Building Drupal 8 Website From Scratch - Part 3, Essential Modules (Pathauto, Google Analytics, Disqus)

In the third part of Drupal 8, website building from a scratch series I will focus on a few essential must have, modules to boost Drupal website's SEO and usability.

Before continuing to learn how to build a successful Drupal 8 Website, make sure to check out previous articles in the series: Building Drupal 8 Website From Scratch - Part 1 (Domain name, Hosting)Building Drupal 8 Website From Scratch - Part 2 (Content Types, Custom Fields, Manage Display)

Despite Drupal 8 has built into the core many nice features and modules missing in the previous Drupal 7 release, there are still some essential modules required to boost your Drupal website to the new heights.

In today's article, I will name them and a brief comment about each of them.

Pathauto

A must-have module for SERP friendly result converts node/1 in my-amazing-tile

The Pathauto module automatically generates URL/path aliases for various kinds of content (nodes, taxonomy terms, users) without requiring the user to manually specify the path alias. This allows you to have URL aliases like /category/my-node-title instead of /node/123. The aliases are based upon a "pattern" system that uses tokens which the administrator can change.

Download Pathauto module

Read How To Setup Pretty URL's For Drupal 8

Google Analytics

A must have to track your website's traffic and analyze audience

Adds the Google Analytics web statistics tracking system to your website

Download Google Analytics

Read How To Setup Google Analytics For Drupal 8 Website

Disqus (Optional)

Replace default Drupal comment system with Disqus. No matter how greatly evolved Drupal 8 if compared to Drupal 7, there is one part that really sucks in Drupal (without heavy modification) - comments. Forget about core comment system and give it a try to third-party Disqus module. Greatly reduces spam.

DISQUS is a comments platform that helps you build an active community from your website's audience. It has awesome features, powerful tools, and it's easy to install.

Download Disqus module