I originally wrote this article almost exactly 5 years ago. I was recently asked about plugin recommendations, and I realized I’d only written one article specifically recommending more than just one plugin at a time. I shared this article, but realized that three of the plugins on this list are things I wouldn’t recommend any longer.
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Those two plugins are WordPress Firewall, Compfight and WebReader for Word Press. The first started messing with a couple of my blogs so it had to go. The second pretty much stopped working, which meant you had to go to their site to continue using the images they were highlighting from Flickr that you could use (go to Pixabay to find free images instead). The third might still be fine but the company went to a paid model and, though I’m not necessarily against paying for certain things, it turned out not to be mobile friendly so I discontinued using it.
Initially, I received an email asking me to write on this topic, which has never happened before I wrote this article. The request was more for what I use to stay productive or what I use for financial purposes. I don’t use any of that stuff for the blog (although I probably should think about it), so those won’t be things I’m talking about. Instead, I’m going to mention 10 plugins I don’t think I could do without, some of which I believe you should be using also.
1. Ajax Edit Comments. Let’s face it, no one’s perfect. Sometimes you make a mistake of some kind while writing your comment. This plugin allows people to edit and correct their comments within 5 minutes. If it took you longer than that to figure out you made an error, unless you left a truly epic comment, you’re out of luck.
2. All In One SEO Pack. Everyone has their favorite SEO plugin but I’ve stuck with this one. I used to hate it but I figured out how to configure it to give me what I want. The best feature is being able to write a description in if you don’t want the search engines posting the first so many words of your blog post instead.
3. Broken Link Checker. This is a great plugin if you’re been writing on your blog for a long time and either linked to outside sources or had people who commented no longer having a live blog. The only problem with it is that if you leave it on all the time it’ll eat up your resources and slow things down. I turn it on once every 3 or 4 months, let it do it’s thing, then go through the list to decide what has to go or what might need changing, since it also looks at your own blog’s links.
4. CommentLuv. I have the premium version, but that’s no longer available so get the free version, which has been updated by someone new. Its best feature is showing current or previous blog posts of your commenters. It’s what helps folks, including myself, decide whether we want to visit those blogs to read what the writer has to say.
5. Stop Spammers. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I hate spam. This plugin not only stops spam using its own filters, but allows you to st up other things you don’t want to see or places you don’t want to receive spam from. It’s helped to reduce the amount of spam I get around here, but in reality there’s so much spam coming my way daily that it’ll never be perfect… but it’s pretty good.
6. Limit Login Attempts. You know hackers are always trying to get into your blog right? It’s one reason why it’s always recommended that you change your admin name and have long passwords.
This plugin allows you to set how many times a person gets to try to get in before it shuts it down for however many hours you set it for. Also, after so many sessions you can shut it down for… well, 999 hours if you wish. Sure, they might have it automated, but even with that it’ll take them forever to get in, even if your username and passwords are weak.
7. Simple Share Buttons Adder. You need to have share buttons on your blog to make it easy for people to share your stuff. After AddThis decided to go wonky and make you create an account on their site (so they can charge you for stuff later on) I found this one and it’s perfect. You can even customize how it looks.
8. Wordfence Security. I started using this plugin about 6 months ago when my firewall plugin started going wonky. This plugin is more comprehensive in what it offers in protecting your blog in many ways.
It has a firewall, which was the most important reason I added it. It has its own process for logon protection, which you can use if you don’t want to go with the standalone plugin I mentioned at #6. It’ll scan your blog for security issues as well as tell you which plugins you have haven’t updated in a while. It’s got a lot going for it, and there’s also a premium version that offers even more protection.
9. Smush. This used to be called WP Smush, but that version sometimes messed up with WordPress upgrades. In general terms, this plugin gives you the opportunity to reduce the size of most of your images already on your blog and reduce the size of images before you add them to your newer blog posts. This definitely helps your mobile speed, especially if you use it with the last plugin I’m recommending.
10. WPtouch Mobile Plugin. You’ve heard that Google is now looking for websites to be mobile friendly correct? This plugin does the trick. If you don’t change a thing just adding it makes your blog pass muster. There are a few font choices you can make, but it turns out a couple of them takes you out of their good graces.
Those are my present top 10 plugins. What are you using that you might recommend to replace what I’m recommending above?
Hi Mitch, I always find it interesting to see what others are using for their plugins. I love WPTouch but I went with Premium with the Google update, it still says my site is slow on mobile – not sure what else I will do to get it to speed up yet but will be researching more on it.
I love the CommentLuv Premium so far and have had it for years now.
I love Yoast vs the SEOPack though it is difficult at times to configure. It takes time but works well with Twitter cards that I love!
I never heard of web reader, that is cool! I may have to check that one out.
Thanks for sharing with us Mitch on your plugins, is that all? I have about 22 activited now on my site. (I used to have 30 active plugins).
Have a great day!
