Ask and ye shall receive!
Quite a few people left comments on my last post saying that they’d love for me to highlight some of my favourite WordPress plugins, and since I know how big of a pain in the butt it can be to try and figure those things out, I’m more than happy to oblige and share what I know. This list is nowhere near exhaustive, as there are a crazy amount of plugins out there that do basically everything, but I try to keep the number of plugins I run pretty minimal so they don’t bog down the loading time of my blog, and these are the ones I consider pretty much necessary.
A few things to note. First, you need to be running a self-hosted blog on WordPress.org, not WordPress.com. You won’t be able to download and install plugins on WordPress.com, which was definitely the biggest motivating factor for me when it came to deciding whether or not I should switch over to self-hosted. You also need to be working with the WordPress platform, so sorry to all my Blogger friends!
Akismet
This plugin is a must, in my opinion. It goes through all the comments left on your blog and filters out the spammers so they never appear in your posts and you don’t have to go about removing them manually. It’s not 100% foolproof and has been known to let a few spammers slip through the cracks while labelling ‘real’ people as spam, but these instances are rare and easy to fix.
CommentLuv
This plugin is an awesome way to encourage readers to leave a comment on your posts and reward them for doing so. It checks their site while they type up their comment and automatically puts up a link to their latest post at the end. It’s a great way to discover new blogs and encourage engagement.
Comment Reply Notification
This plugin was one of the main reasons I wanted to go self-hosted. I don’t know about you guys, but I rarely ever go back to a blog to check if the author replied to my comment — I read too many and I don’t have that kind of time. CRN automatically sends an e-mail to your commenters when you reply to their comments so that they’ll know you replied without having to check back. This is great because it helps you make connections with your readers and encourages further discussion & engagement in your comments section.
Digg Digg
The newest plugin I added to my site, and one I’m already in love with. Making it easy for your readers to share your posts on various forms of social media is a great way to get more exposure and attract more people to your blog, but not every reader is reading with a sharing mindset and often doesn’t think about Tweeting, Liking, Pinning, or Stumbling a post. Digg Digg’s floating bar is like a gentle nudge reminding them to do so — it’s not obnoxious, yet the scrolling movement is enough to attract attention and encourage a share.
Google Analytics for WordPress
Google Analytics is basically the gold standard when it comes to tracking your site stats, which are extremely important when you’re trying to connect with companies for campaigns or even just figuring out who your audience is. This plugin makes it possible to easily study your stats in your WordPress dashboard and track things like page views, unique visitors, duration of stay, pages per visit, and what kind of device your readers are using, as well as where they’re from.
LinkWithin
This plugin is an awesome way to give your older posts more attention by including a handful of related posts with thumbnails at the bottom of each of your blog posts. You want your readers to stick around and explore a little bit before leaving your page, and presenting them with some related content they might be interested in is a great way to do that. This plugin helps reduce bounce rate and increase overall page views — it’s definitely a sizeable source of traffic for me.
Pinterest Pin It Button For Images
Pinterest is becoming one of the best ways to attract traffic to your blog and this plugin makes it easier for your readers to share your content on Pinterest by adding a small link button to the corner of whichever image they hover over with their mouse.
Recipe Card
The plugin that I use to publish my recipes. It has built-in search engine optimization that increases your chances of ranking higher in Google, as well as including a thumbnail of your recipe in the snipper. It also has options for readers to easily save and print your recipes. It’s incredibly easy to use and infinitely customizable. Definitely my favourite of any of the recipe plugins that I’ve come across, both visually and functionally.
Shareaholic
Sharing is caring! I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but encouraging readers to share your posts on various social media platforms is a great way to give your blog some more exposure and attract new readers. Shareaholic makes it easy by adding a bar to the bottom of each of your posts which includes buttons to various social media platforms. You can customize which buttons you want to show up, as well as include the option to convert your posts to a printer friendly format in case a reader wants to print them out.
Tweetily
This is another great way to give some of your older posts more exposure. Tweetily will randomly go through your older posts and automatically tweet links to them throughout the day. You pick how many times per day you want it to do this, as well as what you want it to say before the link. It won’t always choose the most amazing posts, but sometimes you’ll get lucky with a gem that you can direct newer followers towards.
WordPress SEO
Optimizing your posts for search engines makes it more likely that they’ll rank higher in Google, which makes it more likely that people will find your blog when they do web searches. This plugin analyzes your post to make sure your SEO is good by helping you focus on keywords and allowing you to change your post title and snippet. SEO can be a real hassle to learn, but it also makes a huge difference in the amount of organic traffic that you can get to your blog.
Non-bloggers: Don’t be shy and say Hi! I love hearing from you 😀 Are you enjoying a day off today?
