Top Plugin Choices For Your WordPress Blog

*This is a collaborative post but all thoughts and opinions on the top
plugin choices for your blog are my own

I don’t know about you but with the lock-down and limited things to do I’m getting restless. As work is a bit on the low side I’ve been trying to add new things to my blog. Whether that’s working on my layout, disabling old plugins or adding Reward Style which I finally got my head around. As I’m sure a lot of bloggers have been spending more time on the back-end here are some of the top plugin choices you can use for your WordPress blog.

Top plugin choices for general maintenance

AddFunc Head & Footer Code

I had to download a Plugin as soon as I wanted to install Google Analytics. For GA to work you need to add some code to the header and footer of your website. And while I know basic HTML there was no way I was going to go playing around with it. So I downloaded this plugin and it’s been one of my top plugin choices in terms of making things easier. If there’s ever any code you need to add to the header or footer of your site you can do it through this plugin quickly and easily.

Redirection

This is one of the simplest plugins but one I couldn’t be without. If there’s ever a reason why you need to change the URL of a post, perhaps you’re making it more SEO friendly or you want to update the date in the URL then redirection can help. You can add in the existing URL and what the new one is. This way if anyone lands on the old URL then they’ll be redirected to the new one. While this shouldn’t be used all the time and you shouldn’t have multiple redirects on the same page it can be a great tool if needed. As one of my top plugin choices this was one of the first things I downloaded when I moved to WordPress self hosted.

Top plugin choices for font and layout

Fontsy

Choosing the right font can be tough. You want something which will stand out as yours, but also be timeless. That’s where Fontsy comes in as an alternative to OMGF WordPress Plugin. Through the Fontsy plugin you can either import your own web fonts to use on your log, or choose from the free web font library. This way you can find something totally unique to you and to make your blog stand out.

This is one of the things on my to do list to find a new header font. Something that really stands out and differentiates my site from others that may also use the same layout. Although there are so many choices so it may take a while settling on one.

Other font WordPress plugins

There are of course loads of other font plugins you can use such as Easy Google Fonts, Use Any Font, Custom Fonts and FontPress. But I can’t vouch for any of these sites as I’ve not used them before. Each one others various different choices from laying for a premium font to choosing from a free library available.

Classic editor

I don’t know about anyone else but when WordPress released the grid layout I just couldn’t get on with it. Yes I know I need to try using it but I didn’t have the patience. One of my top plugin choices was downloading ‘Classic Editor’ so I could go back to using the WordPress I knew and loved. By having this I’m so much happier when I’m writing posts on my blog.

Other topic plugin choices

• Review Disclaimer– I try to always be transparent with my posts and ensure that if a post is an AD that it’s displayed. This plugin allows you to create a disclaimer and then just add the code to the top of pages you want it to appear on so you don’t have to manually type it each time.
• Cookie Notice- When GDPR came into play a cookie notice was one of those things sites needed. This plugin allowed you to add a cookie notice to your page with minimal effort. If you’re new to my site you may see it pop up every now and then for you to accept.
• Pin It Button On Image Hover And Post – Another of my top plugin choices is this one which means people can easily Pin your posts and images. This adds a hover over Pin It button to images on your page.

What WordPress plugins do you use?

Pin It