10 Free WordPress Plugins To Improve SEO

Free wordpress plugins to improve SEO and helps you to get more traffic from major search engines. These free wordpress plugins are useful and easy to use.

 

SEO is essential for any blog or websites.  SEO depends on lots of factors but the most important  is the quality of content and the keywords which is used to describe your whole content. Everyone knows the basic concept of SEO but still it is not enough to stay on top. It’s important to stay on top in search results to  get more traffic from search engines.  This WordPress plugins helps you to improve search engine optimization so you can move up in major search engines.

 

Free WordPress Plugins To Improve SEO

Here are some free wordpress plugins to improve SEO and helps you to get more traffic from search results. Here I described features of each and every SEO wordpress plugins so you can easily pick this plugins for your website. Enjoy!

WordPress SEO by Yoast

WordPress SEO by yoast is a better plugin available for improving SEO. It is easy to use and very user-friendly plugin. Your only goal is to write useful posts with quality content and leave SEO to this plugin.
Features of WordPress SEO by Yoast:

• You can write better content using this plugin.
• Page Analysis
• Technical wordpress search engine optimization.
• XML Sitemap
• Breadcrumbs
• RSS Optimization

All in one SEO pack

All in One SEO Pack is a WordPress SEO plugin to automatically optimize your WordPress blog for search Engines such as Google.
Features of All in One SEO Pack:

• XML Sitemap support – submit your sitemap to Google and Bing and improve your SEO
• Google Analytics support
• Advanced Canonical URLs
• ONLY plugin to provide SEO Integration for WP e-Commerce sites
• Automatically optimizes your titles for Google and other search engines
• Nonce Security built into All in One SEO Pack

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache improves the user experience of your site by increasing server performance, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration.
Features of W3 Total Cache:

• At least 10x improvement in overall site performance
• Compatible with shared hosting, virtual private / dedicated servers and dedicated servers / clusters
• Transparent content delivery network (CDN) management with Media Library, theme files and WordPress itself
• Improved web server performance; sustain high traffic periods
• Reduced page load time: increased visitor time on site; visitors view more pages

 Google Sitemap

Google Sitemap plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs.
Features of Google XML Sitemaps:

• Easy to use and submit
• It notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.

SEO Friendly Images

SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress SEO plugin which automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes for SEO purposes. If your images do not have ALT and TITLE already set, SEO Friendly Images will add them according the options you set.
Features of SEO Friendly Images:

• Ease to use
• Automatically updates all images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes.

SEO Smart Links

SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more. It can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.
Features of SEO smart Links:

• SEO Smart links allows you to set up your own keywords and set of matching URLs.
• It allows you to set nofollow attribute and open links in new window.
• You can edit the options from the administration settings panel.

SEO Ultimate

SEO Ultimate gives you control over title tags, noindex, meta tags, Open Graph, slugs, canonical, autolinks, 404 errors, rich snippets and so on.
Features of SEO Ultimate:

• Open Graph Integrator
• Rich Snippet Creator
• SEO Ultimate Widgets
• Deeplink Juggernaut
• Canonicalizer

SEO Rank Reporter

Based on the keywords you choose, the SEO Rank Reporter plugin will track your Google rankings every 3 days and report the data in an easy-to-read graph. You will also be able to visualize your traffic flow in response to ranking changes and receive emails notifying you of major rank changes.
Features of SEO Rank Reporter:

• Add keywords to the reporter and let the reporter track your website’s (or other websites’) ranking changes.
• View a historical graph of your rankings.
• Visually compare how your website is ranking compared to competitors.
• Watch how your traffic fluctuates based on ranking changes.
• Download a full CSV file containing all of your ranking data.