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Thanks for this buddy- so helpful. I have most of these installed but digg digg looks like a great option!!!
Askimet has been driving me crazy since the blog makover- so much spam- and some blog comments going in there!
I used to be so good about checking mine for “real” people, but the volume has gotten a little out of hand so I’ve given up. Most people tell me if their comments stop showing up… Although I have to admit that I kind of miss reading the spam comments — some of them were hilarious.
Such a helpful post! I am still getting used to all of this blogging stuff and realizing I have a lot to learn! I appreciate you putting out posts like this every now and then!
Amanda. You are a lifesaver!
Thank you for this! I’ve been searching for the Digg Digg but couldn’t figure it out till now. Yes, self hosting does take more work but the flexibility it gives you is worth it! 🙂
Ahhh, what a hopeful post! Totally agree with the Akismet must. Wouldn’t live without it. Kind of miserable to wake up to 150 spam comments and have to delete every single one… And I didn’t know about Digg Digg! How awesome is that. And I really need to get on the Pinterest “Pin It” button plugin. Thanks so much for sharing all the love and knowledge. You rock.
Awesome and super informative post, Amanda! I already have a lot of these plugins, but you know I am definitely going to be looking into the recipe one. That is pretty much right up my alley!
P.S. You should do a post about using the WordPress SEO plugin…I’m pretty sure I downloaded this at one point and was just confused by it all…or maybe I am just not techy AT ALL. 😉
You’re definitely not the only one confused by SEO! It was a -pain- to learn, and to be honest, I still don’t think I’ve fully grasped it. I’ll add it to my list of post topics though 🙂
I man I remember when I first transferred to WordPress and was like “what the hell are all of these plugins” now I have to go through and delete cause I can get plugin crazy! I’m sure this post will be helpful to a ton of people!
What a great post!! I use some of these but others are new so I need to try and figure them out!!!
I actually feel kind of impressed with myself since I already have most of these. Holla for the nontechnical Clean Eats over here. The Comment Luv and Recipe card are both new to me and ones on my blogging list of things to tackle, so thank you, thank you!!!! If all goes well, sone of these features will be making their way onto my site as soon as next week. Cross those fingers and free and waving toes for me. 😉
*crosses fingers and [booted] toes*
those are my favorite too! and wordpress SEO is a new one i just put in a few weeks ago! makes a huge difference!
Good list, I haven’t heard of some of these! One I LOVE is Magic Action Box – it’s a box added to the bottom of my blog posts if people want to sign up for my newsletter.
Thanks! I few years have the blog on tumblr, and now would like to be engaged in the blog more seriously. I choose between WordPress and Blogger. Your post one more argument pro WordPress. It is a lot of useful information!
DEFINITELY go WordPress, especially if you’re planning on taking blogging more seriously. It’s probably the best platform out there.
The timing of this post is PERFECT!
I just bit the bullet and bought a self hosting package!! Now to cross my fingers I don’t break my blog when I move everything over 🙂
Ah plugins overwhelm me! I need to step it up on these.
You are pretty incredible to share all that information with us! It is so helpful and I am so grateful!
Amanda! This list rocks! I have half of these plugins already. I got some work cut out for me! Now if I could figure out my sidebars. Does it ever stabilize or is there always something to do for the blog?
😆 From what I can tell, there’s always something new to do…
Thank you so much for posting this! I’m a new blogger and I’m still learning about all the different plugins. I’m currently using some of these already but some I’ve never heard of. Thanks again!
I’ve been busy the last few days (who am I kidding, I’m always busy.. sigh), so I just got read up on your WIAW and TOL posts. Congrats on getting your media kit done! I did mine a while back, but haven’t updated any stats or used it for much yet. Hopefully that’ll change soon!
I’m going to look into that Digg Digg plugin. Has it made a significant difference for you yet :)? I basically have every other plugin except for that one haha! Great minds think alike. For my recipes, though, I bit the bullet and bought a plugin that helps organ things with nutrition and a whole lot of other goodies. It also worked in tandem with a new food advertising company that places links within it and helps increase my blogs CPM. Just installed it yesterday, so crossing my fingers it works.
GREAT post!
Okay we seriously need to start talking about blog/business related things since it seems like we’re constantly riding the same wavelength. Hoping I can get an e-mail out to you this weekend if Easter prep doesn’t prove to be too much of a pain. Hope you’re having a lovely weekend, girlie! <3 Oh, and I haven't had Digg Digg long enough to be able to tell yet, but even just noticing myself noticing it ('cause I'm -horrible- at remembering to share things) gives me good vibes 😉
Ahhh thanks!! I definitely use quite a few of these but I like the comment luv one and the sidebar share–subtle yet definitely a little nudge for people to share! Have a great weekend Amanda.
