So, you’ve decided to create a blog using Wordpress. You have gotten it set-up and it looks rather snazzy if you do say yourself! You want to get it “out there” on the search engines and get people talking about it. You want to be able to update information quickly and basically just want to have a fantastic site that is easy to use and functions just how you would like it to! Well, in reality – we all want that, right? Some companies have to spend a HEAP of money getting their sites customised to work well, but thankfully Wordpress has fantastic developers from all over the world developing plugins that will make your life easier.
If you are new to blogging, here are my suggested top 10 plugins you consider installing on your website:
- Akismet – this plugin can save you a LOT of time when spammers find your site. It helps take care of spammers and their comments, so definitely worth installing on your blog. Make sure to read the licence (Keys are free for personal blogs). [ More Info ] For another free option, check out Anti-spam Bee (I haven’t used it, but it does a similar sort of thing)
- Faster Image Insert – I run a few blogs and without this plugin, it would have taken me HOURS to add all the images I add. Momtrepreneur isn’t particularly image intensive, but every post I do on my South Africa Wedding blog has a number of images needing to be added – this plugin has saved me a LOT of time and hassle. [ More Info ]
- Related Posts Thumbnails – this plugin displays posts that may be relevant to the person reading the current blog post. For example, my Mommy Blogging blog post has related blog posts displayed relating to mommy blogging. This is great for interlinking within the site and providing easy to find info for your visitors. [Related Posted Thumbnails OR Yet Another Related Posts Plugin ]
- Digg Digg – this is a social tool bar on the side of your site. I don’t use it on Momtrepreneur YET, but will probably do so in the near future. Definitely worth checking out if you want social sharing happening on your site as it’s in your visitors face which makes it easy for them to share with a friend, like it on Facebook or Tweet it. [ More Info ]
- Contact Form 7 – if you want to include forms on your site, then this is easy to implement and you can put a form in your posts / pages and setup the various fields you need. Easy to use! [ More Info ]
- WP Super Cache – this helps with speeding up your blog by creating HTML pages and therefore reducing all the fancy PHP scripts from doing their processing [ More Info ]
- Jet Pack – I’m still new to this plugin, but so far, I quite like it. You will need to setup an account on Wordpress.com to use it, but it provides a lot of different functionality for you including Stats, Email Subscription functionality, carousel functionality and a lot more. Best you check it out! [ More Info ]
- WP Maintenance Mode – this adds a maintenance page to your website for you when you need to make changes. Nifty and will save you time. [ More Info ]
- Nextgen Gallery –this plugin has been around for quite some time and it’s easy to use and add to your Wordpress site. It allows you to incorporate galleries within your blog posts – great for more intensive Wordpress websites. [ More Info ]
- TubePress – this plugin is great if you want to include video into your blog. Wordpress can be finicky about adding video, so this plugin just makes it a little easier for you. [ More Info ]
- Better WP Security – I haven’t used this plugin, but it has been recommended to me. There’s nothing worse than opening your browser window, going to your blog and having a hacker message all over your site OR having everything changes on your site. Believe me, it happens – having being in the web industry for all this time, I’ve experienced hackers first hand and it’s no fun! A few naughty words get uttered repeatedly – GUARANTEED! [ More Info ]
I hope this helps you get started!
If you know of any plugins that you would like to recommend, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Image Credit: WebSEOAnalytics.com
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2 comments
Thanks, this is a huge help, I’ve just started blogging and need all the help I can get 🙂
Hi,
Great Collection of plugins here. Looks Awesome
I would like to share one plugin for Security which is User Blocker WordPress plugin.
This security plugin provides the ability to block or unblock user accounts quickly and effortlessly.
It has various features such as block user, unblock user, counter, role based block user etc.