Platinum SEO pack

Platinum SEO Plugin offers Complete onsite SEO solution for your WordPress blog.Platinum SEO Plugin offers all the functionalities of All In One SEO pack.
Features of Platinum SEO:

• Optimized Post and Page Titles for search engines.
• Generates all SEO relevant META tags automatically.
• Automatic 301 redirects for any permalink changes.
• Helps you avoid duplicate content

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site which helps to reduce your bounce rate and thus it helps to improve SEO.
Features of Yet Another Related Posts:

• It provides an advanced and versatile algorithm.
• Related Post in feeds
• YARPP is performant, caching related posts data as your site is visited.
• The YARPP templating system gives you advanced control of how your results are displayed.

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25 Best Free WordPress Themes 2013 – Ultimate Collection

These Free WordPress themes 2013 are the best WordPress themes available on internet for free. You can create a WordPress websites using this free themes.

WordPress have become one of the most popular CMS platforms all over the world. The best part is that they are free to download. Whether you are looking for some design inspiration or professional coding solutions high quality wordpress themes always come in handy. One of the best way to get up and running quickly especially if you don’t have much design or development experience is to use these free wordpress themes. Well basically wordpress is widely known for user friendly CMS which helps to customize the website according to our will. And these themes are one of the hot topic in search engine because now-a-days most people are searching for nice and free wordpress themes.

Best Free WordPress Themes 2013

Here I divided the collection of best free wordpress themes 2013 in six part i.e Business, Magazine, Portfolio, Ecommerce, Flat & Grid Style layouts. These themes are best in use for each user whether he is a professional or a fresher one.

Business – Free WordPress themes

Libra

Libra is a strong and powerful theme with a clean, corporate and responsive layout. This theme is really suitable for a corporate/brandable site and also for personal portfolio and blog.
Download || Demo

Stendhal

Stendhal is a clean, usable and powerful corporate/portfolio theme. If you are looking for a easy to use/customize theme, with a lot of portfolio features and unlimited design options, Stendhal is the best solution for you.
Download || Demo

Vantage

Vantage is a next-generation multipurpose theme featuring strong integration with some amazing plugins.
Download || Demo

Top Best

TopBest Theme is not just another regular out of the box wordpress theme, it has a lot of functions and features, it supports both 5 multiple homepage layouts, tons of shortcode best of all the shortcodes are from a plugin created by wpexplorer, and of course a theme is not complete without a pair of theme options this theme is equiped with SmartPanel Theme Options provided by vafpress framework.
Download || Demo

Attitude

Attitude is a Simple, Clean and Responsive Retina Ready WordPress Theme which adapts automatically to your tablets and mobile devices.
Download || Demo

Magazine – Free WordPress Themes

Hueman

A free, fully featured, responsive high resolution magazine & blog theme without compromise. Hueman presents what you love to write about in a visual & user-friendly way on all devices.
Download || Demo

Fevenews

FeveNews is a 4 Columns News Grid Free Responsive HTML5 WordPress with 600+ Google Web Fonts and Unlimited Color Options for easy customization by any users in your WordPress Multisite Network. This WordPress Theme also support WordPress built-in Custom Header Image and Custom Background.
Download || Demo

Dualshock

DualShock is a 100% free, dual purpose blog and magazine UI theme. It features our best features including our options panel, custom widgets, translation-ready functionality and search engine optimization. With a unique layout including sleek post meta information box, DualShock is a must-have theme, and best of all, it’s free.
Download || Demo

Playbook

Playbook is a traditional WordPress theme with a dual column post layout, a fully responsive design, and is jampacked with all MyThemeShop’s best features. Playbook includes SEO optimization, custom widgets, our industry grade options panel, and much more, and best of all, it’s 100% free!
Download || Demo

Combomag

ComboMag is a magazine style free responsive WordPress Themes. This wptemplate is suitable for any blogger running news, magazine and website development related blogging platform. With the multi purpose design minded to this wptemplate creation, many webmaster love to use this wptemplate in their MultiSite WordPress Website Development Network.
Download || Demo

Portfolio – Free WordPress  Themes

Celestino

Celestino is a clean and powerful portfolio theme with a great 1170 pixel responsive layout based on the Bootstrap grid.
Download || Demo

