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's not enough to just install the plugins; I will also show images of some of the settings I make in these plugins to facilitate the creation of your site.
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 about 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 Additional Javascript field, I add a code to add a Facebook and Pinterest sharing button to the images. I also add a code to make the sharing buttons Nofollow. Here are 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. Making these links dofollow passes relevance from your site to major 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 want to be present in my site's articles quickly, massively, and conveniently.
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 am not the best person to talk about Regex, but it provides a concise and flexible way to identify strings of interest, such as specific characters, words, or patterns of characters. Ps: I turn it off when I'm not using it.
Content Egg - Affiliate Plugin
The Content Egg is one of my favorite plugins because it allows you to connect with hundreds of stores using an API to directly search for products within articles and display them as showcases, lists, and grids using your affiliate links.
The plugin is complete, displaying prices, descriptions, store details, images, and many other functions. Another thing I use a lot from this plugin is its Autoblog, which allows you to create automatic articles using a word rotation system called spintax.
Unfortunately, Content Egg is paid, but it's worth every penny with the return it brings to affiliates. If you only use Amazon, there might be more interesting plugins with Localize, something I'm really missing 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 a contact form and some extra content blocks. It also has sharing buttons (which I don't use) and a related articles system. Read all about Jetpack in another article.
Translatepress - Translation Plugin
This is a plugin that I recently acquired and I intend to use on all my sites, but it is a plugin to be added in the long term with a bit of authority. It is a translation plugin, but it works by strings, avoiding unnecessary storage in the wp-post table.
Another advantage of this plugin is that I can quickly translate the entire site using a Database editor (Navicat), as using a Google API for automatic translation can be expensive (Google offers $300 for free). The free version allows translation into one 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 its license expensive, I can share the cost; just get in touch. I also suggest reading our article about 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: