In the decade of blogging with WordPress, I have tried and tested many WordPress plugins.
From time to time I need to remove outdated plugins and choose plugins that offer better functionality to keep my blog growing.
I know that finding the right plugins can be a daunting task, which is why I’ve been sharing tips on using WordPress plugins on SidelinePlay. Based on my research and experience, I’ve created a list of secret plugins that I use for all my blogs.
However, today’s post is an exclusive post as part of our culture of transparency. I love sharing how we do things, what tools we use, and other great stuff that will help you grow your blog like I did.
In the decade of blogging on WordPress, I have tried and tested many WordPress plugins.
From time to time I need to remove outdated plugins and choose plugins that offer better functionality to keep my blog growing.
I know that finding the right plugins can be a daunting task, which is why I’ve been sharing tips on using WordPress plugins on SidelinePlay. Based on my research and experience, I’ve created a list of secret plugins that I use for all my blogs.
However, today’s post is an exclusive post as part of our culture of transparency. I love sharing how we do things, what tools we use, and other great content that will help you grow your blog like SidelinePlay.
Today, I’m sharing a list of must-have WordPress plugins that we currently use at SidelinePlay.
Keep in mind that these plugins are the result of my many years of blogging experience.
If you are just getting started with WordPress, you should first read: How to Add Plugins to WordPress .
Keep in mind that I am always changing our plugins, so I recommend that you bookmark this page and keep checking back after a month to see the updated plugin list.
The list is not in any particular order, and at the time of update, these are the must-have WordPress plugins that support SidelinePlay.
Currently, ShoutMeloud is currently using the Genesis theme + custom skin design and is hosted on Kinsta hosting .
List of essential WordPress plugins that I use at SidelinePlay:
Here is a brief list:
- Advanced Ads: This is the ad management WordPress plugin I’m using to run ads on ShoutMeLoud. This is a feature rich plugin, which let you add direct ads, banner ads, AdSense ads. The coolest part is, you can run A/B test, show/hide based on category/tags, to make most out of the ads on your WordPress website.
- Advanced database cleaner: I use this to reduce the size of my database. A free alternative is WP Sweep which doesn’t offer advanced feature but it’s alright for new blogs. For a serious blog, Advanced database cleaner is recommended.
- AMP for WP: I use the free version of AMP for WP plugin.
- Akismet: For handling spam comments
- Broken link checker plugin:
- Clicktotweet: To add a tweetable code within an article.
- Easy table of content: To show table of content in WordPress (Helps in SEO and UX)
- EasyDigitalDownloads: This plugin helps in setting up a digital download store.
- Email post changes: This sends me a notification when an author or editor make changes.
- Jetpack by WordPress.com: One of the most popular WordPress plugins offer great features.
- Limit modified date: This plugin helps me to prevent updating the timestamp when making minor changes to an old post. This practice is good for SEO.
- Linkwhisper: For internal link building
- OptinMonster: To add email subscription box.
- Pushengage: Push notification for desktop browsers.
- Pixel Caffeine: Fastest way to integrate Facebook pixel on your website.
- Premium Yoast SEO: For SEO optimization (On page & On-site)
- Peter’s Collaboration E-mails: Sends an email to admin & editor when a contributor submit a post.
- Q2W3 Fixed Widget: Fixed widget plugin
- Redirection: Manages 301 redirection & 404 errors from WordPress dashboard. However, I shifted a lot of redirection now using Yoast SEO premium. Over the time, I will be moving everything to Yoast SEO for redirection.
- ShortPixel: Compress images without degrading quality. Helps in faster loading of the articles.
- Ultimate Nofollow: Helps in adding nofollow tag from the WordPress post editor section.
- WP Link Status: The purpose of this plugin is to find broken links. I use it for more than this.
- WP Forms: To add contact form & create a variety of forms here at ShoutMeLoud.
- WP security audit log: Keep an eye on user activities inside the WordPress dashboard.
