You Might Not Need That WordPress Plugin

Create custom post type

You can easily define Custom Post Types without the need of a plugin. Simply add this code to your functions.php file located in your theme folder to create a custom post type.

WordPress Codex Reference Copy Code

if ( ! function_exists('register_books') ) { // Register our post type function register_books() { // Set label names for the WP backend UI $labels = array( 'name' => _x( 'Books', 'Post Type General Name', 'text_domain' ), 'singular_name' => _x( 'Book', 'Post Type Singular Name', 'text_domain' ), 'menu_name' => __( 'Books', 'text_domain' ), 'parent_item_colon' => __( 'Parent Book', 'text_domain' ), 'all_items' => __( 'All Books', 'text_domain' ), 'view_item' => __( 'View Book', 'text_domain' ), 'add_new_item' => __( 'Add New Book', 'text_domain' ), 'add_new' => __( 'Add New', 'text_domain' ), 'edit_item' => __( 'Edit Book', 'text_domain' ), 'update_item' => __( 'Update Book', 'text_domain' ), 'search_items' => __( 'Search Book', 'text_domain' ), 'not_found' => __( 'Not Found', 'text_domain' ), 'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'Not found in Trash', 'text_domain' ) ); // Set post type options $args = array( 'label' => __( 'books', 'text_domain' ), 'description' => __( 'My list of books', 'text_domain' ), 'labels' => $labels, 'supports' => array( 'title', 'editor', 'excerpt', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'comments', 'revisions', 'custom-fields', ), 'taxonomies' => array( 'category' ), 'hierarchical' => false, 'public' => true, 'show_ui' => true, 'show_in_menu' => true, 'menu_position' => 5, 'menu_icon' => 'dashicons-book', 'show_in_admin_bar' => true, 'show_in_nav_menus' => true, 'can_export' => true, 'has_archive' => true, 'exclude_from_search' => false, 'publicly_queryable' => true, 'capability_type' => 'post' ); register_post_type( 'books', $args ); } add_action( 'init', 'register_books', 0 ); }

Display related posts

You can show related posts by dropping this snippet into your functions.php file located in your theme folder.

It works by showing posts that have the same tag as the current post you're viewing.

To display the related posts on your post page you need to locate your single post template (often single.php) and then enter the following snippet: <?php related_posts() ?> where you would like the related posts to show.

Insipred by JointsWP Copy Code

function related_posts() { global $post; $tags = wp_get_post_tags( $post->ID ); if($tags) { foreach( $tags as $tag ) { $tag_arr .= $tag->slug . ','; } $args = array( 'tag' => $tag_arr, 'numberposts' => 3, // Set the amount of posts you wish to display 'post__not_in' => array($post->ID) ); $related_posts = get_posts( $args ); if($related_posts) { echo '<h4>Related Posts</h4>'; echo '<ul class="related-posts">'; foreach ( $related_posts as $post ) : setup_postdata( $post ); ?> <li class="related_post"> <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"> <?php the_title(); ?> </a> </li> <?php endforeach; </ul> <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?> } } }

Generate sitemap.xml

You can automatically auto generate an XML sitemap for your website. A sitemap is important for search engines and SEO.

Add the below snippet to your functions.php file in your theme folder and every time you edit or add a new post or page a new sitemap.xml file will be generated in the root folder of your website for crawlers to access and index your site structure.

Be sure to add custom post types to the 'post_type' arguments.

Insipred by emrahgunduz.com Copy Code

add_action('publish_post', 'create_sitemap'); add_action('publish_page', 'create_sitemap'); function create_sitemap() { $sitemap_posts = get_posts(array( 'numberposts' => -1, 'orderby' => 'modified', 'post_type' => array('post','page'), // Add custom post types here 'order' => 'DESC' )); $sitemap = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'; $sitemap .= '<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">'; foreach($sitemap_posts as $post) { setup_postdata($post); $postdate = explode(" ", $post->post_modified); 	$sitemap .= '<url>'. '<loc>'. get_permalink($post->ID) .'</loc>'. '<lastmod>'. $postdate[0] .'</lastmod>'. '<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>'. '</url>'; } $sitemap .= '</urlset>'; $fp = fopen(ABSPATH . "sitemap.xml", 'w'); fwrite($fp, $sitemap); fclose($fp); }

Custom login page logo

Set your own custom logo on the WordPress login page. Upload your logo somewhere in your theme folder and reference it in the below code. Paste this code into your functions.php file located in your theme folder.