Portafolio

Portafolio is a awesome free wordpress theme was created with portfolio sites in mind but it also makes for an awesome business theme or a simple blogging theme. The minimal layout puts all the focus on your work and how great you are making it an excellent option for photographers and freelancers alike.
Download || Demo

Snapshot

Snapshot wordpress theme is for sharing photos of the people, places and things that you love. Snapshot features a clean design and our famous page builder.
Download || Demo

Wembley

Wembley is a free premium portfolio WordPress theme. This theme is built on Bootstrap 3 framework. This is a responsive theme with all features of the awesome Bootstrap framework included. That makes this theme very extensible.
Download || Demo

Photum

Photum is a theme to use with WordPress that will turn your site into a clean portfolio that you can use to show off your photos. We have designed it to be neutral and clean so your work can stand out – there’s nothing worse than a portfolio site that detracts from your work.
Download || Demo

Ecommerce – Free WordPress Themes

Socute

Socute is a clean and minimalistic Woo Commerce theme, designed with a great responsive design. It employes a powerful plugin, Woo Commerce that enables the creation of a versatile and rich WordPress shop, with thousand of layout options and a lot of features to customize your shop following your needs.
Download || Demo

Boemia

Boemia is a clean and brandable theme with a responsive design. It employes a powerful plugin, Woo Commerce that enables the creation of a versatile and rich WordPress shop, with thousand of layout options and a lot of features to customize your shop following your needs.
Download || Demo

Wootique

Wootique is another beautiful free e-commerce WordPress theme by WooThemes. It’s got an awesome CSS3/jQuery “featured content” slider that will allow you to showcase your top online store products.
Download || Demo

Artificer

Artificer is the latest shopping (e-commerce) WordPress theme by WooThemes. This theme is responsive and agnostic it means you can browse your shopping website on any device and all types of resolutions.
Download || Demo

Zenshop

The Zenshop theme is designed with a minimalistic style with a grid layout to showcase your store. The supports WordPress 3 features like Custom post types, custom taxonomies, Custom metaboxes, Custom menus, Custom page templates etc.
Download || Demo

Flat – Free WordPress Themes

Simple Dark

Simple wordpress themes goes by its name a simple wordpress theme with enough features and options to get your satisfaction a big boost. Simple WordPress supports 3 types of page templates, Blog template which shows all the latest blog posts, portfolio template which shows the latest portfolio project and lastly is the homepage template which is used to create your homepage.
Download || Demo

Bigfoot

Bigfoot is a bold wordpress themes for creatives.  It’s free wordpress theme with responsive layout. Create pages that are composed by big, bold, beautiful full-screen slides, an effective way to display a presentation.  Sell anything you want thanks to the full support for the WooCommerce plugin.
Download || Demo

Hermoso

Hermoso is a free responsive wordpress themes. It is a super customizable, colorful, free blogging theme for WordPress.
Download || Demo

Grid Layout – Free WordPress Themes

Post

Post Theme has a minimal type extremely clean and simple, it has masonry feature, easy to use and set. It has 8 different layouts, slider big and small variations, and 9 smooth color styles to choose from and much more.
Download || Demo

Pinbin

Pinbin is a clean, minimalistic, beautiful and responsive WordPress portfolio theme. Perfect for graphic designers, web designers, photographers and anyone who likes to put their images and artworks first.
Download || Demo   


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Introducing WordPress: Learn by Video with Joe Chellman

 

Video2Brain – Introducing WordPress: Learn by Video with Joe Chellman
English | Duration: 4 hrs 25 min
Genre: eLearning

WordPress is among the most popular blog software on the Internet, and with good reason: It is powerful, approachable, and free. In this Learn by Video course (created in partnership with our friends at Peachpit Press), web designer and trainer Joe Chellman teaches you what you need to know to use WordPress to create your own blog, from installing and configuring the software to adding and managing content. You’ll also learn how to customize your blog by choosing a theme? (a visual design) and adding plugins, as well as how to maintain your site by backing it up and updating the software when necessary. After completing this course, you’ll be empowered to create an awesome website for yourself and nearly anyone else!
More Info: http://www.video2brain.com/en/courses/introducing-wordpress-learn-by-video
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10 Useful WordPress Coding Techniques

Since last year, the WordPress themes market has grown incredibly. The reason? Great designs, of course, but also a lot of amazing new functionality. Top WordPress developers are always looking to get the most out of WordPress and use all of their knowledge to find ways to make their favorite blogging engine even more powerful.
In this article, we have compiled 10 useful WordPress code snippets, hacks and tips to help you create a WordPress theme that stands out from the crowd.

