7 Extremely Useful Plugins for your WordPress Blog

So you have your WordPress blog up and running there is one more thing to do to add some plugins- but wait they can slow your site down! Absolutely yes they can slow your WordPress Blog down. So this post will show you 7 Extremely Useful Plugins for your WordPress Blog which will add great additional functionality.

So which ones should you use and why?

Do you even know what a plugin is?

And most importantly which ones should you use?

(If this post contains affiliate links please see our full disclosure policy although I have to say I tried really hard to make it interesting and even I struggled to write it so if you really must read it you can find it here)

I was Totally Confused about which plugins to use

So I set up my WordPress blog and lots of sites on starting a WordPress blog suggested adding plugins.

Ok, so stop right there Plugins what the heck is that I thought!

STILL WITH ME – don’t worry we will work through this together it’s not as scary as it seems.

The list on WordPress is endless which ones do you choose?

What is a plug in – I will use WP for beginners definition it is straightforward and works for me:

“A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites”

If you want to delve deeper here is the link to the website.

Basically, a Plugin adds more functions to your standard WordPress blog.

For each Plugin I have listed below there are other options but these are the ones I use and so far I have had no problems installing and using them.

Ultimately you don’t need that many – too many and your site will ground to a halt.

This is what I have installed on my WordPress site:

1. Security Plugin

I have two different plugins active on my site

Askimet Antispam plugin protects your site from spam comments

Sucuri plugin will protect my WordPress site from malware, spam and other infections- luckily I haven’t had it tested so far!

2. Pretty links Plugin

This is what it says on the tin basically it changes big long links to nice short simply worded links for instance instead of the big long affiliate link for pretty links it shorts it to Pretty Links

3. Monster insights Plugin for Google Analytics

Well what can I say about this Plugin – IT IS FANTASTIC!!

I was nearly crying trying to install google analytics I spent all day googling how to install analytics before giving up and deciding that nope I wasn’t going there!

At this point, I decided to have a look at Pat Flynn’s Build your own Brand course Click Here

4. Yoast Seo Plugin

This is a simple plugin which can track your SEO for your posts and pages.

I don’t claim to know much about SEO but this plugin alerts you when you need to improve it for your posts and traffic lights when you are doing the right thing.

5. Wpsmush plugin

It compresses and optimizes your images so that they don’t slow down your website.

Smush – Lazy Load Images, Optimize & Compress Images

6. Social warfare Plug in

I love this plugin it is great it has helped me get more social shares especially on Pinterest!

It also allows you to have click to tweet posts.

7. Content cards plugin

Love this little plugin too – it embeds your posts as little cards with images and content of the post as a link to your post.

See this post content card to see what I mean for one of my top posts

https://smartpennies.com/halloween-decoration-recipes-pumpkin-carving/

Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what a plugin is, what it does and how it can help you!

Of course, the ones I have chosen to use may not be your first choice and I urge you now you have an idea of the types of ones you need to review the top plugins for your site.

My advice is don’t go mad and install lots just stick with the main ones I have outlined above and see how you go.

More is not necessarily better it can slow your site down!

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About the author

Five years ago, I began this blog, yet I gave it up. However, after enduring a difficult period of poor health and being told I could no longer be a Pharmacist due to the strain, I decided to revive it.