For searching, it offers sorting by order of relevance (in place of date) partial word match, supports the “and,” “or,” and quotation mark exact match search operators.
The search results can be set to display excerpts that show the context of the search result on the page (shows the passage) and highlight the search terms on the webpage when users click through. The plugin also integrates with WPML and Polylang.
The developers of the plugin note that it uses “hundreds of megabytes” of database space. They suggest taking note of the current size of the wp_posts database table and tripling it to understand how much server storage space will be required.
The paid Pro version contains the “Did you mean?” feature, enables search results with PDF, including taxonomy (navigational data), and weighs search results.
What’s especially useful about the paid version is that it offers stemming, which is a natural language processing feature that allows search results to match the topic of the page instead of just ordinary keyword matching.
This allows a wider range of relevant search results that don’t necessarily contain the exact match keywords. It also has the happy side effect of reducing the size of the search index.
The annual fee is $109 USD, but there’s also a lifetime deal of $379 USD, which includes lifetime support and upgrades.
Ajax Search Lite
This plugin replaces the default WordPress search box that can search in posts, pages, and custom post types like events, portfolio items, and WooCommerce products. It can search in titles, descriptions, article excerpts, and custom fields.
A handy feature is the ability to exclude specific categories and posts. Plus, it can integrate with Google Analytics. It’s also multilingual-friendly and compatible with Polylang, QtranslateX, and WPML.
The paid pro version adds support for popular page builders, supports more kinds of content (PDF, Events Calendar, etc.), and WooCommerce plugin, plus many other features.
A lifetime license starts at $49.
SearchWP
This paid search plugin is popular with developers and publishers. Pricing at the time of writing is on sale for $99 per year.
The algorithm used by this plugin can prioritize frequently clicked search results, allows custom weighting, has an include/exclude feature, and can index custom fields, PDFs, media files, and custom post types.
There are also ecommerce optimizations that can include results from product attributes and taxonomies and are compatible with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and BigCommerce plugins.
Pricing currently starts at $99/year.
WordPress Website Staging
Website staging is a function that allows users to create an exact copy of a website and then make changes to test if the website functions normally without any glitches.
It’s useful for testing a site before updating the WordPress core, plugins, or themes. It’s also useful for previewing what a website would look like with a new template, debugging, and customizing it.
WP STAGING WordPress Backup Plugin
100,000+ website installations.
The free version of the WP STAGING plugin enables users to clone their website to a subfolder of the website, including the database.
The clone can be used for staging a website, as well as for backup and migration.
The pro version of the plugin enables users to back up the website to third-party cloud providers and offers advanced site migration capabilities.
The free version of the plugin advertises that it’s so lightweight that it can even be used on a low-powered shared hosting environment. The paid version of the plugin starts at $93 per year.
WP Stagecoach
WP Stagecoach is a paid premium solution that offers an easy way to stage a website safely on the WP Stagecoach servers and then push it to the live production server when it’s ready.
I’ve used WP Stagecoach and found it to be simple and convenient.
Pricing starts at $99/year.
WPvivid And BlogVault
WPvivid and BlogVault both offer website staging capabilities in addition to backing up websites.
Scroll up to the WordPress Backup Plugin section to read more about WPvivid and BlogVault.
Theme Switcha
Installed on 6,000+ WordPress sites.
This is a plugin for theme developers and not really for the average user.
The software developer created this plugin for their own website projects and subsequently released it for free on the official WordPress plugin repository.
This plugin enables theme previews for logged-in users and can be restricted to admin-level users. It’s a way to preview a theme and see what it looks like. Developers like it because it’s an easy way to show clients a redesign.
Emphasizing that this is a developer-focused plugin, the software developer cautions that it doesn’t work with Gutenberg blocks, although some users have reported that it works. The plugin author writes:
“Please understand that this plugin should not be used together with WordPress features such as Gutenberg Block Editor, Theme Customizer, Widgets, Menus, and other theme-related options. Doing so may result in private changes being made public on the current active theme.”
The plugin was developed by Jeff Starr of Plugin Planet, which offers free and paid WordPress plugins that are used by over 1.5 million users.
A review published in the private Dynamic WordPress Facebook group (membership necessary to view post) noted that it enables the convenience of staging a website for reviewing a template without having to clone files or reproducing it on another server.
Contact Form WordPress Plugins
There are many contact form options to suit a wide variety of website needs.
While a theme’s built-in contact form is often sufficient, third-party plugins offer significantly greater functionality and customization.
WPForms (WPForms Lite)
Installed on 6+ million sites.
WPForms is a basic contact form that’s easy to use and that I have experience with. It doesn’t deliver the ultimate configurable contact form, but if all you want is an easy-to-deploy contact form, this is for you.
It integrates easily with over 200 apps, including page builders like Divi and Elementor.
There are different paid version levels, each providing increasingly sophisticated features and abilities.
The free version is a fine solution when all you need is a contact form.
Ninja Forms
Installed on 700,000+ websites.
Ninja Forms is another easy-to-use contact form builder – but this one has increasingly complex functionalities.
What’s attractive about Ninja Forms is that it uses a modular approach that allows one to purchase add-ons that extend its functionality. Paid add-ons include functionality like multi-step forms and conditional logic.
That said, the free version of Ninja Forms has options that are premium features on other contact forms.
For example, it is Akismet and Google ReCaptcha friendly and can accommodate uploads, accept payments via PayPal and other gateways, integrate with MailChimp, Constant Contact, multiple CRMs, and more.
It’s a good choice to start with and expand on available features as the site grows.
Formidable Forms
400,000+ website installations.
Formidable Forms is perfectly named because it is impressive, has a large number of features and capabilities, and is capable of accomplishing far more than many other contact forms.
It’s more than a contact form because it also functions as a lead generation form builder capable of creating quizzes and surveys.
An especially attractive feature is that it creates WCAG/A11Y compliant forms, which means that it is accessible.
The free Lite version is a highly capable form builder. The premium version of Formidable Forms extends the plugin with lead generation features and other advanced capabilities.
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is a paid contact form that offers extensive advanced features that are useful for sites with complex needs and integrations.
Gravity Forms markets itself as a form manager that is useful for data capture. It’s strongly suited for marketing campaigns and monetization.
Even the Basic version has strong integrations with services like SendGrid, HubSpot, Emma, and MailChimp.
Useful WordPress Plugins
Which plugin is the “best” is determined by what functionalities are needed.
The WordPress ecosystem offers thousands of plugins that extend the functionality of websites to help them rank better, generate more sales, create a better user experience, and contribute to why WordPress is the No. 1 CMS choice in the world.
More Resources:
Featured Image: Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock