Newbie asks for advice

[Nadim mithu]

I'm going to create my first wordpress+elementor website for blogging. I found detailed instructions and courses on youtube.

But I'm checking out other people's blogs that use a lot of plugins and applications that I don't understand at all. (Check attached screenshot)

How do I learn how to choose the right plugins, etc.? Do I need to take more courses in web development to get better at it?

 

[tazarbm]

elementor is bloatware, don't use it! And so is Jetpack...

If you want to rank in google you need: speed + safety + SEO and performance, which means:

speed... as few plugins as necessary + caching plugin + CDN. I recommend Litespeed Cache + Bunny.net + any good image optimization plugin (EWWW Image Optimizer, Smush.It, Shortpixel)

safety... Wordfence is a popular choice, but there's also Sucuri if you don't like Wordfence.

SEO and performance.... Perfmatters, WP Rocket, and a decent SEO plugin (RankMath / The SEO Framework).

These are pretty much all of the plugins you're going to need, everything else is optional... Actually, you will also need an internal linking plugin, this is also important for SEO, so you can use Link Whisper / YARPP, any of these should be good...

 

[Nadim mithu]

elementor is bloatware, don't use it! And so is Jetpack...

If you want to rank in google you need: speed + safety + SEO and performance, which means:

speed... as few plugins as necessary + caching plugin + CDN. I recommend Litespeed Cache + Bunny.net + any good image optimization plugin (EWWW Image Optimizer, Smush.It, Shortpixel)

safety... Wordfence is a popular choice, but there's also Sucuri if you don't like Wordfence.

SEO and performance.... Perfmatters, WP Rocket, and a decent SEO plugin (RankMath / The SEO Framework).

These are pretty much all of the plugins you're going to need, everything else is optional... Actually, you will also need an internal linking plugin, this is also important for SEO, so you can use Link Whisper / YARPP, any of these should be good...

You mean I should not buy shared host?

 

[tazarbm]

You mean I should not buy shared host?

when did I say that?

But since you've mentioned it... shared host is Ok as long as you don't have a lot of traffic (1000s visitors a week), for highly traffic'd sites it's better to use a VPS

 

[Project Limitless]

You can go with another lightweight theme. Elementor is heavy and makes your website slow. If you're relying on Youtube tutorials, you can have a look at Generatepress and Astra. They have a lot of tutorials that will get you through.
You don't have to go for every plugin that you see on Youtube, just install the ones that you actually need and as your website grows you can add/remove plugins.

 

[Nadim mithu]

when did I say that?

But since you've mentioned it... shared host is Ok as long as you don't have a lot of traffic (1000s visitors a week), for highly traffic'd sites it's better to use a VPS

what vps do you recommend
im not technical

 

[tazarbm]

what vps do you recommend
im not technical

ugh, I don't know as I'm not using VPS either...

Some of the popular ones, though (from what I'm seeing mentioned around here) are Digital Ocean and Vultr. There are also plenty of VPS offers in the forum's marketplace and now with Black Friday I think you can find some pretty good deals

 

[TechEinstien]

Don't overthink it. You will just need basic plugins. Don't install unnecessary plugins that will slow your website.

 

[Nadim mithu]

ugh, I don't know as I'm not using VPS either...

Some of the popular ones, though (from what I'm seeing mentioned around here) are Digital Ocean and Vultr. There are also plenty of VPS offers in the forum's marketplace and now with Black Friday I think you can find some pretty good deals

You use shared hosting?
so I can use that too

 

[Nadim mithu]

Don't overthink it. You will just need basic plugins. Don't install unnecessary plugins that will slow your website.

Yes I want fast website

 

[HenryObi]

I'm going to create my first wordpress+elementor website for blogging. I found detailed instructions and courses on youtube.

But I'm checking out other people's blogs that use a lot of plugins and applications that I don't understand at all. (Check attached screenshot)

How do I learn how to choose the right plugins, etc.? Do I need to take more courses in web development to get better at it?

You should know exactly what and what you want your blog to be able to do. Streamline it such that only needed features are included. Don't install a plugin simply because other publishers are doing the same.

 

[tazarbm]

You use shared hosting?
so I can use that too

yeah, shared hosting is the best option for you seeing how you are a newbie. You'll do fine with it until you manage to get hoards of traffic