Launching a new blog is very exciting. You can’t wait to start sharing your informative posts with others. But before you get too far into the fun stuff, there are a few things that you should consider to make your blog run fast, be shareable and optimized for the best reader experience. You need the best free WordPress plugins for blogs to help with that!
I’m sharing my recommended 10 free WordPress plugins for blogs that you should consider for your site.
Free.
Yup. Free.
Setting up WordPress is an essential step before you launch it.
So, for a newbie blogger or anybody who’s been blogging for a little while and needs to give their site a bit more oomph, these are essential WordPress plugins that won’t break the bank.
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Add The Free WordPress Plugins For Blogs That You REALLY Need
However, before you go plugin crazy, consider this: the more plugins you have, the slower your blog will run.
You want to make it a fast-loading site so that you increase your chances of Google ranking you higher.
And you want visitors to actually stick around, instead of getting annoyed, and waiting for your site to load. So, less is more, for now.
These plugins below are by no means the only free WordPress plugins out there.
There are some really great ones available for use. However, they can be either too difficult to set up or just don’t offer the best features for simple blogs, in my personal opinion.
You can always explore others, but these are a good place to start.
So without further ado, here are my recommended best free WordPress plugins for blogs that you should check out for your site.
What Are The Top Free Plugins For WordPress?
While there are many free WordPress plugins that I could add to this list, here are the ones that have helped me over the years. They all serve a purpose and are good entry options in many cases.
1. UpdraftPlus
First on my list of best free WordPress plugins for blogs is UpdraftPlus – a free plugin that helps you back up your blog.
Always back up your blog! Unless you have an automatic backup service with your hosting provider, always do a backup of your blog.
Ideally, it should be every two to four weeks at a minimum.
There are many plugins out there that help you back up your blog, but the one that’s probably one of the best is Updraft Plus.
You can easily do a backup and save it on your Google Drive or your Dropbox. When something goes terribly wrong with a theme update or WordPress, you’ll have a backup file of ALL your content at your fingertips.
2. Wordfence Security
One thing that many new bloggers forget about is website security. Unfortunately, WordPress sites can attract spam bots, malware attempts and login attacks, especially once your blog starts growing.
That’s why I recommend Wordfence Security (free) as one of the best free WordPress plugins for blogs.
The free version does a great job of protecting your site with a firewall, malware scanner and login security features. It monitors suspicious activity and alerts you if something looks off on your blog.
One feature I particularly like is the login protection. It helps block brute force attacks where bots repeatedly try to guess your password. You can also enable two-factor authentication for extra security.
While many hosting providers include some security protection already, having Wordfence is like having an extra layer of security. It gives you peace of mind that your site is protected.
TIP: The free version is more than enough for most new blogs. Just remember that security plugins can sometimes overlap with your hosting security tools, so avoid installing multiple security plugins at once.
3. W3 Total Cache
One of the essential WordPress plugins you will need is a caching system.
There are many caching plugins. I’ve used several in the past and while I recommend a paid version as a smart investment (WP Rocket, because it’s easy to set up and it works amazing), there are free versions available. . W3 Total Cache is what I recommend for beginners who want to use a free plugin to speed up their site.
Why?
- Better SEO
- User experience is better with a reduced load time
Nobody wants to wait forever for it to download, and search engines like Google rank faster-loading sites.
There are numerous caching plugins, and many are free WordPress plugins. However, I find W3 Total Cache to have the best features. Caching is like providing a pre-made version of your site to visitors instead of having it load up every single element every time somebody checks it out.
Although W3 Total Cache can be a bit overwhelming at first to set up, if you’re stuck, Blogging Wizard has a good rundown of how to set it up for your blog.
4. Autoptimize
Autoptimize is a good free WordPress plugin for blogs for optimizing html. It pairs with caching plugins that may not have HTML optimization or have it and it’s not that great.
Optimizing your HTML can make your page load up faster in many cases. Like other caching plugins, Autoptimize does minimize CSS and Javascript. However, I use it for the optimizing HTML function as it works better than most caching plugins.
Consider this if your site speed is consistently slow even with a better quality caching plugin like WP Rocket (it won’t conflict if you’re using only the html optimization).
5. Rank Math
When it comes to SEO, this is one of the essential free WordPress plugins you should get.
SEO is key! The free version of Rank Math SEO plugin is your best option for SEO plugins.
It helps you set up how you appear in Google searches, and by focusing on keyword usage throughout your post, your snippet, etc. It’s a must-have for good on-page SEO.
And it also allows you to set up your sitemaps. No need for additional plugins for your sitemap.
If you’re making redirects, it’s got a great tool for that too!
It’s super easy to set up, and Rank Math has done an amazing job of providing you with step-by-step instructions.
NOTE: The alternative is Yoast SEO. While this is a powerful plugin that does much of what Rank Math’s free plugin does, you have to upgrade to Yoast Pro to get a deeper dive into your keywords and key phrases, interlinking features, and redirects.
| RELATED: An Easy Beginner’s Guide To Doing Keyword Research For SEO
6. Akismet Anti-Spam
This handy free WordPress plugin keeps spam comments from appearing on your site’s comments. Akismet filters them out so that they don’t appear on your site. Instead, they get pushed into your spam folder.
Set up your API key on the main site to use with your Akismet plugin for WordPress. Once you’ve activated your plugin, all you need to do is enter the API key from the site and voila! You’re protected.
TIP: Another one of the best free WordPress plugins for blogs for spam protection is Anti-spam Bee. It’s worthwhile checking into when you decide to make your blog into a business. It’s your best free option. Akismet seeks payment since you’re using their free plugin for commercial purposes (even if you’re earning peanuts).
7. Pretty Links
I’ve added this plugin to my best free WordPress plugins for blogs because if you’re starting to monetize it, you want to do it in style and with some organization!
