[Drupal] 18 essential modules for building a simple Drupal site

Zyxware Technologies | Updated 28 Jun 2016 | 5 min read

Although the Drupal core provides all the basic functionality to run a website you need to have additional contrib modules installed to extract the full capabilities of Drupal. Here are 18 essential modules we have come up with for building a simple Drupal site. You might also find our list of the Top Drupal SEO modules and Top Drupal 6 modules to be of help. Contact us to get professional help to build your Drupal website. Drupal Theming and Drupal Migration are just two of the legion of Drupal services we have on offer.

Pathauto

Pathauto automatically generates URL aliases for different types of content without manual intervention. Pathauto does this using a pattern system that utilizes the token module. Pathauto also gives the admin options to change the pattern system so as to customize the url.

Download Drupal Path Auto Module

Global Redirect

Global Redirect ensures that you have no duplicate content on your website. Suppose you have many different urls pointing to the same page, you have a scenario where Search Engines consider your website to have duplicate content. Global Redirect ensures that all the different url versions are redirected to the correct url before being retrieved.

Download Drupal Global Redirect Module

Nodewords / Metatag

This is an essential Drupal module from an SEO perspective. It gives you the ability to add useful metatags to the pages of a Drupal website. Additional meta tags can also be generated by the use of custom hooks.

Download Drupal Nodewords Module

CKEditor

Drupal CKEditor provides the functionality of a full fledged desktop Word processor to the text area of a Drupal website enabling faster creation of content. It is also possible to improve the functionality of CKEditor via plugins. CKEditor also integrates well with external File Browsers like IMCE.

Download Drupal CKEditor Module

IMCE

A must have Drupal module which provides an image/file uploader and provides support for personal directories and quota. It provides FTP like site navigation and supports basic file operations with the ability to insert images into a text area and integrates well with the CKEditor.

Download Drupal IMCE Module

Captcha

With the ever increasing incidents of spamming on a daily basis you need to set up an effective mechanism to filter out spambots from genuine users before they can choke your website. Captchas have been very successful in thwarting these attacks and the Drupal Captcha module provides you with the ability to easily setup Captcha tests on all the webforms in your Drupal website. Its functionality can be extended by using submodules for adding more types of Captchas.

Download Drupal Capthca Module

XML Sitemap

Yet Another essential Drupal module from an SEO perspective, this module creates a standard XML sitemap which helps Search Engine crawlers to crawl your Drupal website more efficiently for better indexing and rankings in popular Search Engines.

Download Drupal XML Sitemap Module

Search404

The Search 404 module replaces a standard 404 error page with a page consisting of search results generated from the keywords mentioned in the url.

Download Drupal Search404 Module

Webforms

Forms are an indispensable part of any self respecting website. Web Forms enable you to have an easy web UI to create HTML forms in your Drupal website. It also lets you track results of submissions on your webform and export the content.

Download Drupal Webforms Module

Facebook Like Button

Facebook is the mother of all social media websites. So if you need to have any kind of social media traffic to your website this is one essential Drupal module you cannot ignore. This module enables you to add a FB like button to selected content types to be shared by visitors on Facebook and also enables you to configure the settings of the button.

Download Drupal Facebook Like Button Module

Google Plus One +1

Google's new social media portal is the new kid on the block and should not be ignored. Just like the Facebook button this module provides a configurable button to share content on your Drupal site with Google plus.

Download Drupal Google Plus One Module

Tweetbutton

The Tweet button module provides a configurable tweetbutton to be displayed on selected content types in a Drupal website.

Download Drupal Tweetbutton Module

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an indispensable tool for webmasters in getting an accurate picture of the state of SEO of their website. This modules adds the tracking system of Google Analytics to your Drupal website.

Download Drupal Google Analytics Module

Views

Most of the power of Drupal comes from the correct management of Views which is simply a smart query builder, which when given sufficient information can build the relevant query and execute it to produce the desired results. Views gives Drupal an enormous amount of flexibility and functionality in generating lists and tables of the relevant content. Due to its popularity there is even a small micro movement in the Drupal community to make Views a part of the Drupal core.

Download Drupal Views Module

CCK / Fields

CCK/Fields is yet another Drupal module that provides the facility to add custom fields to a content type using a web browser. Due to its usefulness it has been moved to the Drupal core from versions 7 onwards.

Download Drupal CCK Fields Module

Admin Menu

The Drupal Admin Menu provides an administration interface that is independent of the theme used. It is mainly intended for novice users coming from other CMSes and it is also a really valuable time saver for administrators and developers by enabling them to access all the relevant links from a single point without the need to load any pages.

Download Drupal Admin Menu Module

Boost

Boost is a static page caching system in Drupal which retrieves static HTML pages to anonymous users from a database. Boost can provide a significant performance enhancement to a Drupal website and is unavoidable if you have a lot of visitors on your website who are mostly anonymous.

Download Drupal Boost Module