WordPress is one of the most popular platforms for building a website. This is apparent as it has nearly 60 percent of the market share for all content management systems on the Internet, according to W3 Techs. One of the reasons why WordPress is such a great system is because of plugins.
There are more than 35,000 plugins that users can add to their website covering everything from diet information to weather. However, many find looking for the perfect tools to be a tedious experience.
Well, here are five vital plugins that any blogger can find useful when developing the website.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is an incredibly popular format for improving search engine optimization. It provides the tools to connect with the most popular engines while automatically creating and updating the sitemap. This means separate plugins for this file are unnecessary.
Yoast also provides an additional feature when creating content. The plugin will scan a blogger’s content in real-time to show readability. This includes the Flesch Reading Ease, paragraph lengths, sentence structure and more. This is vital because it makes content easier to read by both visitors and search engines.
Users will also be able to closely monitor keywords. This is important because saturating content with a specific word is frowned upon by sites like Google. Like the readability section, keyword use is monitored in real-time as the blogger types.
Another great feature of Yoast is the ability to manually create meta descriptions. Instead of letting WordPress add content in sites like Google using a random string of words from the post, users can enter in a manual description. Many bloggers have found this to improve click-through rates in search engines.
W3 Total Cache
When it comes to performing well in search engines, speed plays a key role. This is also important when you consider that it only takes three seconds for most people to abandon a site if it doesn’t load. W3 Total Cache is a tool that can improve those speeds regardless of what web hosting platform you use.
Caching is when copies of certain information are stored whether it’s on a person’s computer or on the server. These caches reduce the load time of elements such as graphics and video. As a result, the cache affects performance. Instead of those elements being loaded every visit, the information is simply stored locally. W3 Total Cache gives the blogger control over how those caches operate.
One of the key features that many like is the ability for W3 to work with content deliver networks, or CDNs. A CDN distributes a website to various servers around the world so people can access a local “copy” of the site. This greatly reduces access time. W3 supports the use of a CDN allowing users to integrate it into the website.
Jetpack
Jetpack plays such an integral role in blog development that it has been added automatically to many installations of WordPress. It comes with more than 20 modules that act independently and can save the blogger from installing other plugins for other features.
Some of the tools a blogger would find necessary include:
- Publicize: which allows bloggers to share their new posts on social media profiles automatically simply by hitting the “Publish” button.
- Related Posts: will show readers additional content on the site related to the piece they just read.
- Comments: can control how guests leave comments such as using Twitter or Facebook credentials to reduce spam.
- Subscriptions: allows visitors to subscribe to the website and receive emails any time new content is published.
- Spelling and Grammar: which proofreads the content to boot a professional appearance.
- Post by Email: allows the blogger to simply send an email to the website to publish a new post.
These are just a handful of the things any blogger would find useful. There are simply too many to list, and more are added periodically to Jetpack.
Page Builder by SiteOrigin
When the blogger needs to build a custom page, few additions are as versatile as Page Builder by SiteOrigin. This is a free plugin that delivers an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop system for creating a unique page regardless of the theme that is being used.
One of the finest parts of Page Builder is the ability to add any widget to pages or posts. Even widgets that are only capable of being used in the sidebar are functional in the middle of the post by simply adding a row inside the Page Builder editor.
In order to get the most out of the system, a secondary plugin is needed called, “SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle.” This plugin adds far more tools and additions that can be done in the Page Builder editor such as including pre-designed templates and images. This is aside from the many third-party plugins designed to work with Page Builder.
TinyMCE Advanced
WordPress comes with a basic text editor that lets the blogger start creating content immediately. However, there is far more than can be done when the TinyMCE Advanced plugin is installed. This add-on expands what the editor can accomplish for formatting text to create rich and engaging content.
TinyMCE Advanced comes with a drag-and-drop system of adding and arranging editor tools. Bloggers also have the ability to create additional tool bars in case they want to keep some features separated for easy access. This is all possible from the settings section of the plugin.
Some of the additional tools for TinyMCE Advanced include subscript, insert date and time, cut/copy/paste, print and more. List style options, context menus, alternative link dialog and font sizes can all be turned on or off with a simple click of a check box. For the advanced blogger, this plugin even supports CSS classes menus to replace the format menu for greater customization of the content.
And so many more..
Although the success of a site starts with strong web hosting, bloggers will need to put in the effort to build something amazing. These plugins are some of the best choices for creating and promoting content. From personal blogs to business sections, no developer can go wrong by implementing all of these tools.