Are you sure that you have installed all the necessary plugins for your blog? If not, keep reading to learn how to greatly improve your site’s functionality with these 7 must-have free WordPress plugins!
What is actually a WordPress plugin?
WordPress plugins are something like sub-programs that add custom functionality. Each one of them adds a code to your site, so you don’t have to add it yourself or go into technical details.
There are literally thousands of plugins available to customize your blog as you please. For example, you can use them to:
- Make your website load faster
- Improve your SEO
- Secure it from threats
- Add contact forms, e-mail capturing forms and many more.
Also, these plugins are very easy to install and use. They work automatically on the background. All you have to do is to set up your preferences!
How do you install a WordPress plugin?
- On your Dashboard, click Plugins, Add new.
- Then, on the upper right corner type the name of the plugin you wish to install.
- Once the plugin appears on the search menu, click Install Now. Wait a few seconds for the installation and then click Activate.
That’s it! Your plugin is ready for use! After you activate a plugin, you can see it on your left sidebar. From there you can adjust your settings.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you purchase anything or sign up for a program following my links, I will get a small commission. However, I only promote the products that I use for a long time and I’m satisfied with them. If they didn’t bring me actual results, I would not recommend them to you.
The 7 Must-have Free WordPress Plugins
#1. Yoast SEO
This is probably the most popular plugin for WordPress. The reason? It suggests you how to make your site friendlier to search engines, so you can rank up higher in Google.
This powerful tool offers “Focus Keyphrase” and “Readability” analysis under every post. It indicates what you should change to your post in order to improve your SEO.
Note that you don’t have to make all the lights green or follow its instructions blindly. All you need to do is to keep a better than average score.
Meta Description
Further, Yoast SEO helps you to easily change your Meta description (the text that appears on Google under your post’s title). You can choose how your post is going to appear on Social Media as well.
To change the Meta description, click Edit snippet, and enter your text.
Note that if you don’t edit your Meta Description, Google will display the first sentences of your post by default. This often looks unattractive, resulting in lower click-through rates. Obviously, this affects both your Google ranking and the amount of your traffic. So make sure you always have a catchy and promising Meta Description!
Configuring Yoast SEO settings
In order to configure your Yoast SEO settings, click the “SEO” button at your sidebar. Then click Open the configuration wizard.
The process is pretty straight-forward. All you have to do is to answer its questions. In the case you’re not sure about a question, just click “Next”.
Finally, go to Features tab (next to Dashboard tab) and make sure that the “XML Sitemaps” option is ON. This will help search engines to better understand your site structure.
If you’d like a complete guide, you can visit the official page of Yoast’s beginner guide: yoast.com/beginners-guide-yoast-seo/
#2. Compress JPEG & PNG images (This is the actual name of the plugin)
This tool automatically reduces the file size for every image you upload to your media library. If your post has smaller files sizes, it will load faster.
So, why is this plugin important? Because your blog’s loading speed affects your search engine ranking. Also, nobody likes to wait a long time for a page to load. Many users abandon a site if it delays loading more than a few seconds.
To adjust the settings, go to Settings, Compress JPEG and PNG images on your dashboard. Personally, I prefer the middle option (compress new images during upload) so I can actually see what is the new size of the image.
Also, you can compress all the images of your site at once! On the left sidebar Click Media, Bulk Optimization and select all the pictures you want to compress.
#3. Sucuri Security
Sucuri plugin is my best recommendation for protecting your site as it does a really good job for a free tool. It protects your blog from malware, it alerts you if someone else has logged in to your blog and much more.
Once you’ve installed it, on your left sidebar click Sucuri Security, Settings and then click “Generate API Key”. Enter your website’s name and your e-mail, tick the boxes and hit “Submit”. Your account should be activated now.
Note that any tool can’t guarantee 100% protection from threats, even if it’s a paid one. For this reason, we’re going to use the following backup plugin as an extra method of protection.
#4. UpdraftPlus
What can you do if something catastrophic (such as a hacker’s attack) happens to your site? Wouldn’t it be too underwhelming to lose all your hard work?
