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As the most popular content management system in the world, WordPress has become a go-to platform for bloggers of all levels of experience. One of the reasons for its popularity is the vast array of plugins available to enhance the functionality and performance of your website. Whether you’re looking to improve your SEO, increase social media sharing, or add new features to your site, there is a WordPress plugin that can help.
In this article, we’ll explore some of the blog WordPress plugins, and how they can help you take your blog to the next level. In this article, we’ll be talking about:
- Plugins for displaying images
- Plugins for combating spam
- Plugins for creating forms
- Plugins for email marketing
- Plugins for social media sharing
- Plugins for page building
- Plugins for affiliate marketing
- Plugins for backup and security
- Plugins for SSL encryption
- Plugins for website performance
- Plugins for increasing conversions
- Plugins for SEO optimization
- Plugins for site analytics
Even if you’re setting up a WordPress blog for the first time, this article is a great first step in the process. From performance to design, there is a plugin for everything you’d need for your WordPress blog. Once you get your site underway, you will find that site maintenance becomes increasingly important. There’s a plugin for that too! MalCare is to the rescue, with great security, daily backups, seamless updates, uptime monitoring, and much more. Safeguard your site and all the effort you’ve put into it with MalCare.
In this article, we will discuss plugins that have a range of functions. We’ve covered plugins that are essential for blog WordPress plugins and those that help with content management. So, whatever you need, we have a plugin for you. We will also talk about their features, prices, and alternatives so that you can make an informed decision.
We’ve tested a bunch of plugins and come up with a list that we think every WordPress blog could benefit from. While not every plugin on this list is an essential plugin for a blog, they are all designed to help make your life easier. With that in mind, let’s get started.
Plugins for Displaying Images
Apart from content, a big part of blogs is to display images relevant to a post. For example, if you’re a travel blogger, you want to be able to showcase photographs from your adventure. This can help visitors connect with your content and helps the general user experience. This is why we recommend Envira Gallery, a plugin that was created with the sole purpose of helping you show off photos.
Features:
- Offers pre-designed templates
- Organises photo albums easily
- Shares photos on social media
- Designs video galleries for site
- Creates beautiful slideshows
- Optimises deep-linking for SEO
- Helps with any image proofing
- Creates filtrable tags for images
- Displays EXIF data if needed
- Easy-to-use interface
- 100% responsive layouts
- Syncs with Adobe Lightroom
Plugins for Combating Spam
Spam comments can be a constant and painstaking problem to fix. Akismet Spam Protection is a favorite plugin for WordPress bloggers that will help you combat them and protect your comment section. It has powerful algorithms and filters that automatically detect and block spam.
Features:
- Scans all comments
- Filters spam comments
- Stores comment history
- Reveals hidden links
- Shows comments by user
- Auto-blocks spam text
- Easy-to-use
- Great documentation
- Great support
Plugins for Creating Forms
Maybe you want to create a contact form. Maybe you want to create a survey that helps you understand your visitors. Maybe you want to use a form to encourage new subscribers. WPForms helps you create all these kinds of forms and more. It has a drag-and-drop interface and a library of pre-designed templates for beginners.
Features:
- Offers pre-designed templates
- Uses conditional logic for forms
- Notifies site admins of entries
- Manages all entries on forms
- Helps embed forms on site easily
- Fully responsive forms
- Great free version
Plugins for Email Marketing
MailPoet is an email marketing plugin for WordPress bloggers. Much like other plugins on this list, it has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor and pre-designed templates. You can easily create newsletters and automate emails to your subscribers. It also has advanced email analytics for bloggers, which are helpful for understanding how your subscribers respond to your emails.
Features:
- Creates newsletter subscription form
- Manages the entire list of subscribers
- Helps design and send newsletters
- Designs automatic email notifications
- Offers pre-designed newsletter templates
- Analyses and reports newsletter stats
- Flexible free version
Plugins for Social Media Sharing
If a visitor shares your blog on their social media, it encourages more people to check out your blog. Social Sharing Block is a simple WordPress plugin that helps bloggers add social media sharing buttons to posts and pages. These social sharing buttons are the easiest way for fans to share your content on their social media.
