Great plugins are awesome. Great and free plugins are even more awesome. WordPress has a directory full of 34,000+. We went through all 34,000 and chose our top 20 WordPress plugins to make your blog awesome. You’re welcome.
For Backend Security & Analytics
1. Anit-spam
Avoid getting spam comments by using the Anti-spam plugin. The best part is your readers don’t have to type in captcha. Anti-spam believes that humans shouldn’t have to prove they’re human.
2. WordPress SEO by Yoast
WordPress SEO helps you write better content. It forces you to choose a focus keyword when you’re writing your articles, and then makes sure you use that focus keyword everywhere. This is the perfect plugin to boost your blog’s SEO.
WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin page
3. Jetpack
Jetpack gives you all the WordPress.com features for you to use on your self-hosted WordPress blog! It’s a quick and easy way for you to check your blog stats straight from your dashboard. It also gives you the option to allow email subscriptions for your blog’s posts and comments.
Jetpack plugin page4. GA Google Analytics
This is a simple way to insert your tracking code to view your blog’s stats in your Google account.
GA Google Analytics Plugin Page5. Google Analytics Dashboard
Google Analytics Dashboard gives you the ability to view your Google Analytics data in your WordPress dashboard. As long as your tracking code is inserted (via GA Google Analytics), you can see detailed analytics info and statistics such as number of visits, number of visitors, bounce rates, organic searches, pages per visit and more.
Google Analytics DashboardFor Productivity
6. Editorial Calendar
The amazing editorial calendar gives you an overview of your blog and when each post will be published. Drag and drop to move posts, edit posts right in the calendar, and manage your entire blog!
Editorial Calendar Plugin Page7. Duplicate Post
The duplicate post plugin gives you the ability to clone a post or a page. This is very useful for posts or pages that you’d like formatted exactly the same. After cloning a page, you can just add content without having to format the page to match the others.
Duplicate Post Plugin Page8. Organize Series
The Organize Series WordPress Plugin helps with the organization and presentation of articles/posts you write as part of a series. It helps make it easier for readers of your blog to discover all the series you’ve written and also to easily find post that are part of the same series.
Organize Series Plugin Page9. CMS Page Tree View
CMS Page Tree View adds a tree overview of all your pages and custom posts to WordPress – much like the view often found in a page-focused CMS platfrom. Within this tree you can edit pages, view pages, add pages, search pages, and drag and drop pages to rearrange the order.
CMS Tree Page View Plugin Page10. PhotoDropper
PhotoDropper allows you to find and upload images into your content from within WordPress. The plugin contains millions of free & premium images. The best part is – you can find and upload images in just a few clicks, saving you a lot of precious time.
PhotoDropper Plugin Page
For Engagement
11. Wordpress Notification Bar
Add a quick and easy sticky easy notification bar to your blog with the WordPress Notification Bar plugin. Prompt users to subscribe to your blog or make a purchase with a simple call-to-action button!
WordPress Notification Bar Plugin Page12. Click To Tweet
Allow your audience to post your tweetworthy content to their Twitter timeline with the click of a button. ClickToTweet allows you to easily create tweetable content for your readers. Use pullquotes and custom messages inside the body of your blog post to highlight your content for the reader and make it simple for them to share on Twitter.
Click To Tweet Plugin Page13. PopupAlly
PopupAlly allows you to create advanced popup signup forms in under 5 minutes, even if you don’t know code. PopupAlly’s visual editor allows you to customize the look-and-feel of your popups with an instant preview, saving you lots of time. This plugin also has a great exit-intent feature which means you can prompt a “But, wait! There’s more!” pop-up when users are about to leave your site.
PopupAlly Plugin Page14. Related Posts
Increase your readers’ engagement with your posts by adding Related Posts in the footer of your content. Automatically added Related Posts can increase your internal traffic up to 10%.
Related Posts Plugin Page15. Pay with a tweet
This plugin allows your visitors to download files after publishing a tweet onto their Twitter account. Add “pay with a tweet” links easily with a simple shortcode. When a user pays for content with a tweet, you can recognize and engage with them through your social media.
Pay With a Tweet Plugin PageSocial Sharing
16. Pinterest Hover Pin It Button
This is the official Pinterest Hover Pin It button for WordPress. This plugin enables a Pin It button over all of your images that are at least 120×120.
Pinterest Hover Pin It Button Plugin Page17. Social Share by AddtoAny
The WordPress sharing plugin to help people share, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google, Reddit, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, and well over 100 more sharing and social bookmarking sites. AddToAny’s customizable platform and social share icons let you optimize your site’s blog posts & pages for the best social sharing engagement.
Social Share by AddtoAny Plugin Page18. Simplified Social Share
Let users share your web contents on over 50 social networks resulting into drastic increase in referral traffic.
Simple Social Share Plugin Page19. Floating Social Media Icon
Link customized social icons to your social media profiles. The icons will appear at the bottom right of each page and will stay there even if a user scrolls the page, thus floating.
Live Demo Here | Floating Social Media Plugin Page20. Share by SumoMe
Add floating share buttons on the left side of your blog. Not only does SumoMe make it easy for your readers to share your content, but you can track what’s being shared the most and which social media platform people are using most frequently.
SumoMe Plugin Page