1. Style Posts Individually

The problem.
Your blog has a lot of posts, but the posts aren’t all of the same type. To give special styling to one or more of your posts, you can take advantage of both the post_class() function and the post ID.
The solution.
To apply this trick, just open your single.php file, find the loop and replace it with the following:

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
<h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h3>
<?php the_content(); ?>
</div>
<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Code explanation.
The important part is mostly in line 3. Here, we have added the PHP post_class() function. Introduced in WordPress 2.8, this function adds CSS classes to the post. For example, it can add:

• .hentry
• .sticky
• .category-tutorials
• .tag-wordpress

With these CSS classes now added, you can now give a custom style to all posts that have the sticky tag or those that belong to the tutorials category.
The other important piece of this code is id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>". By displaying the ID of the post here, we’re able to style a particular post. As an example:

#post-876{
 background:#ccc;
}

Source:

• Take advantage of the new post class

2. Display Related Posts… With Thumbnails!

The problem.
After they have read your latest post, what do your readers do? That’s easy: most of them simply leave. A great way to keep them interested is to display a list of related posts. Many plug-ins can do that, but for those who like to know how things works, here is some nice code to get related posts and their thumbnails.
The solution.
Simply paste this code after the the_content() function in your single.php file:

<?php
$original_post = $post;
$tags = wp_get_post_tags($post->ID);
if ($tags) {
  echo '<h2>Related Posts</h2>';
  $first_tag = $tags[0]->term_id;
  $args=array(
    'tag__in' => array($first_tag),
    'post__not_in' => array($post->ID),
    'showposts'=>4,
    'caller_get_posts'=>1
   );
  $my_query = new WP_Query($args);
  if( $my_query->have_posts() ) {
    echo "<ul>";
    while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>
      <li><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/timthumb/timthumb.php?src=<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, "post-img", true); ?>&h=40&w=40&zc=1" alt="" /><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
    <?php endwhile;
    echo "</ul>";
  }
}
$post = $original_post;
wp_reset_query();
?>

Code explanation.
First, this code makes use of TimbThumb, a PHP image-resizing script. We have used it to automatically resize images to 40 by 40 pixels.
Once this code is pasted in your theme, it uses the first tag of the post to fetch related posts. In this example, four related posts are displayed. You can change this number on line 10.
Also, notice that I have cloned the $post variable at the beginning of the script and restored it at the end. This prevents problems that may occur with the loop, such as comments being assigned to the wrong post.
Source:

• How to: Show related posts without a plug-in

3. Alternate Post Styling On Your Home Page

The problem.
Many new WordPress themes have an amazing way of displaying posts on the home page. For example, we can display the first three posts bigger than the rest, with images and extended text, with the remaining posts shown more simply.
I have seen many themes in which developers use two distinct loops to achieve this, which isn’t necessary and can cause further problems. Let’s use a much simpler method.
The solution.
Here is a custom loop that displays the first three posts different than the rest. You can replace the existing loop in your index.php file with this code.

