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One thing I am truly passionate about is blogging. And not just the writing aspect of it, although that is a huge part, but also the technical side of it. I love actually managing my own website and really digging into the back end of it and seeing all of the possibilities it has!! I am such a tech nerd, HA!
I have been thinking about starting a series of more technical based blog posts and so here we go. In the past I have blogged about why I switched from Blogger to WordPress (and I still stand by my reasons!!) and I have talked about the differences between categories and tags and so today I wanted to talk about a different WordPress feature, plugins!
There are literally thousands of plugins to choose from to customize your WordPress site for just about anything you wanted to do from basic plugins to change your font to plugins to create a photo collage. I’m going to get all techy on you, I promise, but today I am going to share with you my top ten “must-have” plugins for my WordPress website!
These are in no order or importance…
ONE. Jetpack…I love Jetpack because it’s your one stop shop for security, optimizing your site for mobile use, site stats (Google Analytics will always be King of Analytics but I do like to see what Jetpack says too), image optimization, and so much more!
TWO. Akismet…Akismet is the most amazing spam comment filter I have found!! When I first switched to WordPress I was getting over 100 spam comments a day but once I installed Akismet I get maybe one or two a month that slip through the crack. On the flip side I check my Akismet folder about once a week to see if any real comments have accidentally been filtered.
THREE. SumoMe…SumoMe is the perfect social media sharing tool. I had another one previously but I had to get rid of them because I found out they were exploiting my traffic and making money off of me. I will tell you about that in another post if you really want to know about it. I love SumoMe because it looks good, you can tell it where to go, you can grow your email list with this plugin, and it gives really good analytics as well.
FOUR. Yoast SEO…One of the main reasons I switched from Blogger to WordPress was to have more control over my SEO. This plugin makes it so super simple in that all you have to is fill out a meta box for each post with keywords, edit the snippet that shoes up in Google and on Facebook, and so much more! It has definitely helped drive traffic to my blog!
FIVE. Google Analytics by Yoast…This plugin works directly with your Google Analytics account and is super easy to use. Yo unjust plug your UA code into the plugin and it connects your GA with your blog for better tracking!
SIX. WP Ultimate Recipe…I post the occasional recipe and when I do I always plug it into this recipe generator to make it easier for my readers to see and follow. The genius of this plugin is that anyone can adjust the serving size and the recipe will automatically adjust! Plus it’s super user friendly and it looks good!
SEVEN. Ultimate Nofollow…If you post any sponsored content then this plugin will literally save your life. I don’t know about you but I can not, for the life of me, remember how to do “nofollow” links when I am writing sponsored content. Ugh, they get me every time!! With this plugin, whenever you click the link to hyperlink something in your WP blog a box will come up that says “Add “rel=”nofollow” to link”, you click it, and it’s done!! Hallelujah!
EIGHT. jQuery Pin It Button For Images…If you want to make your images easily pinnable then just add a “Pin-It” hover button to super easy to pin!! My only tip for this pin is to make sure you are pinning from the blog post itself so the link, when clicked through on Pinterest, will go straight to that particular post instead of your blog’s home page.
NINE. Ninja Forms…If you like to create forms on your blog like I created on my Contact page then Ninja Forms is perfect for you! It’s super simple to set up and manage and every time someone fills it out you get an email!
TEN. Genesis Simple Edits…Genesis Simple Edits is perfect for modifying your post-info, post-meta, and footer area on a Genesis theme. I love being able to customize my blog and move things around so that they suit me and provide (what I think is) a better end user experience for my readers.
Well that’s all I have on plugins for you!! I hope you were able to learn something or maybe find a new plugin for your blog this way!!
What are your favorite WordPress plugins to use??
What topic would you like to see covered in WordPress Wednesday??
Yes x 10! Haha! Yoast has been a liesaver for me SEO wise. I think ALL bloggers need it.
JetPack and SumoMe are the bomb! For real. My blog cannot live without them.
Thank you for this. There are a couple here that I need to try out!
These all sound like great plugins that bloggers need to check out. Great info here!
I will 100% back Yoast SEO, Jetpack, Akismet, and the JQuery one. I really need to look into that recipe one though, I haven’t found one I like that works well for me yet. Thanks for sharing!
This is very interesting! I am new to assisting in the blogging world! This was very helpful and informative!
All my blogs are with Blogger so all of these are new to me. I wish it can be used to Blogger and not just WordPress.
A great list to have for sure! Thank you for taking the time to put this together, especially for those just starting out and not knowing what they may need or use!
I use a lot of these already, but have added a few more. Thank you!
This is a great list of plugins to try. Thanks for the great resource. I will have to share this with my Sister. She is just starting out with her blog.
I wish i had this post when i first started. There are a few on here i have not tried.
I’m excited to say that I have most of these! I’ve heard good things about Sumo, but not sure I’m ready to make that switch yet
What a great list! I have several of these but I have to check the others out. Don’t want to miss this and will pass this to my blogger friends.
These sound like some really great plug ins. I am so happy to see security plug ins on here. It’s so important to have a secure site!
Great post and very helpful. I have most of these but I really wanted to check out the Ninja app.
This is a great list. I use quite a few of these myself. A couple I am going to have to look into. I need a new recipe plugin. The one I was using stopped being updated and I am having troubles with the Yummly one.
Just bookmarked this post. I love WordPress but I am still trying to figure out all the plugins. This post really helps.
I’m not on WordPress, but I’ve heard fabulous things about yoast. All my bloggy besties all rave about it!
I have a few of these plugins, I absolutely love the SEO Yoast, it helps me out so much. It’s so easy to use and makes me feel better about each post I make.
You are right there a lot of plugins to choose from. I am using jetpack as well an easy to use one stop shop plugin.
Why not use Publicize in Jetpack for social media distribution?
I like all of the features Sumo Me offers!!