This is an amazingly helpful post thanks Amanda. I am thinking of going self hosted and this has given me big time reason to do so 🙂 Now I just have to figure out how to do it and when! Hope you have a lovely weekend!
One of the biggest draws for me in going self-hosted was the plugins – particularly, commentLuv and comment reply notification. I think I have almost all of these…Digg Digg is a new one to me though! I’ll have to check it out.
Hope you’re having a fabulous Easter Friday love!
Thank you so much for this! I couldn’t work out why WordPress wasn’t able to add the things I wanted to my site, now I know I need to go self hosted (which I always thought I was!). Urgh,
Sounds so silly when I think about it now!
SO HELPFUL! I just downloaded every one of these I didn’t already have, thank you!
love these tips! super useful since I just made the switch : )thank you so much! <3 <3
Great plug ins! I use a lot of the same ones but hadn’t heard that Pinterest has a plug in yet. Do you know if the pin it button hovers over every picture or do you have the option to choose?
It defaults to hover over every image, but you can set it up so that only the images you choose will display the option.
Thank you so much! I’m far from tech-savvy – and have yet to dare the plunge to self-hosted – but even as ‘just’ a reader of self-hosted blogs these definitely make a blog more atractive to me. So if I ever get self-hosted I’ll make sure to re-read your tips and add the plugins.
That being said: if you ever had the time to explain the process of switching to self-hosted I’d be more than thankful. I -think- I want to but it intimidates me.
Thanks for these! I’m so pinning them to my blogging board for when I can afford to make the switch! THANKS AMANDA! Can’t wait to hear from you:) Glad you’re doing well<3
SPOONS! This was such a great post, thank-you so much for all the tips xox have a fabulous weekend
Love love love this!! I will have to save this for when I finally self host! Which I’m hoping is sooner than later haha
Do it, do it! The initial transfer is kind of a hassle, but you definitely won’t regret it. It makes you feel like it’s finally your own little space 🙂
Love Akismet and Alpine Photo Tile and I currently use nRelate to get similar posts linked- which I like because it is very customizable. I will check some of these other plugins out!
So great, thank you! I have many of those installed, but I just added Digg Digg and Tweetily to my list of to-dos!!
best post ever! THANNNK you so much!
These are great tips!! I’m so bad at the technical stuff when it comes to blogging so this post was really helpful! I’ll try to tackle some of these fun plugins this weekend. 🙂
Happy Friday!
Great post! Was switching to wordpress.org difficult? I use wordpress.com, but I want to switch so I can add more plugins.
I don’t actually remember if I switched to WordPress.org or if I just went straight to Bluehost. Transferring over was a bit of a pain in the butt, but there are a lot of great tutorials online that tell you what kind of steps you have to take, and most hosts have really great support that you can contact if you run into problems. If you don’t want to worry about it, there’s always the option of hiring someone to do it for you.
Hi! I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend.
This was really interesting to me, as a non-blogger. I have wondered how you have the time and patience to weed through all the comments, how often you have to keep checking your old posts, how the older posts are chosen for “You Might Also Enjoy”, and so on. I would be curious to hear more behind the scenes scoops like what is involved in the process of creating a typical blog post. For instance, how much time you spend per day, costs, how you get products for giveaways, etc. I realize most of your readers are fellow bloggers and therefore, already know all this stuff so I may be the only clueless one in which case such a post would be a lot of unnecessary work for you.
Thanks for your questions, Sarah! I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing more blog-related posts, so I’ll definitely add that to the list 🙂
This is awesome info! I’ve been wanting to move my blog to self-hosted for a while so I can do all those things, but I’m lucky if I get 45 minutes a day to spend on blog stuff, so I may need to wait till the summer. I wish someone could come do it for me!
Thank You for this post Amanda!
I know and use some of these (love Akismet and comment reply and link within) but had no clue about “Digg-Digg” or “Shareholic” or “Tweetily” – I gotta experiment with these! Are they compatible with WordPress 3.9 -the new updated version?
Yup! They should be. I updated to 3.9 recently and haven’t had any problems so far.
So helpful, Amanda! I’d say I have about half of these, but I’ve heard of all of them! Plugins is also a main reason I switched to self hosting. One of my favorites in Alpine PhotoTile for Instagram – it shows my recent pics! Have a great day, girly! 🙂 <3
Oh gosh – this is SO helpful! I’m such a slacker with plugins but these will definitely help! Thanks for sharing mama! 🙂
Thanks for all of these. I have debated going to self host when I have the time for the commenting reason the most! I’m glad wordpress automatically filters the comments from spam and not, that is probably my favorite plug in.
On a side note, I just got a spam comment this morning that did go through. It something along the lines of “Your writing is amazing…” I knew it was false then LOL.