This is Part Two to a series of my favorite free WordPress plug-ins. You can find the first post here!

11. Ninja Forms

I have used so many different contact form plug-ins and this one I find the simplest to use and quickest to set up. All you have to do is make sure your settings in Email & Actions is added so when someone submits a form, it will email you the content. See my settings above to see how that’s done (it’s in the Email & Actions tab). Unfortunately, I have forgotten to do this on one or two client’s sites but all submissions are kept in the submissions tab on the admin sidebar so none are ever lost! If you are looking for a more complex contact form where viewers can submit images, I recommend Contact Form 7 which is a bit trickier to set up but has more options.

12. Category Featured Images

This is a great plug-in if you want to use a certain image to showcase each category. You can simply use [cfi_featured_image] but it might take a little code for it to work exactly how you’d like.

13. Add Signature

If you aren’t using a Genesis theme or know code like me, this is a great way to add content that will always show up at the end of your post. So either a signature, subscription, or some wording.

14. Personal Favicon

Since working and developing themes from scratch I do not need this plug-in anymore, but for those who want to add their own favicon (the little icon at the top of your tab), this one has worked well for me.

15. Simple Social Icons

Before I used code and font icons for social media, I used this plug-in. It’s a widget you can put on your sidebar with multiple social media icons to choose from. You can decide the size, shape, and color of the icons so they look consistent and go with your branding.

16. Yoast SEO

I came across this plug-in when it helped give the correct image on Facebook shares, and I haven’t even begun to dig into the tools of this plug-in myself. If you are interested in optimizing your site and making it super simple for readers to search and find you, I would click on the link and read more about this plugin.

17. Popup Maker

Oh man have I tried lots of pop-up plug-ins. I have learned enough coding that I can create my own from scratch which is what I do now, but if I just want to create a simple one, and if you want to change and update it frequently, I have found this one to look the best on all browsers and be the easiest to customize.

18. Reveal IDs

Other plug-ins use Post or Page ID’s, and the only way to actually see what a post’s ID is, is by downloading this plug-in. After downloading, you can find the ID number on the All Posts page.

19. WP Exclude From Homepage

I have only used this for one client but I found it quite useful if you want to exclude a certain category from your home page. For example, with abountifulkitchen.com, she didn’t want her Kitchen posts to show up on the home page, just her recipe ones. So this plug-in allowed me to exclude any post that had that category from the home page. Pretty nice!

20. Simple Share Buttons Light

If you aren’t using a Genesis theme, in which case you’d use Genesis Simple Share, this is a nice plug-in to add to your site if you want readers to be able to share you post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or email to a friend.

Here are a few other plug-ins I like as well: BackUpWordPress, External Links

This is a great website to test your site’s speed. It also gives you performance tips that can help improve your page speed performance.