WordPress is one of the most popular blog content management systems (CMS) available today. This free and open source web publishing tool currently serves more than 60 million websites and blogs all around the world. What started in 2003 has now been rated as one of the top players in the world of online content management, and that is largely because of the valuable features this tool comes with.
The ever evolving WordPress is user and SEO friendly, it comes with options such as the ability to install themes that let users change the look of their websites, and there are literally thousands of high quality themes and widgets to choose from to help users personalize. WordPress also allows for easy import and export and has mobile apps for on the go management. But perhaps one of the most popular features that this tool has to offer is plugins.
The WordPress plugins directory houses thousands of different add-ons that make it possible to improve the abilities and quality of a WordPress blog. There are plugins for every objective, including plugins to help improve SEO optimization, to track post popularity, plugins for smoother import/export and the most popular type; plugins aimed to speed up your blog and for improved performance. Below are three awesome plugins that do just that.
W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache is the impressive WordPress plugin which has received 4 ½ out of 5 stars. It promises and delivers up to 10 times overall site performance. Pages load faster, downtime is reduced and quality is drastically improved. This is one must have plugin for your WordPress blog to improve its speed and overall performance.
WP Smush.it
WP Smush.it is a behind the scenes image optimization plugin. With this add on, users can convert GIFs to indexed PNGs, enhance JPEG compression and it shrinks the images so load time is faster and more accurate. This highly rated plugin has received 4 ½ out of 5 stars.
Instant Highlighter
Instant Highlighter is a really awesome social media share plugin for WordPress. With this plugin, visitors can highlight your content and quickly share it on over 100 social sharing sites including Facebook and Twitter.
Conclusion
WordPress is a flexible, powerful and scalable blog publishing system ripe for use by any webmaster, SEO or small business owner. You just need to know how best to use and manipulate the system so that it works for you and your intentions. A speedy, good looking and smart layout is what you want for your blog and what Google likes as well. Keep this in mind.
About the author
Missy Diaz writes for a few good UK based internet providers on the web.