Im looking to start my own blog, perhaps in the cooking niche. Im interested in whats essential, ive heard alot about optimizing page speed and some other methods of improving stay-on-site metrics, but i cant seem to find actual plugins that help. Im also quite interested in commonly used themes, hopefully free or atleast cheap/discounted. Blog will obviously or rather most likely live on Wordpress. Please let me know, i will take any sort of tips, im a total beginner both when it comes to blogging, and also generating traffic, especially for sites. Feel free to reach out to me eitheir on here or on discord, please do not poach me into buying your services or products.
What Are The Essential Plugins For A Blog Site, Themes
- Thread starter cell420
- Start date
Dont burden ur site with too many plugins right away all uh need is a lean theme such as generate press or Astra. If you have food blogs, you may want to take care of schema and image compression.
digitalhaven
Newbie
- Oct 16, 2026
- 21
- 12
To boost your stay on site time try linking related recipes at the bottom of your posts and setting external links to open in a new tab simple tweaks like that keep visitors around much longer
Im curious on what you mean by schema? Appreciate the reply!
Is there a specific way to enable the new tab mechanic, its quite smart now that i think about it. Thanks for the reply.
In terms of a cooking blog i would focus more on optimising the schema and images as opposed to loading SEO plugins. keep the theme clean and test mobile speed first.
bonnybolt
Junior Member
- Jul 1, 2026
- 112
- 22
TBH, there's no point in chasing down plugins for every statistic. concentrate more on quick recipe pages and compressed images. The fact that users leave your website simply because it looks slow is a bigger problem.
i'm not a expert, but i'd suggest starting with a lightweight theme like astra or generatepress for plugins keep it simple at first one SEO plugin, a caching plugin, a backup plugin, and a security plugin. don't install too many plugins until you actually need them. i think its help you a lot.
I think you need to consider beginning with something basic, like generatepress nd astra. If you are going to use any plugins, then Rank Math is good for SEO purpose while WP Rocket will help you with caching. updraftplus is useful for backup purposes. Considering that you are developing a cooking blog, I recommend that you check out WP recipe maker which will make it easy to add recipe cards.
concerning recipe blogs, I would suggest you to try WP Recipe maker, as far as it has recipes with schema markup which will help your recipes stand out in the search. As for light-weight themes, it is generatepress and astra. At first, it is enough to use only plugins for SEO, caching and backups. also, please take care of images size optimization. food photos tend to slow down the page loading speed significantly.
from what I have seen in the WP plugin, then the best choice is the WP recipe maker as it provides the easiest platform to create the recipe cards and implement the structure data in your site. coming to the themes, then there are some great options like the GeneratePress theme nd astra theme nd there is no requirement for you to install too many plugins initially. Just concentrate on basic things like the SEO, caching, backup nd compression of food image.
- Jun 6, 2023
- 1,467
- 120
for beginner keep setup lightweight instead of installing too many plugins.generatepress or astra are good starting themes and rank math can cover basic seo. focus on image optimization and mobile loading speed too because recipe pages can get heavy with large photos.
I would begin with a simple theme and a few plugins. If you re starting a cooking blog then the recipe schema and compressed food pictures re worth considering from the start.
mrfaraz
Senior Member
- Dec 4, 2023
- 944
- 420
As a wordpress developer myself these are the essentials i do before each website
1) Theme :- Astra or Hello Elementor
2) Editor :- Elementor & Pro Elements (Pro Elements will unlock the premium features of the Elementor Free)
3) RankMathSEO
4) Wordfence Security
5) SiteKit by Google
6) LiteSpeed Cache
7) Classic Editor (Optional - but it makes the UI easier for the beginners to understand)
By using these plugins , you will have the SEOptimized , Performance & Speed Optimized website ready .
1) Theme :- Astra or Hello Elementor
2) Editor :- Elementor & Pro Elements (Pro Elements will unlock the premium features of the Elementor Free)
3) RankMathSEO
4) Wordfence Security
5) SiteKit by Google
6) LiteSpeed Cache
7) Classic Editor (Optional - but it makes the UI easier for the beginners to understand)
By using these plugins , you will have the SEOptimized , Performance & Speed Optimized website ready .
however, in reality, it would be better for me to start with a light theme like generatepress or astra with the minimal use of plugin f I were designing a food blog. the wp Recipe Maker plugin is one of those plugin that should not be overlooked in my case as it will assist me in adding recipes to my blog. Image compression is another vital aspect which needs to be taken into account since food image add to the bulkiness of the blog.
- Jan 28, 2010
- 292
- 98
Mostly from experience it comes down to selecting the right theme / some hosts will have licenses for premium themes or site builders included in their package
When it comes to plug-ins usually using Google to connect to analytics
Some handy SEO plugin (mostly used yoast)
Some backup plug-in
The rest based on what you additionally need, but it's advisable to keep the amount of active plug-ins moderate
The more plug-ins the more potential issues (including security)
When it comes to plug-ins usually using Google to connect to analytics
Some handy SEO plugin (mostly used yoast)
Some backup plug-in
The rest based on what you additionally need, but it's advisable to keep the amount of active plug-ins moderate
The more plug-ins the more potential issues (including security)
image weight is one that newbies fail to realise cooking sites have become bulky quickly because of photos showing each step, thus compress the images before looking for another speed plugin.
MarketSellCap
Junior Member
- Jan 3, 2026
- 102
- 21
Since you're new to WordPress, make sure your backups can actually be restored. Keep a copy outside your hosting account and try restoring it on a test site. Having backup files won't help much if they fail when you need them.