It’s no doubt WordPress is the most widely used content management system and its search engine friendliness may have been one of the reasons for its popularity. Another reason may be because of its ease of setup and use and compatibility with third party plugins.
WordPress plugins extend the functionalities of WordPress and every WordPress site uses one WordPress plugin for one purpose/function or the other but for a new blog, there are certain plugins you must use especially to secure your blog from attacks and explore the full potentials of WordPress.
In this article I want to share with you the 10 must have WordPress plugins for a new blog. So if you are setting up a new WordPress blog, you definitely need to use these plugins. You will definitely find the following WordPress plugins very essential for your new blog.
Must Have WordPress Plugins for a New Blog:
1. Akismet: Though by default WordPress comes with this plugin, most bloggers uninstall it without knowing its use. Akismet is definitely one of the most important WordPress plugins in the WordPress repository.
Akismet is an anti-spam WordPress plugin; it keeps your WordPress blog spam free. See it as a sieve for the comments you receive on your blog, it sorts comments and deletes spam comments and keep your WordPress blog free from persistent spam comments that could affect your site’s performance in the search engine because search engines hate spam. That is exactly the reason why Akismet is one of the 10 must have WordPress plugins for a new blog.
2. WordPress SEO by Yoast: You definitely want to start your search engine optimization properly from the start; you don’t want to realize what a mess you have made of your blog maybe 6 months or a year after setting up your blog. WordPress SEO by Yoast will help you write better content and also optimize your WordPress blog properly.
WordPress SEO helps you keep check of your SEO activities, like if your post title is too long or short, if your keyword appeared in your Meta description and post title, if you used subheadings within your post, if your image has alt tag etc. You definitely need this plugin if you are to start your blogging career right. WordPress SEO is a must have WordPress plugin for a new blog.
3. W3 Total Cache: W3 Total Cache is another must have WordPress plugin for a new blog because it will improve your site performance no matter the hosting plan you are using. The truth is that most bloggers start with small hosting plans and thus slow server speeds.
W3 Total Cache will speed up your WordPress blog performance and thus improve your search engine ranking because page speed is one of the search engine ranking factors. So if you want to start right, then you need W3 Total Cache as one of the plugins for your new blog.
4. WP-DB Manager: WP-DB Manager is a very important WordPress plugin and one every blog should use whether old or new. WP-DB Manager simply backs up your entire database and emails them to you. Most times bloggers forget to perform backups and have themselves to blame when their hosting server crashes or their blog get hacked.
WP-DB Manager will regularly backup your WordPress database automatically and you don’t have to fear server crash or hack. That is why WP-DB Manager is a must have WordPress plugin for a new blog.
5. Better WP Security: WordPress is always on attack and there is no better security for your WordPress blog than Better WP Security. This WordPress plugin is a must have plugin for every new blog if you care about the safety of your blog, because most newly created blog are often easy targets.
This plugin will help enforce strong password to your admin account or any other accounts created on your blog, can also help you hide important information about your blog. Most new bloggers often use admin as their username which makes them susceptible to attacks easily, this plugin can help you change the admin to something else, help you change the user with ID 1 which is often targeted as the admin of the site.
With Better WP Security you can also change the prefix of your WordPress blog from wp_ to something else, schedule regular backups, block bad hosts and agents listed on HackRepair.com, protect your .htaccess file and many more, and these are the reasons why it is a must have plugin for a new blog.
6. Fast Secure Contact Form: Every blog whether new or old certainly need to have a contact page and Fast Secure Contact Form is the perfect WordPress plugin for this. So if you intend to set up a WordPress blog or you just then you certainly need to use Fast Secure Contact Form for your contact page. It is a must have WordPress plugin for a new blog.
7. Floating Social Bar: The floating social bar is yet another must have WordPress plugin for a new blog. This plugin adds a floating bar with social share buttons to your content with minimal effect to your site speed. This plugin will make it quite easy for your content to be shared.
8. CommentLuv Premium: CommentLuv Premium will definitely improve engagements on your new blog. If you want to encourage comment on your new blog, then this plugin is a must have. People love to leave comments on CommentLuv premium enabled blogs.
9. Jetpack by WordPress.com: One thing new bloggers are always obsessed with is Stats and Jetpack by WordPress.com is just the perfect WordPress plugin for this. Jetpack by WordPress.com will provide you with a lot of things like your blog stats, email subscription, social share buttons, URL shortener, social networking enabled comment system, can automatically share your posts to your favorite social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr etc.
Jetpack by WordPress.com can also provide your site with a mobile theme that will render your site in a mobile friendly manner to your mobile visitors and a lot of many more and this plugin is definitely a must have WordPress plugin for a new blog.
10. Google XML Sitemaps: It won’t be nice if I don’t include Google XML Sitemaps as one of the 10 must have WordPress plugins for a new blog. Google XML Sitemaps will generate a special XML sitemap for your new blog which will help Google and other search engines index your blog easily. As you publish new posts you definitely want Google to quickly discover your new links, index them and probably rank them quickly.
Google XML Sitemaps helps search engines like Yahoo, Bing, Google, Yandex etc discover new links in your blog and index them quickly.
