I wrote a blog post on a simple step by step guide on how to start a blog. If you haven’t read it, you can read it here.
When I started my blog I needed help with finding WordPress plugins that I will need for my blog to function at it’s best. So after creating your blog and getting your nice theme as I wrote in my last post, next is to install WordPress plugins that will give more additional functionality to your blog.
In today’s post, I will be sharing what I use for my blog that will be very useful and beneficial for your blog as well! 🙂
This post contains affiliate links. You can read full disclosure policy here.
1. Popup Ally
Popup Ally allows you to increase your subscriber rate by having a sign-up form pop-up when someone visits your blog. You can customize the way it looks, how many seconds after someone visits should it pop-up, and I love that you can use it with any mail service provider you have.
I have it set to pop up after 50 seconds, so you might see it pop-up in a bit 🙂 It has helped me grow my subscribers tremendously, so I highly recommend having a pop-up form.
2. Convert Kit
Convert Kit has by far been my favorite email service provider. It gives you control over all your subscribers and gives you so much flexibility.
With Convert Kit you can create customizable opt-in forms, landing pages, automated emails, schedule emails, you can tag people who purchase your products, and the list can go on!
If you are planning on turning your blog into a business I definitely think Convert Kit is something you will need to keep everything organized.
3. SumoMe
This plugin offers a different variety of features that you will need for your blog. I currently use SumoMe for image sharer, if you click on any of my images, social icons will pop-up so that you can share the post with your friends. I also use it for the social shares buttons that you can see at the bottom of your screen. If you are on a laptop the buttons will be on your left. This allows your visitors to share your posts with their followers and friends which in turn gets you more referrals and traffic 🙂 It offers so many other features and I cannot list them all here but if you would like more information about it, you can click here.
4. Broken Link Checker
I just recently got this plugin and I am glad I did because it detects broken links that you might have on your site. I find this useful for affiliate links that might not be working anymore that way I can fix them. It’s also good to know what other site links you are linking to are not working properly.
5. EWWW Image Optimizer
This plugin helps optimize your images which in turn helps your site speed up. I love having pictures on my blog but pictures can slow down your site so this plugin has been very useful for me.
6. W3 Total Cache
This helps increase your overall site speed by clearing out the caches and it also helps your reader’s experience on your site. I don’t want my site to be slow so this plugin is a must-have for me! It has incredibly increased my site speed.
7. Fast Secure Contact Form
We all need a contact form on our site that way other companies and other bloggers can contact you and this is the plugin I use. You can see it live in my menu bar. Just click on contact me and there it is 🙂 Simple but effective.
8. Related Posts by Sovrn
If you look below this post you will see pictures of related posts. This increases your reader’s engagement on your blog by going to read more of your blog posts. I also love that it gives you different style options as well.
9. UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore
You can back up your entire blog with this plugin. You can restore everything with just a click either on Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace Cloud, DreamObjects, FTP, Openstack Swift, UpdraftPlus Vault and email.
This gives me peace of mind knowing that if anything were to happen, I still have all my plugins, pictures, posts, etc.
10. Yoast SEO
I am sure most of you already know about the Yoast SEO plugin because this is another must-have for your blog. It helps improve your site’s SEO and we all know that SEO is very important to rank high in google.
If you are new and would like to learn more about SEO you can read this helpful post here: The Ultimate Guide To SEO In 2019
Here are the 10 plugins that I am currently using that help my blog function as it should. I hope you found it useful for your blog as well!
Feel free to ask any questions and I will be happy to help 🙂
What other useful WordPress plugins would you recommend?
Great information! I just switched to a self-hosted website for my blog, and I need to know which plug-ins will be useful! Thanks!
Thanks so much Bonnie! ♡ And thats awesome I will go check out your blog right now 🙂
Have a great weekend!
Janett
So helpful as a newbie!! Good to know I’m on track with some of these and will be checking out the others!
