Being a blogger means managing a lot of moving parts.
It’s not just about writing blog posts.
You also have to take care of keyword research, SEO, graphics, social media promotion, and a ton of other things.
It’s often a long and tedious process that involves a lot of steps. Thankfully, there are some tools that can help you make this process faster and more efficient.
In this article, I want to focus on the best Google Chrome extensions for bloggers that you can use to be more productive and efficient.
According to Stat Counter, Chrome has ~62% of the browser market share, followed by Safari (~15%) and Firefox (5%).
Since Chrome is the most preferred browser used by bloggers all over the world, there are many useful extensions that have been developed for it.
I have been blogging for more than 5 years now and I have tried hundreds of Chrome extensions. The ones mentioned in this article are those that I use regularly while blogging.
If you have any suggestions on chrome extensions that I should try out and add to this list, please let me know in the comments section.
Related: Start a Blog with this step-by-Step Guide (with Videos)
What is a Google Chrome Extension?
A Google Chrome extension adds some new functionalities to your browser.
Once you add an extension to the Chrome browser, it would allow you to use the new functionalities within the browser.
A couple of examples where Chrome extensions are useful to include ad-blockers or spell checkers.
The ad-blocker extension would block the ads (making your reading experience better) and the spell-checker extension would help you identify misspelled words and make your writing error-free.
Most of these extensions are super simple to add to your browser (only takes a few clicks).
Best Google Chrome Extensions for Bloggers
Below is a list of the best Chrome extensions for bloggers that I have covered in this article. I have also covered the details on each extension later in this article.
Chrome Extension | Category | Free / Freemium | Link |
Grammarly | Writing | Freemium | Click here |
Keyword Everywhere | SEO | Free | Click here |
SEO Minion | SEO | Free | Click here |
MozBar | SEO | Free | Click here |
Print Friendly & PDF | Productivity | Free | Click here |
Evernote Web Clipper | Productivity | Freemium | Click here |
FocusMe | Productivity | Free | Click here |
LastPass | Productivity | Freemium | Click here |
ColorZilla | Designing | Free | Click here |
Ad Blocker | Productivity | Free | Click here |
Let’s look at each of these Chrome extensions and how it can help you in your blogging work.
1. Grammarly
Blogging is all about writing content that is useful. And to make it stand out in the crowd, you need to make sure it’s error-free.
Grammarly is a free Chrome extension that allows you to correct any misspelled words, double words, grammar, etc.
As soon as you type something which is incorrect, it will highlight the word/phrase with a red line underneath it.
Now all you need to do is hover your cursor over the misspelled word/phrase, and it will show you some suggestions. You can choose to select one of the suggestions, manually edit it, or ignore it.
While there are other tools available as well, Grammarly is the best of the lot.
All you need to do is create an account with Grammarly and add the extension to your chrome browser.
Now it will work not only in WordPress but also in any web-based application where you write text. For example, it will also help you keep your Facebook status messages and Linkedin posts error-free.
For a long time since its inception, Grammarly didn’t work in Google Docs. It has recently released a beta version which now works with Google Docs as well. This is amazing as a lot of bloggers write their blogs in Google Docs first.
Note: In most cases, Grammarly spots the errors and the suggestions it provides are accurate. But in some cases, it may be wrong (it’s a tool after all). So be cautious when you go through the errors and correct it with Grammarly.
Click here to add the Grammarly extension to your Chrome Browser
2. Keyword Everywhere
If people are searching for a specific query in search engines, and your article ranks for it, it can result in a huge amount of free and targeted traffic.
Note the important part here is – “if people are searching for”.
There is no benefit in ranking for something no one is searching for – even though you rank at the top of the results.
Keyword Everywhere is a free Chrome extension that helps you identify the keywords that have search volume. It shows you is a rough estimate of the volume a specific keyword in getting.
Once you have it installed and enabled (more on this later), it will show the search volume for any query that you search in Google.
In the above example, it shows the search volume of the keyword “keto diet in India” as 2,400. This number is not accurate and should be considered just as an indication of whether the keyword has a low or high search volume.
Note: You don’t need to worry about the CPC and competition values. These are meant for people who are want to run Google Ads for the given keyword.
The great thing about this Chrome Extension is that also shows a set of related keywords and the search volume for it.
Below are the suggested keywords generated by the Keyword Everywhere tool (these appear on the right of the search results).
And that’s not all!
At the bottom of the search results, Google shows some related searches. Keyword Everywhere also shows the search volume of these related searches as well.
