WordPress Plugins for the Genesis Framework by StudioPress

In one of my last posts, I published a list of the top free WordPress plugins we use that are compatible with most WordPress themes.

At Bourn Creative, we now almost exclusively develop all of our custom WordPress projects on top of the Genesis Framework by StudioPress, and there a few Genesis-exclusive WordPress plugins we use when creating our custom themes.

Combine the plugins from both lists that you need, along with a Genesis based theme, and you can create a very powerful WordPress site for your business.

WordPress Plugins for the Genesis Framework

1. Genesis Simple Edits
   This is my number one plugin that goes on almost every Genesis site. Use this plugin to edit the footer credits text and the blog post author info & blog post meta lines. You can also edit this info using a custom filter in your functions.php file, but this plugin is a lot easier.
2. SEO Data Transporter
   With Genesis you don’t need an SEO plugin and this plugin helps with transferring your existing SEO data into a form that can be used with Genesis.
3. Genesis Slider
   This a very robust content/image slider plugin that is added to a widgeted are of a theme. In the past, some of the StudioPress themes required a similar third party plugin to look like the demos, so I think this was plugin was developed to bring full control inside StudioPress.
4. Genesis Simple Sidebars
   This plugin allows you to create multiple sidebars and assign them on each post, page, category, or tag page. This one is great for displaying one sidebar on your main WordPress pages and a different sidebar on your blog.
5. Genesis Simple Menus
   Similar to Simple Sidebars, this plugin allows you to create multiple secondary navigation menus and assign them on different pages, posts, etc.
6. Social Profiles Widget
   Normally we design and program custom social media icons into our themes, but this plugin allows for non-programmers to quickly add social media icons via a widget to their WordPress site.
7. Genesis Simple Comments
   I usually write a custom filter to change the output of the comments section, but for those not quite that adventurous, this plugin can help.

StudioPress also has several more Genesis exclusive plugins listed on their site under the resources tab. There are even a quite a few more Genesis-specific plugins listed in the WordPress plugin repository … I just haven’t had the chance or the need to try them out.

Remember: Only use the plugins you need and deactivate and uninstall any you are not using. Always make sure you backup your site before installing new plugins.

What do you think? Did I miss one? Do you have any other plug-ins that you’d add to this list? Let me know … I’m always looking for new resources!