Depending on the shape and size of your logo adjust the height and background size until it looks good.

WordPress Codex Reference Copy Code

function my_login_logo() { ?> <style type="text/css"> #login h1 a, .login h1 a { background-image: url(<?php echo get_stylesheet_directory_uri(); ?>/images/site-login-logo.png); margin-bottom: 0; background-size: 180px; height: 180px; width: 100%; } </style> <?php } add_action( 'login_enqueue_scripts', 'my_login_logo' );

Create Shortcode

You can create your own shortcodes without the need of a plugin. These shortcodes can be used in pages and posts like so: [person name="John Smith" image="/images/people/john-smith.jpg" size="large"]

Add this code in your functions.php file located in your theme folder.

WordPress Codex Reference Copy Code

// Return a simple string // [foobar] function foobar_func( $atts ) { return "foo and bar"; } add_shortcode( 'foobar', 'foobar_func' ); // Return a string with attributes // [foobar foo="HelloWorld"] function foobar_func( $atts ) { $a = shortcode_atts( array( 'foo' => 'Default value here if no value passed to parameter', ), $atts ); return "foo = {$a['foo']}"; // foo = HelloWorld } add_shortcode( 'foobar_atts', 'foobar_func' ); // Using the example above return some HTML on to the page/post including the parameters defined in the shortcode // [person name="John Smith" image="/wp-content/themes/mytheme/images/people/john-smith.jpg" size="large"] function person_shortcode($atts) { $person = shortcode_atts( array( 'name' => '', 'image' => '/wp-content/themes/mytheme/images/people/no-image.jpg', 'size' => 'large' ), $atts ); return "<div class='person'><h3>{$person['name']}</h3><img src='{$person['image']}' alt='{$person['name']}' class='{$person['size']}'/></div>"; } add_shortcode('person', 'person_shortcode');

Add Google Analytics Snippet

You can do this by directly editing and adding the snippet into your header.php file. However, it is generally advised not to touch the header.php file directly but instead hook into the head of your site with the wp_head hook and insert the snippet via your functions.php file in your theme folder.

Copy Code

function google_analytics() { ?> // Paste your own Google Analytics snippet below <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXXX-XX', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> <?php } add_action( 'wp_head', 'google_analytics', 10 );

301 Redirects

You can add 301 redirects directly into your .htaccess file located in the root of your website.

Below is a simple example to redirect one page to another. There are many possible redirects you may want to implement, such as redirects using regex, these are all possible you just need to do a little research on how to implement it into your .htaccess file. You should not need a plugin create redirects.

Copy Code

Redirect 301 /old-page /new-page

Add custom CSS and JS

You don't need a plugin to add your own custom CSS or JS. Create your CSS and JS files in your theme folder and you can reference and enqueue them in your functions.php file located in your theme folder.

Enqueue CSS WordPress Codex Reference Enqueue JS WordPress Codex Reference Copy Code

// Enqueue CSS and JS files function custom_css() { // Enqueue a custom CSS file wp_enqueue_style('custom-css', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/css/custom.css'); } add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'custom_css'); function custom_js() { // Enqueue a custom JS file with jQuery as a dependency wp_enqueue_script('custom-js', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/js/custom.js', array('jquery'), false, false); } add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'custom_js');

Note: JS files that have jQuery as a dependency need to be wrapped in the following function so you do not get a TypeError: $ is undefined error.

(function($) { // Your JavaScript/jQuery here })( jQuery );

Implement SSL/HTTPS

When you have your SSL certificate connected to your domain you can have SSL/HTTPS set up in a few simple steps.

Change all urls to https in Settings » General in the WP admin, make sure both WordPress Address and Site Address have https:// at the start of the URL.

Copy Code

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80 RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.yoursite.com/$1 [R,L] </IfModule>

To get SSL and HTTPS working on a WordPress multi-site admin area or login pages, you need to add the following code into your wp-config.php file:

define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);

Enable GZIP Compression

You don't need a plugin to enable GZIP compression. Just paste the below snippet into your .htaccess file located in the root of your website.

WordPress Codex Reference Copy Code

<IfModule mod_deflate.c> # Insert filters AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-php AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-fastphp AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml # Drop problematic browsers BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html # Make sure proxies don't deliver the wrong content Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary </IfModule>