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It’s been almost a year since I started this blog and the learning curve has been steep! The initial process of setting it up took the most time and effort, but – as I found out – there’s a lot more to do even after your site is up and running.
I had no idea what plugins were before I started blogging. However, after some research, I realised just how much they can change and improve the functionality of your blog.
If you’re unsure which plugins you might need, here are some of the ones I wish I knew about when I first started my blog…
Essential WordPress plugins for beginner bloggers:
1. UpdraftPlus
PRICE: Free
I recently had an issue with one of my plugins that for some reason caused my problems with my whole homepage. The images and text from this one plugin started overlapping the rest of the content and it did not look pretty!
While I managed to get this fixed in the end, my main thought throughout this whole process was “I wish I backed up my site”. If I had, I would have only needed to restore it to the last backup and everything would have been back to normal in minutes. Instead it took days 😭
This incident really made it clear to me that I needed a way to protect my blog and it’s content. That’s why I installed Updraft Plus.
This plugin is great because it allows you to schedule backups to a remote storage service of your choice (e.g. Dropbox, Google Cloud, Microsoft OneDrive etc). This means you always have the reassurance that if something goes wrong, not all is lost, you have a copy of your content somewhere else.
2. jQuery Pin It Button for Images
PRICE: Free
Bloggers will always tell you that if you want to get your content out there, you need to make your images shareable. One of the easiest ways to do this is by adding a ‘Pin It’ button.
This jQuery plugin allows you to add a ‘Pin It’ button to all the images on your blog posts and pages. When a reader hovers over an image, the button will flash up. When clicked, it will direct them to a pop-up window where they can edit the description before pinning.
What I love about this plugin is that it’s super customisable. You can upload your own button and decide how big it is and where you want it to be placed.
3. Yoast SEO
PRICE: Free
If you struggle with SEO, or if you’re not sure how to get your posts to start ranking on Google, Yoast SEO is the easiest way to optimise your content.
It will analyse your blog posts/pages and tell you the areas in which you can improve. If there are issues with the readability, e.g you’re using the passive voice too much or your paragraphs are too long, the plugin will flag it up.
Similarly, if you haven’t included enough internal links or you haven’t used your keyword enough, Yoast SEO will let you know that these are things you need to focus on.
4. Affylite – Easy Affiliate Disclosure and Disclaimer
PRICE: Free
Legally, you must disclose affiliate links in every blog post that contains them. If you’re worried that you might not remember to do so, I recommend installing a plugin that will do it for you.
I went for Affylite because I found it to be the most simple way to do this. You literally just type your disclosure statement into the text box and the plugin will add it to the top of all your blog posts/pages.
If you want to include a link to your disclaimer page, you can use the following bit of code:
Read my full disclaimer <a href=”[insert URL of your disclaimer]”>here</a>.
5. Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode & Landing Pages by SeedProd
PRICE: Free
If you haven’t launched your blog yet, or if you’re in the process of changing themes and you need to temporarily deactivate your site, this is the plugin that you’ll need.
This plugin allows you to work on your site in private so only logged in visitors will be able to see your blog while it’s under construction.
The Coming Soon Page Mode is amazing because it still means your pages can be indexed by search engines – even if they’re not yet available to the public.
Maintenance Mode is also a lifesaver if you’re carrying out short-term maintenance on your site. It sends a 503 notification to search engines to let them know that your blog is temporarily unavailable but will be back soon.
And that’s it – my top 5 free WordPress plugins! Which other WordPress plugins do you think are essential? Let me know if there are any I should add to this list!
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