10 Useful Plugins You Should Have on Your Website

blog plugins, writing

Have you added blog plugins to your WordPress website? If you have, you may be using some of the best plugins there are. If you’re not, then you will want to take a look and see which ones to add and make your website run the best.

The majority of these I’m either using right now or have used in the past. The couple that remain are ones I would like to use in the near future and make my website the best they can be.

1. Yoast SEO

This plugin handles all of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for you. As you type in your blog post, you can fill in the keyword, and it gives you the items you need to make the SEO the best it can be. Yoast SEO is free.

I have used this app almost since the beginning of my website, and it’s easy to use. At first it was hard getting the right words so you get the green light, but the more you use it the easier it gets.

2. SumoMe

SumoMe has several different tools to help you make your website a great one. It has social media share buttons as well as image sharing. It helps you build an email list and helps generate leads. This plugin is free, but for more options, there is a premium version which is a monthly fee.

I started using this plugin a few months ago after learning about it during a webinar with Jeff Goins. He taught the step-by-step process of how to set it up and touched on how to use it.

3. Wordfence

Wordfence is a basic security plugin that keeps people from hacking your website. It also blocks the IP addresses of bots. This plugin is free.

I’ve used this one since the beginning as well to protect my website from hackers as much as I can. I’m glad I use it because I get emails quite a bit saying someone in France or even in Ukraine has tried logging in. I can’t imagine what would happen if they actually succeeded.

4. Google Analytics

This plugin gives you basic information about your website, such as page views and which posts get the most views. It’s free.

Google Analytics is one I’ve started using in the last few months after I stopped using Jetpack. I don’t pay attention as much as I should to what’s going on, but I’m working at being better.

5. CoSchedule

CoSchedule helps you plan and schedule your blog content. You can also schedule your social media, such as Facebook. Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. While the plugin is free, CoSchedule does charge a monthly fee.

I haven’t used this plugin yet, but I do use the free headline analyzer for every blog post I write. I also read their blog because they have some great ideas on how to run your website and how to market.

6. Akismet

If you want to keep your comment spam to a bare minimum, then you need Akismet. This plugin gets rid of the comment spam and is easy to use. It’s also free.

Askimet was one of the first plugins I got, and I don’t have to do much once it’s set up. It keeps the spam down to almost nothing.

7. Social Media Widget

The Social Media Widget is a great tool if you want to share your blog posts. You can add links to all of your social media and can customize the widget from three sizes and four icon styles.

I used this plugin before I discovered SumoMe. It’s a great plugin if you don’t want to mess with SumoMe.

8. WP Rocket

This plugin is one of the main ways to speed up your website’s loading time. It’s easy to configure and can be done in less than five minutes. An alternative to this plugin is W3 Total Cache.

I haven’t used either of these plugins, but I’ve heard great things about W3 Total Cache. However, when I discovered it’s hard to configure, it makes me wonder if the fee for WP Rocket is worth the money.

9. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a great plugin for selling things on your website. I haven’t used this one, but if I ever decide to sell things, I would use it.

10. Revive Old Posts

Revive Old Posts was once known as Tweet Old Posts. This plugin helps you repost old blog posts. You choose the time interval and the number of posts to share. You can add hashtags and include links. You can also use it with Facebook and LinkedIn.

This is another plugin I haven’t used before, but I like the idea that I can do this easily. I have several blog posts that I would like to tweet again so this plugin looks like it would do the job easily. And it’s free.

WordPress has plenty of other plugins that are useful for various things depending upon what you need. I’ve included the ones here that I found to be the most useful to me or the ones I would like to use in the near future.

Please feel free to share plugins you are using and you’ve found to be useful. I would love to hear about them!

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