If you’re getting into affiliate marketing, it’s best to hide the ugly link with a pretty one and make it a Nofollow link.
The Pretty Links plugin transforms your link into one that looks like it’s hosted by your site. Also, it helps with keeping your site from looking like it’s sending out spammy links.
You enter your affiliate link and, using your own blog’s URL, you add a descriptive word for your link, and the plugin creates it for you. You use this new URL when you want to link an affiliate link to an image or text on your site.
| Related: Affiliate Programs For New Bloggers That Make Money
8. Social Warfare
Social Warfare is probably one of the best free WordPress plugins for blogs for sharing your content. It makes it extremely easy for site visitors to share your content with their followers on social media and Pinterest.
When I need a temporary free plugin when my paid plugin (Hubbub) is wonky, I always revert to Social Warfare.
The free version is pretty standard. It gives you several of the most popular options for sharing. It’s fairly lightweight, so it doesn’t slow down your blog’s speed stats. Social Warfare is also great at customizing where you’d like to place your shares.
However, to get the most out of Social Warfare (such as adding Pinterest images that are hidden ones), I recommend upgrading to Social Warfare Pro.
| RELATED: How To Grow Blog Traffic Using Social Media Sites
9. EWWW Image Optimizer, WP Smush
Unless you’re optimizing your images manually with TinyPNG, you’ll want a plugin that compresses the size of your images automatically when you add them. Small, compressed images are important for speed, especially if you have an image-heavy blog.
Before I knew much about these types of plugins, my blog was very slow. The load time for images that I thought I had compressed by shrinking manually in Photoshop was still too long.
The best free WordPress plugins for blogs for optimizing images are EWWW Image Optimizer and WP Smush. They do a great job of reducing your image sizes. Pro versions take things a step further; however, the free versions are good enough, for now, to make your site faster.
| RELATED: 5 Top Free Image Editing Tools For Bloggers
10. WPCode Lite
WPCode Lite is one of those free WordPress plugins for blogs that many beginners don’t realize they need until they’re asked to paste code into their website header or footer.
For example, you may be adding Google Analytics verification code, a Pinterest verification tag, Facebook Pixel or ad network scripts. WPCode Lite gives you a safe and organized way to insert code snippets into your site without touching your theme files.
Why is this important?
Editing your theme files directly can accidentally break your site if something is pasted incorrectly. This is something I accidentally did many years ago as a beginner blogger: big mistake!
Another reason why this is an essential WordPress plugin is that when you theme updates, the code you added via WPCode doesn’t disappear.
WPCode Lite keeps your custom code separate from your theme. It’s simple to use, beginner-friendly and helps protect important theme code from accidental mistakes.
10 Best Free WordPress Plugins For Blogs – Checklist
Although there are numerous alternatives, if you’re starting out, go with the basic but best free WordPress plugins. I recommend these, but you can always explore others.
- UpdraftPlus
- Wordfence Security
- W3 Total Cache (or another caching plugin)
- Autoptimize
- Rank Math SEO plugin
- Akismet Anti-Spam
- Pretty Links
- Social Warfare
- EWWW Image Optimizer or WP Smush or any other image compression plugin.
- WPCode Lite
A couple of additional plugins to add include:
- Broken Link Checker (free plugin) – add this plugin occasionally (it’s a speed hog – use it sporadically) to check if your site has any broken links. This is good to do monthly/quarterly.
- Kadence Blocks – When paired with WordPress’s Gutenberg, this is a powerhouse for design and it works with any WordPress theme. Build landing pages and custom pages (like a home page if you have a simple blog theme).
I don’t expect you to stick with these plugins forever. Try them out. See if they work for you and your blog!
Additional Resources And Tips For Beginners
Now that you’ve got your essential WordPress plugins added, there are other things to do on your new blog checklist:
- Launched it with a self-hosted site?
- Have I started writing a few blog posts, and have more blog posts in the hopper?
- I’ve got a kick-ass About Me Page and have set up all other key blog pages?
- Created a logo for my site?
- Started boosting my blog posts using smart promotional strategies?
- Using Pinterest to get my blog in front of an interested audience?
- What should I do to make my blog look professional?
- How many blog posts should I publish before I launch my blog?
- How do I set up my categories, and what are tags?
You’re on the right track! Keep growing your blog!
QUESTION: Let me know if there are any other best free WordPress plugins for blogs that have worked for you in the comment section. Are there any others to add to this brief list?
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These are SO helpful!! Thanks for sharing these!
You are most welcome! Glad to share the tips.
What a great list! I have a few installed already, but I’m going to check out the rest. 🙂
Hope they work for you and your blog!
I already use some of the plugins mentioned here, but I didn’t know about half of them! Very useful post 😉 One question, what made you choose Sumo over Shareaholic?
Shareaholic I used in the past. I haven’t revisited them recently but will do so. Sumo has some simple, and easy to implement features and I like how it works with my blog.
This is great. I already have a couple installed and will be looking into the others.
Fantastic! Hope they work for you!
These are great plugin recommendations for anyone that wants to start a blog.
Thank you!
Great information. This is especially helpful to a newbie blogger like myself. Thanks for sharing!
I hope they help you grow your blog!
These are great! I will have to update my blog soon because I don’t have all listed! Thank you! A must read for anyone who wants to start a blog.
Some of them will make a big difference in how your blog runs!
This is so useful Margaret, and I couldn’t agree more with the image optimizer recommendation. Thanks for sharing!
xx
Victoria
YES! Definitely with the images. And you’re welcome!
This is great! I definitely am going to check these out. I use some of them already. Have you had any issues with Jetpack when using WordPress.org instead of WordPress.com which it’s meant for?
Jetpack works for both. I like to use it for the back-end stats, but that’s about it.