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Jekyll Plugins: Top Picks to Enhance Your Static Site

21 March 2023

My top picks for Jekyll Plugins in 2023.

If you’d like to take a look at a more comprehensive list, check out the awesome-jekyll-plugins repo on Github.

A brief overview of Jekyll plugins

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Why should I give a damn about these plugins?” They make projects easier.

My top pick: Pagemaster

Pagemaster

What is Pagemaster?

Pagemaster With Pagemaster, you can breathe life into your static pages, transforming them into dynamic collections with the flick of a switch. Need to create a bunch of pages for a collection or data in your project? This plugin is a life saver.

The twisted genius of Pagemaster

Unleash the power of automation: create individual markdown pages from your data sets (e.g., CSV, JSON, or YAML files containing page titles, image links, dates, tags, etc.). Just summon the plugin, and it will conjure the pages like a digital sorcerer.

How to install and use Pagemaster

  1. Add Pagemaster to the :jekyll_plugins group in your Gemfile:
group :jekyll_plugins do
  gem 'pagemaster'
end
  1. Run $ bundle install.

  2. Add Pagemaster as a plugin in your _config.yml:

plugins:
  - pagemaster
  1. Set up your collection(s) in _config.yml and add Pagemaster variables. For example:
collections:
  writers:
    output: true
    source: writer-list.csv
    id_key: id
    layout: writer-profile-page
  scientists:
    output: true
    source: scientist-survey.json
    id_key: orcid
    layout: scientist-profile-page
  1. Run $bundle exec jekyll pagemaster [collection-name], e.g., $bundle exec jekyll pagemaster writers scientists.

Results: For the writers example above, Pagemaster will:

For the scientists example above, Pagemaster will:

The final directory structure will look like this:

+-- _config.yml
+-- _data
|   +-- writer-list.csv
+-- _

Jekyll SEO Tag

What is Jekyll-SEO Tag?

Jekyll SEO Tag makes SEO easier.

Features and benefits of using Jekyll SEO Tag

Comprehensive metadata generation: Jekyll SEO Tag meticulously weaves a tapestry of meta tags for your site, including page title, description, canonical URL, next and previous URLs on paginated pages, and JSON-LD site and post metadata. In doing so, it presents your content with everything you need to rank in SERPs.

Battle-tested template: While you could, in theory, do this yourself, Jekyll SEO Tag offers a seasoned template that just works.

Jekyll Admin

What is Jekyll-Admin?

Jekyll Admin gives you a CMS for Jekyll in your browser. A CMS-style graphical interface that’ll have you authoring content and administering your Jekyll sites like a seasoned pro.

Features and benefits of using Jekyll Admin

Ready to take a wild ride? Strap in and follow these installation instructions:

gem 'jekyll-admin', group: :jekyll_plugins

Then run bundle install.

That’s it. Now by navigating to http://localhost:4000/admin you have a CMS set up for Jekyll.

Jekyll Admin’s options can be found lurking in _config.yml under the jekyll_admin key, where you can customize its inner workings to fit your twisted desires.

Want to hide some links or change the default homepage? You can!

Honorable Mentions

Jack Sparrow Gif

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