These are the plugins I use, and which I also recommend you to install on your WordPress blog:
To Start
Coming Soon Page, Under Construction & Maintenance Mode, by SeedProd
This plugin allow us to close our site under “maintenance mode”, telling search engines that is not actually closed and that we’ll be right back 😉 There’s no much to explain because it’s extremely easy to configure.
Jetpack, By Automattic
“Security, performance, and marketing tools made by WordPress experts. Jetpack keeps your site protected so you can focus on more important things.”
WP-Optimize – Clean, Compress, Cache
“WP-Optimize makes your site fast and efficient. It cleans the database, compresses images and caches pages. Fast sites attract more traffic and users.”
Yoast SEO, By Team Yoast
Gotta make your blog rank good on search engines! This is the greatest solution. “The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.”
Akismet Anti-Spam, By Automattic
Protect your blog from spam!
To Monetize Your Blog With Ads
Site Kit, By Google
Google Console, Analytics and Ad Sense, will be in one place… in your WordPress dashboard! Hoe cool is that?
“Site Kit is a one-stop solution for WordPress users to use everything Google has to offer to make them successful on the web.”
Ad Inserter
It allows you to choose where to show which ad. Game changing!
To Add More Features To Your Blog
Breadcrumb NavXT
Leave breadcrumbs to your readers 😉
Display Posts, by Bill Erickson
This plugin allow us to create “Recent Post Widgets,” which can also be used in the body of our posts!
Bill has written a great tutorial on the plugins’ website so we can make the most of it; still, I wrote a small guide to install it and customize it CSS. >> Read More