The Best Plugins for Your WordPress Blog

This post is specifically for WordPress users I’m afraid but maybe after reading this you may consider switching over from Blogger as quite honestly there is no comparison. I started off with a Blogger blog exactly a year ago and after 4 months I made the move to WordPress, best decision I ever made!

Plugins are like added extras that you can add to your blog to enhance the site or help you behind the scenes. I have so many plugins installed, each and every one making my blog life easier or my readers’ experience better!

Before I list all of the best plugins for your WordPress blog, I want to stress that you should always check that plugins are compatible with your own blog theme. I have downloaded plugins which have gone on to ‘break’ my site. A plugin will always tell you whether it has been tested on your theme. If it hasn’t, it is then up to you to look at reviews or number of downloads and decide whether to go ahead with the install.

I have 24 plugins installed but have chosen 10 that you most definitely should have for your blog.

1. AKISMET This is a must-have plugin as it stops all of the spammy comments coming though. As your blog grows, so will the spam so it is such a useful tool to have.

NOTE: Please can I stress how important it is to delete your spam regularly. I have been shocked to find that bloggers leave it and then wonder why their site is running slow! 

2. WP SECURITY You can customise this as much as you like to make your blog safe and secure. Word of warning, if you are going to change your login url then look at this tutorial first.

3. COMMENT LUV I struggle to comment on so many blogs and it does put me off returning again. Comment luv makes writing lovely comments easy and it also means if you want to return the love you can easily click through to their latest post!

4. DUPLICATE POST Do you run a weekly feature or take part in linkys week after week? This plugin adds in a button which means you can copy a post to write a new one- duplicating all the badge codes or content that you don’t want to have to re-write again and again.

5. EVERGREEN POST TWEETER This is a great way of recycling old content. I get quite a few comments on old posts this way so it is really nice to know your older posts won’t be forgotten forever.

6. IMAGE WIDGET I do not want to have to faff about with Photobucket to get an image url so this plugin creates a widget which enables you to choose images from your media gallery to go in your sidebar.

7. ULTIMATE NOFOLLOW I have recently amended my post about follow and nofollow links to reflect the update so do check that out. In a nutshell you need to make sure you change any links to nofollow if they are linking to a website for which you have done a review. This plugin makes it nice and simple!

8. EDITORIAL CALENDAR This is my absolute favourite plugin, it helps me to organise my posts and plan ahead. I currently have posts in drafts up to July and it helps me plan my time, making my blogging more efficient.

9. YOAST SEO This helps you to ensure your posts are optimised which helps you rise in Google rankings. Obviously this isn’t important to everyone but if you want to help those stats then this one is definitely for you.

10. WP MISSED SCHEDULE Now this isn’t for everyone but it is my lifesaver! For some reason I am unable to schedule posts without it- they just give me a big fail warning! Never been able to work out why but this plugin allows me to schedule ahead without having to think about it again.

Hopefully there will be at least one new one in there for you. The editorial calendar is worth its weight in gold and is actually the reason I switched over to WordPress all those months ago. When I was on Blogger I would have a list of drafts but had no way of organising them, now I know exactly which ones I need to write and when they are going to go live, so helpful!

Are there any plugins you love?