<?php
$postnum = 0;
while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<?php if ($postnum <= 3){ ?>
<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
  <div class="date"><span><?php the_time('M j') ?></span></div>
    <h2>(<?php echo $postnum;?>)<a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
 <div class="post-image" style="text-align:center;">
  <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory' ); ?>/timthumb.php?src=<?php  echo catch_that_image(); ?>&amp;w=500&amp;h=200&amp;zc=1" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" /></a>
 </div>
 <p><?php the_content('Read the rest of this entry &raquo;'); ?></p>
 <p class="more"><a href="#">Read More</a></p>
  </div>
</div>

<?php } else {
<div <?php post_class( 'single ' . $end ); ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
 <div class="post-content">
  <h3><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>">(<?php echo $postnum; ?>)<?php the_title(); ?></a> <?php edit_post_link('_', '', ''); ?></h3>
  <p><?php the_excerpt( '' ); ?></p>
  <p class="more"><a href="#">Read More ?</a></p>
 </div>
</div><!-- End post -->

<?php }
 endwhile;
 ?>

Code explanation.
Nothing hard here! We just created a PHP variable, named $postnum, which is invoked at the end of the loop. If $postnum is less than or equal to 3, the post is displayed in full. Otherwise, it is displayed in its more compact form.

4. Using Multiple Loops

The problem.
When coding complex WordPress pages with more than one loop, it can happen that one of the loops doesn’t behave as expected: for example, unwanted offset, repeated posts, etc. Happily, with a bit of knowledge and a very useful function, we can avoid this.
The solution.
The following example features two distinct loops. Notice the rewind_posts() function on line 8. This example can be used on any WordPress file as is: index.php, single.php, etc.

// First loop (get the last 3 posts in the "featured" category)
<?php query_posts('category_name=featured&showposts=3'); ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
  <!-- Do stuff... -->
<?php endwhile;?>

//loop reset
<?php rewind_posts(); ?>

//Second loop (Get all posts)
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
  <!-- Do stuff... -->
<?php endwhile; ?>

Code explanation.
This piece of code doesn’t use any hacks; rewind_posts() is a standard WordPress function.
The purpose of rewind_posts() is to “clear” a loop that has been previously used (like the first loop in our example above), allowing you to use a second loop that isn’t affected by the first loop’s results.
Source:

• Multiple WordPress Loops Explained

5. Overwrite Post Titles Easily

The problem.
the_title() is a basic but very useful WordPress function: it displays the post or page’s title. No more, no less. But hey, have you ever wished you were able to display the full title in your listing of posts and a custom title on the actual post’s page? If so, find out how right here.
The solution.
In your single.php file, find the call to the the_title() function and replace it with the following code:

<?php $title = get_post_meta($post->ID, "custom-title", true);
if ($title != "") {
 echo "<h1>".$title."</h1>";
} else { ?>
 <h1><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
<?php } ?>

Once that’s done, you can rewrite the post’s title by creating a field named custom-title. Its value will be your custom title for this post.
Code explanation.
When this code loads, it retrieves the meta field named custom-title. If this meta field exists and isn’t blank, it is displayed as the post’s title. Otherwise, the the_title() function is called, and the post’s regular title is displayed.
Source:

• Allow title overwrite on your WordPress blog

6. Add Multiple Sidebars

The problem.
Sidebars are great because they allow you to display a lot of useful info, such as related posts, author info, a blog roll, 125×125-pixel ad spaces and so on. But sidebars can quickly become very busy, and readers may be hard-pressed to find what they’re looking for. So, what about having different sidebars available and displaying the most appropriate one for the post?
The solution.
To apply this hack, duplicate your sidebar.php file and fill it with whatever information you would like to appear. Save the file as sidebar-whatever.php.
Once that’s done, open your single.php^* file and find the call to the get_sidebar() function:

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

Replace it with:

<?php $sidebar = get_post_meta($post->ID, "sidebar", true);
get_sidebar($sidebar);
?>

Now when you write a post, create a custom field named sidebar. Set its value as the name of the sidebar that you want to include. For example, if its value is right, WordPress will automatically include sidebar-right.php as a sidebar.