Now over to you…
What WordPress plugins do you think is a must have WordPress plugin for a new blog? What are the WordPress plugins you start off a new blog with always? Share with me via the comments and if you have not subscribed to my mailing list, I hope you do so now so you don’t miss my posts ever.
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Ohh!! thats great list of essential plugins. I am very glad that I already using all plugins you have stated in the post. I completely agree these plugins are essential to your blog.
Hello Mavtrevor,
Nice list of plugins there for a new bloggers and it is any how good for old bloggers also. These all are important WordPress plugins. The one plugin Jetpack is something, which takes more time in loading your blog, so don’t prefer that much. Even we can use XML sitemap by WordPress SEO, so that we do not need to add another plugin for it. Although, Google XML Sitemaps is also a good plugin. I will consider using the Fast Secure Contact Form. I am contact form 7 right now. So here is a new plugin find for me. Thanks for the nice list buddy :-)
Thanks Vasant for your contribution and yes all these plugins are very necessary for blogging.
Thanks for your awesome contribution and yes Contact form 7 is also a great WordPress plugin. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Nwosu,
I’m using all of the listed plugins except Askimet because it was moving my genuine comments to spam so i got rid of it.
Some people use All in One SEO instead of WordPress SEO, i was also using All in One SEO on my previous blogs but now i’m using WordPress SEO and it’s kinda better than All in One SEO.
-Siraj
Hello Nwosu Mavtrevor Sir,
You have done really an amazing post on must have wordpress plugins. Thanks for your list. The first 5 are awesome when it comes to xml sitemap plugin we can do it in SEO by yoast plugin and I don’t know about Jetpack so I need to use them right today..And thanks for giving such awesome list for us.
Hi, thanks for this post, my MAJOR problem with the plugins is how to configure and setup the w3 super cache plugins, any help? Live Interview; How to Handle any Phone that Fell into water
Hey Bro
Plugins which reduces our work but make sure to have the valid one because more plugins can hurt our speed and moreover total cache plugin, yoast are worth one I have used the plugins which you have listed
Hello,
Awesome list of plugins, I’m using most of the plugins mentioned above but I’m having trouble with current contact form so I’m gonna be using Fast Secure Contact Form which seems cool.
Thanks
I find Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps is a better and much simpler WordPress plugin to use than Google XML Sitemaps. This simply makes a list of pages and posts the robots can follow. I’ve never had any instance of Google Analytics not finding my sitemaps since I started using this, whereas before it was at least one site every week.
Hi Nwosu,
Thanks for the list of plugins and I agree that these plugins are important for a new blog. But Jetpack is bloated with many features that we don’t want to use. There’s a alternative for this plugin which has only Stats, Extra sidebar widgets and WP.me short links named “JetPack Lite”
I’m not using Fast secure contact form and floating share bar as I’m using Contact form 7 and Flare plugins.
Thanks for the post.
Hello,
no need of WP-DB Manager. Better WP Security can backup database regularly and send to email too.
you have done really great with the list, hope u wont mind if i drop one of my favourite plugin which are ; nr relate plugin for related posts, mobilpress to make the blog mobile friendly and the likes….
Both are indeed awesome SEO plugins but i prefer WordPress SEO for its simplicity and usefulness.
Glad you found the post useful, hope you continue to visit more often.
I was formally using Flare till i discovered it consumes more server resources and i switched to floating social bar which is very light and does not affect the site speed at all.
Surely, just for those that may not use them both at the same time.
Mobilepress is good but comparing nr relate plugin and Zemanta plugins, Zemanta converts more than nr ralate.
Fast Secure Contact Form is quite easy to setup and use. Try it
Try http://www.inspire2rise.com/w3-total-cache-settings.html
All are must have’s Nwosu, especially the floating share bar. Many new bloggers ignore social sharing buttons to their peril. Let people spread the word for you!
Ryan
That is why it is a must have WordPress plugin. Thanks for dropping by Ryan.
Nice collection of must have plugins. All these plugins not only essential for newbies but for all.
I am using almost all except WP-DB Manager. Thanks for great post!
They are really necessary for a blog. Thanks for leaving a comment.
Thanks for sharing the best plugins..im using 3 that you mentioned above but the other could not use it.im looking forward to use this others plugins.
Great post, I really need this for my new projects that I want to get into. thanks very much for this
Hi Nwosu,
I have one question for you, I guess Akismet is not a free plugin.. You have to pay for it. Isn’t it correct?
You can get it for free, just slide the price bar to zero and it won’t cost you a dime.
Oh ok!! I think many WordPress users are confused about the costing of this plugin. That’s why not many people use it.
You can get it absolutely free.
Hello Nwosu,
Are you using yoest? wow! don’t know about that o :). I am still using all in one seo and i must confess that the plugin is awesome because of the new features attached to it.
feedburner smith is also a must plugin every new and old bloggers should have.
Thanks for the list and do have a wonderful week ahead….
I beg to disagree, Zemanta plugins is good, but the link which they normally add under each blog post is really “not cool” of them.
Would go for the Nrelated plugin.
Are you using the Zemanta plugins?
Sure and it has increased my site CTR with over 400%
What if I’ve had nothing but issues with Yoast SEO? And I have other plugins that do all the features that one does. Is it really worth it to switch to re-do everything if I have that stuff already set up?