Essential WordPress Plugins, Add-ons, and Extras for Your Blog

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase using one of the links in this post, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, Thanks for your support!Howdy, y’all!  Do you feel like a web developer yet??  You should!  You’ve already tackled the two biggest steps: Getting Your WordPress Blog Started and Finding a Theme and Brand that fits YOU.This post will cover the must have and nice to have plugins and add-ons that can make running a blog or website easier, more efficient, and more beautiful.

First, some vocabulary:

A widget is a little coded application that you can drop into the “Widgets” section of your site to offer some sort of functionality or content there.  Think like the “related posts” or “sign up for my newsletter” widgets on my sidebar.A plugin works on the back-end with WordPress software (remember that open source software we talked about here?) to incorporate another application into your site or offer some extended functionality to your site.  These are much more complex, and therefore, usually more useful.  Most of the items below I recommend will be plugins.  You can actually search for all kinds of plugins here in the WordPress store, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Before you do anything else, I’d start with these must haves:

Widget Importer/Exporter – This is a basic requirement that might even be pre-loaded with your theme.  This allows you to find widgets online and upload them to your site.  Like I mentioned earlier, widgets can be dropped into the “widget” section of your site layout for added functionality.JetPack – This plugin also usually comes with your WordPress site as well, but if it doesn’t, download immediately!  You’ll get access to a million and one ways to view your site stats, audience information, and all kinds of goodies.  I could write a whole post about analyzing site traffic, but you’ll need the level of detail you get with JetPack to really make moves when it comes to increasing your viewership.Yoast SEO – I have a love/hate relationship with this handy dandy plugin.  I LOVE that it lets me edit the snippet (the preview of content displayed from your site on a google search), so I can give a quick summary of my post and that it lets me add more meta keywords to optimize my site for search engines.  I DON’T LOVE the red, yellow green dots for readability and search engine optimization.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist and hate when I don’t get that green light, but when it’s picky about how many sentences start with the same word or how long my post is, I just publish anyway.  I know those things are important to my readers and my writing style, so I try not to get hung up on the Yoast checklist.WordPress Related Posts – This is the plugin that allows me to not only have a list of related posts after each post, but choose WHICH posts and what FORMAT to display them in.  I love it because I can think about my ideal reader for each post and suggest other content they might be interested in.  The people who want my roast chicken recipe might not care about my WordPress comparison, so I can make sure they only see relevant posts.Instagram Feed – I use this plugin to display my Instagram feed at the bottom of my site!  This is the best way for my readers to see what I’m up to each day, catch post previews, and interact with me.  Plus my daughter usually appears at least once every 6 posts, and I think she makes just about everything cuter.Ninja Forms – This user-friendly plugin helped me build and customize my contact form – a definite must for any professional website!Pinterest Pin It Button – If you use Pinterest to drive traffic to your site, you MUST have a Pin It button.  This makes every picture and your whole post super-easy for anyone to pin.

Here are some nice to have extras that I use and love:

Content Views Pro – This plugin displays my posts like a Pinterest board on each blog category page.  It was a one-time $39 cost that makes my posts more appealing to the eye and makes my site look professional.  PLUS it’s easy for readers to share on social media from these pages too!ConvertKit – This isn’t a plugin, but I was tempted to make it a must have.  ConvertKit is an email subscription service that you can use to manage your email list.  No email list you say?  Time to start one.  I even signed up without having a single person on my email list.  And then my first subscriber was my mom.  Still.  Totally.  Worth.  It.  You can tag people into groups, send automatic freebies with sign ups, and create email sequences.  It is easy as pie, and I have a whole post all about it coming soon!PopupAlly – This plugin is FREE, which is kind of crazy considering what it does!  This fancy thing lets me create pop ups for email sign ups, which is super handy, but it also lets you customize the pop ups.  You can choose which pages show the pop up, how long before they pop up, and even pop ups that show up when a reader is about to leave your site!  Super cool when used correctly.Amazon Associates Link Builder – This makes blogging as an Amazon Affiliate super easy.  No more going to your Amazon site to get links, you can just search right in your post draft page!This list should be plenty to get you started!  Next time we’ll cover the best part – WRITING!  That’s why you started a blog isn’t it?