Red Kite Creative

wordpress plugins

Weekly Links Roundup – Store Locator Plugins, Plugin Roundup, Social Media, Screenshots Tool

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

If you have multiple brick-and-mortar locations, a really useful feature you can add to your WordPress site is a store locator – a map showing pins for each of your locations. Clicking on a pin opens up address and other info about that location. Here’s a small roundup of 5 top store locator plugins. I’ve used Store Locator on a few sites, pretty easy to use, but these other plugins also look promising.

And speaking of WordPress plugins, here’s a big review of the single best plugin across many categories. While I agree with many of the selected winners, the one I differ with is the best forms plugin. IMO it’s Gravity Forms, and has been for years. Gravity Forms is a commercial plugin currently priced at $59/yr for one site.

If you’re evaluating your social media strategy – or just jumping in with social media for your business – this post on choosing the right social media platform for your business might help. You can’t do everything; this post and infographic can help you decide how to spend your time efficiently. Reviews Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Finally… here’s a neat tool I was introduced to in a tech support chat this week. Snaggy is a great free tool for creating and sharing screenshots, perfect for chat.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Mobile Design, Plugins, Web Fonts, HTTPS

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The top website and marketing links of the week.

It’s common for clients to make assumptions about mobile design (users never scroll; I have to cut back on content for phones). But many of them just aren’t true! Learn about mobile design myths and how to go beyond them to provide a truly useful and enjoyable experience for phone users.

Is there such a thing as too many WordPress plugins? Maybe… I’ve seen as many as 35 on a single website, and IMO that’s a bit much… but it really depends on the plugins themselves. You can have one badly-built plugin that slows down your entire site – or 20 good plugins that do their job and keep your site running well. Learn about plugin usage and why it’s okay.

Speaking of performance…

I like using custom web fonts; they can really enhance a site’s design. Typography is a great tool for helping your site stand out. But they can affect performance, especially if you use more than a couple of fonts. Learn about web font performance and the pros and cons of using them.

Finally…

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about SSL and HTTPS lately – but what exactly are these things, and why does your site need them? Here’s a guide to the basics of HTTPS – which every site should now be using! If you’re not and need help, get in touch.

 

Grammar tools for WordPress

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Need a grammar/spelling/style reviewer for your blog posts? There’s a plugin for that.

Actually there are a few. One of the more popular is After The Deadline; it’s a comprehensive tool that does all the above. Besides the plugin for WordPress.org sites, it’s also available as a Firefox addon or Chrome browser extension.

Give it a try – you can install the plugin from within your WordPress administration site by going to Plugins > Add New Plugin and entering ‘after the deadline’ in the search box. When it comes up, click ‘Install Now’ and then ‘Activate’ on the next page. Then, go to your user profile to set it up under Proofreading and you’re ready to write.

The spellcheck buttonWhen you’re working on a page or blog post, just click the spellcheck button in the visual editor toolbars to turn on After The Deadline. Here’s a handy guide to using it.