Ah, WordPress plugins…
… at first they seem like the answer to all life’s problems.
Update files? There’s a plugin…
Block spam? There’s a plugin…
SEO? Yep, there’s a plugin for that, too.
But as any seasoned blogger knows: plugins slow down your website. They can break the next time WordPress updates… or worse, leave open holes for malicious hackers to exploit.
For these reasons, use as few plugins as necessary.
Sure, you’ll require additional plugins depending on your travel blog. But the following are ones I recommend everyone install:
Plugins You Should Install
W3 Total Cache: This plugin speeds up your site considerably. It caches your website (meaning users don’t have to reload everything when they view a second page), minifies your files and lets you transfer content to a Content Delivery Network.
If you don’t understand what this means, follow this tutorial exactly.
Yoast’s Wordress SEO Plugin: WordPress itself is pretty good for SEO. But with this plugin you can take your SEO to the next level. Best part about this plugin? It’s creator (Joost de Valk) put his suggestions next to each section. It’s like having a technical SEO expert looking over your shoulder.
WP-DBManager: Automatically backup your WordPress files/ Then when something goes wrong - and it most certainly will - you don’t have to start over.
Akismet: The only spam blocker you’ll ever need. Install it and (almost) never deal with spam again.
And that’s it. These four plugins will make your site faster, safer, SEO friendly and spam-free.
Plugins You Shouldn’t Install
Anything unnecessary. As I’ve already mentioned, plugins slow down your site and potentially leave you open to attack.
What You Need to Do Next
Install these four plugins.
Then review these other plugins for travel bloggers to see which are right for you.
To your successful travel blog,
Adam Costa
Editor in Chief, Travel Blogger Academy
P.S. This is part of a 24 part course on travel blogging. If you haven’t already, sign up for it now.
About adamcosta
Great suggestions. Super Cache is recommended over W3 by my host but both are great.
Awesome
Good suggestions. I’m having a big headache trying to find the plugins that work for my site, and i think i need to delete few of them. I’m relatively new on the bloggers community and hopeless when it comes to technology & co).I just discovered about SEO.. (to give you an idea of my ignorance).
Your posts are literally opening a whole new world to me. Thanks for your help and inspiration!
There’s a pluggin that makes your site smaller!? I NEED that! I’ve been looking at my GB disk space going, oh no I’m going to have to upgrade to the unlimited plan sooner than expected (which costs more than double the web hosting plan I’m using now).
Awesome! Thank you!!!! 😀
Stacey, you should edit the pictures before uploading them to the website. Just save them as smaller file formats. This is how I avoided using too much disk space.
Hi,
You have suggested After the Deadline plugin for writing and editing. Although the reviews are great the plugin has not been updated for two years. Can you suggest another editor which uses artificial intelligence to check spelling, style, and grammar in WordPress?
Thanks a lot
Susana