Updated April 17, 2023
Definition of Joomla Plugins
Joomla Plugins empowers developers to enrich features in their Websites and enhance the end-user experiences. These add-on software provides extra facilities that are not part of the original product to meet any weird requirements of users.
Joomla Plugins doesn’t alter the basic fabric of the original product and they are easy to install/maintain. Most of the plugins are free and they can be downloaded from official site and used as it is. Joomla also allows customized development of new plugins to overcome any gaps in any functionalities it offers, without compromising on security and safety features.
What is Joomla Plugins?
Plugin is a software code that performs a functionality which is not an out-of-the-box feature in Joomla. This can also be called as extension to the existing product. These plugins are triggered upon an occurrence of an event and multiple plugins associated with an event will get executed sequentially in a pre-defined order.
These plugins may have been developed by Joomla or by third part developers or custom developed by end-users. These plugins can be disabled if it consumes more compute resources impacting performances.
How Plugins are grouped?
Normally Plugins are grouped under the respective events they serve. There are exclusive plugins grouped under search operation, smart search operation, Profile Management, System resources Management, Authentication Management and User Management functions.
Top 12 Joomla Plugins
Let us discuss the top Joomla plugins.
1. EFSEO (Easy Frontend Search Engine Optimization)
This extension improves various attributes of Websites like look and feel, navigation, Quality of the content, User experience, etc., so as to get listed in the top of search engine results. This plugin manages website’s metadata like title, keywords, description, and robots effectively to meet the standards set by the search engines.
This plugin increases the visibility of websites by target groups, improves the hit ratio for the site, and increases revenue and brand value.
2. Google Analytics Plugin
Google Analytics provides good data points on the website traffic and the list of other portals linking this site. This statistics, in case of lower traffic and visibility, drive an organization to undertake improvements. Before configuring this plugin, it is mandatory to get signed up Google.
Post sign up with Google, Analytics tracking can be enabled through several extensions available exclusively for this. If this extension option impacts the performance, Joomla template can be directly edited in online and Analytics option can be enabled.
3. JCH Optimize
Page loading time is an important parameter in Website operations. If the time taken to load a web page is low, it will sustain the user’s interest in the website and enhance the user experience or else it will drive users out and result in loss.
The time to load a page is reduced considerably by compressing HTML files, minimizing the Scripts, delaying the script loading to the end, and few more optimization. This plugin can be installed directly into the website and with a few configuration setting this optimizer can be activated. The pages are automatically optimized by JCH Optimize.
4. AcyMailing
This plugin facilitates sending mails to the E-mail ids collected from users while browsing the website. This mailing software has many features and it helps the end-users to exploit the marketing potential fully. The configuration in this plugin involves enabling the option to accumulate E-mail ids from users during registration and linking SMTP servers with the Organization’s domain id.
5. EasyBlog
Blogging is enabled in Joomla by this extension. It makes Joomla a vibrant blogging tool too. Notifications, third-party integration, link with social media sites, team collaboration are the major components in EasyBlog extension.
6. Akeeba Backup
A backup of the configuration, content, and executable files of the site, ensures the website is restored fully whenever needed. Administrators doesn’t have to worry about the site being hacked or critical file is deleted accidentally, the operation can be brought back with help of this backup. It can be easily configured and the operations are simple. It’s mandatory that every site should have this plugin before it is rolled out.
7. YT Shortcode
It offers UI design capabilities that enable developers to create impressive pages by including charts, forms, gallery, maps without any coding activity. With several built-in short codes, developers can create a complex website easily and maintain it with little effort. It supports many software components such as Hikashop, K2, VirtueMart, etc.,
8. OSMap
Normally Crawler tracks only the page it visits and the pages linked to it. But it doesn’t keep track of the other pages available in the site that are not crawled. OSMap plugin draws a complete sitemap and make it visible to the search engine crawler for effective search operation.
9. AJAX Live Search
This universal search plugin enables design of high-speed search operations with attractive 3D animations and display of images in the results. It offers variety of new features which no simple search facility offers. Ajax supports many third-party components such as Community Builder, EasySocial, etc.,
10. K2 Publishing
If a website focuses more on news, publications, media contents then one should use this K2 Publishing extension in their web design. This add-on simplifies processing of video, images, contents, blogs, and reviews and present them in their website in an elegant way.
11. JFBConnect
It’s a plugin that provides interfacing with Facebook seamlessly. Users can gain access to the website through Facebook and a separate login to a website isn’t required. This extension offers great opportunities by connecting to large people through the friends of the users registered. Access to their comments provides rich inputs for improvisations. Traffic to the website can be increased considerably by enabling this add-on.
12. SP Page Builder
With this plugin building, a web page has become a child’s play. Websites can be built using drag and drop method easily and the site can be rolled out in a quickest possible time. No coding is needed in building these type of web pages and one does not have to lean on content creator or developer in creating a web page.
Conclusion
Plugins discussed above adds extra color and character to Joomla tool and that makes it to take on other CMS tool like WordPress, Drupal, and Magento and gain user traction considerably.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to Joomla Plugins. Here we discuss the Definition, What is Joomla Plugins? How Plugins are grouped? for better understanding. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
