My TOP 10 WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using To Kick Start Your WordPress Blog
There are endless WordPress Plugins that you can use to help you build a fantastic WordPress Blog. Some good and some not so good and some are a must have.
Here are the Infobunny Top 10 WordPress Plugins to boost site security, the aesthetic look and feel of your site. Options to cover SEO requirements, social sharing functionality and more.
I have split my Top 10 WordPress Plugins Article into 2 parts with this being part 1 of 2.
The Plugins listed in both articles are done so in no particular order. We are not affiliated with any featured plugin
1/ BackWPup
We need to start our Top 10 WordPress Plugins list with an essential WordPress plugin and that is BackWPup.
It is an absolute must from day one of owning a WordPress Blog that you back up your work regularly, because if something goes wrong then all is lost. Imagine if you were to spend hours, weeks months, even years creating your website or worse still paying $100s of dollars to someone to build your website for you, only for a corruption to occur or for someone to hack you and make a real mess. All that work is lost.
With the BackWPup WordPress Plugin, you can schedule daily tasks to backup your complete system.
Here is a great article that explains exactly how BackWPup works
Creating Backup Jobs with BackWPup
Backups are one of the best defense against any sort of security threat toward your website.
Regular backups are one thing that every blogger/webmaster should have.
In past we showed you how to keep your content safe with BackupBuddy, and how to manually create WordPress database backups. However, BackupBuddy costs money and manual backups take time.
What if we told you that you can create complete WordPress backup for free? Not only that, you can also store them on the cloud, and schedule to do this automatically.
In this article we will show you how to create a complete WordPress backup for free with BackWPup.
I know that backing up your WordPress is the boring side of WordPress Blogging but please, please, please take the time to secure your content so that if you should you at any point need to restore your website after a corruption or a security breach your covered and can be up and running with minimum downtime and minimum loss of your content.
This leads us to the second WordPress Plugin from my Top 10, and it is another security plugin.
2/ Wordfence Security
Wordfence is a great security plugin that protects and keeps your content safe from potential hacks that can cause havoc on your blog. Wordfence filters live traffic and verifies your sites source code integrity.
The plugin collects data in real time from the thousands of websites that it protects and uses that data to block distributed attacks as they happen.
Wordfence actually gets smarter as attacks happen. So even if you are not being attacked you’re still being protected by the systems learned and life experiences.
One of the great features of Wordfence is that you get emailed every time someone logs in or attempts to log in to the admin side of your blog. So if you or a moderator logs in you get an email to say that someone has logged in. This is great as it obviously shows you if anyone is trying to log in who shouldn’t be, it then gives you the login name they attempt to sign in with and their IP address, and with 20 failed login attempts that user is locked out. You are also notified when plugins need updating.
Wordfence is very much your first line of defense and will keep you from ever having to ever use your BackWPup back up 99% of the time, but it won’t save you from a software corruption. So the rule remains the same back up your WordPress Blog!
3/ TinyMCE Advanced
This is a great addition to your WordPress Plugins. TinyMCE Advanced is a plugin that will let you add, remove and arrange the buttons that are shown on your Visual Editor Toolbar. It includes 15 plugins for TinyMCE that are automatically enabled or disabled depending on which buttons you use.
Some of the features added by this plugin
-
- Support for creating and editing tables.
- More options when inserting lists.
- Search and Replace in the editor.
- Ability to set Font Family and Font Size.
And many others.
With the TinyMCE plugin, you will also be able to enable the TinyMCE menu. It is a convenient way to access a lot of features that are not used frequently.
If you really want to get creative with your blog posts then TinyMCE is for you.
4/ Yoast WordPress Seo
Yoast is widely regarded as the number one SEO plugin that is on offer for WordPress. These days you can argue just how useful SEO is with regards to search engine rank. The latest Google search algorithm changes put more emphasis on what you write as opposed to how you structure content.
Where does Infobunny stand on this, well we still see huge merits in working on the SEO side of your blog but now see it as part of the jigsaw to getting great rankings and not the sole solution?
You also need to build up your TrustRank with Google and start paying attention to RankBrain. Google now uses a machine-learning AI (artificial intelligence) system called “RankBrain” to help sort through its search results. RankBrain is now part of Google’s overall search “algorithm,” a computer program that’s used to sort through the billions of pages it knows about and finds the ones deemed most relevant for particular queries.
