Want the Best WordPress Site? 52 Resources for Now and Later

/ Beginner, Intermediate, Resources / By Susanna

Here are 52 tools, plugins, and other resources to help you create and improve the WordPress site for your business.

Note: Some of these links are affiliate links, which means if you click and purchase, I receive a small commission. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and these commissions help me to keep providing free information about building a WordPress site.

Domain Name Registration and Hosting

Before you can have a website, you need a domain name, and a place to host the site. Many people start with shared hosting, which is inexpensive, but plan to move up to managed hosting once you have some revenue. (Or, if you’re starting a solopreneur business, start with managed hosting.)

Domain Name registration with Namecheap
Shared WordPress hosting with Siteground (excellent for starting bloggers and freelancers)
Managed WordPress hosting with WPEngine (better for freelancers and solopreneurs)

Downloading and Installing WordPress

If you’re using shared hosting from Siteground, or other popular shared hosts, you’ll be able to use one of the WordPress auto-installers through the cPanel. If you have to set it up manually, though, you’ll want these.

Download the latest version of WordPress
Filezilla, a free FTP program

WordPress Themes

My three go-to theme designers. . .

Studio Press, creators of the highly rated Genesis Framework and a wide variety of child themes
Elegant Themes, creators of “amazingly beautiful” themes for WordPress. For a modest annual fee you can use all of their themes.
Astra Theme, blazing fast and highly rated.
Free themes from WordPress.org.

WordPress Plugins

Every site has different plugin needs, but these are the ones I use most often. There are four I install on every site – I’ve denoted these with an asterisk(*).

*All in One WP Security to improve your website’s safety and security. You can never make it completely hacker proof, but installing this plugin is one of the things you can do to avoid those opportunistic hacks
*WP-DB Manager for backups and database management
Updraft Plus for backups
*Yoast SEO for help with search engine optimization and keywords
Google Analytics for WordPress so you know where you stand
If you’re using a StudioPress theme, add the Genesis Responsive Slider to dress up your home page
Make it easy for visitors to share your best stuff with Social Warfare
For a dedicated membership site plugin check out Wishlist Member
*WPForms
Ninja Forms
Contact Form 7
Smush, for image compression and optimization

WordPress Books and Tutorials

Help with Writing

There are tons of writing resources available. These are the ones that have helped me the most.

Help with Social Media

CoSchedule, the all-around best editorial calendar, task list, and social media automation tool
Nelio Content (CoSchedule’s less expensive cousin)
Hootsuite, to manage all your social media accounts in one place
Meet Edgar, for social media automation

Help with Productivity

Trello, for the best in kanban-style project management
Milanote, the best for professional creatives
TeamworkPM if you prefer a more traditional style of project manager
Toggl, to keep track of billable time
Google Drive, which includes documents, spreadsheets, drawings, forms, and more. I’d be lost without it! It makes collaborating on documents absolutely painless.
Evernote, for keeping everything in one place
Slack, for fast and easy group communications, ideal for teams
AppSumo, for heavily reduced (and sometimes free) prices on helpful apps and programs
Google Analytics, for your web stats

Help with Images

Pixabay, free, royalty-free images you can use on your WordPress site
Canva, online tools to help you create beautiful images for sharing on your site and social media
iStock, royalty-free images at reasonable prices

Do you have other resources you like? Share them in the comments below.

This post was updated on February 4, 2021.

Pat White

Dear Susanna,

Your knowledge and expertise in helping me develop my website has been invaluable. My technology skills and confidence have grown a great deal with your help. But I am sure I will need further guidance, and I will look to you for direction again.

As you know, I am a “do-it-yourselfer”, so for those who want to learn how to get started and to have direct input into the process, you offer just the right amount of direction.

I am grateful for your patience in the overwhelming projects of building my two websites (Patricia White Copywriting and Healthy Avatar), and for your willingness to lead me through all the steps from beginning to end.

Your prices are so reasonable for the guidance and amount of setup you
do!