If no custom sidebar field is found, WordPress automatically includes the default sidebar.
*The same can be done with page.php.
Code explanation.
This trick is quite simple. The first thing we did was look for a custom field named sidebar and get its value as a variable. Then, the variable is used as a parameter for the WordPress function get_sidebar(), which allows us to specify a particular file to use as a sidebar.
Source:

• WordPress hack: Choose the sidebar to use, post by post

7. Display Content Only To Registered Users

The problem.
As you probably know, WordPress lets you decide whether to allow readers to create accounts and sign in to your blog. If you want to increase your blog’s registered readers or would just like to reward existing readers, why not keep some content private, just for them?
The solution.
To achieve this hack, we’ll use a shortcode. The first step is to create it. Open your functions.php file and paste the following code:

function member_check_shortcode($atts, $content = null) {
  if (is_user_logged_in() && !is_null($content) && !is_feed()) {
    return $content;
  } else {
    return 'Sorry, this part is only available to our members. Click here to become a member!';
}

add_shortcode('member', 'member_check_shortcode');

Once that’s done, you can add the following to your posts to create a section or text (or any other content) that will be displayed only to registered users:

[member]
This text will be displayed only to registered users.
[/member]

That’s it. Registered users will see the text contained in the shortcode, while unregistered users will see a message asking them to register.
Code explanation.
The first thing we’ve done is create a function named member_check_shortcode, which checks whether the current user is logged in. If they are, then the text contained in the [member] shortcode is displayed. Otherwise, the message on line 5 is shown.
If you’d like to know more about WordPress shortcodes, you should definitely have a look at our Mastering WordPress Shortcodes post.
Source:

• Using shortcodes to show members-only content
• WordPress shortcode: Display content to registered users only

8. Display Your Most Popular Content In The Sidebar

The problem.
If you want to feature your best content and help readers discover more articles from your blog, you might want to display a list of your most popular posts, based on the number of comments they’ve received, in your sidebar.
The solution.
This code is really easy to implement. Just paste it wherever you’d like your popular posts to appear. To get more or less than five posts, just change the value of the SQL limit clause on line 3.

<h2>Popular Posts</h2>
<ul>
<?php $result = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT comment_count,ID,post_title FROM $wpdb->posts ORDER BY comment_count DESC LIMIT 0 , 5");
foreach ($result as $post) {
setup_postdata($post);
$postid = $post->ID;
$title = $post->post_title;
$commentcount = $post->comment_count;
if ($commentcount != 0) { ?>
<li><a href="<?php echo get_permalink($postid); ?>" title="<?php echo $title ?>">

<?php echo $title ?></a> {<?php echo $commentcount ?>}</li>
<?php } } ?>
</ul>

Code explanation.
In this code, we use the $wpdb object to send a custom SQL query to the WordPress database. Then we verify that the results aren’t empty (i.e. that no posts are without comments), and finally we display the list of posts.
Sources

• Create your own “Popular Posts” page
• How to: Display your most popular content in your blog sidebar

9. Create A Drop-Down Menu For Easy Tag Navigation

The problem.
Tags are cool because they allow you to categorize content using precise terms. But displaying tag clouds is a problem: they are ugly, not easy to use and can be extremely big.
So, what’s the solution? Simply create a drop-down menu for your tags. That way, they don’t get in the way, but people still have easy access to them.
The solution.
To create our drop-down menu of tags, we first have to paste the two functions below into the functions.php file of our WordPress theme:

<?php
function dropdown_tag_cloud( $args = '' ) {
 $defaults = array(
  'smallest' => 8, 'largest' => 22, 'unit' => 'pt', 'number' => 45,
  'format' => 'flat', 'orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'ASC',
  'exclude' => '', 'include' => ''
 );
 $args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );

 $tags = get_tags( array_merge($args, array('orderby' => 'count', 'order' => 'DESC')) ); // Always query top tags

 if ( empty($tags) )
  return;

