In this article I want to share all the Plugins I use on my WordPress installations. These are plugins that I usually use as soon as I install WP and create a new website. I will also share mandatory long-term plugins for your site.
First WordPress Settings
As soon as I install WordPress I change the language to Portuguese and then I go to the permanent link settings and change to the post name. Then I create the Policy and Privacy pages and also Contact. Followed by the website's categories and menus.
As a theme I usually always use the theme GeneratePress which in my opinion is the best WordPress theme. It is not enough to install the plugins, I will also show images of some of the configurations I make in these plugins to facilitate the creation of your website.
I don't usually use a lot of plugins, just the essential ones. Remembering that this article is a personal opinion, showing what I usually use, it may not have the same uses in your project.
Rank Math - SEO Plugin
The first thing you should install on your WordPress is an SEO Plugin. Many recommend SEO by Yoast, but I personally recommend Rank Math for offering many more functions for free. Its paid version is also very good offering SEO for videos and other functions like statistics.
Rank Math replaces dozens of plugins like Schema, Redirections, 404 page detection and others. An SEO Plugin is mandatory for all WordPress installations, it allows you to be ranked on Google more easily and improves your appearance on social networks.
The paid version improves by automating some things that you also need to do to have relevance on Google such as titles, ALT tags and automatic descriptions in images and others. In addition to SEO for videos, super important, in which I recommend adding at least one video per article.
If you want to know more about the SEO plugin and its configuration, we recommend reading our article on the Rank Math.
AddToAny - Sharing Plugin
If your theme does not have native sharing buttons (which does not generally offer all buttons or floating buttons), we recommend using Addtoany as it is lightweight and practical.
I'll leave an image with the settings that I usually add in AddtoAny to have floating buttons and at the end of each article. Depending on the theme you will need to change the position and size of the icons.
In the field Additional Javascript I add a code to add a Facebook and Pinterest share button to the images. I also add code to make the share buttons Nofollow. Follow the codes below:
a2a_config.overlays.push({});
a2a_config.callbacks.push({
ready: function() {
var addtoany_link = document.querySelector('.a2a_kit > a');
if (addtoany_link) {
addtoany_link.rel = 'nofollow noopener';
}
}
});Using these codes increases the chances of someone sharing an article and also improves the site's SEO. Leave these links dofollow passes relevance of your site to big competitors like Facebook and Twitter.
Search Regex - Bulk edit plugin
I love this plugin because it allows me to correct portuguese errors, remove unused shortcodes and other codes that I no longer wish to be present in the articles on my website in a quick, massive and practical way.
It serves as a locator that queries directly in the website's database within all articles. You can edit the results individually or in bulk by replacing or removing the content in question.
One of its advantages is that it accepts Regular Expressions (Regex) that allows you to find different texts but that has certain characteristics, ignoring the difference with codes such as (. *?) And others.
I'm not the best person to talk to about Regex, but it does provide a concise and flexible way to identify strings of interest, such as particular characters, words or character patterns. Ps: I disable it when I don't use it.
Content Egg - Affiliate Plugin
O Content Egg is one of my favorite plugins because it allows you to connect with hundreds of stores using APIs to directly search for products within articles and place them as a showcase, lists, grids using your affiliate links.
The Plugin is complete, displays prices, descriptions, store details, images and many other functions. Another thing I use a lot of this plugin is its Autoblog that allows you to create automatic articles using a word rotation system called spintax.
Unfortunately the Content Egg is paid, but makes up for every penny with return it brings to affiliates. If you only use Amazon, there may be more interesting plugins with Locate, something that I am sorely missed right now.
Jetpack - Protection and CDN
Jetpack is the plugin made by the creator of WordPress, although it offers meaningless paid plans (because it doesn't offer anything relevant), its free version offers things necessary to have a fast and secure website.
Jetpack protects your site against intrusions, puts a numeric Captcha at login and also adds CDN to your images and static files (CSS and JS). The CDN alone is mandatory to install, making images load faster without using your server.
Jetpack also offers an unlimited subscription system with double confirmation that sends free e-mail to all subscribers with a very low bounce rate. Why pay for e-mail Newsletter when you have Jetpack?
Jetpack also provides contact form and some blocks of extra content. It also has share buttons (not used) and related article system. read all about Jetpack in another article.
Translatepress - Translation Plugin
This one is a plugin that I recently purchased and I intend to use on all my sites, but it is a plugin to be added in the long term with a little authority. It is a translation plugin, but it works by strings, avoiding unnecessary storage in the table wp-post.
Another advantage of this plugin is that I can translate the entire site quickly using a Database editor (Navicat), since using a Google API for automatic translation can be expensive (Google offers 300 dollars free). The free version allows you to translate into a language, but without translating slugs.
There are other free translation plugins, but the manual work is very heavy. I strongly recommend Translatepress and if you find your license expensive, I do apportionment, just get in touch. I also suggest reading our article on this magnificent Translatepress translation plugin.
As I said in the SEO Plugin, I will leave a video below to improve the reach of the article: