59,747 is the total number of plugins available on WordPress.org right now. And if plugins from other markets are included, that number would easily cross 60,000. With so many plugins available, finding the perfect one for your blogging website is difficult. There are hundreds of articles written on the best WordPress plugins. But here’s the problem:
They only show the most used plugins. And then these plugins are included in most lists and are considered to be the best. And if I told you:
There are many more WordPress plugins that are much better, but you have never heard of them. And finding such plugins is difficult. Over the last month, I spent most of my time looking for WordPress plugins. My research was not only limited to the best plugins. I researched all the plugins for a specific category and selected the ones that were worth using. This helped me discover some really cool plugins that you’ve never heard of.
Choosing and properly configuring the essential WordPress plugins for your blogging website is very important for several reasons. The WordPress plugins make all the difference in the performance, safety, and popularity of your blog – highlighting or ending it!
As you may be aware, WordPress plugins are compact software applications crafted to enhance the functionality of WordPress websites. These handy tools empower you to effortlessly integrate new features into your WordPress platform. With just a few clicks, you can turn WordPress into a forum, news portal, or even an eCommerce store.
In the WordPress repository, thousands of plugins perform different roles, but today I will talk about 25 essential plugins to improve your site performance and functionality of your blogging website:
- The security of WordPress blog (Security Plugins)
- The performance of a WordPress blog in search results (SEO Plugins)
- The sharing and social engagement that a WordPress blog needs to generate (Social Media Plugins)
You do not have to use all of them; just choose the ones that suit your needs.
25 Best WordPress Plugins for Your Blogging Website
WordPress Plugins for blog security
Keeping your WordPress blog shielded is essential. Hackers use “bots” – automatic software programs, to discover vulnerabilities in the installation and gain access to the blog. Once inside, they can install malicious scripts, use the hosting server as a zombie for DDoS attacks, or simply delete all content.
In addition to every headache you may have regarding this, Google may find that your blog is unreliable and stop displaying it in search results.
1. iThemes Security
IThemes Security is listed as one of the best WordPress security plugins, even for your blogging website. This plugin addresses many issues that can make your WordPress vulnerable, as well as enhances security. For example, it will mask the login and admin pages, remove information in your WordPress that may give unauthorized access to your site, scan your site for possible vulnerabilities, and still make regular backups of your database.
IThemes Security uses 28 different types of protection, among them:
- Vulnerability detection on pages 404
- IP Blocker – Manual and Automatic
- Automatic date-base backup
- Protection against brute-force attacks
2. Limit Login Attempts
As the name suggests, Limit Login Attempts limits the frequency of login attempts, including login cookies, for each IP of your blogging website.
3. Akismet
SPAM in WordPress comments, for some bloggers or page managers, is a headache, but it is an easy problem to solve. No matter how hard you try to block, they always find a way to generate spam. The impact on your dashboard of administration is impressive, in addition to the database and the additional bandwidth (access traffic) generated by thousands of bots to bring down your blogging website.
Akismet is the most famous SPAM protection plugin for comments. It has more than 1 million installations worldwide and usually comes along with WordPress installation, which you just need to activate.
4. Acunetix WP Security
The Acunetix WP Security plugin is a free and comprehensive security tool that helps protect your WordPress installation and suggests corrective measures to secure file permissions, database security, hidden version, WordPress administration protection, and much more.
5. Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall
This malware scanner searches for viruses, vulnerabilities, and other security threats on your server and helps you to correct them. It performs a full scan to automatically remove known security threats and backdoor scripts.
6. AntiVirus
Security plugin protects your blogging website from exploits and spam injections. When your WordPress site has been hacked, AntiVirus plugin will help you become aware of the problem very quickly so that you can take immediate action.
7. WP-DBManager
WP-DBManager allows you to optimize and repair the database, back up the database, restore the database, delete databases, and execute selected queries on your blogging website. Supports automatic backup scheduling, optimization, and database repair.
8. Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening
A Sucuri plugin is a tool for monitoring security integrity, malware detection, and protection in general. It offers you with four important security features for your blogging website, each designed to have a positive effect on your security posture.