Lisa, I have lots of plugins, but I think those are the more critical and useful ones. I have an older theme that I customized, so I run a few things that people with newer blogs would never need. As for the Yoast thing, it was complicated which is why I left it alone. lol
Daniel, I have a post on here about how to train your spam filters so all that stuff goes there. However, I don’t think you can do it on Blogger; I only have experience with WordPress software. I had a lot going into the spam filter, and then it started diminishing, not even showing up. Newer folks still do, but it’s such a low volume that it’s no effort to deal with them.
Hi Mitch, I’m intrigued by #8…do you get a lot of positive feedback? At first, I was expecting your voice and was disappointed in the robotic voice. I\’m curious if a lot of people use this on your site. I may consider using WebReader if a significant portion of my visitors want it. Thanks for this informative post!
Hi Matthew. There are some people who’d rather go that route on some of my longer posts, as some folks hate reading a long post. It’s not perfect but it’s interesting relatively new technology, and I got mentioned in a book for using it. 🙂
Well, getting mentioned in a book makes it more intriguing. 🙂 All kidding aside, I am considering it and I may just go directly to the readers and ask them what they think. Should be interesting. Thanks for your tips. 🙂
No problem Matthew. At least it’s free.
I’m using all in one SEO pack, Commentluv and simple share button adder among those 10 plugins.
And I’m going to install web reader for WordPress plugin.. that’s quite interesting..!
Thanks for sharing this article Mitch..!
Good deal Thyrone. I hope you like it when you test it.
All In One SEO Pack and CommentLuv are very popular with bloggers. My personal fav are def All In One SEO Pack and Simple Share Buttons Adder and I’m very pleased you also recommend them Mitch!
Yust shared this on my socials 🙂
Happy Monday Mitch!h
Thanks Anja. I did have a love-hate relationship with AIO SEO Pack for the early years of this blog because of incompatibility issues but finally got them worked out. I’m glad of that because it’s fairly easy to use.
Hey Mitch, thanks for this list. I was only familiar with half of these plugins. I am definitely considering Comfight and Webreader.
Glad I was able to give you something you didn’t already know about Marcie. I’m assuming you’re already protecting your blog, which is a good thing.
You can’t get CommentLuv Premium, nor update it, any more. I’ve updated to the free version (we’ve discussed this) and I think there may be others on your list that need replacing. Check to see when they were last updated and whether they’ve been tested with the current version of WordPress.
Truthfully, Wordfence only highlighted CommentLuv Premium as an out of date plugin when I ran it but I was keeping it anyway, but forgot to update it to the regular CommentLuv here. Luckily, this article doesn’t officially go live until next Monday so I can make the change and the majority of new visitors won’t know I messed up (people don’t actually read other people’s comments these days, do they? lol).
Hi Mitch,
I just bumped into your articles! Your writing is spot on. Now on this article, I must say I good insights on the plugins that I will use in my WP blog. I am WP beginner so this post was gold.
Cheers!
Good luck with them; it’s probably just a start, but I think most of them are crucial to have.
I prefer Yoast SEO over “All In One SEO Pack”
Yoast is really easy and it helps in ranking faster.
It wouldn’t work with this blog. Even the person who created it years ago had problems getting it to work here.
Nice post. I’m still a newbie but I’m trying to improve my skills for WordPress. I’ll try some of them for my website and test the results. Hope it won’t harm the speed.
None of these will hurt your speed; that’s part of why I recommend them.
Thank you so much for this guide. CommentLuv is my most favorite among all these.
I’ve loved CommentLuv from the beginning; only sad that the premium version doesn’t work anymore.
Thanks Mitch for this instructive piece of information on wordpress tools. I’ve actually started blogging recently and I’m quite not familiar with most of the list laid out heren except for the Wordfence Security(lol). I’m also considering using CommentLuv as I was told to be an asset for making visitors to be more engaged with the blog post.
CommentLuv is great, even with all the iterations of the programming over the years. I hope some of these work well for you as they’ve done for me.
Hi Mitch
These are great plugins to consider, depending on your needs, of course.
I think one of my favorites (and really essential for me) is called Classic Editor.
It allows me to use WordPress classic editor instead of the new Gutenberg block editor… which I just don’t get the hang of.
Nice collection of ideas, here. Thanks 🙂
-Donna
Thanks Donna. I’m with you; I don’t have time to learn how to use the block editor. One of these days if I’m forced into it I’ll need to learn, but not now… thank goodness! lol
hello ,
i think jetpack also a best plugin .
it has many feature in free as well as premium plugin.
By the way , nice article !!
Thanks.
I’ve never used Jetpack, but I’ve heard people talk about it. For a period it was a bit clunky, which is why I decided not to use it.
Great recommendation I am using all those except the two of the plugins that is CommentLUV and WPtouch.
By the Way, Thanks for sharing!
I will use these in future. 🙂
CommentLuv will help you more than you’ll ever know. WP Touch is very good, but if your blog theme’s already responsive you might not need it. Good luck with the plugins.