snakeair

Now I do understand that a lot of bloggers may disagree with the plugins that I will be mentioning and some will just agree that these are needed. It has been said a million times online that to many plugins can slow down your blog's page speed or just slow it down in general no matter where you are navigating to. This snake will not lie and yes I have a lot of plugins installed but not as much as I did in the past. As WordPress keeps upgrading and adding new features I'm actually finding it possible to remove a plugin or two. Also my Studio Press theme has some built-in SEO features and more to come in there next update in a week or two.

Come to think of it, some WordPress Theme designers do build in certain features into their themes and makes it possible to drop a plugin or two. I would suggest you take a look at the Studio Press Genesis framework if you are shopping around for a new WordPress theme.

I'm no WordPress Expert and never claimed to be one but here are my tips for people who are looking to start a self hosted WordPress blog.

1. Hosting - Try to pick a web host that specializes in WordPress hosting when looking for a shared hosting account. Search Google for reviews on the web host. Pick the wrong one and that can have an effect on page speed.

2. Cloudflare - Besides installing this plugin, you have to also join their official website which is free and add your domain in there. Check out the features CloudFlare gives you: http://www.cloudflare.com/overview

3. Bullet Proof Security - My trusted Plugin to help make sure all the loose ends are Secured to help prevent a hacker. Of course very hard passwords is always a plus but won't stop a hacker. This plugin will help secure your blog along with using Cloudflare that was mentioned above.

4. CAPTCHA Plugin - I use this plugin because it stops the spammers that are using software to mass register on blogs to post spun/spammy articles. Trust me, you'll love this plugin if you got a ton of bot's registering on your blog.

5. SiteMap Generator - Once you set this up and verify your google, bing, yahoo accounts..etc you really don't have to ever change a setting on this. Read the instructions if you install this in which you really should.

6. Yoast SEO Plugin – I’ve installed this plugin a few days ago and removed the All In One SEO plugin and love the options that Yoast provides. You don’t need the sitemap generator I linked you to in tip number 5 since it’s built into this SEO plugin. That’s one less plugin to install now and YOAST SEO plugin has a built-in “breadcrumbs” feature that you’ll like.

7. G.A.S.P - If you keep the default comment system on your blog like I have, this plugin will add a check box under the comment box for the humans to check on if they wish to comment. The people using automated software to post blog comments won't see this and therefore have a hard time posting a spammy blog comment on your blog. Saves you a little time in removing the spam blog comment's. I have my blog comments set to moderate on almost everything.

8. Sexy Bookmarks - Very good social tool to allow visitors to submit your content to the social world..

9. Jet Pack By WordPress.com - To many features to mention in this blog post. The stat tracker option is my favorite. I track what blog posts or pages get the most hits then build more backlinks for those keywords to get the blog post or page indexed better. (seo tip right there folks)

10. A good caching plugin to use is the W3 Total Cache one but I don't have it installed because my web host has it installed on their server. Visit the Web Hosting link I gave earlier in this blog post to see the web host that I use in which is for WordPress blogs only.

11. Fast Secure Contact Form - Click on my Contact tab in the menu bar to see this plugin in action. (Edit, since blog post is on VBSEO you can't see it in action) I hardly ever get spam email using this form. Then again, I know a few people may actually spam me now since I mentioned this. lol

12. SEO Slug - This plugin removes common words like 'a', 'the', 'in' from post slugs to improve SEO. (Referring to blog URL once a post is published.) FYI, look at this blog post title and then look at the URL. The URL more SEO friendly in the search engines eyes.

13. Search the WordPress Plugins database. I have more plugins that I'm using but I think the ones that I have mentioned should be installed right away after you install your WordPress blog.

Like mentioned earlier, you may agree or disagree with the plugins that I suggested for you to use for a new installation but don't go overboard and install 30 plugins. Only install a plugin if it's going to be used every single day. It could slow down your blog or even worse some plugins may not work with each other and give you some errors when doing normal task's on the blog.

One last thing to mention... Experiment on your blog. I do this all the time and this is how I learn new things in the Blogging world. Sometimes reading blog posts like this, you may only get confused because other people suggest different plugins to use. Go with the gut feeling and take a chance. I know what works for my blog and therefore is the reason why I have a lot of plugins.

To Your Success

Derek
newbizshop.com (Original article is on my blog, just sharing it with all of you)