Introduction
WordPress has been a staple of blogging for a long time now. It is easy an easy-to-use content management system that comes with a ton of features out-of-the-box. So, you don’t have to go through the hassle of installing and setting up different plugins for performing simple tasks like adding thumbnails, customizing your sidebar, etc.
However, sometimes you need more than what WordPress provides out-of-the-box. In this article, I’ll list some of the best WordPress plugins for blogs that will help you boost the functionality level of your blog whether it’s related to design or user experience. So what are some of the best WordPress plugins for blogs? Let’s take look at them one by one:
1. Yoast SEO WordPress Plugin
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugins and for good reason. It is a plugin that can help you with on-page optimization of your blog posts which can help you rank better in search engines. Yoast SEO also comes with a built-in readability checker which can help you make your blog posts more readable and engaging for your audience.
You can download Yoast SEO from the WordPress Plugin repository.
2. Jetpack
Jetpack is another popular plugin which was created by the team at WordPress.com. It is a plugin that provides a ton of features and functionality to WordPress users, including social media integration, site stats, security, backup, and more.
You can download Jetpack from the WordPress Plugin repository.
3. WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache is a plugin that can help your blog to load faster by caching all your blog posts and pages and serve them directly instead of generating them every time when someone requests for a page. It will also take care of all static files like JavaScript, CSS, etc.. so that they don’t have to be loaded again and again from your server which results in an overall performance increase in terms of loading speed.
Most importantly it supports minification which will further reduce the size of the cached HTML file but it isn’t supported by default so you have enable this feature under WP Super Cache Settings > Miscellaneous options section. Jetpack also provides a similar feature called ‘speed up’ which minifies your blog posts and pages.
You can download WP Super Cache from the WordPress Plugin repository.
4. WP-Rocket
WP-Rocket is a caching plugin that claims to load your blog pages up to 80% faster than other caching plugins. It also provides image compression and CDN integration which results in better loading speed of your images as well. Just like WP Super Cache, WP-Rocket also supports minification which will further reduce the size of cached HTML files but it isn’t supported by default so you have enable this feature under WP-Rocket Plugin Settings > Miscellaneous options section. Jetpack also provides similar features like site performance analytics and ‘speed up’ option for compressing and optimizing images on your blog.
WP-Rocket has a pro version only and comes with all latest features available out there.
The plugin may be downloaded from the URL below, and a thorough review of the WP-Rocket plugin can be found here.
5. Akismet
Akismet is a plugin that is created by the team at Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com) and it comes pre-installed with every self-hosted WordPress installation. It is an anti-spam plugin which helps you protect your blog from spam comments by identifying them and then automatically deleting them or moving them to the spam folder. Akismet has been around for a long time now and it has been refined over the years making it more accurate in detecting spam comments.
The best part about Akismet is that it’s open source and it’s totally free to use.
You can download Akismet from the WordPress Plugin repository.
6. Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is a plugin that helps you add contact forms to your blog posts which is really convenient if you want users to get in touch with you directly without having to email you personally (which means that your reply might be delayed). You can easily customize Contact Forms by adding captcha, field descriptions, etc. and also include them with any widget.
You can download Contact Form 7 from the WordPress Plugin repository.
7. Broken Link Checker plugin
Broken Link Checker is a plugin that helps you find and fix broken links on your blog. It does this by scanning all the content on your blog (including posts, pages, comments, etc.) for broken links and then notifying you about them. You can then either fix the broken link or remove it from your blog.
You can download Broken Link Checker from the WordPress Plugin repository.
8. PushEngage plugin
PushEngage is a plugin that helps you send push notifications to your blog readers on their desktop and mobile devices. You can create push notifications for new blog posts, important updates, etc. and also track the performance of your notifications.
You can download PushEngage from the WordPress Plugin repository.
9. WP-DBManager plugin
WP-DBManager helps you keep your database clean and optimized by scheduling autoatic backups of your blog database and then allowing you to restore them. It also notifies you whenever there is a change in the size of your database tables so that you can optimize it accordingly.
You can download WP-DBManager from the WordPress Plugin repository.
10. ThirstyAffiliates plugin
ThirstyAffiliates is an affiliate marketing plugin for WordPress that lets you easily add ‘merchants’ (i.e. the website owner who is offering a product in return for your promotion) to your blog and then create links to their products. You can schedule the creation of these links anytime in the future or you can just keep adding new merchants whenever you find them on other blogs, forums, etc.
You can learn more by visiting their website at http://thirstyaffiliates.com/
Best WordPress Plugins For Blogs: Conclusion
I hope this article helped you in choosing the best WordPress plugins for your blog. Do let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below.
