The world of web development has a lot going on behind the scenes. Web developers need to provide users with a seamless experience that makes them want to return to the site. And it isn’t just about coding a fast-loading website but also about taking care of the UX and UI. Web traffic needs to come in, and it needs to be tracked and analyzed as well. The additional important details come with web plugins.
Web plugins can help a blogger and content marketer track the website’s performance, create email campaigns, gather visitor data, and provide useful visual and functional elements for the visitor.
Web developers work with multiple frameworks and languages. WordPress is an open-source content management system that allows developers to choose from a universe of themes and plugins. It is a preferred CMS for websites and blogs that need not only good-looking themes but also a lot of plugins to provide more functionality.
Let’s look at some of the most useful WordPress plugins for blogging.
5 WordPress Plugins For Blogging
1. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a widely used WordPress Plugin for SEO. This plugin gives a content marketer and web developer the tools to help better the website rank in search engine results. Yoast SEO also helps analyze web page content, including blog posts. It gives the user suggestions to refine the website content for search engine optimization.
Here’s all that Yoast covers:
- XML sitemap creation
- SEO analysis and suggestions
- Keyword optimization
- Search results appearance optimization
- Internal link analysis
- Readability analysis and suggestions
SEO is a vital aspect of every website. Since the goal is always to get more visitors, ranking well on search engines is important. Yoast SEO helps you fine-tune your content to achieve that goal.
2. Premio’s Subscribe Forms
Almost all websites pop up with a subscription form. There are so many types, and designs but not all do the job that Premio’s Subscribe Forms do.
The forms should be attractive for the visitor and easy to use for the developer or content marketer. Premio’s subscription forms are customizable and easy to set up.
From colors to font size and background, you can customize everything. You’ll also be able to track leads from your WordPress website. Your subscribers can be exported to a CSV file that can then be used for email marketing.
Premio’s subscription forms are connected with mailing platforms such as MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, ConvertKit, HubSpot CRM, iContact, and many more.
3. Easy Social Sharing
A website’s goal isn’t just to get direct readers via SEO but also to expand this reader base via social media. The latter can be achieved if readers share the website’s content. Easy Social Sharing plugin serves that purpose.
This WordPress plugin displays various popular social share buttons that the reader can click to share the content with their network. Easy social sharing also comes with a social share count feature that showcases the number of times content has been shared.
The plugin comes with 18 social sharing buttons that one can embed into the posts and pages.
Features!
- Simple and beautiful buttons
- Backend Live Preview
- Responsive Design
- Caching for instant load
- Multiple Button Designs
- 18 Social Network Buttons
- Ajax count update
- Social Share Count
- Floating Social Buttons
- 7 Design Layouts
- 4 Icons Layouts
- Inline Social Buttons
4. Akismet Spam Protection
Another vital aspect of a website is its security and credibility. A web developer doesn’t want to create a website susceptible to spam comments from bots and other malicious sources.
Akismet is the plugin you need to keep unnecessary comments at bay. It checks a website’s comments and contact form submissions for spam. As this WordPress plugin has a global database of spam, it can match comments and contact forms with the same to prevent the publishing of malicious content on your website. You can review the comments in your website’s “comments” section.
Akismet Features:
- Automatically checks all comments.
- Filters out suspected spam comments.
- Every comment has a status history, making it easier for you to see which comments were caught and cleared by Akismet.
- URLs can be seen in the comment body to reveal hidden links.
- The discard feature outright blocks the worst spam. This saves disk space and speeds up your website.
Akismet.com API keys are free for personal blogs. There are paid subscriptions available for commercial sites and businesses.
5. Jetpack
Security, malware protection, and speed are three essential aspects of a successful website. Jetpack is a powerful WordPress plugin with all the features one needs to keep the website secure and running smoothly.
There’s a lot that Jetpack does and makes any website developer’s life easy. It provides website security with real-time auto backups and easy restores. That’s not it. Jetpack also runs malware scans and provides spam protection. Moreover, useful features like brute force protection and downtime/uptime monitoring are free with Jetpack.
Here’s the gigantic list of what Jetpack does for you.
For security:
- It backs up your website automatically in real time and restores it to any point with just one click.
- You have unlimited storage for your backup.
- Jetpack is apt for eCommerce stores.
- It helps you easily manage website migration to a new host. You can also migrate theme files and plugins to a new database, create full database backups, easily duplicate websites, clone websites, and repair broken websites.
- You can set up a test site by just creating a duplicate of your existing WordPress website.
- It displays all site changes. The activity log shows who made the change, making it great for coordination, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
- Automatically performs malware scans and security scans. There’s a one-click fix to restore your site for malware.
- Blocks spam comments and form responses.
- Brute force attack protection that protects your login page from attacks.
- You can monitor your website uptime/downtime and get instant alerts of any changes via email.
- Secure WordPress.com powered login with optional two-factor authentication for extra protection.
- Auto-update individual plugins.
For speed:
- Image CDN for images and static files, like CSS and JavaScript, served from Jetpack’s servers.
- Lazy load images make your website super fast. Jetpack’s lazy loading feature automatically delays media loading on your posts and pages until your visitors scroll to that section.
- High-speed, Ad-free video hosting keeps the focus on your content, keeping visitors away from distractions.
- Custom site search helps your visitors find the content they’re looking for. This feature is great for eCommerce sites.
Analytics and growth:
- Advanced site stats and analytics.
- Auto publishes blog posts and products to social media.
- Easily share Instagram posts on your pages and blog posts.
- Simple integrations with PayPal and Stripe can help you collect payments.
- Grow traffic with SEO tools. An XML sitemap is created automatically.
- Advertise on your site. The ad network finds high-quality ads for your website.
With so much to offer, Jetpack is surely a web developer’s dream WordPress plugin. It’s a must-have plugin for WordPress websites. This plugin leaves no stone unturned from speed to security and analytics to provide you with everything at your fingertips. Your website stays safe, fast, and runs towards growth.
Get The Right WordPress Plugins For a Successful Website
Plugins play an important role in polishing your website. They give you all the tools to help achieve your goals and the visitors all the delight to keep coming back. Automating most things via plugins means you’re left with more time to focus on other important tasks.
Create a successful website by installing the right plugins!
Author Bio:
Aneesha is a Content Contributor at DistantJob, a remote agency that helps worldwide organizations hire qualified software engineers. Her love affair with writing began when she was only ten years old. As she grew up, filling the pages of her diary with poetry transformed into writing real-life stories, experiences, and informative articles for national and international publications. With more than a decade-long experience in content marketing and business development, her love for all things “communication” is seen in everything she does.