend its functionality.
In addition to the five WordPress plugins you need to install, here are five more great plugins you can add to help enhance and extend your WordPress site. I’ve used the following countless times throughout the years to help improve the sites I’ve worked on.
1. Advanced Custom Fields
The Advanced Custom Fields plugin allows you to customize your WordPress edit screens by adding powerful custom fields. Simple and intuitive, you create custom fields from a visual interface and select from multiple input types including text, wysiwyg, image, file, link, and many more. This plugin also gives you the ability to create custom location rules, so you can assign the fields to certain pages.
2. Simple Social Icons
Simple Social Icons is a very simple, yet highly customizable plugin that allows you to insert social icons in any widget area on your WordPress site. It’s so easy to use: just specify which profiles you would like to add by pasting in your URL, specify icon alignment, and customize the icon color and size.
3. Adminize
Adminimize is a powerful plugin that gives you full customization over your WordPress admin. With Adminimize, you’ll be able to hide things from user levels, as well as grant access to capabilities otherwise blocked from certain user types.
4. Custom Sidebars
Custom Sidebars allows you to easily create your own widgetized sidebars. With this plugin, you’re able to create an unlimited number of unique sidebars, and you can choose which to use for each post or page.
5. WooCommerce
If you’re looking to start a small shop on your WordPress site, then look no further! WooCommerce is quick and easy to set up and will give you the simple ecommerce functionality you need to get a shop up and running on WordPress.