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Weekly Links Roundup – Forums, Video Players, Shortcodes, Security Plugins

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

While discussion forums don’t seem to be as popular as they once were, they can still be a great tool on websites where you have a lot of members and want to enable them to ask questions and interact with each other – which can be good for sustaining and growing your membership site. Learn how to add a forum to your site with bbPress.

Looking for a video player plugin to embed videos from YouTube or play locally-hosted videos? There are many out there, both free and commercial. Check out this review of 7 free WordPress video player plugins.

WordPress shortcodes can be great while you’re using them, but one big mess if you have a theme or are using a layout tool like Visual Composer and decide to switch. You’ll end up with a whole lot of useless shortcodes in your pages. Here’s a review of the commercial plugin Shortcode Cleaner that will help clean up all those unused shortcodes. If you use a tool like this, please be sure to backup your site beforehand!

Finally… if you’re considering paying for a security service for your site, here’s a comparison of Wordfence and Sucuri. There’s a lot of noise in the comments about this being a biased review by a Sucuri affiliate, but IMO that may not be true. I’d also strongly recommend Sucuri over Wordfence. If you’re hosting with us or using our Small Business or higher WordPress maintenance plans, you’re already taking advantage of Sucuri’s services.

 

Weekly Links Roundup – SEO Title, Membership Plugins, Security Plugins, Firewalls

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This week’s WordPress and web marketing links.

What’s the difference between the post title and the SEO title? Ever asked that question? Here’s a definitive explanation from Yoast.

If you’re thinking about creating a WordPress-based membership site, this is the post for you! Here’s a roundup of 15 of the top membership plugins to handle subscriptions, membership tiers and levels, payments, content restrictions and more. Personally I’m a big fan of MemberPress (which I use to run WP Minder’s membership program) – it should definitely be on this list too.

Wordfence has been my security plugin of choice for several years, but their recent redesign and changes in functionality leave a lot to be desired. Another good option is Sucuri – here’s a comparison of Wordfence and Sucuri.

While we’re on the topic of security, here’s a very fresh review of the top WordPress security plugins and services for 2018.

Let’s wander just a bit further down the security road and look at firewalls for WordPress. Best in class is Sucuri’s Web Application Firewall (which is included in WP Minder Small Business and higher plans). My experience with Sitelock support on behalf of clients was very poor and I cannot recommend them. If you want the most secure firewall for your business site and are not using managed WordPress hosting like our recommended partner WP Engine, Sucuri is the one to look at.