We also see social media as a huge SEO element along with content relevance along with a relevant internal and external backlinking strategy as well. You can read more about RankBrain and SEO in general in my SEO Guide For 2018.
You can visit the Yoast Website Here
5/ AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages
As we know the load time of your site is an important SEO ranking factor so caching your pages is very important to prevent visitors from bouncing back out. Caching remains important for desktop versions of your site. However, if you are looking to really speed up your site for mobile then you can look to move your blog over to AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
Put simply, AMP is a way to build web pages for static content (pages that don’t change based on user behavior, that allows the pages to load (and pre-render in Google search) much faster than regular HTML. The problem is that functionality is often lost, the design can suffer. It is just not as flexible as a normal version of the site.
AMP is quite controversial within the blogging community because it is basically a very stripped down, but fast loading version of your site. AMP is a Google-backed project with the aim of speeding up the delivery of content through the use of stripped-down code known as AMP HTML.
David Leonhardt wrote a great related guest post that you might want to consider checking out called Is your website ready for mobile.
That’s it for part 1 of our WordPress Plugins Top 10. Now it is time to move onto Part 2 of our Top 10
The Top 10 WordPress Plugins To Kick Start Any WordPress Blog Part 2
If you have any questions then please leave them in the comments section below
That’s all for now… To your continued success! –
Regards Dexter Roona
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donna merrill
Hi Dexter,
Wow…these are exactly my favorites also. Not big on putting too many plugins on my blog but these are a MUST! I use BackWPup for those just-in-case times! And of course Wordfence has been such a help!
So you left us with a cliff-hanger? I’ll be looking forward to your next post.
-Donna
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Dexter Roona
Thanks, Donna i appreciate the comments….. part 2 is on the way where we move into more interesting plugins that are to me anyway a bit more exciting than backups.. saying that, remember kids backup your WordPress often!Yes, you should limit what you add as they do slow your site down. The ones listed are very useful though.
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Kathleen McCormick
Thanks, Dexter. This is another in a great series of articles. Useful suggestions some of which I do already and others which I am sure to implement.
Dexter Roona
Your welcome, I hope you have found a few new favorites now.
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Dexter Roona
Thanks Sonia, the first 5 are a bit boring as they don’t really do anything you can see on your blog apart from WPTouch which is pretty good and looks great especially if you use the featured image on your articles.
The next 5 plugins are for me a bit more exciting as they add more character and aesthetics to your WordPress, you can see results straight away on the design. I wouldn’t mind knowing about any plugins you have they you think are too good not to use and also which ones i have your using.
Regards Dexter
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Sonia
Great article Dexter!
I am currently only using two of your top 5 but will be looking at others to include as I make more progress on my site. I look forward to reading your next five recommendations 🙂
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Dexter Roona
Which 2 Soni?
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Adrienne
Hey Dexter,
I’ve heard great things about all of these plugins but the only one on this particular list that I personally use is the WPTouch Mobile Plugin.
I’m not big on a lot of plugins myself. If my blog can function just fine without them then that’s the way I’ll go. I would definitely prefer to have it coded instead.
I’ve used TinyMCE Advance in the past but really just didn’t like how it functioned at all. I’ve tried different plugins to help back up my blog but at some point and time they all fail. I just scratched them all and I do it myself.
I have Thesis so I have built in SEO features although I know that Yoast’s plugin does much more. Once again, it’s not really something that I need.
I have other security measures in place for my blog so I’ve never used WordFence although I do know it comes highly recommended.
Will look forward to your second half to see what else you recommend and if I use any of those. 😉
~Adrienne
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Dexter Roona
Hi Adrienne, these plugins will help you boost security, the look of your site and the SEO side as well. But yes your right too many plugins can be bad.
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Dexter Roona
Thanks Adrienne yeah they are not for everyone and if you get a bad one it can cause a few problems with speed etc, Yes i think WPTouch is pretty dam good, Yoast is also good but you can argue what place seo has now with Google anyway, if you listen to Google its becoming less and less if you listen to seo experts its even more important than ever.
The others are all just to make life a bit easier, it is odd though how sometimes you can make a fresh site and a good plugin wont work you make another site the only real difference is the name and it works like a dream.
