Plugins are Softwares that add new Features or Functionality to your WordPress Blog. Example, you need a Plugin to fight spam in WordPress. This is because WordPress doesn’t really help you fight spam by default. In this case, an Anti-Spam Plugin has helped you add “spam fighting” functionality to your WordPress Blog.
As a new blogger, I played alot with plugins. I can just wake up in the morning, the next thing is to install like six new plugins. I crashed by blog several times by installing many plugins that perform the same fuction (E.g using Total Cache, Super Cache and Wp Fastest Cache together).
I made a lot of mistakes in the past. I don’t want you to make similar blogging mistakes; hence, this amazing blogging guide. I assume you already know how to install and activate WordPress plugins. If not, check out how to install wordpress plugin here or Continue reading for the Best WordPress Plugins to Use.
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Keep In Mind These Precautions Before Installing Plugins
This guide is based on personal experience:
- Install only the Plugins you need
- Delete inactive plugins
- Too many Plugins can slow down your site
- Don’t use plugin that was last updated two or more years ago
- Don’t install another sitemap plugin while using Yoast SEO
- Never you Install two caching plugins
- Many beginners make mistakes of just installing Plugins.
- After installing a Plugin, you must activate before it starts working
- Many plugins have settings. Go to settings to enable and set them up.
Recommended: How to install a WordPress Plugin
Plugins You Must Use in Your WordPress Blog
There are certain WordPress Plugins you don’t have an option but to Install. Without beating about the bush, I present the best plugins you must use on your blog:
Note: Don’t panic if the plugins you are using are not listed among the best. So long they are working well for you, stick to them.
1. SEO Plugins
There are plugins that will help you rank higher on Google And Bing. After many years of blogging and jumping from one WordPress Plugin to another, I have found out the best plugins you must use for SEO. You may want to check them out here.
2. Anti-Spam Plugins
Anti-Spam plugins help you to trash useless comments. Most of these comments are not even in English. They even link to low-Quality sites. You may want to click here to check out the Best plugins to fight spam in any WordPress Blog.
3. Image Optimization Plugins
Large images can drastically slow down your blog. The smaller the size of your image, the more your page speed. Image optimization plugin is compulsory for news blogs. This is because news bloggers publish a whole lot of images. Continue reading the best Image Optimization Plugin for WordPress by clicking here.
4. WordPress Security Plugins
WordPress Security is very important. With every passing day, people are doing their best to hack your blog. It is therefore very important that you secure your WordPress blog. Without wasting much time, check out the best security plugins here.
5. WordPress Caching Plugins
Speed has become a major ranking signal. To rank high on Google, you definitely need a superfast blog. Caching plugins help cache and reduce the size of your blog. This results in faster loading time. Read my article on the best caching plugins by clicking here.
6. WordPress Contact Form Plugins
The contact page is one of the most important pages in your WordPress Blog. You definitely need a Contact Form Plugin to create good looking contact forms. Contact Forms will help you create contact and registration forms with ease. See the best contact form plugin here.
Other Must Use WordPress Plugins This Year
A. Google Analytics By MonsterInsights:
To track your visitors. However, I prefer you Install Google Analytics App on your Phone Instead of using a Plugin
B. For Forum:
If you are interested in Creating a Forum, then use any of the Following:
- User Registration
- BuddyPress
- Memberpress
- bbpress or
- Ultimate Member
C. To Clean Up Your Blog
Clean up involves optimizing your database. cleaning revisions, remove spam and trash comments, removing transcient options and so on. To optmize or clean up your blog, use any one of the following Plugins:
- WP-Optimize
- WP-Sweet
D. For Email Marketing:
- MailChimp
- Constant Contact
- OptinMonster
Recommended: Why you should add rel nofollow to your links
D. For Sharing Posts On Social Media:
The Best Plugins are:
- Sassy Social Share
- Add to Any
- addthis
- Monarch (Not Free)
E. To Display Your Social Media Followers:
You can Use any of the Following WordPress Plugins:
- Social Counter Plus
- Social warfare
- Social Fans
- Monarch (Not Free)
F. To Create Table:
The best plugin to create Table is Tablepress.
G. For E-Commerce Sites, Use:
- Woocommerce
- Proven
H. BackUp Plugins:
The following plugins are okay to Backup your WordPress Blog
- UpdragftPlus
- BackupBuddy
- BackWPUp
I. To Automatically share posts to your Facebook and Twitter pages, use Social Media Auto Publish Plugin
How Many Plugins Should I Have
You may be wondering, How Many Plugins Should I have? Can I use 20 Plugins on my Blog? There is no law as to the number of plugins you must install. The rule is, Install only the plugins you need. You should have at most 15 Plugins for a normal WordPress Blog. You can install more if it is really necessary.
You can reduce the number of plugins by Using plugins that perform more than one function. For example, the Yoast SEO Plugin can help you monitor errors in search console, create Sitemap, give you internal linking suggestions, create cornerstone articles, monitor your readability, edit .htaccess, help in keyword research, redirection and so on. You have practically replaced five articles.
Read Also: Topics that can drive traffic to your blog
That’s all for today. Hope you found this helpful? Feel free to share with others and don’t fail to comment.
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