4 simple but essential WordPress plugins

In the seemingly endless WordPress plugin world, lightweight plugins like these can easily be forgotten. But there’s nothing wrong with simple tools–in fact, sometimes they’re exactly what you need!

Duplicate Post

Like all the plugins on this list it performs exactly as the name indicates–it duplicates posts (pages, etc). If you use custom formatting for posts and pages, a plugin like Duplicate Post can be a real timesaver. Additionally, if you regularly repost/rehash/refresh older content on your site, Duplicate Post can do a lot of the grunt work for you. Copy a post exactly or insert it into a new draft.

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WP Mobile Detect

This plugin is a deceptively powerful design tool: it creates shortcodes you can use to control how elements display if a user is on mobile or desktop. If you have a cool embedded sign up form for your newsletter that looks excellent on desktop, but struggles to render properly on mobile devices, simply hide it behind the following tag:

[ notdevice ] Your desktop only content here. [/ notdevice ]

When creating a mobile alternative to display, just use this tag:

[ device ] Your device only content here. [ /device ]

It’s that easy!

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Sticky Widget

Need a widget to follow the user as they scroll up and down your page? Sticky Widget is your answer. To be honest, a vanilla install of this one may not work perfectly with your theme of choice straight away. If the widget appears to “jump” or conflicts with another floating element, it may require a bit of coding to fix. But, if this is a feature you need, it’s the best plugin for the job.

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WP Missed Schedule

Easily the simplest plugin on this list, but if you ever schedule posts to publish at a later date on your blog you need this one. Unfortunately even as of 2015, there’s an ongoing error that causes scheduled WordPress posts to occasionally be “missed” by the publish action. The result is a post caught in limbo. An out of the box copy of WordPress recognizes this issue–if this happens to a post you scheduled it will display with a “Missed Schedule” notation next to it. However, this does nothing to fix the problem. Install and activate WP Missed Schedule and you’re all set.

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Know of any other simple, but essential WordPress plugins? Let me know in the comments!