Last Updated January 2022 by Crystallace

How you can add personality to your blog with the help of must-have WordPress plugins.

Hey Girl! Welcome back to my blog! Today I am talking about Must-Have WordPress plugins. WordPress is a very good blog software in itself, and, with the latest versions, it is also increasingly extensive. Nevertheless, some features are missing, which is what the WordPress plugins are for.

When you install WordPress for the first time, the default settings will give a blank slate for you to work on. But given that each blog has its own uniqueness, choosing the best must-have WordPress plugins for new bloggers will help your blog become user-friendly and responsive on all devices. 

Below are my top 20 Must-Have WordPress plugins for new bloggers in 2022.

Be sure to save this post by Pinning it so that you will have it for later….now let’s jump right in.

Rank Math

Rank Math is the new standard plugin for SEO and replaces the long-standing top dog Yoast SEO. This WordPress plugin allows you to write SEO-friendly blog posts and improve your blog post formatting and readability. It offers the same range of functions as Yoast SEO Premium but offers better performance. I use RankMath on my blog.

Lucky WP Table of Contents

LuckyWP Table of Contents is one of the best WordPress plugins for new bloggers that publish lengthy articles. We’re talking about blog posts that are 1000-2500 words long. This WordPress plugin enables you to automatically or via shortcode display a table of contents on your blog posts similar to what we see in Wikipedia articles. I don’t have the need for this plugin yet because I write shorter blog posts but when I’m reading longer posts, it’s nice to have.

Broken Link Checker

Broken links are every blogger’s nightmare. Imagine spending hours and days checking each and every blog post to find and correct broken links. This WordPress plugin:

• Detects links that don’t work
• Sends notification via the WordPress dashboard or email
• Helps fix bad links to improve SEO 

I use this one on my blog.

Redirection

Does Error 404 give you panic attacks? As a new blogger, it’s difficult to deal with technical issues that you are not familiar with. This is why it’s great to have this WordPress plugin. Redirection allows you to reduce errors and improve your ranking. This one was a life-safer when I switched domain names for my blog. 

Yet Another Stars Rating

If you write product reviews, you will love this WordPress plugin. Yet Another Stars Rating allows you to insert star ratings in your blog posts. Plus, this plugin allows your visitors to cast their vote, too. 

BackWPup

In case something bad happens to your blog, it’s easy to retrieve your files if you have a backup. For this, I highly recommend the BackWPup plugin. This WordPress plugin allows you to have a .zip file of your blog that you can store in your Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. I definitely back up my blog, daily.

Antispam Bee

I hate receiving spam comments on my blog. The worst part is having to manually delete them one by one. Good thing I have Anti-Spam Bee. This WordPress plugin works wonders. All I have to do is go to Comments > Spam > and Delete all spam comments in bulk and I’m good to go.

WP Rocket

If you want your blog to load fast, WP-Rocket will do it for you. It not only provides an excellent page caching function but on the other hand also numerous additional functions for which you would usually have to install extra plugins:

Clearfy

Clearfy is another WordPress plugin for new bloggers that offers website optimization. This plugin fixes bugs, speeds up your search engine indexing, and makes your blog faster and more user-friendly.

GDPR Cookie Consent 

If you want to make money blogging, you have to treat your blog as a business, which means your blog has to adhere to international laws like the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). By using this WordPress plugin, new users will see a pop-up on their screen which shows a cookie notice that will protect you, your blog, and your users in terms of data privacy.

Aside from this WordPress plugin, you need legal pages to protect your business legally. Therefore, I highly recommend getting my Website Legal Bundle. This bundle has three legal templates namely, 

• Privacy Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Disclaimer

Upload it on your blog just like what you do when you publish a blog post, and you’re all set. My Website Legal Bundle comes in Word format that’s fully customizable to fit your business brand. 

EWWW Image Optimizer

A communal reason for extended WordPress blog loading times is uncompressed images. The EWWW Image Optimizer offers a solution, with the help of which each uploaded image is enhanced spontaneously and without damage of quality.

Cache Enabler

Do you want to improve your site’s performance and help your blog load fast? This WordPress plugin is for you. Some of its features include manual cache clearing, cache size display in your WordPress dashboard, and cache expiry. 

WP Sweep

WordPress blogs have their own “recycle bins”. In order for you to permanently delete revisions, auto drafts, spam comments, and deleted comments, you need the WP Sweep Plugin.

WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click

Content theft is a constant dilemma of every blogger. Unfortunately, this can’t be helped. But somehow, this WordPress plugin was able to help in terms of disabling the following keys  CTRL+A, CTRL+C, CTRL+X,CTRL+S or CTRL+V. Therefore, no one can save images from your site, even copy-paste your content. 

Better Search Replace

Switching from a new domain or server can be a headache. Sometimes, it takes days or weeks to make sure everything is working perfectly. With the help of this WordPress plugin, you don’t have to worry about spending a lot of money hiring a WordPress developer. This plugin has the following features:

• Serialization support for all tables
• The ability to select specific tables
• The ability to run a “dry run” to see how many fields will be updated
• No server requirements aside from a running installation of WordPress
• WordPress Multisite support

WP Add Custom CSS

Sometimes, the default settings of our WordPress themes have restrictions, especially if you’re using the free version. But with the help of this WordPress plugin, you can insert custom CSS settings that allows you to edit individual posts or pages. 

Boxzilla

With the help of Boxzilla, you can generate pop-ups rapidly and effortlessly. This works best if you will get the pro version especially if you’re using Mailchimp. Boxzilla is perfect to help you offer discounts for new email subscribers.   

Social Warfare

Not all WordPress themes have built-in features for social media sharing. This WordPress plugin will do the job for you. 

BTW, are you following me on socials? Let’s keep in touch! I’m on Pinterest, IG, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok

You can choose from the top social networks sharing buttons, including:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn

You can also choose where you want the share buttons to show up. Choose from the following placement options:

• Above the post content
• Below the post content
• Both above and below the post content
• None (or) Manual placement

Better Click To Tweet

If you want to increase your following on Twitter, Better Click to Tweet is the perfect plugin for you.This WordPress plugin that creates your content much prospective to be shared on Twitter.

Pretty Links

Are you an Amazon affiliate partner? Scared of messing up your affiliate links? Allow this WordPress plugin to take care of it for you. 

Pretty Links enables you to shrink long affiliate links with your domain name, and track your links so you’d know where the hit came from, the host, OS, or browser.

Conclusion

To wrap up, the key to choosing the best WordPress plugins for new bloggers goes down to what features you want added to your WordPress blog. 

There are thousands of WordPress plugins out there, all promises unique features. But if you don’t need it, there’s no point in installing it in your WordPress blog.

Also, do not forget to deactivate and uninstall plugins that are not in use. It takes up space on your blog, and sometimes causes other problems like hacking or slow load time. 

I hope you find this helpful. 

What’s your favorite WordPress plugin?

How did it improve your site’s performance?

Let me know in the comments.

Check out these other blog posts:

10 Proven Ways on How to Have Unlimited Blog Content Ideas

Why You Need These 3 Legal Pages for Your Blog

Don’t Make These Blogging Mistakes: 10 Ways I Was Blogging for Broke Instead of Blogging for Bank™