Over a period of eleven years of blogging on WordPress, I have tried and tested many WordPress plugins.
Every now and then I need to remove the outdated plugin and pick something which offers a better feature and let my blog grow.
I understand that searching for right plugins could be a daunting task and this is why I keep sharing about using WordPress plugins here at ShoutMeLoud. Based on my research and experience, I have created a secret list of plugins which I use on all my blogs.
However, today post is an exclusive post which is part of our transparency culture. I love to share how we do things, what tools we use and other important stuff which will help you to grow your blog just like ShoutMeLoud.
Today, I’m sharing the list of must-have WordPress plugins we are currently using at ShoutMeLoud.
Do remember, these plugins are the outcome of my years of experience with blogging.
If you have just started with WordPress, you should first read: How to add plugins to WordPress.
Do remember, I keep changing our plugins, so I suggest you to bookmark this page and keep checking after a month to see the updated list of plugins.
The list is not in any particular order, and at the time of updating (February 2020), these are the must have WordPress plugins which power ShoutMeLoud.
Since many of you asked: : Right now ShoutMeloud is currently using Genesis Theme + Custom skin design and hosted on Kinsta hosting.
List of Must Have WordPress Plugins I use on ShoutMeLoud:
Here is a quick list:
- Advanced Ads: This is the ad management WordPress plugin I’m using to run ads on ShoutMeLoud. This is a feature rich plugin, which let you add direct ads, banner ads, AdSense ads. The coolest part is, you can run A/B test, show/hide based on category/tags, to make most out of the ads on your WordPress website.
- Advanced database cleaner: I use this to reduce the size of my database. A free alternative is WP Sweep which doesn’t offer advanced feature but it’s alright for new blogs. For a serious blog, Advanced database cleaner is recommended.
- AMP for WP: I use the free version of AMP for WP plugin.
- Akismet: For handling spam comments
- Broken link checker plugin:
- Clicktotweet: To add a tweetable code within an article.
- Easy table of content: To show table of content in WordPress (Helps in SEO and UX)
- EasyDigitalDownloads: This plugin helps in setting up a digital download store.
- Email post changes: This sends me a notification when an author or editor make changes.
- Jetpack by WordPress.com: One of the most popular WordPress plugins offer great features.
- Limit modified date: This plugin helps me to prevent updating the timestamp when making minor changes to an old post. This practice is good for SEO.
- Linkwhisper: For internal link building
- OptinMonster: To add email subscription box.
- Pushengage: Push notification for desktop browsers.
- Pixel Caffeine: Fastest way to integrate Facebook pixel on your website.
- Premium Yoast SEO: For SEO optimization (On page & On-site)
- Peter’s Collaboration E-mails: Sends an email to admin & editor when a contributor submit a post.
- Q2W3 Fixed Widget: Fixed widget plugin
- Redirection: Manages 301 redirection & 404 errors from WordPress dashboard. However, I shifted a lot of redirection now using Yoast SEO premium. Over the time, I will be moving everything to Yoast SEO for redirection.
- ShortPixel: Compress images without degrading quality. Helps in faster loading of the articles.
- Ultimate Nofollow: Helps in adding nofollow tag from the WordPress post editor section.
- WP Link Status: The purpose of this plugin is to find broken links. I use it for more than this.
- WP Forms: To add contact form & create a variety of forms here at ShoutMeLoud.
- WP security audit log: Keep an eye on user activities inside the WordPress dashboard.
- WP Advanced Ads: For adding ads
- WPS hide login
Here is a detailed explanation of most of the listed plugins:
SEO By Yoast Premium:
This is a free WordPress plugin that is the powerhouse of my blog SEO. It helps to optimize on Site SEO, On page SEO & Social SEO of the blog. This is a must have plugin for every blog, and I have written a guide over here to learn about the configuration of this plugin. Yoast SEO comes in two versions: Free and paid.
In the pro version there are few extra features like redirection and internal linking. This is why I useYoast premium. You can read my take on premium version here.
Akismet Plugin:
Akismet is a free anti-spam WordPress plugin that I recommend as it is the official plugin from WordPress creator, which lets you fight with spam comments. To use Akismet, you need an API key. You can get one by following this tutorial.
One downside of this plugin is that sometimes it skips spam trackback or comments or legit comments land in the spam folder. Though this usually happens due to a previous interaction with an I.P or with an email address but you can always address this problem by checking your spam folder daily.