Thank you so much! So glad this helped you out
Janett
This is a great list. I use popupally and love it. Love the idea of broken link checker. I’ll have to try it.Great resources. I like all in one SEO and comment redirect too.
Thank you very much! ♡
And yes the broken link checker has came in handy for me 🙂 Hope it helps you out as well! ♡
Janett
This is absolutely amazing and so generously kind of you! Bless your shining soul! x
Aw you are the sweetest! ♡
Thank you lovely! 🙂 I hope it helped you out ♡
Have an amazing weekend!! ❤
Janett
Fabulous I have been looking for good plugins to up my blog game so thank you for the useful list!!
Sophie x
http://www.sophobsessed.com
Of course, thank you! ♡
Janett
Thank you for posting!! There’s a few of these I didn’t know about!
Im glad! Thank you for commenting
Janett ♡
These are all great selections for new people getting into blogging. Great post.
http://www.susanalopessnarey.com
Thank you very much! ♡
Janett
Loved this post so much! I just installed 3 of the plugins you showed here! I’m new to the blogging world and this was such a discovery. Thanks for sharing! 😉
Yay, I am very glad this helped you out! ♡
Have a wonderful day!
Janett
Good list and good to know that I have most of these already. I’d suggest adding the editorial calendar plug in. I use that thing more than anything else.
Thank you! And I actually just got that plugin ♡ To keep me more organized! Thanks for sharing ????
Janett
I use Blogger but my friend’s just converted to WordPress and she’s so excited – I must share this with her! x
Sounds great Tereza! Thank you for your comment 🙂
-Janett
These plugins sound so useful, I’m going to try and improve my blog look this year so will definitely be bookmarking this post!
Thank you Claire! 🙂
-Janett
I think I need all of these. Thanks for this post, it’s very helpful.
Happy to help 🙂 Hope they come in handy for you.
-Janett
Great Post! I wrote a post about the plugins I love on my blog just last week and am always looking for other great plugins. I can totally use the W3 Total Cache for my blog!
Thanks for the post!
Olivia
Thank you! And I am the same, I love finding new plugins 🙂
Have a great day Olivia!
Janett
I have installed most of these and love them. There are so many amazing plugins.
Yes I agree! I am sure there are other amazing ones that I don’t know about yet, but soon I will! I love researching better plugins 🙂
Janett
Yoast SEO has completely changed my blogging game! The Image Optimizer sounds interesting, I’ll have to check that out!
Yes definitely! Check it out 🙂 Let me know if it helped.
-Janett
Are these for self hosted WordPress? Also, I’m on WP.com…I feel like moving to self hosted WordPress but I honestly don’t know where to start. Thanks!
Yes for WordPress.org 🙂
I found this helpful video on how you can move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
This is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWQg2yQ6xmw
Hope it helps you out! 🙂
Im using yoast but ill check the other ones out as well. Great list.
Thanks Nimra! 🙂
-Janett
I love Yoast SEO, one of the best tools ever! I might have to give some of the other ones a try
Hannah @ The Northern Writes | http://www.thenorthernwrites.co.uk
Thank you so much for this. I am starting a blog/website and this is so helpful! I normally YouTube everything your post has been most helpful so far!
That is very sweet of you Kelsey! Thank you! 🙂 Glad you found it helpful.
– Janett
This is so helpful!! I’m still pretty new to the blogging world and am always looking for ways to improve. Great list!
Thank you Sarah! 🙂
Have a beautiful day!
– Janett
Great list – I actually use all of these already and love them all. I’m going to pin this to share with others
Dani x | http://www.flourishingfreelancer.com
Great info…I’ll be keeping this. I want to switch mine over.
Janie @ http://romanticdomestic.blogspot.com/
OMG! I only have 2 of these on my WordPress! I will now proceed to download the one I don’t have and wonder why I didn’t come across this post sooner! Thank you for sharing this super helpful information!
