Recently, I’ve seen that I’m going to be working on a bunch of sites. WordPress has become the “go to” CMS for most bloggers, marketers, and small businesses. Part of the reason for this is the over 19 thousand plugins that extend it’s functionality.

So in putting these two new sites together, I have compiled this list of plugins that bend, stretch, and otherwise beat WordPress into submission:

• cloudsafe365_for_WP – This one is completely hands off. Just activate it, click the prompt and done.
  

  Backup Security and Content Protection. Cloudsafe365 is a simple to use plug-in that provides online backup, security and stops scraping of site data, protecting the site content from theft.

• Custom Headers and Footers – The tweaks I did to the basic themes couldn’t have been accomplished without this. Not to mention inserting the web bugs for analytics.
  

  This plugin adds custom header and footer for main page content.

• DOP Slider – It was actually quite hard to find a decent slider. One I looked at required you build the gallery offline with a separate application. Really?? Another didn’t allow you to edit it after creation. Wait, What?? The interface was a bit sluggish, but it works and the galleries can be updated.
  

  This Plugin will help you to easily add a slider to your WordPress website or blog. The slider is completely customizable, resizable and is compatible with all browsers and devices (iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones). You will be able to insert it in any page or post you want with an inbuilt short code generator.

• Easy Columns – Widgets just aren’t flexible enough for me. I used this plugin on both sites to get columns just the way I wanted.
  

  Easy Columns provides the shortcodes to create a grid system or magazine style columns for laying out your pages just the way you need them. Using shortcodes for 1/4, 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 3/4, 1/5, 2/5, and 3/5 columns, you can insert at least thirty unique variations of columns on any page or post. Quickly add columns to your pages from the editor with an easy to use “pick n’ click” interface!

• Redirection – This plugin was only four stars, but it seems to work alright. Both sites had page url changes, so this was a must.
  

  Manage all your 301 redirects and monitor 404 errors

• WordPress SEO – This is the Yoast SEO plugin. The only part I’ve mastered is the checkbox to enable sitemaps. So many options, so many tweaks, a SEO consultant’s dream come true.
  

  The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.

• WP Robots Txt – Why futz around with an FTP client, when you can just click & edit? Actually, I’m just hoping having this installed will keep other bits of WordPress form accidently overwriting the file.
  

  Edit your robots.txt file from the WordPress admin

• WP Maintenance Mode – I built one of the new sites “behind” the client’s existing site. This kept visitors from accidently finding the site before it was live.
  

  The plugin adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in users get full access to the blog including the front-end, depends of the settings.

• WordPress Database Reset – USE WITH CARE. CAUTION, WILL RUIN YOUR DAY. Actually, something I did hosed up the theme we were using for one client and I used this to reboot WordPress without re-installing. Just remember to uninstall it afterwards. You don’t want the client calling you asking you where their website went.
  

  A plugin that allows you to reset the database to WordPress’s initial state.

If you’re spending more than an hour agonizing over your posts, you’re doing something very wrong. Kraig Stewardson lays out his organized approach to writing blog posts in this guest post at ProBlogger.

In late February, I started reading rumors of something big happening. Days of back and forth about blog networks seemed like fantasy or trolling. When the networks finally started unraveling, many received notices of “unnatural links” from Google. Hundreds if not thousands of bloggers, business owners, and even SEO agencies found their sites were gone.

Neil Patel of Quick Sprout has a roundup of the mistakes we made.