Well, everything would be much easier if you regularly keep backup files of your blog. UpdraftPlus keeps automatically or manually back up files, so you can restore your website in a previous state when everything was fine.
In order to set your automatic backup schedule, click Settings, Updraftplus Backups on the left sidebar. Then select the “Settings” tab and select your preferences. Also, you have to choose where you wish to receive the backup file (like your Google Drive or Email). Finally, click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.
For a manual backup select the Backup/Restore tab and hit the “Backup Now” button.
#5. Pretty Links
This is a valuable tool if you’re using affiliate links or too many external links in general. Its best features are:
- It tracks how many clicks your affiliate links are receiving
- You can organize and manage all your external links in one place
- It disguises ugly looking links to more attracting ones (e.g. www.GoldenBloggerz.com/affiliate=id/referal58587gfdhd98 can be changed to www.GoldenBloggerz/GetDiscount
- If you’ve placed a link into multiple pages and you need to fix it, all you have to do is to edit once (instead of editing in every page separately).
How to add a new link
After you’ve installed the plugin, click Pretty Links, Add New Link on your sidebar.
#1.Redirection type: Usually we use “307” and “302” (temporary) types if our link may change in the future. The “301” (permanent) type means that we are sure that our link isn’t going to change. In the case you’re not sure what type to choose, leave it as it is (307/default type).
#2.Target URL: Insert here the original URL destination you wish to link to.
#3.Pretty Link: Type here the link you desire to appear on users’ browsers.
#4.Title: Give a name to your link so you can easily recognize it and insert it faster into your posts. Only you can see this title (not your readers).
#5.Notes: You can keep any notes you want about each link. These notes aren’t visible to your readers as well.
Then, at the bottom of the page click “Create“.
How to insert a link into your posts
- Highlight the piece of text you want to place your Pretty Link.
- Click “Insert Pretty Link” on your toolbar.
- Select “Use Existing Pretty Link“ and type the title you gave on your link before. Otherwise, you can select “Insert New Pretty Link” and follow the same instructions as above.
#6. Grammarly
Do you feel insecure about your grammar and vocabulary while you’re writing online? Then, you’ll find this tool extremely valuable. Especially if you’re not a native English Speaker, it’s normal not to feel 100% confident about your writing.
And that’s exactly the reason you need a grammar checking tool. At the moment, Grammarly is by far the best one. It’s going to assist you with the most common mistakes such as:
- Propositions (in, on, at, into)
- Punctuation
- Wrong use of words’ meaning
- Spelling mistakes
Personally, I use Grammarly since my first day as a freelance writer. It’s probably the most helpful tool I’ve used as my clients rarely complain about any grammar mistakes.
This is actually not a WordPress plugin, but a plugin that you can implement in:
- All popular Internet Browsers (Social Media, WordPress and everything you write online)
- Writing Software (Microsoft Word/Office, Google Sheets etc)
- Windows or Mac
This plugin has both a free and a premium version. The last one can catch more mistakes and offers more advanced solutions, but the free version still works fine.
Why you should consider buying the premium version? Because except it’s more advanced features, it offers a Plagiarism Detector tool as well (the best one along with Copyscape). If you have already worked online before, you’ll know that these tools are not free. So, you will pay for one sooner or later anyway. With Grammarly, you can have both an amazing grammar checker and a plagiarism detection tool under one program.
I don’t copy others’ work online, why should I use a plagiarism detection tool?
Maybe you don’t copy anyone’s work on purpose, but you can do it by mistake. There are countless posts on the web, so it’s not uncommon that you use the same words as someone else while writing a sentence. Google may detect this as a copied work, resulting in lowering your ranking in search engines.
Note that any tool can’t replace the human eye 100%, so you should always do the final proofreading before publishing your posts. No matter how good this tool is, don’t forget that it’s just a program. However, if your budget it’s not tight, this is the only tool in this list I recommend you to buy the premium version.
Check the video below to better understand how it works:
Click here to try it for free!