Features:
- Customises layout of icon display
- Works with 10+ social media sites
- Lightweight plugin
- Integrates with default Gutenberg blocks
- Adds headings and text
- Adds images and images
- Adds buttons and icons
- Includes progress bars
- Inserts shortcodes easily
- Adds menus and ratings
- Offers AMP and RTL support
- Great free version
Plugins for Page Building
Elementor is a popular page builder WordPress plugin that is designed to customise your blog’s pages and posts. It uses a drag-and-drop interface and an enormous library of templates and themes to help beginners build the blog of their dreams. It saves you so much time and effort.
Features:
- Offers pre-designed templates and themes
- Great for beginners
- Lots of resources
- Beginner-friendly
- Simplifies page building process
- Works with any theme
- No coding required
- Great free version
Plugins for Affiliate Marketing
A great way to monetize your blog is by becoming an affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketing nurtures a symbiotic relationship between merchants that want to advertise their products and content creators with a following. Pretty Links helps you quickly add, beautifully display, and manage the traffic of affiliate links.
Features:
- Simplifies URL management
- Helps with redirects
- Manages links easily
- Tracks clicks on links
- Generates click reports
- Great admin interface
- Easy-to-use
- Great documentation
Plugins for Backup and Security
BlogVault is a backup and security plugin that was designed to help WordPress bloggers protect their data and manage their websites easily. It has features like automated backups and updates, which help your WordPress blog stay up-to-date. In our experience, no other backup plugin makes for a good enough alternative.
Features:
- Automates backups
- Creates real-time backups
- Offers reliable restores
- Seamlessly migrates websites
- Integrated staging site
- Logs activity on site
- Easy-to-use interface
- Reliable support
MalCare is a complete security solution for WordPress websites. With its advanced scanning and cleaning capabilities, real-time monitoring, and user-friendly interface, MalCare is an excellent choice for bloggers who want to protect their websites from malware, spam, and other security threats.
Features:
- Scans for malware regularly
- Contains integrated firewall to block attacks
- Cleans malware with one click
- Blocks bad bots
- Scans for vulnerabilities
- Easy-to-use
- Great support
- Deep scanner
- Monitors server health
- Great free version
Plugins for SSL Encryption
Real Simple SSL is designed to secure your website with SSL encryption easily. Simply put, SSL is a security protocol that encrypts data transmitted between a website’s server and a user’s browser. It’s an essential feature for any website that wants to ensure the safety and privacy of its users.
Features:
- Easy setup
- Works in one click
- Redirects http to https
- Mixed content fixer
- Switches all urls to https
- Great for beginners
- Free version available
Plugins for Website Performance
Airlift is a WordPress performance plugin that improves user experience and boosts your SEO rankings. With features such as lazy loading, caching, and minification, Airlift helps to speed up your website in minutes. It’s an excellent tool for bloggers looking to optimize their website’s performance without technical expertise.
Features:
- Improves page load speed
- Implements lazy loading
- Caches website resources
- Minifies HTML, CSS, and JS
- Optimize images
- Great for beginners
- Free version available
Plugins for Increasing Conversions
OptinMonster is our pick for a WordPress plugin that helps bloggers increase their website’s conversions. It enables bloggers to create customized opt-in forms and pop-ups that are amazing tools to capture a visitor’s attention. This, in turn, encourages more engagement and conversions.
Features:
- Creates custom opt-in forms
- Designs eye-catching pop-ups
- Offers advanced targeting options
- Integrates with popular email marketing services
- Provides analytics and reports
- Great support and documentation
- Offers a free trial
- Plans start from $9/month
Plugins for SEO Optimization
We use RankMath to help us optimize our blogs for search engine rankings. It’s an easy-to-use plugin that offers both basic and advanced SEO tools. It helps manage the backend, more technical aspects of SEO, and offers suggestions on how to improve content.