Michelle Detlaff

I wish they would let me add more attributes instead of only 3. They all apply to you Susanna. I am so grateful to work with you. Blogging and copywriting are so important to my business and I don’t always have the time to do these tasks myself. The best part about working with you is that I KNOW you will get job done right with very few edits (if any).

I’m very satisfied with the great results you’ve provided. I consider you an expert in your field and you are extremely creative and personable. Your writing carries a sense of humor which I appreciate (and my clients appreciate because they have also commented on it)

Keep up the good work.

Thank you,

Shea McNaughton

Updated April 27, 2020

Thanks a million, Susanna, for helping me out. This has gone so much smoother than previous web builds, thanks to you!

Warmest regards,

Shea

I was in the process of trying to launch a new business, and I had known for months that I would need a new website. I had once built a blog from scratch and thought how hard could it be to build a website.

WELL. Maybe it’s not impossible, but it was technical enough that I found out quickly that it would take more time to get it up and running than I wanted to spend. A LOT more time.

I had discovered Susanna’s services in the course of learning my new business, and so I called on her to help me out. She took the reins and built a fantastic website, leaving me to the business of creating my business. Never having built a website, I knew NOTHING about it and constantly asked her opinion. Being the pro, her opinion was extremely valuable, and I have a beautiful website to show for it.

After the site was finished, Susanna handed the reins back to me with the assurance that she would be available for questions should I have any (which I did). Her website, WPBuildingBlocks.com fills in the blanks for me as I move forward with my business and continue to build my site with content.

Susanna took a huge load off my mind when she built my site. I had so much going on that I just couldn’t spare the time to build it myself. Not only that, her prices were completely reasonable. I had done the research with other design companies and had resigned myself to limping along with an “eventual website” in mind. But Susanna rescued me with her skill and sheer know-how when it comes to building a professional website. She is FANTASTIC.

Thanks so much, Susanna, I will recommend you to anyone and everyone who needs a webmaster / designer / builder.

Excellent WordPress Guru

“She is an excellent WordPress guru/ instructor and web designer.”

– Savia Muhammad
Thornton Reformer Gazette

I Move Pilates

Susanna worked with my marketing person to help us move my unhosted Pilates website over to a host she recommended, and get me up and running with a brand new theme. All the content, pictures and layout transferred over without a hitch thanks to her WordPress wizardry! And, she did this on a very tight deadline.

Doak Ewing

Susanna took the weight off my shoulders transferring content from my 20-year-old website to a clean, modern WordPress version. She gave patient support and encouragement throughout. She was always available to answer questions and I know if I stumble, she’ll be there to help me get up. I highly recommend Susanna to anyone needing help with WordPress!

– Doak Ewing, Naperville, Illinois

A Good Thing

As for the group, I’ve joined, and let’s face it, anything with Susanna Perkins is a good thing.

– Joe Burnham

Erlinda Tom

Susanna is very professional, her response to my question ASAP reflects her quick action and good communication skills towards her clients. ..

Panama Relocation Tours

Susanna Perkins, of WordPress Building Blocks, helped to redesign my web site www.PanamaRelocationTours.com. This is a wordpress web site which had the same look for more than 3 years so it was time for a facelift.

Susanna helped me identify a good word press theme, installed it and got it all configured. She has a keen eye for the little details that make a site look more professional and run more efficiently.

Good communications are essential during a web site project, whether it is a new design or a rebuild. This is the only way the “vision” for the site can come together. Susanna took time to understand what I wanted to accomplish with the site and made it happen seamlessly. She kept me informed via email during every phase of the redesign process. She made excellent recommendations for plugins which made the site look and work better.

I am very pleased with the results and with Susanna Perkins. My redesign came in on time and on budget. I would highly recommend her to anyone who needs a web site built or redesigned. She knows what she’s doing!

Jackie Lange
PanamaRelocationTours.com

Anne McDonald

Susanna is a great teacher. Her knowledge of building and using websites for professional and personal use is extensive, and she shares her expertise willingly. I am so grateful for her presence on this forum. Thank you, Susanna

Trent Daly

Thank you so much for all your help in building my first website. Thank you also for your patience and persistence in dealing with a novice such as myself.

