The 10 Free WordPress Plugins You Need To Start Your Blog
What are WordPress Plugins?
The 10 free WordPress plugins I will mention in this post have their own unique functionality that you will need to start your blog. A WordPress plugin is a piece of software that can be installed and activated in WordPress to enhance your blog for specific functionality that you might need. WordPress, on the other hand, is open-source software for content management. It is the software you use to create content. When you start a blog, you will need plugins for your site for different functionality.
The plugins listed in this post are compatible with WordPress. With hundreds of plugins available for you to use when you start a blog, I listed the 10 must-haves plugins that are essential for you when you’re just starting your blog. These plugins are free to start with but you can always upgrade as you go depending on your need.
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The 10 Free WordPress Plugins You Will Need To Start Your Blog
Each of these plugins has its own distinct functionality. So you got the plugins you need to start your blog.
1. Akismet-Anti Spam
First and foremost, you don’t want any spammy comments posted in your blog. So, Akismet is an essential plugin to install. It will prevent spam comments in WordPress. When visitors leave comments on your blog, Akismet will be able to know if it is a spam or not. It will save you time approving every comment on your blog because Akismet will automatically block every comment.
2. Yoast SEO
Is a plugin that you can use to optimize your website. There is a free and paid version. The free version is very helpful with your website’s SEO. It is a must-have plugin and you should not miss to install and activate Yoast. Once it is activated, you can go to this link to learn how to optimize your post with Yoast SEO.
3. Smush
Images are essential to any blog but it will also slow down the loading of the site. Smush will help in optimization and compression of your file size. As you upload your image into your gallery, it will resize and compress the image but still preserve the image quality. It has a lazy load built-in and it could smush up to 50 images. This plugin definitely helps in optimization because it will increase the browsing speed of your site. Click here to know more about Smush.
4. Contact Form 7
It is a simple and easy to configure plugin that can create contact forms. It can manage multiple contact forms. The free version will allow you to add a form, customize your form, create customized email messages, redirect your responses and a whole list of functionality to create forms. Once you are done creating your form, this plugin will provide you with a shortcode that you can paste on your site so you can start gaining subscribers or connect with your audience.
5. Social Warfare
Social Warfare is your plugin for shareable icons. It is the most shared icons online. These icons will be linked to your social media accounts and will allow you not only to share your post but also gain followers. You can link to these top social networks and search engines sharing buttons which includes:
- Google+
- YouTube
Register or open your social media or search engine accounts to be able to configure your shareable icons. You will have the flexibility to place your shareable icons in multiple places of your pages or post. And you will also have the ability to have floating share buttons so your readers will have easy access to your share buttons no matter where they scroll on your page.
6. Redirection
Is a plugin that manages your 301 redirects and tracks 404 errors to improve your site. Users get a 404 – Page Not Found error when they hit a broken link or a dead link. While 301 error code refers to a URL that has moved permanently. This is a totally free plugin and there is no premium or paid version. It manages your redirects and therefore avoiding errors so you will improve your ranking. It can monitor permalink changes in your post and pages, keep a log and stores IP information of all redirects and 404 errors.
7. Wordfence
It is one of the most comprehensive security plugins. Once installed and activated, it will provide a user-friendly dashboard that will show website traffic trends and any attempts to attack your site. It prevents spam, malware, and threats to your website. It protects your site against attacks as it can block and identify malicious attacks to your website in real-time. It will send a notification to your inbox each time somebody logs into your site.
8. WP Super Cache
It is a caching plugin that creates static HTML files and stores recently-used information, so it can be rapidly accessed at a later time. When unknown visitors visit your site, it will load the latest cached files instead of processing PHP files each time. It will have advantages to your rankings because your site will load faster.
9. WP Broken Link Status Checker
Another way to optimize your blog is to make sure site loads fast, redirections are working properly and there are no broken links. The WP Broken Link Status Checker plugin helps you find all broken links on your blog and highlights all the redirect. It checks all URLs on your WordPress blog and gives you a complete report of the broken and redirected links.
10. Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
Google Analytics is a great tool to understand your blog traffic. You can get an insight into your blog traffic through Google Analytics because it tracks how visitors interact with your website. It provides you information about the source of traffic visiting your site. You can use Google Analytics to monetize your blog if you can convert your visitors since you can get a good picture of the background and demographics of the users visiting your site.
These 10 plugins have a free version that helps you get started. optimize and improve your blog performance. So, as soon as you install WordPress and before creating that first post, add these plugins first and experience the features that each of it brings into your blog.
Are you ready to start your blog? Check out my post on “How To Define Your Niche”.
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