When creating and designing your new website or blog, the sheer amount of plugins available can be daunting. However, even for experienced web designers and bloggers, you might find a plugin that you can work with and stick to instead of experimenting with the available plugins and finding what works best for you.
I prefer to work with as many FREE plugins as possible to avoid unnecessary expenditures, but there are some I gladly spend the money to use.
As I write this, none of the plugins I will promote in this post are compensating me. These truly are the plugins I use and enjoy using on my own.
#1 – Jetpack
Jetpack happens to be one of those defaulted plugins that work with WordPress, but I have found that it is a powerful tool. I must confess. I pay for this plugin for each one of my main websites and blogs. It’s only $3.25/month, billed annually for the Personal Plan, which totals $39/year.
The only drawback I currently have with Jetpack is that there is no package to allow more than one website on a plan. I’m not sure if that is intentional, but considering that it is paid and accounted for by the hosting account, I’m sure that it wouldn’t be difficult for them to allow a discounted plan for multi-site use.
There are many features I love about this plugin.
- Anti-Spam – works with Akismet Spam Protection to protect your website or blog from unwanted spam comments and more.
- Daily Backups (included with a paid plan) and archives for 30 days
- Auto-shares new posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr.
- Customize the message that presents with your auto-share.
- Social Preview – Allowing you to see what your auto-share will look like when posted.
- Share as a single tweet or as a Twitter Thread
- Site Stats
- Daily, Weekly, and Monthly views
- Best overall view day total
- All-time view total
- All-time comment total
- Referrers (where the visitors are coming from)
- Top Posts and Pages
- Search Engine Terms used to find you
- Outbound Link Clicks
- Subscriptions
- Video Plays
- Anti-Spam (shows how many spam comments it has blocked)
- Malicious Attack Protection (shows how many malicious attempts have been blocked on your site)
- Downtime Monitoring (Jetpack will notify you if your site goes down and when it comes back up again)
- Related Posts
- Site Accelerator settings
- And there is an app!
Check out the list of what they offer FREE or with a paid subscription here.
#2 – Rank Math SEO
So many people rave about Yoast SEO, but I prefer Rank Math SEO. It’s super easy to use, presents on the sidebar when you’re creating posts and is totally FREE!
- SEO Score on each post
- SEO Tools to help achieve high SEO Scores on each post
- Image SEO
- Instant Indexing for search engines to be notified when new posts or pages are published
- Sitemaps
- Webmaster Tools to allow you to easily claim ownership on your website with multiple search engine websites.
- Connect with Google Analytics
- Link Settings
- And so much more!
I currently use the FREE version, but the Pro version is only $59/year and does include unlimited websites. The FREE version only tracks one SEO keyword, but the Pro version tracks up to 500 keywords and so much more!
Check out what they offer here.
#3 – Better Click to Tweet
This is a simple plugin to help connect your posts and pages with Twitter in a very noticeable way. You can create a tweet that stands out and is easy to share. As seen below.
This is a FREE plugin and very lightweight. It is a great way to promote yourself on Twitter by allowing your readers a quick click to tweet your material. Don’t forget to add hashtags and your website name!
#4 – Code Snippets
This is another lightweight FREE plugin with a singular focus and allows you to add something to your functions.php file properly. If you’re not confident about making those changes yourself, this is the plugin for you!
#5 – Easy Forms for MailChimp
As I use MailChimp for my email list to send out newsletters and FREEbies, I needed a plugin that could assist me with groups and tags. This FREE plugin is a straightforward plugin that allows me to create a sign-up form for each group (allowing for delivery of unique lead magnets) with a selected hidden field. And, it saves that specific form for easy future use. As long as your audience and group are properly configured on MailChimp, this will be a seamless process for you.
#6 – Rename wp-login.php
This plugin adds a field to your settings page allowing you to change the web address to log in to your WordPress account.
By default, WordPress sets up your log-in page as domain.com/wp-login so that no matter where you are, you can log in to your website. However, since it’s common knowledge, it leaves you open to hackers. This happened to me in 2015. I’ll never make that mistake again. It is one of the first plugins I add and activate when creating a new blog or website.
And it’s FREE!
#7 – Site Kit by Google
If you use Google Analytics or want to use AdSense, you need this plugin on your site.
This plugin connects to Search Console, AdSense, Analytics, and Page Speed Insights. It will allow you to glance at your traffic, leads, top pages and posts, and everything else that Search Console and Analytics already allows you to do.
Connecting with AdSense allows you to add ads to your pages easier. Page Speed Insights helps you to identify where your site is needing work. Overall, this is an essential plugin for anyone who uses Google services to monitor their site.
#8 – WordPress Editorial Calendar
This is a simple FREE plugin that allows you to view your post publishing schedule in a monthly calendar form. This can allow you to see where you have a void of posts and properly spread out or plan your post publishing.
#9 – Yoast Duplicate Post
This FREE plugin is great if you’re working on a series and don’t want to start over with each post. It’s also great if you’re revising an older post to reveal newer information.
#10 – Ocean Extra
This is a FREE plugin that goes with the FREE OceanWP theme. This controls how the theme works for you. I find it very helpful.
#11 – Ocean Post Slider
This premium plugin allows you different options on how to display your posts in a slider form, just as the name implies. It works with (and is made by the same people as) OceanWP theme.
#12 – Ocean Sticky Header
This Premium plugin works with (and is made by the same people as) OceanWP theme. This allows your header to shrink and stay at the top of the screen. It allows more room for your viewers to view your content and see the logo and menus at the same time.
#13 – Ocean Sticky Footer
This Premium plugin works with (and is made by the same people as) OceanWP theme. This allows your footer to shrink and stay at the bottom of the screen. It allows more room for your viewers to view your content and have access to your footer at the same time.
#14 – WP Recipe Maker
This is an easy FREE plugin that allows you to create a recipe (or any instructional) printout at the bottom of your posts. It works with your SEO and is customizable in many ways!
What plugins do you prefer to use? Do you have a different plugin that works for you?