 $return = dropdown_generate_tag_cloud( $tags, $args ); // Here's where those top tags get sorted according to $args
 if ( is_wp_error( $return ) )
  return false;
 else
  echo apply_filters( 'dropdown_tag_cloud', $return, $args );
}

function dropdown_generate_tag_cloud( $tags, $args = '' ) {
 global $wp_rewrite;
 $defaults = array(
  'smallest' => 8, 'largest' => 22, 'unit' => 'pt', 'number' => 45,
  'format' => 'flat', 'orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'ASC'
 );
 $args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );
 extract($args);

 if ( !$tags )
  return;
 $counts = $tag_links = array();
 foreach ( (array) $tags as $tag ) {
  $counts[$tag->name] = $tag->count;
  $tag_links[$tag->name] = get_tag_link( $tag->term_id );
  if ( is_wp_error( $tag_links[$tag->name] ) )
   return $tag_links[$tag->name];
  $tag_ids[$tag->name] = $tag->term_id;
 }

 $min_count = min($counts);
 $spread = max($counts) - $min_count;
 if ( $spread <= 0 )
  $spread = 1;
 $font_spread = $largest - $smallest;
 if ( $font_spread <= 0 )
  $font_spread = 1;
 $font_step = $font_spread / $spread;

 // SQL cannot save you; this is a second (potentially different) sort on a subset of data.
 if ( 'name' == $orderby )
  uksort($counts, 'strnatcasecmp');
 else
  asort($counts);

 if ( 'DESC' == $order )
  $counts = array_reverse( $counts, true );

 $a = array();

 $rel = ( is_object($wp_rewrite) && $wp_rewrite->using_permalinks() ) ? ' rel="tag"' : '';

 foreach ( $counts as $tag => $count ) {
  $tag_id = $tag_ids[$tag];
  $tag_link = clean_url($tag_links[$tag]);
  $tag = str_replace(' ', '&nbsp;', wp_specialchars( $tag ));
  $a[] = "\t<option value='$tag_link'>$tag ($count)</option>";
 }

  switch ( $format ) :
 case 'array' :
  $return =& $a;
  break;
 case 'list' :
  $return = "<ul class='wp-tag-cloud'>\n\t<li>";
  $return .= join("</li>\n\t<li>", $a);
  $return .= "</li>\n</ul>\n";
  break;
 default :
  $return = join("\n", $a);
  break;
 endswitch;

 return apply_filters( 'dropdown_generate_tag_cloud', $return, $tags, $args );
}
?>

Once you’ve pasted this function in your functions.php file, you can use it to create your drop-down menu of tags. Just open the file where you want the list to be displayed and paste the following code:

<select name="tag-dropdown" onchange="document.location.href=this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;">
 <option value="#">Liste d'auteurs</option>
 <?php dropdown_tag_cloud('number=0&order=asc'); ?>

</select>

Code explanation.
To achieve this hack, we take the wp_tag_cloud() WordPress function and rewrite it to make it display tags in an HTML “Select” element.
Then, we just call the newly created dropdown_tag_cloud() in our theme to display the drop-down menu items.
Source:

• Top 10 WordPress hacks from June ’09

10. Auto-Resize Images Using TimThumb And WordPress Shortcodes

The problem.
A good blog post needs images, whether screenshots or simple eye-candy. Readers always prefer articles with nice pictures to plain boring text.
But images can be a pain to deal with, especially because of their various sizes. So how about we create a WordPress shortcode that uses Timthumb to automatically resize images?
The solution.
The first thing to do is create the shortcode. Paste the following code in your functions.php file:

function imageresizer( $atts, $content = null ) {
 return '<img src="http://media.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10//timthumb/timthumb.php?src='.$content.'&w=590" alt="" />';
}

add_shortcode('img', 'imageresizer');

Now, you can use the following syntax to add an automatically resized image to your blog post:

[img]http://www.yoursite.com/yourimage.jpg[/img]

Code explanation.
You have probably already noticed how cool WordPress shortcodes are and how they make your blogging life easier. This code simply creates a shortcode that takes a single parameter: the image’s URL. Please notice that it’s not a good idea to resize large images this way as it unnecessarily increases the server load – in such cases it’s better to create and upload smaller images instead.
TimThumb resizes the image to 590 pixels wide, as specified on line 2 (w=590). Of course, you can change this value or add a height parameter (e.g. h=60).
Source:
Top 10 WordPress hacks from June ’09

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