6 Best WordPress Plugins For Bloggers - The Visibility Method

6 Best WordPress Plugins For Bloggers

As a blogger who uses WordPress and as someone whose company develops their clients' websites in WordPress, I have a few tried and true plugins that I use and recommend. From SEO to security to social sharing, these are the 6 best WordPress plugins for bloggers that will help your blog gain visibility while protecting it from spam and hackers.
Best WordPress plugins for Bloggers6 Best WordPress Plugins for Bloggers

Free Plugins

The following are plugins are free or I am currently utilizing their free option.
Akismet
SPAM! I trust we all hate spam, but it is just a way of life for any website owner (business and bloggers alike). To minimize spam comments, I use Akismet. Akismet does a fantastic job of knowing what is a spam comment and what is a real comment. I rarely have any comments miscategorized. I use this on both of my sites and for all of our clients at work.
Another helpful tip is to go to Settings / Discussion from your WordPress dashboard. Under “Other Comment Settings”, check close comments after XXX days. I set mine to 21 days and it made a huge impact in the amount of spam I had to empty.
Yoast
There are two big SEO plugins out there, Yoast and All in One SEO Pack. I had been using All in One SEO, but switched to Yoast and am in love with it.  Long post about how to use it coming soon.
Instagram Feed
This plugin creates the Instagram feed you see in the sidebar of my blog. It even has the option to show a FOLLOW ME button so that readers can easily follow you on the social media platform.  You can find plugins for all the social media platforms so choose the one (or two) most important to you.
Limit Attempts by BestWebSoft
Sadly, just like spammers, there are hackers everywhere trying to gain access to websites and blogs. “This plugin allows you to limit users' attempts to login to your website, as well as create and edit black- and whitelists. This way, you will be able to manage access to your website and its content and protect it from spam and unwanted visitors.” I highly recommend you put this on your website. Better safe than sorry.

Paid Plugins

I paid for the following plugins for one or both of my websites.
Social Warfare
Social Warfare is a fairly new to me plugin, but replaced both SumoMe and Better Click to Tweet.  I am using it for my social sharing buttons (see left side and bottom of post).  I am also using it for my click to tweet (see bottom of the post).   It is a paid plugin (only $29 per year) and is the best sharing plugin I have found hands down.
VaultPress
VaultPress is a paid subscription service that will backup your WordPress site(s) and protect you from the most common and serious security threats.  I pay for this for both of my sites.  With packages starting at $3.50 per month, this is a must have.  Backing up and protecting your site should be one of your expenses (before schedulers, content calendars, social sharing, etc.).
What's your favorite WordPress plugin?

6 Best #WordPress Plugins for #Bloggers! Security, Social Sharing, #SEO, & More!Click To Tweet
Cheers!

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Deborah @ Confessions of a mother runner

Look forward to reading your post on how to use yoast.

Elissa
7 years ago

This is helpful, thanks for sharing. I started using Vaultpress for site backups last year after my site was down one day and I suddenly realised that I had no back up plan! Fortunately I haven’t had to use it but I feel much happier knowing it is there.

Tricia@MissSippipiddlin

So very glad you put this out there Glenneth! I have been wanting to put an IG feed on my blog page and this one is just perfect!
I would be interested in getting a whole new perspective on my blog. Suggestions to get the most out of it. Do you do things like that?

ruby
5 years ago

I’ll always opt for Ink for All: http://bit.ly/2XUjrhu Technical yoast SEO features might be worth using however the upgraded version does so many things I don’t want.

About Me

Welcome! My name is Glenneth and I live in beautiful East Tennessee. I wear many hats: CEO of The Visibility Method, SEO & Google Ads Expert, content creator, and more. I love technology, social media, and weight lifting. My favorite place to hang out is the hammock in my backyard. My favorite colors are pink and orange. My favorite team is the Vols. And I LOVE to get email so please drop me a note and say hi!

glenneth@thevisibilitymethod.com

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