WordPress Plugins to Improve Performance of Your Blogging Website
These plugins are used to improve blog infrastructure, making it lighter, faster, more accessible, and enjoyable for visitors. These features are also very important for Google’s algorithm and, consequently, for blog positioning in search results.
1. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the first all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including content analysis, XML sitemaps creation, and more.
WordPress SEO was developed by Yoast, a company that provides consulting services in overseas SEO that is commanded by Joost de Valk, one of the great references in the area of international SEO who is also the creator and developer of the plugin in question.
You can compare SEO WordPress with All in One SEO Pack (a famous SEO plugin for WordPress). However, the big difference is that the first one has more numerous functions than the second, thus configuring it as a great choice for the user who wants to optimize your page.
Yoast SEO is really a “Swiss Army Knife” that offers all the tools to configure your blogging website according to the newest requirements of Google and appear at the top of the search results.
However, setting it up is complicated since you have to know the latest trends in Digital Marketing and SEO and make the necessary adjustments.
2. Broken Link Checker
With the large number of posts, pages, affiliate links, and daily tasks, some errors may occur on your blogging website. If we are not prepared to use the right tools, a long time passes until we realize the error and we can correct it. Broken links are one of the most common problems.
Broken Link Checker monitors the links on your blog, including embedded videos, and tells you when to find one or more broken links. This is important because Google is also monitoring these links, and if they stay for long without correction, Google will find that your blogging website is abandoned and will punish you in one way or another.
Another problem is that you will create a bad impression and experience for your blog visitors by letting them click on broken links.
3. EWWW Image Optimizer
EWWW Image Optimizer is the most useful WordPress plugin to automatically reduce the size of images on your blogging website without decreasing the quality of them. The plugin is very important because Google pays close attention to the speed of opening your site – as well as the desktop, either on a smartphone or a tablet.
Heavy images end up disrupting the user experience, especially on smartphones, and make navigation difficult. What happens is that many images have included rubbish, which can be removed without affecting its quality. EWWW Image Optimizer does this automatically.
After installing the plugin, you can optimize any image on your blogging website just by clicking optimize on each of them or by using Bulk Optimize, which already optimizes all images for you.
4. WP Super Cache
Speaking about improving the speed of the blog, WP Super Cache is the best plugin in the WordPress repository to do this type of work. It has more than 1 million installations worldwide, not by chance.
WP Super Cache stands out as a potent plugin offering a plethora of advanced and basic options. These configurable settings can significantly enhance your website’s performance, streamline your WordPress Hosting capabilities, and deliver swift browsing experiences to your visitors. The decision to utilize caching in your blogging website setup varies and relies on your specific WordPress environment.
5. Inline Related Posts
The Inline Related Posts plugin automatically inserts related posts into your content, capturing the reader’s attention immediately. Just a week after testing this plugin, your page views will increase by 99%. It brings a new experience to your visitors and helps them win the fight to catch the readers’ attention.
6. Rankie – WordPress Rank Tracker
Rankie will help you keep up with your ranking on Google by keeping a watchful eye on each position of the keywords. The plugin will update the positions of the keywords daily and generate powerful reports.
Rankie is not only a SERP plugin but also integrates a powerful search engine that generates huge lists of valuable keywords that you can target.
7. Redirection
This is a WordPress plugin for managing 301 redirects, keeping track of 404 errors, and generally tidying up any loose tips your site may have. This feature is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from one website to another or changing the directory of your WordPress installation.
8. SEO Cleaner
We all love to give our guests a warm welcome and present a clean house. So when Google (as a guest) comes to visit your blogging website, the SEO Cleaner plugin will clean up all the junk. It will get rid of all the junk and unnecessary code generated by WordPress in just a few clicks. Whatever is unused and is preventing you from reaching the first page of Google will be cleaned by this plugin.
