Each month, we recap the best WordPress plugins that were added or updated within the last 30 days on the WordPress Plugin Directory. Here’s a list of our favorite new or recently-updated plugins for October 2020.
1. Search Exclude
With this plugin you can exclude any page, post or whatever from the WordPress search results by checking off the corresponding checkbox on post/page edit page.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Quickly exclude any page or post from the WordPress search results.
- Exclude via a metabox on each page or post, or using Quick Edit or Bulk Edit a post list screen.
- Note: this only works with core WordPress search, it has no effect on search engine results like Google, etc.
2. Favorites
Favorites is designed for end users and theme developers. It provides an easy-to-use API for adding favorite button functionality to any post type. The plugin can provide a way to save favorites, likes, bookmarks, or any other similar types of data with its customizable button text.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Works on pages, posts and custom post types.
- Outputs favorite list in a widget or a shortcode.
- Several shortcodes to work with (full documentation here on favoriteposts.com:
[favorite_button] – displays the favorite button [favorite_count] – the number of times the post has been favorited [user_favorites] – a list of the user’s favorite posts (add include_thumbnail=true for thumbnail images)
- Developer friendly with lots of template tags to work with.
- Works for all users, whether logged in or not.
- Has a Cookie Consent function so that users must agree to the cookie before they can use Favorites
3. Stop Auto Update Plugins & Themes Email Notification
Plugin Description: Install this plugin to stop sending notifications whenever an plugin or theme is automatically updated. All other WordPress email notification will be ON.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Adds 2 filters that turn off the notification emails when WordPress core auto updates themes and plugins (if you are using that function).
- Just 2 lines of code which can be easily added to your child theme’s functions.php or a custom functions plugin.
4. WP Sitemaps Config (This Month’s Simple But Useful Plugin)
Since WordPress 5.5, an XML sitemaps functionality is provided in the WordPress core. These sitemaps let search engine crawlers find all URLs quickly and comprehensively. But there is not any configuration interface. This plugin provides an options page for all XML sitemaps generated by the WordPress core.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Adds an XML Sitemaps page to Settings
- Disable sitemaps of various post types, taxonomies, users, etc.
5. WebFacing – Disk Usage from cPanel® on Dashboard & in Site Health
Shows disk usage information, recommendations and alerts in your admin Dashboard Right Now widget and on Site Health panels. Also includes a Site Health test for HTTPS only (http should not be allowed, but forwarded to https) with information about the issue, recommendation and actions.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Nice addition to the Site Health area from cPanel information.
- Does not require any cPanel login information.
- Shows storage space consumed by any email boxes you have set up as well as WordPress uploads.
6. Date Time Field Add-on For Gravity Form(This Month’s Gravity Forms Add-on)
A date-time add-on for Gravity Forms with custom date time format. This plugin will add new type of field under Advanced Fields as Date-Time. Simply drag Date-Time field into the form. You can also add custom date time format under General tab.
Nathan’s Notes:
- A nice upgrade from the standard date and time picker included in Gravity Forms
- UI works well, even on mobile.
7. Sequential Order Numbers for WooCommerce (This Month’s Featured WooCommerce Add-on)
Sequential Order Numbers for WooCommerce – Plugin to change WooCommerce order number. Create your own order number type.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Some interesting options if you need to customize WooCommerce order numbers, which are never sequential.
- Start at a single number and make them sequential or add rules and numbering conventions that fit your needs.
- Note, this plugin is a little spammy with its own menu item and plenty of ads
8. Block Visibility (This Month’s Featured Gutenberg/WordPress Block)
Block Visibility allows you to dynamically control which blocks are visible on your website and who can see them. Built for the new Block Editor, this plugin was designed to work with any WordPress block. This includes blocks natively provided by WordPress as well as third-party blocks, such as those by WooCommerce, Gutenberg Blocks and CoBlocks.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Easily control the visibility of blocks on the front end.
- Toggle visibility based on login status or user role
9. Carbon Copy
Are you ready to increase your productivity? This free WordPress plugin will allow you to quickly and conveniently copy your pages, posts, menus, widgets and even your custom post types. You can quickly copy, bulk copy and copy straight to new drafts.
Nathan’s Notes:
- An immensely powerful free plugin for duplicating posts, pages, widgets and menus
- Settings page allows you to control what is copyable, how and where
- Copy page and posts from the post list, front end admin bar, and bulk edit.
- Select elements to copy including featured image, password, and attachments.
- Completely (and surprisingly) ad and upgrade free.
10. WhoFramed
This plugin will magically make any iframe embeds responsive.
Nathan’s Notes:
- If you’ve ever struggled with making an embedded video or other iframed content fill its container, this plugin is a quick fix.
- Works for YouTube and Vimeo videos, embedded content from other sites, etc.
- No settings, just install and activate
11. Admin Notices Manager
Use the Admin Notices Manager plugin to better manage your website’s admin notices, so you can read them at your own convenience and not miss any important WordPress core and developer messages.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Moves all of those annoying WP Admin notifications into a single Admin Bar menu item with a notification bubble
- Dismiss notices individually from within the new dropdown menu
12. DebugPress
Nathan’s Notes:
- WordPress 5.4 added larger image sizes and limited images to 2048px by
- default
- This plugin adds a Settings option to disable core image sizes (very helpful)
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
define('SAVEQUERIES', true);
Check out the entire series of monthly WordPress Plugin Roundup posts here & register for the next Plugin Roundup webinar here.
