Plugins for WordPress Beginners – What You Need

Plugins for WordPress – The ones you need…

There are so many plugins available to download on WordPress, the list is endless!

However, these are the plugins I started with.

The following plugins keep things running smoothly, and are easy to use.

Once you have become well established on your blog, you can then research and find different plugins that you might want to help your blog run better for you.

For example, you might want a plugin for a shop, or even to have different fonts.

But for now, these are the plugins I recommend you download to simply help you understand your site better and help it run smoothly.

Blog performance

These two plugins are super simple and all you really need to start your blog. Having too many plugins will confuse you and you might find you don’t need them all. So start with these at least!

* Askimet anti-spam

This plugin will protect your site from spam. (All the scary stuff like hackers or spam comments etc.)

You really need this one!

Without it, your blog will be hit with hundreds of spam comments which is so annoying to filter through on your own…

This plugin filters the spam entering your blog and blocks it out.
Leaving legit comments for you to reply to.

Super simple and easy to set up and install too.

* Redirect

This plugin helps your blog run smoothly by simply adding a redirect to your blog posts that you have decided to delete, or are not working.

Basically, having a redirect plugin will enable your blog to redirect viewers to the home page when the page they were clicking on doesn’t work or is deleted.

Much nicer than hitting a 404 page.

Follow the instructions when you activate the plugin, and it will work right away.

If you don’t have any deleted blog posts yet, it’s still a good idea to have it just uncase something stops working.

Blog Post Writing

Writing a blog post can take some time getting used too. So getting some help with plugins is a fab idea.

The best and easiest tips I have for writing a blog post is to make sure you do the following in each and every post;

• Create more space in your writing. Having the whole text bunched together is not easy on the eye, and fewer people will want to read it. Add spaces between sentences, and keep them short!
• Use images to break up the text so it doesn’t look like just a load of words.
• Include headers above different topics to also split up text.
• Use bullet points or lists for short bursts of information.

There are tons of blog posts about how to structure and write your posts too. Have a play around and find the style that you like.

I have a board on Pinterest all about blogging if you wanted to check it out. It includes post structure to monetising your blog.
– Blogging Tips & Help

* Grammarly

This isn’t a plugin to install on WordPress BUT I couldn’t live without having grammarly in my toolbar to check for all my spelling and punctuation mistakes.

To install grammarly, simply google it, and follow the instructions. You can then add the little green circle to your toolbar. Not only will grammarly check your blog posts, it will check ALL of your writing everywhere; emails, comments, social media posts…

When you have written your blog post, grammarly will go over it and check it.

You can have the free version or pay to get more information about your text and how to make it better.

It makes proofreading so much faster and your text so much better for readers.

* Yoast for SEO

I still don’t really understand SEO (will I ever?), but this plugin helps you tweak your posts so that they are SEO ready, and better all round.

Yoast SEO comes up at the bottom of your blog post when you are editing it. It gives you a list of things you need to do to improve the SEO (search engine optimisation) of your post.

You will then see a red, orange or green light depending on how well you have done.
Adjust your post until the SEO light is green, and the readability light is green.

Readability is so important for your blog posts, so make sure this light is always green too. It can take some time to learn what the suggestions mean, but Yoast have a great support website.

My blog posts really improved once I started to use this!

For your readers

The main thing your readers want is good content, but they will also want a way to subscribe to your blog!

I had tons of people message me because they couldn’t sign up to my blog… So, I created a way for them to subscribe!

Your readers will want to subscribe to your blog if your content is great, they support you, and want more.

* Mailchimp

If you haven’t started collecting emails to create a mail list yet, then you should! (For the reasons stated above.)

Even if you aren’t using your emails or sending anything out, having a way for people to subscribe to your blog is a huge YES in the blogging world.

Having people subscribe to your blog will be in your benefit in the future when you create a downloadable, a product, or want to create a paid mailing list etc.

For Tracking Performance

Tracking your blog is a good way to understand how it works.

You don’t really need to focus on the numbers too much in the beginning. However, it is good to keep an eye on what posts are doing well and how to improve your stats. By tracking your blog you can understand who your audience is and what times they are visiting your blog.

* Google analytics & Exact Metrics

Google Analytics isn’t a plugin you have installed on your blog. You need to sign up for it in order to start getting stats about your blog.

If you haven’t done it yet, then go sign up!
(Google search and fill in the details, then follow the instructions).

Once you have installed google analytics, then install the Exact Metrics plugin on WordPress.

Google Analytics and Exact Metrics work together to collate information.

Installing Exact Metrics allows you to see stats on your dashboard.

You can track how many people are visiting your blog, commenting, liking all that stuff. In the beginning, numbers don’t really matter that much, but it does help to see what does well and what doesn’t so you can improve.

How to Install Plugins for WordPress

It is super simple to install and activate plugins.

If the plugins you are installing require further work, you will be talked through each step anyway, so dont stress.

All you need to do is head over to your dashboard (the darker bit down the side) and select;

1. Plugins
2. Add New
3. Search
4. Install
5. Activate

And you’re done! You can see your installed plugins by clicking on ‘installed plugins’ and you can deactivate or uninstall whenever you want too.

(You could also click this link to see in more detail how to install a plugin for WordPress)

If you are planning on installing other plugins for your site, be sure to read reviews and do some research first. The last thing you want to do is install something that will break your blog!

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Thank you for reading, I hope this helps with your blogging! These plugins for wordpress will really make your time blogging so much easier and seamless…

Here are some other related posts you might want to read!

• How to grow your Instagram organically from the start
• 5 Ways to save money every month
• Lifestyle Blog Ideas

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