Thank you! I needed this info for sure! Will be updating my account ASAP
These are all great suggestions- Popup Ally has really caught my eye, since I have no popup subscribe form yet. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for sharing. I’ve been using some of these plugins such as Yoast SEO and they’re so helpful.
Hi Jannet, great list! I’ll definitely be checking out the Fast Secure Contact Form, mine seems to be acting out after switching hosting! x
I honestly haven’t heard of very many of these before so def learned something new! Thank you!
This is a great list! I personally loved Sumome, ConvertKit, and Yoast. They’re so handy and make little tasks so much easier. I haven’t tried out the other ones you listed, but definitely going to keep those in mind.
Ashlynn | http://thecrimsoncardigan.com
I am always looking for the best plugins that other bloggers recommend so these are great! Thanks for sharing :)!
Great tips thank you!
I’ve been looking for a good pop-up subscription option for a while. Thanks for the suggestions, I’m looking into all of them now!
Great info! Pinning!
Great information, I read these and ask my technical advisor (husband)- do I have that on my site…and so on…most the time he says yes! lol but this is good for new WordPress users.
Very interesting and useful! will be downloading a few of these 🙂
these are great. I added too many plugins to my craft blog and didn’t realise that even when you removed the plugin, the data remained on the database. Totally crashed it and it cost a flipping fortune to get fixed!
Love this post! It is really helpful, and I can’t wait to get some of them set up for my own site. Thanks for your insight!
This is a great roundup of plugins to suggest. I personally use all of them except the image one. I am checking it out now, though.
Thanks for all the great plugins. I just switched to a self-hosting site and am always looking for helpful plugins. I love Yoast and will definitely have to check out the rest of the ones you suggested. Thanks again for such a thorough list! 🙂
I love this post. It’s really helpful for me as a beginner to know which plugins are useful and how to install them and what they will do to benefit me. I’m definitely going to add these ones you said! Thank you!
Thank you for this one only heard of Sumo me . I’ll have to check these out !!
Great tips guna save this for future ref ?
Great information! I’m a beginner so I’m always looking for tips such as these!
Love this list. I will bookmark this page and pin it.
I am still fairly new so I was curious about the best plugins to use. This helps me best determine how to set up and run my blog best. I have heard nothing but praises about ConvertKit, but I am currently using Mailer Lite.
Helpful List. I have picked some plugins for use on my on my blog. Thanks for sharing.
Great tips, very helpful thanks
Thank you so much for sharing this. I’m checking few of those like right now!
This is really helpful! Thanks for the thoughtful post.
This is SO helpful thank you! 🙂 xo
I agree with everything on this list. I particularly love UpdraftPlus, because it takes the guess work out of backup and restoring your website.
So many great plugins for things I have been looking for. Thanks for saving me the hassle of trying and deleting a billion before finding the right one!
Thanks for sharing. Youst SEO and Sumo Me are great plugins I already new about, will check out the other once as well.
This was super helpful! Thank you for the tips!
Thank you for this information! I am familiar with some of the plug ins on your list but learned about a few that look extremely helpful. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t think I could survive without the Yoast SEO plugin. It’s really a game changer. I’m looking forward to checking out the broken link checker. Thank you for the suggestions!
Thanks for the tips! I will be installing some of these on my site 😊
Thank you for your tips!
I’m always looking for better plugins!
Wow, the broken link checker is such a great idea! I never knew something like that existed. Thanks for posting about it!
Updraft is a good plugin…. I use Duplicator Pro now. It does make things easier for migrating wordpress sites. I used to do it all manually and it is a complete pain.. Database migration can be problematic if you miss one step. Anyhow, thanks for the list.. Im sure ill find more plugins and I will share them if needed.
All of these are fantastic plugins! I have always appreciated YoastSEO! It really helped get me off to a good start in the beginning of my blog, and now I just sort of use it as a general guideline.
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