Thanks to the open source nature of WordPress, the range of plugins there are is vast and varied. Plugins can make your life a whole lot easier as a blogger and can streamline the process of managing your website. The sheer number of options means that it can be daunting to decide which ones are best suited for your blog.

There are some standout plugins out there that everyone should consider using to their advantage. We’ve gone ahead and rounded up the top five free plugins for your food blog. Take a look through our list, download a few, and relax as your job gets easier and easier.

WordPress SEO By Yoast

The important thing to understand about search engines is that you want your audience to be able to find you. If they’re looking for the perfect weeknight dinner recipe, or trying to track down information about baking, you want them end up at your wonderful site. The foundation to showing up well in search results is to create rich, unique content on your site. Along with generating strong content, understanding SEO, or search engine optimization, will go a long way.

Optimizing your site to show up in search results means making sure it follows a few standards around formatting and content. It may seem scary at first, but is relatively easy to get the hang of. On top of that, there are handy plugins like WordPress SEO by Yoast to make your job simpler.

It’s pretty important to be running some sort of SEO plugin, and SEO by Yoast is the best. It is simple to set up and allows you to tackle the key aspects of SEO, such as ensuring proper titles. Not only that, but it has handy reminders as you write your post, and it lets you know how well you’ve done at optimizing the page.

PDF and Print

As a food blogger, your content is prime material for printing. People are going to want to print and save your recipes for easy use in the kitchen, and there are ways to make that easy for them.

PDF and Print is a plugin that facilitates easy printing of your content. It allows you to add a simple button to the content that your readers want. Then they can save the content as a page to print or create a PDF. This allows maximum flexibility for the lovely people reading your site and is simple to set up and use.

Editorial Calendar

Sometimes the most challenging part of running a food blog is finding the time to create content and write about it. Staying organized can be a challenge when your plate is full of life’s obligations, but you’re not alone. Luckily, some wonderful developer has come up with the perfect plugin for this: Editorial Calendar.

Editorial Calendar is a simple plugin that packs immeasurable value. Essentially, it creates a calendar where you can plug in your posts and see what you have coming down the pike. You can create place holders for upcoming posts and projects, and edit your posts from the calendar. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that help the most, and this tool is one of them.

Pin It! Button For Images

We’ve discussed it here before: Pinterest is a primary driver in traffic to food websites. If you’re not actively using Pinterest to help bring readers to your site, get started now. One of the best ways to build community and establish your prowess as a food writer is to make your delicious recipes and photos easy to share.

The Pin It! Button for images plugin allows you to maximize access to your photos and make your blog Pinterest friendly. The plugin adds a ‘Pin It!’ button when people roll over your images, allowing them to share your appetizing pictures with one easy click.

You’re sure to see an increase in traffic if you’re effectively using Pinterest, and this plugin is one way to do that. Your recipes will get out across the internet and into kitchens everywhere.

All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets

All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets is another tool in the arsenal of managing your search presence. Rich Snippets takes the key information from your site and shares it in a way with search engines to increase your visibility.  Not only that, but it makes sure that your content is shared on Facebook in the best way possible.

It may seem like a small thing, but Rich Snippets help improve click through rate and get people reading your posts. The plugin is easy to set up and use and will yield results for the long term. You’re spending hours in the kitchen and behind the computer screen – make sure everyone’s seeing your hard work.

WP Ultimate Recipe

This post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning WP Ultimate Recipe. We’ll admit that we’re biased, but we think that you need this plugin to really bring your site to life. It’s been designed specifically with the food blogger in mind, and makes your job as easy as pie.

WP Ultimate Recipe shines when it comes to sharing recipes. Not only does this plugin make it simple for you to insert recipes into your posts, but it makes entering and organizing recipes easy and intuitive.  You can add photos to each step of your recipe. For those who want to print your recipes without photos, that’s easily done too.  Not only that, but recipes are scalable!

Our plugin is optimized for search engines, employing rich snippets to keep your content shining. It’s also fully responsive, working across devices. Your readers will be able to carry your recipes with them and print them as needed. Everyone wins with WP Ultimate Recipe.

There are many plugins out there to make your site the best on the web. These are just a few, but some of the most important ones for you as a food blogger. They’re all simple to set up and easy to maintain. Harnessing them will help you manage your internet presence and reach your audience. So cook up a snack and get started!