9. WPtouch Mobile Plugin
Make your WordPress site mobile-friendly with just a few clicks. WPtouch is a plugin that automatically adds a simple and elegant mobile theme to the mobile visitors of your WordPress site. Recommended by Google, it will immediately activate a mobile version of your site that passes the Google Mobile test and ensure that your SEO rankings do not drop for not having a mobile-optimized site.
WordPress plugins for sharing and social engagement
Once your WordPress blog is secure and optimized, you have to think about helping your readers share your content and engage in social networking.
1. AddThis Smart Layers
AddThis Smart Layers plugin serves 2 important things – it allows you to share your content on all social networks and also makes content recommendations for your readers. Sharing engages engagement, and content suggestions keep your blog visitors reading more and more articles. AddThis is actually one of the best social plugins available in the WordPress repository.
2. Publicize
Publicize plugin is part of the Jetpack package of WordPress itself. It is very useful because once activated and configured, it will automatically send your new post to your profiles on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
3. Disqus Comment System
Disqus is an intelligent comment system that creates “communities” based on the discussions. It also has excellent moderation and anti-spam tools and content sharing, among others. Choosing a good comment plugin depends on the focus of your blog, that is, the content and your target audience.
There are other excellent plugins that, for example, are focused on sharing on Facebook or other specific social networks. Anyway, you are the one who chooses to consider what you want to achieve as a result of the comments on your blog.
4. AccessPress Social Icons Pro
Create and add nice social media icons with this plugin. There are 12 different sets of icons available from which you can choose the best. You can also upload your own icons and set and add effects.
Once you select your set of icons, you can place it anywhere on your website. You can add it to your footer, header, and also in a widget.
5. Click to Tweet
Get more shares on Twitter with this plugin. You can create beautiful sharing boxes within your content. It is used by the best sites like Quicksprout, Unbounce, Copy Hackers, and Smart Passive Income. The plugin is free, and you can create an unlimited number of quotes for Twitter. This helps in getting more shares on Twitter and generates more traffic to your site.
6. Affiliate
Utilize the Affiliates plugin to effortlessly share website links using its intuitive dashboard tools. Enhance affiliate interactions through customizable template-based sections, providing an intuitive dashboard, automated registration, and limitless management choices. It seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms, including e-commerce, memberships, and lead generation, among others. The plugin incorporates built-in commission systems and offers both free and premium integrations with popular e-commerce systems.
7. Share This Image
Share This Image plugin simplifies the process of sharing images. You have complete control over the content users can share. With the plugin, you can select from 11 different social networks and customize your own title and description for the shared content.
8. Social Share & Locker Pro
Social Share & Locker Pro is an invaluable plugin designed to boost social shares and engagement. It offers an array of social sharing buttons with numerous features. What sets this plugin apart is its social locker feature, allowing you to restrict specific content and prompt visitors to share in order to access it. If your content includes something particularly enticing, utilizing the social locker can drive more shares and increase traffic to your site.
9. Logaster Logo Generator
Logaster Logo Generator is an online tool dedicated to crafting logos and corporate identities. By entering your website’s name, this plugin generates numerous logos, all conveniently stored in the WordPress media library. These logos seamlessly integrate with WordPress, allowing effortless addition to your homepage, articles, themes, and more using a WordPress shortcode accessible on the logo page.
However, one of the determining factors for your blogging website’s success is the appearance
Many people wonder if the theme is so important to the success of the project or if what really matters is just the content. You can be sure that even if your publications have good quality, if you choose a poor, heavy, disorganized, unfriendly theme, you will lose a good slice of the visitors you would get with another easily navigated, clean, and readable theme.
If you have created a blog, it is because you will share something; If you wanted to write for yourself, you would have kept a diary. Therefore, do not take into account only your comfort and opinion, but also of the visitors. Before choosing that super-colorful theme, full of features that seemed “a little” difficult to read, try to achieve a middle ground between beauty and organization.
These are my suggestions for the best WordPress plugins for your blog. There are thousands of plugins (free and paid) that can be used to transform your WordPress blog entirely, but the ones mentioned in this article are essential for a good initial setup.