Features:
- Easy setup and installation
- Offers both basic and advanced SEO tools
- Helps with keyword optimization
- Helps with meta tags and descriptions
- Facilitates XML sitemap generation
- Integrates with Google Search Console
- Great support and documentation
- Free version available
While RankMath is important, you also need other tools to help analyze your traffic or site rankings. Google has a lot of tools like Google Analytics and Google AdSense that help you do just that. Site Kit by Google consolidates all of that data in one place. It saves you the effort of installing different plugins and monitoring data across different dashboards.
Features:
- Consolidates data from different Google tools
- Provides reliable traffic and site ranking stats
- Single dashboard for monitoring data
- Quick and easy setup
- Great for beginners
- Free version available
How to Choose a WordPress Plugin for Your Blog
There is a world of plugins to choose from and several factors to consider when choosing one for your WordPress blog. Here are our top 6 factors to look at before you install a plugin:
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Compatibility: An incompatible plugin can cause your site to crash. It’s important to check that the plugin works with your WordPress version and the other themes or plugins you’ve installed.
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Performance Impact: Installing a plugin affects your server. The more plugins you install, the slower your site gets. We recommend you install plugins only if you really need them because page load speed is crucial. Look for plugins that do multiple things that you want to do.
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Code Quality: Heavy or badly written code can slow down your site. This makes for a bad user experience and bad ranking on a search engine. Before you install a plugin, check to make sure it’s by a popular developer. We also recommend you install a plugin like Airlift that can optimize your site to be faster.
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Security: The plugin should not negatively affect the performance of your website. A vulnerable plugin puts your site at risk of being hacked. Choose plugins from reputable developers that regularly update their code with security patches. We also recommend you install MalCare, a security plugin that regularly checks for vulnerabilities.
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Support and Documentation: The plugin should always have good support and documentation available. This is to help you troubleshoot any issues that you may come across. Check reviews to make sure.
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Cost: Depending on your budget, cost could be a big factor. Some plugins on this list are free and others have premium plans. Some plugins have different plans for a larger number of sites and some have plans for different features. Consider the cost when you make a choice.
Plugins enable you to customize how your website looks. Plugins like Elementor and Divi help you design pages and create layouts that stand out. With the help of plugins like OptinMonster and Site Kit by Google, you can manage your traffic or conversions data very easily. For example, Site Kit by Google monitors your traffic across different platforms like AdSense and Google Analytics.
Every aspect of a user’s experience—page load speed to general design—can be made better with plugins. This can help improve conversions and bring more visitors to your site. Plugins like Airlift, BlogVault, MalCare, and RankMath (respectively) can automate those tasks.
With that, we hope you’ve found all the plugins you need for your new WordPress site. We wish you all the luck on your journey as a blogger.
The Best Plugins for Your WordPress Blog
- Envira Gallery
- Akismet Spam Protection
- WPForms
- MailPoet
- Social Sharing Block
- Elementor
- Pretty Links
- BlogVault
- MalCare
- Real Simple SSL
- Airlift
- OptinMonster
- RankMath
Some of the Best WordPress Plugin Blogs
- WP Beginner – https://www.wpbeginner.com/
- WPMU DEV – https://wpmudev.com/
- WPExplorer – https://www.wpexplorer.com/
- Elegant Themes – https://www.elegantthemes.com/
The Following Are a List of Plugins You Need for a Blog
- Envira Gallery
- Akismet Spam Protection
- WPForms
- MailPoet
- Social Sharing Block
- Elementor
- Pretty Links
- BlogVault
- MalCare
- Real Simple SSL
- Airlift
- OptinMonster
- RankMath
How to Install a WordPress Plugin
Yes. On your wp-admin dashboard, click Plugins in the sidebar and then click Add New. Search for the plugin in the search bar and click Install Now. Lastly, click Activate to get started.
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