When building new WordPress sites as a Front-End Web Developer, I use my default mobile-ready WordPress Theme which includes Gutenberg styles and based on Bootstrap 4.x framework – which I might share in the future.
I also use a set of WordPress plugins that helps me a lot with front-end web development, SEO and optimization.
I’ve been using these for years without problems, just make sure that everything is updated.
Advanced Custom Fields
URL: https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/
I love using this especially if the layout you are working on is a bit complicated, it makes updates easier for the user/client while ensuring that the layout wont break.
Custom Post Type UI
url: https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/
Easiest way to add custom post types, I’ve had a client before that has custom posts hardcoded in their (old) theme’s functions.php, problem was it had issues when WordPress was upgraded, so I had to re-created their website.
Regenerate Thumbnails
url: https://wordpress.org/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/
Very useful during development, when adding/editing thumbnail sizes.
After updating the thumbnail sizes in functions.php, regenerate thumbnails.
Contact Form 7
url: https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/
Honestly, I love using Gravity Forms because of the complexity it offers, but since it’s not free and if I only need a simple form, I use this because It’s easier to style.
Yoast SEO
URL: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
I’ve found this better than others because of:
- Readability check
- Google, Facebook and Twitter previews
- Traffic Lights (Love This!)
- Bulk meta title and description editing
WordFence
url: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/
Out of all security plugins that I’ve used, this is the best, it detects malware that some other plugins can’t!
There’s also scheduled scanning w/ report, checks plugins if they are not updated anymore, let’s you know which IP & countries are blocked and also brute force protection.
EWWW Image Optimizer
URL: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer/
I love using this because it serves images as webp which makes your pagespeed score better, but some on some servers – I’ve had an experience with some dedicated servers – that has xx error though, so I use these instead:
Smush
url: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-smushit/
Cloudinary
url: https://wordpress.org/plugins/cloudinary-image-management-and-manipulation-in-the-cloud-cdn/
What I love about this is you can use their CDN for free, see pricing here https://cloudinary.com/pricing.
If you want more tried and tested caching and optimization plugins, I will be creating a new post for it.