#7. Cookie Notice (by dFactory)
I’m sure you’ve noticed this annoying message that appears immediately every time you visit a page and it’s warning you that the site uses cookies. Have you ever wondered why almost every website is using this pop-up?
Well, because it’s mandatory. Especially for sites that target US and EU citizens. In order to avoid troubles with the law, make sure you use this simple plugin.
When a user visits your website for the first time, he will get a message by Cookie Notice. Of course, you can change the text that you wish to appear.
Also, you can add more possible options to the user, other than “OK”. For example, you may add “No”, “I understand” or “Dismiss” buttons. If you don’t want to go into technical details, don’t worry. You are covered with the default text and the default “OK” button.
These are all the plugins you need to start a successful blog! They are easy to install and use, so don’t lose time!
About Elementor, it is a live drag and drop page builder plugin that help you to create the custom website without any coding skills. You can customize each part of the website with help of Elementor. You can grab the deal by using Elementor Pro coupons.
Feel free to leave any comment or question in the comments below. Did you like the post? Then I’d highly appreciated if you press the “Social Media sharing” and “Like” buttons!
Will Pretty Links also give you an option for adjusting also the look of your links? I’ve noticed on some browsers my links blend in some they are the font and color I want. Wonder if it will help?
Yes it does if you mean “claoking”. You set how you want the links to look like
The links plugin was new to me. Thank you.
Such a helpful post for the WordPress users like me.
What a very helpful posts Chris. Thanks for putting this together for everyone to follow.
You’re welcome April!
I find the Yoast plug in useful. Is there any other plug in that helps with SEO? Thanks for the information.
You’re welcome!
Thank you, a couple of these I already use but will definitely be looking to add some of the others suggested. Especially the Grammerly plug in. Always handy to have.
Than you Chris. I like the rest except Pretty Links. I wouldn’t like to mess with it in case you are not happy with their services as time goes on. This means you will have to edit all the blog posts you’ve applied the tool – that is a big task for some of us. Nevertheless, thanks for the list.
Great post for new bloggers. I use a few of these plugins already. May look into that pretty links one. Recently added snow to my posts to jazz it up some. Lol
I use quite a few of these, but some are new to me. I will have to check out Pretty Links and Updraft Plus. Grammarly has been a great addition to the blog since I go it a few months ago.
Useful post, I’ll check out Pretty links and Updraft plus for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing this really useful guide. I am terrible at finding plugins to use! So this was really helpful to me xxx
Great tips! I have used a lot of these and will check them out!
Yeah! I already use most of these! I will definitely check out pretty links and the file compress plugin! Good advice!
I had not really considered compressing images to improve load speed, but I will look into this plugin, Thanks for sharing.
Cool list! I love to use Grammarly.
May I suggest a few other free plugins for bloggers?
– Clean Image Filenames
– Duplicate Post
– Favicon by RealFaviconGenerator
– Regenerate Thumbnails
– WP Missed Schedule (The Original)
– and Hide SEO Bloat (in combination with Yoast SEO).
I talk about them, along with other plugins I use, in my article, maybe it’ll help: https://edrucks.com/plugins
Sure ED, thank you for the recommendations!
Great info! I’ll be looking into taking advantage of these!
Thanks, I had all the ones I would want, except the file compression, have added it. Anything to make it easier for our readers.
That’s the spirit!
I’ve never heard of the one that makes image sizes smaller. I’ll definitely be utilizing that one now. I love Yoast SEO and Grammarly… literally 2 of my favorite tools ever. I depend on them so much.
Indeed, they’re so useful. I suggest you to try a compressing images plugin as well as it makes your site load faster without visible reduction on pictures quality.
Can you get these plugins on the free WordPress.com websites?
Unfortunately not, the majority of them are for self-hosted WordPress (.org)
Is Grammarly still available? The others were all in wordpress library when I searched but nothing for Grammarly.
You need to download Grammarly from its own website, not WordPress!
Wow, this is a great post! I use 3 out of the 7, do you have any articles on WordPress app blogging on the go? It seems like I have other bloggers following my blog.
Do you mean the WordPress app for smartphones/tablets?