It’s been an enjoyable learning experience and I appreciate all your time, effort and expertise in helping me to bring my site to life. You truly are an expert when it comes to WordPress and websites and nothing was ever too difficult.

I would highly recommend your services to others and would not hesitate to use your services again.

Many thanks.

Deb Svanefelt

Susanna has been an awesome support for designing 3 websites for me – she has Superpowers when it comes to knowing her way around WordPress – or finding her way in new areas with flexibility and creativity. She’s been incredibly patient with getting answers to my many questions, has been cheerful and calm [even when I’ve been tech-anxious – gotta love that in a person!]

Her work is fantastic – she thinks of stuff I have no idea about, and adds it in for me. I trust her work and skills implicitly, and I’ll continue to use her skills, and recommend her to other friends and colleagues. She’s just the best – like I said, the Super Woman of website designs!! 🙂 🙂

Thank You for the Great Work!

Susanna,

Thank you for the great work updating EngineerYourCopy.com!

You helped me wade through dozens of WordPress theme options and choose the right one for my website. Then, you took care of all the technology details – the hosting, the WordPress databases and the right plugins.

As somebody who has managed multi-million-dollar IT projects, your project management skills were excellent. From your Trello board to how you kept the project moving forward despite obstacles, I appreciated your professionalism.

I sincerely appreciated your Zoom walk-through of the updated site. You showed extensive WordPress knowledge, along with knowledge of brand-new features of the theme and Genesis framework. And it helped me understand the new Genesis framework and very different block-based page structure.

I can confidently recommend you to anyone who needs to update their WordPress website or build one from scratch… in fact, I expect we’ll be working together on another site update soon!

– KATrimels

Roseanne Beers

I first checked Susanna out because she and I were both AWAI members and had both taken a class on Money Making Websites. When I saw her website, I was really impressed. Then I saw another website she had designed and loved it too, so I scheduled a consultation with her to talk about helping me.

Susanna is extremely knowledgeable about the products she recommends and CSS coding. And, she was very patient with me regarding my lack of technical background and my delays getting information to her because of my lack of understanding how to make decisions she needed me to make, and ultimately because of unexpected health issues that stopped me in my tracks. She was generous in understanding what I was going through and a resulting change in our plans.

Shawn Vincent

Here’s the deal with Susanna: she gets it.

As a business owner, the thing I value most about Susanna is that she manages up, helping me line up the resources I need for her to do the job. As a result, work gets done quickly, with a minimum effort from me.

Persistence and Attention to Detail. . .

That’s one of the MANY things I like about working with you: persistence, attention to detail, desire to make a positive difference.

Wait! That’s three things instead of one…

Well, I can’t put the genie back in the bottle!

SO, please accept my heartfelt thanks for solving the HTTPS issue … and all the other “pesky” ones that led to project successes!!

– Rod Harkins

Sue Waterworth

Susanna did a great job working on some websites for me. She was fast and efficient, and very easy to work with. The job went without a hitch, and was well-priced. I would highly recommend her for any website or writing work.

Misty S.

Susanna is extremely knowledgeable about the WordPress platform and has sharp insight into which themes to use. Her step-by-step instructions really make setting up a WordPress site fast and painless.

I appreciated her friendly attitude and willingness to help me quickly find a theme I like. She went above and beyond what I expected.

Her Wordpress Building Blocks system is easy to understand and follow. I highly recommend her!

Aisha Ashraf

I contracted Susanna to move my site to a self-hosted platform. Right from the start she made herself available on various mediums to discuss my requirements and help me understand the process. Her advice was clear and precise; with step-by-step instructions that never failed to deliver.

Her product knowledge is excellent in a field where updates are a constant and her calm, humorous approach was a real help when my nerves kicked in or indecision struck.

I’d work with her again in a heartbeat and have no qualms in recommending her to friends and colleagues (in fact I’ve already done just that!)

Murray Landa, B.A., LL.B.

Susanna saved me enormous amounts of time and aggravation. She answered all questions promptly and kept the project moving forward. I highly recommend her.