- WP Advanced Ads: For adding ads
- WPS hide login
Here is a detailed explanation of most of the listed plugins:
SEO with Yoast Premium:
This is a free WordPress plugin and a powerful tool for my blog SEO. It helps to optimize the website SEO, on-page SEO, and social SEO of your blog. This is a must-have plugin for every blogger and I have written a guide here to know the configuration of this plugin. Yoast SEO has two versions: free and paid.
The pro version has some extra features like redirects and internal links. That’s why I use Yoast Premium. You can read my thoughts on the premium version here .
Akismet plugin:
Akismet is a free anti-spam WordPress plugin that I recommend because it is an official plugin from the creators of WordPress that allows you to fight spam comments. To use Akismet, you need an API key.
One downside to this plugin is that sometimes it skips spam trackbacks or comments, or legitimate comments go into spam folders. While this usually happens due to previous interactions with the IP or email address, you can always fix this by checking your spam folders daily.
This is also a must-have plugin that you should have from day one to stop spam comments on your blog.
Schema Pro plugin
This WordPress plugin is very useful if you want to comment on your posts. With this plugin, you can add star ratings to your blog posts and make them stand out in search engines. This is a premium plugin and at only $79, it’s a good one-time investment.
Download the Schema Pro plugin
CloudFlare plugin:
Cloudflare is a free service that provides security and free CDN. What I really like about CloudFlare is that you can block bots and spam traffic at the DNS level. This saves a lot of bandwidth and your server load will not be affected by bot traffic.
If you are using managed WordPress hosting, shared hosting, or any web host with limited bandwidth, then you should definitely use a service like CloudFlare.
Social Snap plugin for social media sharing buttons:
SocialSnap lets you add social share and social media follow buttons on your blog. This plugin provides great looking social share buttons in various locations like floating share button, after post, fixed bar and some other options.
If you need a plugin for your social media sharing needs, this is the best plugin currently. It is a paid plugin and costs about $39 per year for a license.
The analytics feature is also very useful, and you can get statistics right within your WordPress dashboard.
Download the Social Snap plugin
WP Forms plugin:
This free plugin lets you add a contact form on your blog, and I like it because it also displays referral URLs for people who send messages using my contact form.
This helps me filter out genuine messages and spam. If you are using the Jetpack plugin, you should use the contact form feature of that plugin.
Jetpack WordPress plugin:
This is a multi-purpose free WordPress plugin that adds features like stats, contact form, mobile themes, social sharing buttons, etc. This is a powerful WordPress plugin.
You need to have a free account on WordPress.com to use this plugin. You can learn more about this plugin here .
LinkPatrol：
This is a WordPress SEO plugin to control external links on your blog. Using this plugin, you can Nofollow, remove any existing external links on your blog.
This is a premium plugin with powerful features and very useful for your blog’s SEO. You can read the review and how I use this plugin here.
No Self-Ping:
This useful and free WordPress plugin allowed me to stop sending trackbacks to reciprocally linked posts within my domain.
Download the No Self Pings plugin
OptinMonster：
This is a feature-rich plugin. I use it to display email subscription popups, and it is highly configurable. Even without any design skills, I was able to quickly configure and design an effective popup to display my blog.
If you are passionate about email marketing and need an easy-to-use WordPress plugin, then OptinMonster is the best choice.
SEO Friendly Images:
This free plugin allows you to optimize images for search engines. It adds alternative text based on the image name. Highly recommended.
Read: How to add Alt tags to images.
Download the SEO Friendly Images plugin
WP Status Notifier plugin:
This plugin notifies me when any blog post is submitted for review and also notifies users when their blog post is accepted.
We later switched to using Peter's collaborative email plugin, which turned out to be much more powerful.
Download Peter's Collaborative Email Plugin
Some additional plugins I use for SidelinePlay:
- Ultimate Nofollow quickly adds Nofollow link attribute.
- Link Whisper for internal links
- Q2W3 Fixed Widget, used to fix sidebar widgets
I will keep updating the post whenever I add or remove plugins on SidelinePlay. You can bookmark this page and visit it after a month or so to see the updated list.
I’d love your feedback on how you use WordPressr plugins and would really appreciate it if you could share some WordPressr plugins with us.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.
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