10 WordPress Plugins You Need for Your Blog
- 3 min read
If you’re running your site on WordPress, like we are here at IP, then using plugins is a must. Sometimes you want certain features that WordPress doesn’t have ‘out of the box’. Other times you want to integrate a third-party service into you site. This is where plugins come into play.
Below is a big list of 10 useful WordPress plugins for your blog. Know of some I haven’t mentioned? Tell me in the comments!
1 W3 Total Cache
This one has more options than I’ve ever seen in a plugin. It’s used for caching your site (among other things like minifying files and integrating your CDN) to help improve its performance and speed.
Checkout W3 Total Cache →
2 All in One SEO Pack
SEO is important, especially if you’re trying to reach as big an audience as possible with you content. This is the best SEO plugin I’ve used and also has sitemap generating built-in.
Checkout All in One SEO Pack →
3 Broken Link Checker
There’s no way to know if a site you linked to 3 years ago still exists or maybe someone left a comment and the link is now invalid. You would never know on your own so Broken Link Checker does that for you and gives you a notification on the dashboard if a link on your site is broken.
Checkout Broken Link Checker →
4 Jetpack (by WordPress)
Jetpack is actually made by the guys at Automaticc (the people who make WordPress). It gives you a whole host of features like Stats, Contact Form, Markdown, Link Shortening and a load more.
Checkout Jetpack →
5 WP-Pagenavi
This plugin I’ve been using for many, many years. It basically adds better, numbered pagination to your site. It doesn’t have super-advanced features but does exactly what it intends too, paginates perfectly.
Checkout WP-Pagenavi →
6 SyntaxHighlighter Evolved
If you’re posting code to your site you need something that can act like a code editor and display you complex PHP of JavaScript functions. SyntaxHighlighter Evolved does the job perfectly. You simply wrap your code in a couple of shortcodes and your code is good to go.
Checkout SyntaxHighlighter Evolved →
6 Custom Post Type UI
You’ll probably need a custom post type on your site as it grows and the default types of Post and Page are no longer cutting it. This plugin is great, you can have custom post types without even touching any code!
Checkout Custom Post Type UI →
7 WordPress Related Posts
It’s a good idea to include related posts if you want your readers to explore your site when finishing and article or tutorial, this plugin does just that with minimal setup and effort required on your part.
Checkout WordPress Related Posts →
8 BuddyPress
Want to add a social network to your WordPress site? No problem, there’s a plugin for that. BuddyPress has been around for some years and adds a load of social networking features to your site.
Checkout BuddyPress →
9 Contact Form 7
If you need a decent contact form on your site then Contact Form 7 is good way to go. Jetpack (mentioned above) also has contact form functionality but these two are vastly different and it depends on your personal preference.
Checkout Contact Form 7 →
10 WordPress Backup to Dropbox
Backing up your site is essential if you want to avoid loosing everything you’ve written when your site gets attacked or just plain-ol’ dies.
Checkout WordPress Backup to Dropbox →
So Many Plugins…
There are many, many plugins out there to choose from. I suggest testing a few that do the same thing to find the best one for your situation.
I want to see what plugins you’re using to power your site into overdrive. Tell me in the comments below.
Thanks to all the plugin authors for your hard work. We all appreciate it!