Author: sfetzner2003

Name: Orbit Fox

Orbit Fox is a plugin that adds a bunch of useful features to other enhancements. For example it allows me to apply navigation icons to the menu widgets I have applied, such as arrows that flip when the nav is being used, and other good icons. It also has theme based enhancements that add more features to the appearance and customization of certain themes. These features are integrated seamlessly and in fact so well that sometimes I didn’t know that it was an Orbit Fox modification until I looked at all of the features it added. Additionally any feature it adds is toggled, so they can be turned off at any time by going to the Orbit Fox tab.

The great thing about this plugin is that it has everyday invisible use and will definitely be in the background for the foreseeable future just for any random modifications it makes to the features.

Orbit fox is rated 5 stars on WordPress and has 200,000+ active installations

I give Orbit Fox a 5 star review for its incredible integration and simple application.

Name: Jetpack

Jetpack is a plugin that offers a wide array of tools. Some of the more notable features are for automatically backing up the site, ways to protect the site including malware scans and an integrated firewall, a log of every change made to the website and the account that made it, integration with videos, and integration with social media. Unfortunately many of the more useful aspects of Jetpack are locked behind a paywall

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Despite these issues it is very possible that I used jetpack if I everyone run my own web design company or even if I work for one it is possible I use jetpack to help me manage everything.

Jetpack has a 4 star rating on WordPress and 5 million+ installations

I give Jetpack a 4 star rating because while it could be helpful there is too many paywalls for me right now.

Name: Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a plugin for optimizing SEO on your website. It had a very simple and easy to use setup that asked for basic information, such as site name, name of the person the site represents, the logo, access to look at plugins and themes, and even social media profiles of the person represented by the website. This setup was very intuitive and I will definately be exploring the features more in the future. I did not connect any social media to my page yet because I don’t really have social media yet, but it is a really intriguing feature for SEO. Additionally there is a paid feature for $99 a year that offers even more features.

The usage for this is very clear, it just something that is free that can be running in the background of your site in order to keep track and notify of any SEO anomalies

It has a 5 star rating with 5 million+ active installations.

I give Yoast SEO a 5 star review.

Name: Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is a plugin that allows for contact forms to be imbedded into either a page or a post on your website. It has a 4 star review on WordPress with 5 million+ installations

Functionally it is very simple. It adds a tab on the WordPress home menu called “Contact” From here you can create an imbed a form that will allow someone to contact you via the email that is connected with the WordPress account. It has them insert their email, name, and their message into the respective text boxes. Then it will send to your email the message this person type out.

This has potential usage for setting up a system where a user can get help, setting up appointments, or even commissioning freelance work.

Overall I give Contact form 7 a 5 star review

• What is a plugin? It is an additional feature that is compatible with the content management system, but does not come installed with the system.
• What languages are used to write them? Most are written in PHP.
• What types of jobs can they do? They do all sorts of things from change the UI of the widget page, adding more functions to websites, such as an interactive calendar, to even tracking SEO statistics.
• What kinds of issues can arise? A clear issue that can arise is performance issues. Having too many plugins installed can slow down the webpage and shut down the functionality of the plugins.
• How do you maintain them? They do have to be updated along with the latest version of WordPress, so staying on top of that in order to maintain there functionality is important.
• I see a cool plugin on another site – what is it? If you view the code of the site, and ctrl+f to word search, you can find the plugins and themes that they are using by looking for wp-content.