10 WordPress Plugins for Bloggers
With so many websites running on WordPress today, it’s hard to know which plugins are best for people who simply want to blog.
I spend much of my day editing and managing WordPress sites; it’s part of my job. So I’d say I’m fairly familiar with the most popular, must-have plugins. Below are my recommendations specifically for bloggers (please note, I am only discussing the FREE versions!):
1. Disqus
Moving to the Disqus comment plugin recently was a great move. Most of the blogs I follow use Disqus, and I find it really easy to set-up, comment and get notifications from. It also looks pretty!
This is the only plugin on this list that I’m not currently using on this blog, and that’s only because my theme is optimised for a different, Instagram slider plugin (you can see this at the bottom of my blog). But here’s what it would look like in my sidebar:
I would highly recommend it though, especially for blogs with sidebars, as it syncs really well and is easily customisable.
In 2014, Twitter launched these things called Twitter cards (here’s a really helpful blog to help you understand what they are). Basically, if you’re going to be sharing your posts on Twitter, enabling cards will allow your followers to see an image or summary for that link, making it more appealing.
As the name suggests, this is very easy to set up, and there’s lots of different styling options to make them fit in better on your blog. I’ve tried many different share button plugins and this is by far my favourite for the ease and looks (give them a go at the bottom of this post ;) )
This plugin also allows you to create your own custom coloured buttons, which is how mine fit in with the rest of my blog theme.
5. Redirection
At some point, you’ll probably find yourself editing the name of a category or updating a blog post so that its URL changes. Without using a redirect, anyone using the old URL will end up on a ‘404 page not found’; which you don’t want to happen!
The easiest, most simple way to rectify this is to use the Redirection. Enter the old URL and tell it to target the new one, and voila! Your troubles are over.
This is one of my favourite WordPress plugins, and I don’t know what I’d do without it! It helps you keep on top of the keyword/phrase you want to be found for in search engines:
It gives you tips on how to make each post SEO friendly, and how you could improve it:
And with the traffic light colour coding, you can easily see from the ‘All Posts’ list whether your post has been SEO optimised or not:
This is brilliant; especially for blog posts that are particularly ‘quotable’ (ie. they contain lots of tips, facts, statistics etc.). This is what it looks like:
[Tweet “Click to Tweet is an awesome plugin for encouraging people to share #wordpress”]
I won’t pretend to know what I’m talking about with caching, but what I do know is that it significantly improves the performance of your site, and decreases the loading time of pages and images (important if you’re blog is photo-heavy).
You can research each element to find out what’s best, but the plugin has plenty of tips and recommendations to get you started.
When you first set up WordPress, Contact Form 7 will come pre-installed, and for good reason! It’s definitely one of the nicest looking, most reliable contact form plugins, and although building the form with shortcodes is a bit of a pain, it somehow manages to blend well into most site themes. Here’s what it looks like on another blog I run:
10. ChimpMate
I’ve spent days trying to find decent email sign up plugins, and I’ve finally found The One. I’m currently using it in the sidebar of this blog, and as you can see, it has been customised to fit perfectly into my theme.
There are lots of personalisation options in the free version (the one I’m running), and you can also add a light box that pops up after a specified amount of time or scrolling, or a post add-on. I don’t currently have these enabled, but this is what they’d look like if I did:
The best thing about this plugin is that, as the name suggests, it integrates straight into your email lists in MailChimp. If you’re planning on sending out nice-looking newsletters or email updates, you should definitely look in to a free MailChimp account!
Fab tips! I’m wanting to give my blog a theme and plugin overhaul so this is really useful! Any tips for an easy to use and customise theme for someone who’s pretty clueless?! x
Thank you! If you’re looking for a free theme I would highly recommend DW Minion; I think it’s really chic, minimalist and easily customisable. You don’t have to get into the code at all if you don’t want to.
The only other thing I’d say, whether you’re looking for free or paid, is to steer clear of any themes that have ‘page builders’. This basically means it gives you the option to drag and drop page elements into a different visual editor to usual, which sounds like it would make things easier, but it really doesn’t! Often they are quite buggy as well, and I would only recommend them for corporate sites.
Hope that helps! Good luck and send me the link when done, I’d love to see it! x
This was a very helpful post! I’m still using Blogger so I know that a lot (or most) of these aren’t available on there. So far I’m happy with Blogger, but if/when the time comes to make a switch – I’ll be back to check out this post!
x Kathryn
Through the Thicket
Thank you :) If you need any help with WordPress when setting up, feel free to ask! x
Lovely and so useful! Would also love it if you could check out my latest post on a week of fashion and beauty London! And maybe follow each other too?
