Each year there are hundreds of updated features to some of your favorite WordPress plugins, but there are also quite a few plugins being introduced entirely or updating significant features that can help your WordPress website succeed. Whatever you need or want to employ to take your website to the next level, there is oftentimes a plugin that will help. Below are a few plugins that have been introduced or radically changed already this year:
Twitter Plugin for WordPress
This has been one of the most talked-about and anticipated plugins that was introduced just last month. It allows WordPress users to embed Twitter content and grow their audience on Twitter. It also offers other features such as analytics, Twitter Cards, and advertising. I highly recommend checking out the link to see how each of the features work.
Postman SMTP Mailer
This is a plugin that will actually help the security of your site by pre-approving to send SMTP messages on your behalf. Google has said in the past that it’s important to no longer use plain passwords for authentication for Google, so this plugin helps solve that issue for your website. A few of the features include sending mail to any host, configuring Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo mail to use OAutho 2.0, and other extra security measures.
Seriously Simple Podcasting
This plugin allows you to get your podcast up and running quicker than before. You can run multiple podcasts from the same site, each with their own RSS feed, choose from different podcast post types to help manage your different episodes, use shortcodes and widgets for displaying podcast episode lists, and more. If you were ever thinking about getting started in podcasting, this plugin makes the transition seamless.
Strong Testimonials
This plugin not only helps you display your testimonials, but it gives you an option to put a place on your website for consumers to actually leave testimonials. In other words, it works like a submission form to a page to start collecting your readers’ thoughts and reviews. You an then sort your reviews out and organize them into categories. You are then given a shortcode so that you can place these testimonials around your website. It’s as simple as that.
Anti-Spam by CleanTalk
The plugin page says it best when they say: No CAPTCHA, no questions, no counting animals, no puzzles, no math, and no spam bots. Every company knows that stopping spam is incredibly important, but sometimes these tactics can be daunting and even cause people to click off of your page. This plugin helps protect against spam for logins, comments, contacts, and more all at the same time. There are even analytics the plugin will show you regarding spam on your site, which is shown below. Visit the official plugin page for more photos.
Ultimate Member
This is a plugin that focuses on user profiles and allowing users to create profiles (and thus help you build a community). Creating user profiles can allow you to customize information and messages so that you’re offering the best content possible for that person. You have several SEO options with this plugin along with custom email templates and more.
Postie
This is a plugin that will allow you to create WordPress posts by email. You can assign categories, include pictures and videos, and it has support for both IMAP and POP3. You are in full control of who gets to post via email, and you can set defaults for category, status, post format, post type, and tags, so it’s great if you have a big team. Learn about the many other features from Postie from the link above.
You can also visit Part I of this article here for a list of more plugins we saw this year. The article also explains that there are hundreds more revisions made to plugins already in 2015, which you can check out at the official WordPress Plugin Directory. Simply type in “2015” as your keyword to see what’s new this year.
Are you using a great new plugin that saw changes or was introduced this year or are you developing a plugin that will go live soon? Let us know in the comment section below.