Sandalsand Norge >>
Sandalsand is using WordPress as a blogging platform and content management system – and so are 60 million websites across the globe. In addition I have number of useful WordPress plugins.
This post was first published on 18. October 2014. There has been several updates, the latest as of April 2024.
WordPress is a versatile platform capable of handling just about anything you like. This is largely due to its free and open source technical base and not least the variety of themes and plugins available for integration.
Read why and how I moved into using WordPress.
My websites, Sandalsand Global and its Norwegian language sister Sandalsand Norge, both use the Divi theme from Elegant Themes. In addition I have a number of active useful WordPress plugins adding functionality to the websites.
Over the years I have tried other plugins as well. Some conflicted with other plugins and had to be deleted. Others did not deliver on their promises. Some plugins were not updated by their makers and produced a compatibility risk for the websites.
Obviously some useful WordPress plugins come and go, others become so essential to running your website that you will run into serious trouble if you deactivate or delete them.
Here is my current list (2024):
| Plugin | Official plugin description | My description |
|---|---|---|
| Broken Link Checker | Checks your blog for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found. | Very handy. Runs occasionally in the background and checks all links. |
| CookieYes | GDPR Cookie Consent | The CookieYes GDPR Cookie Consent plugin will assist you in making your website GDPR (RGPD, DSVGO) compliant by adding a cookie banner to your site. | Pops up once a month to advise readers of my privacy policy. This is good web practice as well as to comply with regulations. |
| Elegant Themes Updater | Enables automatic updates for all Elegant Themes products | Automates updates to my theme. |
| NextGEN Gallery | NextGEN Gallery has been the industry’s standard WordPress gallery plugin since 2007 and continues to receive over 1.5 million new downloads per year. | One of my most important plugins. Handles all my thousands of pictures. Works generally fine. |
| Image Chooser Block for NextGEN Gallery | This image chooser offers a comfortable way to browse through hierarchical albums and galleries, insert NGG tags for albums and galleries, as well as NGG tags for one or more images and thumbnails at a time. | Supporting plugin making insertion of images into posts much easier. |
| TablePress | TablePress enables you to create and manage tables in your posts and pages, without having to write HTML code, and it adds valuable functions for your visitors. | Works fine if you want a nice table in your post. Like this one! |
| UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore | UpdraftPlus simplifies backups and restoration. It is the world’s highest ranking and most popular scheduled backup plugin, with over two million currently-active installs. Backup your files and database backups into the cloud and restore with a single click! | Makes a backup to my Google Drives. |
| W3 Total Cache | W3 Total Cache (W3TC) improves the SEO and user experience of your site by increasing website performance and reducing load times by leveraging features like content delivery network (CDN) integration and the latest best practices. | Optimising database by using caching. |
| Wordfence Security | Wordfence includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that were built from the ground up to protect WordPress. Wordfence is the most comprehensive WordPress security solution available. | An absolutely essential plugin (or type of plugin) to have on your site. You'll be shocked to see how many hackers it stops every day. |
| WP External Links | Manage all external & internal links on your site. Control icons, nofollow, noopener, ugc (User Generated Content), sponsored and if links open in new window or new tab. | I use it to add a small icon to external links on this website, and open all external links in a new tab. |
| WP-Optimize | WP-Optimize is a revolutionary, all-in-one WordPress performance plugin that cleans your database, compresses your images and caches your site. | I use it only to optimise the database by clearing unnecessary memory. Alright plugin. |
| WP-PageNavi | Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog | Makes navigation between posts easier. |
| WPS Hide Login | Protect your website by changing the login URL and preventing access to wp-login.php page and wp-admin directory while not logged-in | Hackers are a constant frustration. This plugin may help divert their efforts to other sites. |
| Yoast SEO | Since 2008 Yoast SEO has helped millions of websites worldwide to rank higher in search engines. This WordPress SEO plugin helps you with your search engine optimization. Are you not entirely convinced? Yoast SEO is the favorite WordPress SEO plugin of millions of users worldwide! | Helpful for search engine optimisation. Offers advice and streamlines my website. |