Kisses xo | From Aliona With Love
Ooh just had a peek at your blog; it looks awesome! Now following you on Bloglovin, feel free to follow back (my twitter & insta are @annac42) x
Thank you for these tips!
No worries! Hope they are helpful :)x
What a great post! I have bookmarked it and will be looking into each of these plugins (or at least the ones I do not already use!) more thoroughly when I have time to do a general blog overhaul!
Rae | love from berlin
Thank you! Glad you found it useful – if you need any other help when doing your overhaul feel free to ask :) I’d love to see it when done! x
Love this post. Thank you for sharing all these wonderful plugins. Keeping this bookmarked!
xx naomi – Naomi in Wonderland
Thanks for your kind words Naomi! Glad you found it useful :) Now following your blog on Bloglovin’ x
I’ve been having a serious look in to Disqus. At the moment I reply to comments just using the Squarespace reply feature but I don’t know if my readers are getting informed of my reply. Disqus seems like the way to go as so many people are using it but I’ve seen a lot of people saying they’ve had a drop in the amount of comments because of it.
What do you think about this? x
It’s really interesting you say that actually. I literally only changed to Disqus last week; I used to be really against it!
I changed because I saw that most of my favourite blogs (a lot of which are very popular) seem to use it. I made an account on Disqus a while ago purely for the purpose of commenting on those blogs, and at the time it annoyed me having to create an account.
But I’ve realised something – with WordPress/JetPack/Squarespace comments, you not only have to sign in to an account or fill in your details, it also includes a 2-step process where you have to confirm via email about follow up comments. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve signed up to get email notifications for more comments on a thread, and then ignored the confirmation email. Which is really bad!
Disqus is great because once I’m signed in on my browser, I can comment on (most of) the blogs I love without having to fill in a name or anything! Because most of the blogs I read use it, it makes it so easy for me to comment. I’m actually now starting to be put off commenting on blogs that don’t have it – which I know is really bad – but it means I have to sign in or up all over again, and confirm follow up comment notifications via email.
I was worried that changing over would mean I lost all my old comments, but it’s really easy to export all your old ones on to Disqus, so they’re still there. Also, Disqus allows people to comment as a guest, which is great if people can’t be bothered to sign up. I haven’t noticed a drop in comments – if anything, I think they may have increased because so many people use it and are automatically signed in to it on their computer.
The other great thing is the notifications; no matter what blog I’m on or if I’m on my dashboard, I can see a red speech bubble telling me how many follow-up or new comments I’ve got, and even if I’m on someone else blog in the Disqus section, when I click on the notification it opens a pop-up in the window where I can respond to the comment there and then.
I could go on, but I honestly am sold on Disqus now. I’m sure there are other great systems out there that have similar features, but the fact is that so many big blogs are using Disqus now that it just makes everything easier.
Sorry for rambling! x
Thank you for rambling! I’ve read lots of positive and negative comments about Disqus so was really undecided but after reading you’re reply I think I will give it a go.
I’ve read that I will loose my current comments but as I’ve only just started out its probably best I atleast give it a go now!
Lots of people mainly moaned they don’t like having to sign up but you’re right in that most of the time you do have to go through some sort of sign up.
Thanks again for all the help, I will try it in the next few days and see how I get on! X
Great! I hope it goes well. I’m not sure how Squarespace works but if you’re able to do an export of your blog (which I’m sure you should be able to), you can import your comments manually into Disqus. It sounds complicated, but if you Google it Disqus has good instructions on how to do it :) x
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Quite interesting collection. All are really essential for bloggers.
You can try Blog Designer WordPress plugin for amazing blogging experience. This plugin is specially useful to design blog without any need of coding skills. Moreover you can change blog layout designs anytime.
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This is a really useful roundup for bloggers who want to improve their WordPress sites without spending money on premium tools. I especially liked the mention of Disqus and Twitter Cards because both plugins can significantly boost user engagement and social visibility. The explanations are simple, practical, and perfect for beginners trying to build a more professional blog experience.
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I’ve also found that the right WordPress plugins can make blogging and managing comments much easier. Disqus and Instagram Feed are especially handy, and I’m always looking for simple ways to improve sharing—sometimes even while taking a quick break with an FNF game.