Blogging Tips

Are you starting up a new site or just looking to enhance your existing site? If so, here are my 10 top Admin plugins that are worth a look at.

Theme Test Drive

Adding a new theme to your site is never a simple case of upload and switch to it. You need to be able to make a few modifications, add in additional code for plugins or your own preferred functions. Being able to see the theme working is a must, but obviously you don’t want the public seeing it, not until it’s perfect. The Theme Test Drive plugin allows you to view a different theme to everyone else, meaning you can make your modifications and view them, before setting the theme live for everyone – Theme Test Drive

WordPress Admin Bar

Give yourself easy access to the admin menu from the front end of your website. This will only display to logged in users, similar to how the menu displays on the WordPress.com site – Admin Bar

Revision Control

Since version 2.6, WordPress has allowed you to revert back to a previous version of a post or page. Great for when you really make a major mistake and need to start with the previous version again. However this can also create a lot of similar versions of the same post in the database. With no limit this can get out of control quite easily! Revision control allows you to limit the number of revisions saved, or disable it altogether. It’s also easy to remove previous revisions with this plugin as well – Revision Control

pageMash > Page Management

This plugin allows you to easily select which pages are displayed in the standard wp_list_pages() output, and also makes it easy to select the order of the pages. Essential for any WordPress CMS, and useful if you have more than a few pages on your blog – pageMash

WordPress Stats

Gain a better insight into the statistics of your site, your visitors and how they came to your site with the official WordPress Stats plugin.

Reveal IDs for WP Admin

If you need to know the ID of a category, page, post or link, then since version 2.5 you had to go hunting and looking at URLs to get that info. However this plugin displays the IDs back on screen where they should be! Reveal IDs

All in One SEO Pack

Probably the most used and well known admin plugin. The All in One SEO pack allows you to give your post or Page a keyword rich title, different to the post/Page title, a meta description and keywords. Essential for Pages and any site running as a CMS – All in One SEO Pack

Page Menu Editor

Gives you more flexibility with your pages by allowing you to specify a different menu label and link title attribute for your Pages Menu, instead of using the Page title. Used in conjunction with the All in One SEO pack and you have all the options and flexibility you need! Page Menu Editor – Highly recommended

Redirection

Moving posts, pages and categories around on your site can have major consequences for your search engine rankings, and also for visitors coming to the site and receiving a 404 error. This plugin will allow you to easily fix the problems left over without the need for coding knowledge – Redirection

Maintenance Mode

Finally, if you need to just shut the world off from your site temporarily then the maintenance mode plugin allows you to do this with a bit more grace and professionalism. It puts up a notice for anyone visiting the site so that they’re aware you’ve not just packed your bags and left! – Maintenance Mode