This is also a must have plugin that you should have from day one to stop spam comments on your blog.
Schema Pro plugin
This WordPress plugin is useful if you do review post. Using this plugin, you can add a star rating to your blog post, and make it stand out in the search engine. It’s a premium plugin that cost only $79, and it’s a good one-time investment.
CloudFlare plugin:
Cloudflare is a free service which offers security & free CDN. What I really like about CloudFlare is, you can block bots and spam traffic at DNS level. This saves a lot of bandwidth and also your server load is not affected due to the bot traffic.
If you are using a managed WordPress hosting, shared hosting or any web hosting where your bandwidth is a limit, you should definitely use a service like CloudFlare.
Social Snap plugin for social media sharing buttons:
SocialSnap lets you add social sharing & social media follow buttons on the blog. This plugin offers beautiful looking social sharing button at various places such as Floating sharing buttons, after post, fixed bar, and a few other options.
If you need one plugin that takes care of your social media sharing needs, this is the best plugin for now. This is a paid plugin and cost about $39 only for a yearly license.
The analytics feature is also highly useful and you can get stats right inside your WordPress dashboard.
WP Forms plugin:
This free plugin lets you add the contact form on your blog, and I like it because it also shows the referral URL of the person who is using my contact form to send a message.
This helps me to filter down the real and spam message. If you are using Jetpack plugin, you should rather use contact form feature of that plugin.
Jetpack WordPress plugin:
This is a multi-purpose free WordPress plugin that adds the feature like stats, contact form, mobile theme, social sharing button and many more. This is a power packed WordPress plugin.
You need to have a free account on WordPress.com to use this plugin. You can learn more about this plugin over here.
LinkPatrol:
This is a WordPress SEO plugin that controls your blog external link. Using this plugin you can Nofollow, remove any existing external link of your blog.
It’s a premium plugin and is very powerful and useful for the SEO of your blog. You can read the review and how I use this plugin over here.
No Self Pings:
This useful and free WordPress plugin let me stop sending the trackback to interlinked posts inside my domain.
Read: No self-ping WordPress plugin: Stop pinging your Blog post.
OptinMonster:
This is a feature rich plugin. I use it to show email subscription pop up and is highly configurable. Even without any designing skills, I can quickly configure and design an effective pop up for my blog.
If you are into email marketing and need an easy to use WordPress plugin, look no further than OptinMonster.
SEO Friendly Images:
This free plugin lets you optimize images for the search engine. It adds alt text based on the name of the image. Highly recommended.
Read: How to Alt Tag into Images.
WP Status Notifier Plugin:
This plugin notifies me when any blog post is submitted for review and notifies the user when his blog post is accepted.
Later on, we shifted to peter’s collaboration Email plugin that turns out to be more powerful.
Some additional plugins which I use for ShoutMeLoud:
- Ultimate Nofollow to quickly add Nofollow link attribute.
- Link Whisper for internal linking
- Q2W3 Fixed Widget for making sidebar widget fixed
I will keep updating the post whenever I add or remove a plugin here at ShoutMeLoud. You can bookmark this page & visit it after a month or so to see the updated list.
Hey Harsh,
Your link for Author hReview is not working properly. It may happen because Hesham has launched a new plugin named “WP Rich Snippets” which does the same thing. And he might move your affiliate account to WPRichSnippets.com.
However, one question about LinkPatrol. Can LinkPatrol be a good alternative of Broken Link Checker plugin? Recently I’ve moved to HostGator Optimized WordPress Hosting which is not allowing me to use BLC plugin. I am looking for a BLC alternative. Thanks.
@Istiak
Link Patrol is not an alternative for BLC. You should look for desktop based tool. if you are on Mac, you should try Integrity.
Hi Harsh,
Just landed on this post accidentally and happy to see all your WordPress plugins you use on your blog, some of them I am using but I don’t know about the most of other plugins you mentioned here, I am going to try those plugins, thanks a lot for sharing your secrets WordPress plugins information.
Nice list of WordPress plugins for doing high-class blogging .
Harsh thanks for letting us know about plugins used in SML, evbery visit to your blog teaches me something new and useful..my question is i am using Yost SEO, can Jetpack be used at the same time.?. I fear there might be duplicate meta tags, sitemaps or other automatic features which may effect Yoast settings…!! Thnx… 🙂
Hi Harsh,
I am a newbie in this blogging world and i am in search of ways which helps for optimizing my blog. This article revealed good tool for me. Thanks
Hey, Harsh. It’s been a long time since the last time I wrote to you for help. And yes, you are right. This time, I need some help again.
