Essential Plugins for Your WordPress Blog

There are various options that you can use to make your blog successful, one of this is through the use of WordPress plugins. With so many websites powered by WordPress and so many people building a functional website, WordPress plugins are pretty much essential for a unique blog. Here are a few free WordPress plugins that you can use to make things easier.

There are already numerous plugins that you can install on your website and each one serves a different purpose. But when it comes to SEO which every blog should need, the most popular plugin you can use is Yoast SEO:

Yoast SEO

This one is the best SEO solution. It combines what two of the most popular plugins ever used to do. It helps you optimize your on-page SEO (META Title, Description and Keywords) and generates an XML sitemap for search engines to easier find and index your content. It does much more too such as add Open Graph social data so social network display your content properly when it’s shared. Via howtomakemyblog.com

SEO is essential. As a blogger, making your blogs optimized is an important factor to help improve its rankings and visibility. The plugin also comes with different features that you can use for blogs like the XML sitemap for indexing your content.

Search engine optimize your blog for higher ranking results!

One important factor of a successful blog is reader engagement. It is essential for a blog to make the audience engage with the content you’re creating. So how do you keep track of your visitors, or where they’re located? You can do this through the Google Analytics Dashboard plugin for WordPress:

Google Analytics Dashboard

Removing barriers between your blog and your readers can be tricky to diagnose without taking a good look at how your visitors are using your site.

Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (also known as GADWP) connects to your WordPress dashboard via your Google Analytics account. This plug-in shows all the Google analytics reports right on your blog’s dashboard. Sometimes things that are out of sight really are out of mind, so having the data in front of you whenever you log into your blog is a great reminder to listen to what your readers are “telling” you by their behavior. h/t blogging.com

It is necessary for a blog to be secure. The Akismet Anti Spam plugin is all you need for your blog’s security system. A recent post from Purposeful Mothering talks about the Akismet Anti Spam plugin to help prevent any spam comments that appear on your website:

Akismet Anti-Spam

Akismet is a security system for your blog/website. This is probably the most important and necessary plugin on this list. Blogs are a lot of hard work and require immense amounts of time- the last thing needed is for a bunch of spam to appear on your site.
One of the features of Askimet is its ability to block malicious or fake comments on posts. Since I started blogging, it’s prevented 34 spam comments- and considering I started back in September, that’s a pretty decent amount of spam.
The plugin also monitors the website even when you aren’t logged on. For a free plugin, it goes above and beyond. Read more at purposefulmothering.com

Spam comments get annoying. The good thing about Akismet is that it’s commonly pre-installed when you use WordPress so you don’t have to worry about installing it.