We love WordPress here at Heart Internet. Not only is it easy to set up, it has thousands of plug-ins available to turn your basic WordPress installation into a tricked out wonder of a website.

We’ve found five plug-ins that are great for tweaking your WordPress, whether adding extra features, making it easier for people to use, or stopping hackers from sneaking in.

Maps Builder

Make it easy to add Google Maps to your website with Maps Builder. Add in markers, display places of interest around the area, and integrate Google Maps smoothly. The free version has Google Places API integration, a full-screen map builder, and unique marker icons, and if you upgrade to the Pro version, you can then add custom markers, show traffic and transit layers, and automatically populate markers on a map based on your own posts.

Login LockDown

Stop brute force attacks on your login panel by installing this plug-in. Set the number of failed login attempts in a certain amount of time, and Login LockDown will block the IP address range for a period of time. It also records the IP address and timestamp of every failed login attempt, making it easy for you to see where this traffic is coming from.

Quick and Easy FAQs

Adding FAQs can be really difficult when working with an existing site. You’re never sure exactly where to put it in, you’re not sure how to break up the text, and updating it can be even more annoying. Quick and Easy FAQs makes it convenient, using shortcodes and custom posts to create an easy to use system that also gives you plenty of variety. Set up a page where the answers toggle underneath the questions, filter them by group, or have them in a simple list style – it’s all possible with this plug-in.

WP Accessibility

WordPress does make it easy to add accessibility to your website, but there can always be more you could do. Whether adding large print and high contrast views of your theme, requiring you to add alt attributes to images, or including skip links to make it easier to navigate, WP Accessibility gives you plenty of features and also helps fix some accessibility issues WordPress has.

Floating Social Bar

Lightweight and powerful, Floating Social Bar lets you include “share” buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest in an elegant horizontal tool bar that follows the visitor down as they scroll down the page. Make it easy for your visitors to share your posts without impacting site download speed.

 

So those are five that we’ve found to be useful – what’s your favourite WordPress plug-in?