I purchased the monarch plugin at half rate from a friend. I installed it on my blog but I am not able to find the options to add the tiny button at the bottom of the sharing buttons with 3 dots.
When you click on this button, it shows a popup with all the social networking sites which makes it easier for the user to share the content on any social networking site they are on.
I want to know how you did this.
If you can create a tutorial on this, it would be really helpful. Also, please tell me how you did it asap.
I need it for a client who is not really patient.
Regards,
Mithun.
Hey Harsh, your list of plugins has certainly given me an idea of which plugins to really use for my new WordPress site. Btw, many of my friends recommended to All in One SEO. Can you tell me why you prefer WordPress SEO by Yoast over AIO SEO? It’ll be very helpful.
30+ plugins !!! Isn’t that an overkill ?
@Aamit
Nope… If you are using plugins from well-known developer (Well coded plugins), it won’t be any problem.
I have actually had the YOAST plugin break my theme sometimes and also interfere with other plugins. The way I solved it, was by deactivating and then reactivating the plugin. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen. And my theme of choice is Elegant Themes which uses the Monarch plugin. So they are all very well coded.
Great list!
thanks harsh for your help. My site is getting resource limit reached and i have disable almost all plugins and adinjection too (https://wordpress.org/plugins/ad-injection/) is adinjection good or not please help. and if possible please help me how to manage resource limit reached. it is troubling me. i am getting this since 4-5 months ago
Thanks Harsh. It helped me a lot. Are you not using any plugin for caching and image optimization. I had tried CloudFlare but I did not find it faster than WP Super Cache. I could not integrate both well (WP Super Cache and cloudflare). Can I do this?
This is the most useful thing you have shared for any blogger! But in this list there is no any security plugin! Don’t you use any security plugin?
Awesome list. I am using most of the plugins you’ve mentioned on this list. I am just wondering what plugin you are using for backup. However, thanks for sharing the secret list of plugins.
Wow harsh, I’m very thankful to you for sharing the plugins that are behind the great achievement of Shoutmeloud.
This would be a learning post for all the wp beginners.
One thing I would ask you that the subscribe menu just below your post is awesome and would you like to tell how you had added it to your blog.
Waiting for your shorter response
Regards
Aditya
There is no plugin used for that. Genesis Framework does this job.
Nice list of plugins.
I use most of these plugins in my blog except premium plugins.
I use only one premium plugin that is revive old post PRO.
Thanks for sharing this list with us.
Thanks Harsh !for revealing all your secret plugins. It helps many newbies. Personally i use shared hosting. Installing many number of plugins affects my page loading time. Also some of the plugins listed are paid. Also you can suggest a free plugin to all paid plugins.
Thanks in advance !
Hello Ashok
As harsh said, too many plugins won’t slow down, if they coded correctly. But if you use some buggy plugins, they will affect your blog speed
Thank you for sharing your secret. Do you still hosting your site on WPEngine? Does more plugins affects site performance? Does above plugins work with all type of hosting like shared, VPS, managed etc? What do you recommend custom code for adding small functionality or separate plugins? I need to know more about Genesis customization in form of blog post. Thanks 🙂
Shoutmeloud is now hosted at Kinsta Hosting
Thanks Harsh for providing such a huge list of plugins. Seems like most of them are not used by me and also they are paid. Among them Jetpack and Yoast SEO is the best plug-ins to use as free.
Harsh,
SEO by yoast has xml sitemap functionality enabled. Do we need to use another plugin for sitemaps? Kindly clarify.
No you dont need to go for 2 sitemap plugins. Use only one plugin.
Great to hear that these plugins made your blog to grow this extent, I think these plugins are just weapons and the man who use these plugins in an proper and perfect way to get succeeded is YOU. So all the credits goes to you Harsh,
Keep it up….
>>> Loyal Reader <<<
Hi harsh,.
can you please suggest me some one of the best ecommerce plugins to extend the functioning of site.
thanx for sharing this post but jetpack is not useful for me because i am using wodpress.org not .com
tahnx for help in advance
Hi,
Thanks for the article. Will appreciate if the links are live and available for each of these plug ins as suggested in your blog. It looks like most of them are not active any more.