Confession: Until recently I could have easily been labeled a plugin fanatic. If someone recommended it, I added it.
WordPress plugins are so cool and they can do so much to enhance your site. But they can also slow your site down too which is why I have learned to be very selective in which plugins to keep active. Currently here are my top 10 favorite WordPress plugins.
My Top 10 Favorite WordPress Plugins
(listed in no particular order)
- Ahalogy WP: If you haven’t begun pinning with Ahalogy yet you need too. It’s fabulous! Think Pinterest + Buffer and you’ve got Ahalogy. It allows you to buffer your pins so that they are pinned at a time most likely to be seen by your followers. It also recommends a reader to follow you on Pinterest if they find you via one of your Ahalogy pins. Did I say I love this plugin? Yes, I like it a WHOOOOOOOLE lot. I don’t know where I’d be without Ahalogy for sure!
- Akismet: I know it’s not perfect but this is by far the best way to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. I appreciate ever so much the time it saves me from having to work through all the spam comments every day.
- Broken Link Checker: I actually don’t keep this plugin active all the time but active it about once a month to check and correct my broken links. It searches my site for broken links and lists them in one database for me to work through one at a time and easily correct.
- Easy Recipe: When it comes to sharing recipes, I appreciate this plugin for its effective way of letting readers share and/or print a recipe from my site easily.
- Flare: I’ve tried several social sharing bars and this one is by far my favorite. I love all the customization it provides as well as the fact that all my favorite social media resources are included!
- jQuery Pin It Button for Images: In the age of Pinterest, everyone needs some type of Pin it button on their images. This one just happens to be my current pin it button of choice.
- nRelate Related Content: There are several related content plugins out there. I just happen to like this one with all its customizable options. As shared in a recent post, a related content plugin does wonders for decreasing your bounce rate.
- W3 Total Cache: In learning how to decrease my site load time, I’ve learned a lot about how to maximize this plugin. Until then I never knew just how important this plugin is for nearly every site. When fully enabled it can increase your site load time by 5% or more.
- WordPress SEO by Yoast: If you don’t have this plugin yet, I cannot recommend it enough if you are interested in increasing your SEO effectiveness.
- Updraft Plus: I love the fact that this backup plugin backs up EVERYTHING for me and does it AUTOMATICALLY. Now there is no more need for 2 backup plugins. You can do it all here and do it well.
What are your favorite WordPress plugins?
Got any favorites you couldn’t do without? Share away and together we can learn from each other so as to grow in the areas in which God is using us for His glory.
Take it to the next level with these resources:
- WordPress Plugin Directory
- Most Popular WordPress Plugins
- iBlog, the Book
- My Blogging Brilliance Pinterest board.
This post is the 5th of 12 in the 144 Plan to Blogging Brilliance. To learn more about the 144 Plan or catch up on a missed post, check out the complete 144 Plan Training Log.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16