Installing Keyword Everywhere Chrome Extension
Click here to add keyword everywhere extension to your chrome browser.
Once you have added it, you need to create an account by using your email address. It sends an API key that is needed for this extension to work in Chrome.
Below is a video that shows how to install and use the Keyword Everywhere chrome extension
3. SEO Minion
SEO Minion is a plugin by the same team that created ‘Keyword Everywhere’.
It helps you quickly analyze your pages and check basic SEO stuff such as:
- Analyzing On-page SEO (URL, Title, Description, Meta Description, Headings, and Open Graph)
- Highlighting Internal and External Links
- Check Links (valid, broken, 404s, redirects, etc.)
- SERP Preview
- Google Search Location Simulator (this allows you to view search results for a query in Google from different geographies side by side)
This is a fairly new plugin and has a lot of great features.
I especially find the link checker feature quite useful. it instantly shows me if there are any broken links in my content.
Below is a short video that explains how the SEO Minion Chrome extension works.
Click here to get the SEO Minion Chrome Extension
4. MOZBar
Moz is an SEO tool that allows you to check the Domain Authority of a blog or the Page Authority of a webpage.
While there are many more features in the paid version of the tool, you can get a FREE MozBar Chrome extension with the free account.
All you need to do is create an account with Moz, install their chrome extension, and log in using the account you created.
There are a couple of things that MozBar shows you that are really useful:
- Domain Authority and Page Authority
- Link type (Followed, No-followed, Internal, and External)
Checking Domain Authority and Page Authority are useful when you’re analyzing other blogs.
For example, suppose you’re looking for blogs where you want to guest post, you can quickly use MozBar to check the domain authority of the blog. If it’s too low, you can move on and look for the ones with higher authority.
Another useful feature is checking the do-follow Vs No-follow.
I use it to check whether a blog/website that allows guest posts is giving a do-follow or a no-follow link. If it’s a no-follow, I get less SEO benefit and can focus on the ones that provide do-follow links.
With the Mozbar extension enabled, you can also find good prospects for guest posts.
For example, when I search for the phrase – “write for us” + “Keto Diet” – it gives me the sites that have dedicated ‘Write for Us’ pages and are in the specified niche. Now I can quickly select the ones that have medium to high domain authority and ignore the low-authority ones.
Note: When I look for guest post sites, DA/PA is only a part of it. I also look at other measures such as the topical relevancy, existing traffic of the site, and the number of outbound links from that site.
5. Print Friendly & PDF
This has become one of my favorite Google Chrome extension lately.
If you’re like me and prefer to read on a paper instead of a laptop or smart-phone screen, this extension will be super useful.
With this extension, you can quickly convert any web-page into a PDF file. Being a blogger, I have subscribed to countless email newsletters.
I get bombarded with new articles every single day, and some of those are the ones that I really want to read but don’t have the time.
With this extension, I quickly convert these into PDFs and save this in my ‘Read Later’ folder in DropBox.
And whenever I get time, I don’t have to go looking for it in my inbox. I have it ready as a PDF that I can go through even without the internet.
Another useful use of this is when I write my own blog posts. I like to thoroughly check my articles before I publish these. With this plugin, I can easily take a printout of the article and go through it the old-fashioned way.
The best part is that it allows you to delete images from the article. So I can choose which ones to keep and which ones to delete. This also saves paper and ink.
Click here to get the Print Friendly & PDF Chrome extension
Note: I have been using this extension to create the PDF version of my articles and give it away as an eBook (in exchange for the email). It only takes a few minutes to convert any article into a PDF.
6. Evernote Web Clipper
For those of you who have been living under the rock and don’t know what Evernote is – it’s a note taking app that allows you to take notes and capture stuff from the internet and get it all in one place.
If you’re an Evernote user, you must use their Web Clipper extension.
It makes it super easy to capture anything from the internet and save it in the app. Once you’ve saved everything, you can access it using the Evernote app or their web portal.
To use the app, you need to have an Evernote account. Once you add the Evernote Web Clipper extension added to your browser and then log in to the account, you’re good to go.
With this web clipper, you can quickly save screenshots, articles, entire web-pages, bookmarks to the webpage, etc.
You can also add notes to the clips you save as well as add reminders to it. This makes sure you don’t just save and forget about it as Evernote will remind you of it.
Apart from writing notes, I use Evernote to do research for my blog posts. I can quickly clip any useful article and save it to Evernote. I can also quickly take screenshots and annotate these within the Evernote web clipper.