Part 2 is going to be about a few plugins that add more aesthetics and functionality, im guessing if your able to code you won’t be using these….. i would really love to be able to code something myself, but i think im a bit number dyslexic lol
I will take a good look at your commentluv article
Regards Dexter
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Sue Bride
I prefer BackWPup out of all the backup plugins and run 3 backups at various times – database, files and xml. I always think of it as BackUp Pup and when I come to install it on a new site I have to try and remember the real name 🙂
I also use Yoast WordPress SEO but not TinyMCE Advanced as I do a lot of manual coding. I use a different security plugin to Wordfence but now you’ve recommended it I’ll give it a go.
I haven’t installed any mobile plugins but I’m going for responsive themes these days so don’t need a plugin.
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Dexter Roona
Thanks for stopping by Sue, we will have to have a char about responsive sites and the benefits. Do you get a mobile version with one or do they still display like the desktop version?
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Willena Flewelling
Hi Dexter,
BackWPup comes highly recommended, and I did get the plugin a while back — but I couldn’t figure out how to USE it! I will definitely come back to your post next week and read the article you linked to, and see if doesn’t clear things up for me. If not, there’s always YouTube…
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Dexter Roona
Thanks Willena, yeah its a good one to read up on. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
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NT Izuchi
I knew of some of these plugins but many of them are brand new in my eyes like the backup plugin. Thanks for sharing! Great resource here Dexter!
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Dexter Roona
Your welcome Nt
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Kyle Holcomb
Hello Dexter,
Nice post! I have been writing blogs for a couple of months now and recently switched to my own hosted blog. It has made a huge difference and being able to customize my blog has resulted in more traffic. One thing that I noticed is that there is a large quantity of plugins, but most of them will make no significant difference in your traffic or profits. I have a few already, but I will look into adding the ones you mentioned to my list! Thank you for sharing with us
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Dexter Roona
Yeah self hosted makes a huge difference to the range of plugins you can use, you will find your own soon enough so look forward to seeing your list.
regards Dexter
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Dexter Roona
Thanks Jason yes its a good one, how is Team Site working for you
regards Dexter
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Jacs Henderson
Liking this post Dexter, and I agree it’s good to start with the ones, that although they may be boring… they do a great job in setting up security and editor functions.
Getting security set up is So Important, and using a basic SEO plugin is I think still a good idea to remind you to do the basic common sense options, without going overboard… after all, changes seem to be constant these days on Google.
Fab suggestions 🙂
Jacs
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Dexter Roona
A site without security is a site on borrowed time 😉
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Lesly Federici
Hey Dexter ..
I have most of these, but I didn’t know about the WP Touch! I’ll get that one now.. thank you my friend …
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Dexter Roona
Your better to now move over to AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages
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Jenni Ryan
Thanks Dexter. I think I have most of those plug ins. Thanks for sharing.
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Dexter Roona
We are on the same WordPress wavelength 😉
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Kathryn Maclean
Excellent writeup Dexter on plugins.
I am writing a pdf on plugins to use as a
lead magnet and now I see I need to do more
work on it and will take a look at all you
have here. Really well done!
Dexter Roona
Thanks let me see the PDF when it is done.
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Dexter Roona
Which ones are you using Jenni?
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Anna Victoria
Gorgeous list, as usual.
You can make your blog more effective using Blog Designer WordPress plugin. It will make your blog page more effective and eye catchy to your site visitors. Check it here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/blog-designer/
Dexter Roona
Is this a plugin that you have an affiliation with?
Alisha Ross
hope you are doing fine. I have a rather off-topic question for you. I’m facing some kind of difficulties with my blog and I thought you could help me. As you might well know, I offer guest posting opportunities and reward guest writers with two dofollow backlinks in the bio line. However, I have recently noticed that any outgoing links on my blog post are automatically attributed as nofollow. I mean, there is no rel=”nofollow” inside the post editor panel but still when the post goes live, all the outgoing links (except the inbound ones) are nofollow. I am not using any plugin that might do this.
Could you tell me what’s causing this problem?
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Dexter Roona
Are you using any kind of author box that could be doing it?
Is the site a WordPress.org site? WordPress by default is dofollow.
It could be a theme option.
Moses Brodin
Haven’t you mentioned KeywordLuv or have I skipped it in your list? It is one of my favourite plugins for WP, because it allows people to use both keywords and their real names. I see you’ve installed it here on your blog, that’s great, I really appreciate it!
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Mayank Kumar
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