WordPress app for iOS cell phone
I use Android, so I can’t help you with that unfortunately.
This is so helpful! I have several of these already! I am curious about pretty links. I have a problem …when I post a link to my blog on Twitter, it shows a generic piece of paper versus a thumbnail of my blog or my site for the image. Will that help with this problem?
You probably need to set a featured image to be displayed on Social Media, so Yoast might help with it. I suggest you to try it.
Hello! Thanks for these recommendations. On your list I only had the Yoast SEO. I will definitely look into the others. Thanks so much!
I think all of them are necessary!
You’ve got some great suggestions! As someone who does a lot of freelance writing, I would be lost without Grammarly in my life, I’m not going to lie! It’s incredible how many little errors we often overlook regardless of how many times we try to proofread and edit our work!
I totally agree Britt! It’s by far my favorite tool as a writer too!
I’ve used or am using a few of these. SEO is by far my favourite as it makes creating optimised content that bit easier.
Thank you for sharing – there are definitely a few on this list will need to look up and add.
Yeah, Yoast is the most popular plugin I guess
Nice list, thank you! Aside from Yoast I don’t actually have any of those, though I do have some similar ones that serve the same purpose in some cases.
Yes there are alternatives of course that serve the exact same purpose. Use whatever is more convenient for you!
Very detailed and in-depth article. I use some but not all of these plugins. I will look into the others. Great article, Thanks!
You’re welcome. All of them are necessary for me!
Thanks for this list Chris. I was using a few already and have just installed some others.
I use Yoast, but it seems to not detect my subheadings for some reason. I guess it could be a theme issue.
Hi Kez, well I guess Yoast does this no matter your theme. I’ve heard it so many times. IF you’re sure your subheadings are fine & include keywords, just ignore this warning.
Very useful post for bloggers, can you please write something about how to choose good font and how to get the font i want, do I need any plugin for it?
Hi Rajesh, most of the times fonts are implemented in the theme you use. Some themes allow for plugins to change their fonts, some other themes have limited options. You can start by looking your theme’s settings from your WordPress back-end.
Very helpful list Chris. I’ll be grabbing a few that I don’t have already tonight.
The cookie notice is mad helpful I never was told I needed that
I’m sure you have noticed that literary every website has a similar notice, because it’s mandatory. Cookie notice is the most easy & simple to use though. Glad it helped you!
Some of these WordPress plugins I use and some I don’t. I had Smush but then I got rid of it because it wouldn’t load images on mobile. I’m trying to figure out how to increase my mobile loading speed, I’m doing okay from desktop. I use Imagify right now and I have Wp3 Cache but I read today somewhere that that one isn’t great because of the minify settings. It’s so tricky trying to figure out which plugins are good and which ones aren’t.
I agree, sometimes the only thing you can do is to figure out what works through trial & error. The plugin I suggest is working fine so far though & it’s free as well.
Love the easy to follow steps and screen shots! Thank you!!!
I wanted to make it easy for beginners, thanks for your kind words Lisa!
What other SEO options do you recommend? And image compression tools too?
All-in-one-SEO & SmushWP for compression
Hi Chris, I use Yoast regularly. I have used Grammarly in the past but I’ve never heard of any of the other plugins. I will install the Compress JPEG and PNG plugin for sure because some of my images are too big. I use Jetpack for security. Is that different than the Sucuri Security and Updraft Plus. I’m not sure which one is better and if there is a difference. What do you think? Would appreciate the help? Thank you Raheela
Hi Raheela! Well, JetPack is a decent alternative to Sucuri, so you don’t have to use Sucuri too. Now, Updraft plus is for backing up the files of your site, it’s not for online security. If your site/theme crashes or something bad happen to your site, you can restore it in a previous situation. Now I’m testing Duplicator too, I think it’s better & simpler than Updraft. I hope that helped!
useful post, have used some today!
Thanks, I’m happy this post helped you!
What’s up to all, it’s actually a nice for me to pay a visit this web page, it includes helpful Information.
Thanks a lot for your kind words!