Click here to get the Evernote Web Clipper Extension
7. FocusMe
FocusMe is a is a Chrome extension that adds two functionalities to your browser:
- It adds a Pomodoro timer that you can start within the browser itself.
- It allows you to block some sites when the Pomodoro timer is ON.
If you don’t know what a Pomodoro timer is, let me explain.
Using a Pomodoro timer means working in batches of 25 minutes. Each session is followed by a short 3-5 minute break.
This is a highly effective technique that requires you to focus on one particular task for 25 minutes – without any distraction.
I have been using this technique for years and can vouch for its effectiveness. I use this while writing blog posts where I start the timer of 25 minutes and only focus on my writing. To avoid getting distracted, I also put my smartphone on airplane mode and sometimes even switch off my WiFi.
FocusMe extension allows you to run this Pomodoro timer from the Chrome browser. You can set the Focus time and Break Time in it.
While there are many other Pomodoro apps and extensions out there, what I really love about FocusMe is that it also allows me to block some websites while I am working.
In my case, I often (sometimes unconsciously) open Facebook or Twitter, which in most cases ends up wasting a huge amount of time.
With Focusme, I can set a list of blocked sites.
Once I start the Pomodoro timer, it will not allow me to open these sites.
Click here to get the FocusMe Extension
8. LastPass
Being a blogger, there are so many tools and services that you have to use. Be it your social media accounts, your paid tools & subscriptions, emails, etc.
I am sure you have faced the frustration of forgetting the passwords and resetting it again and again.
LastPass can be used a central location where you can keep all your passwords. All you have to do is remember one master password (of LastPass) and it will keep all your password safe it a tight vault.
And whenever you need to login to a site by using the password. simply summon LastPass and it will dutifully do it for you.
To use LastPass. you need to install it in Chrome and create an account. Once the account is created, you need to login to the account to make the Chrome extension work.
Now, whenever you log in to a site, LastPass will ask you whether you want to add that password to it or not.
Once you have added a site password to LastPass, you can use it to quickly fill it the next time that site asks for username and password.
You can also login to the LastPass web portal and manage all the sites and the passwords at one place.
You can also categorize these sites and passwords (such as shopping, blogging, banking, etc.)
Click here to get the LastPass Chrome Extension
9. ColorZilla
There are a lot of small designing elements that you need to manage when working on your blog.
Something as simple as picking the right color for your featured images or your title can end up being a time-consuming activity.
If all you need is to know what a color hex code is, you can use the ColorZilla Chrome extension.
I personally use it when I am going through other peoples blogs and I like the color scheme or a photo background. I can then pick the same color code and use to design my own images (for which I use Canva).
You can add it to Chrome and start using it right away – no account needed.
To get the hex code of any color, select the ‘Page Color Picker’ option.
Now simply move the cursor to the color for which you want the HEX code and it will appear in the color picker.
Click here to get the ColorZilla Chrome Extension
AdBlock Plus
I am sure you know how irritating it could be to visit a site and get bombarded with ads from every direction.
While it’s fine to have a few ads on sites (after these sites also need to make money online), sometimes they go overboard and put a huge number of ads.
These could be video ads, pop-ups, and in-content ads (I especially hate the video ads that auto-play as soon as the page loads).
To get a better browsing experience, you can use an AdBlock Plus Chrome extension.
You don’t need to create an account to use this. Just install it and it will start blocking ads.
I opened Times of India (a news website) and AdBlock plus extension blocked 25 ads/items on it.
By default, it allows some acceptable ads. These are the ones that are not-intrusive and doesn’t ruin the reading experience.
You can also whitelist websites if you want to see the ads on it.
Click here to get the AdBlock Plus Chrome Extension
Conclusion
Using the right chrome extension can make your work better and save a lot of time.
Most of these extensions do small things that you can easily do manually, but it can end up taking a lot of your time regularly.
Among all the extension mentioned in this article, ‘Grammarly’ and ‘Print Friendly & PDF’ are my favorite.
I am sure there are many more such useful Chrome extensions meant for bloggers.
If you know of some that I should try and add to this list, let me know.
7 thoughts on “10 Useful (& FREE) Chrome Extensions for Bloggers”
Great List…
I would like to recommend Column Copy. It can be very useful for getting data from tables on web pages.
Thanks Parvesh! Will check it out
Thanks, Sumit. Some of the extensions are really new to me. Will try to use it from today now.
I would love to suggest a few more which I am using :–
Instapaper:- To save any webpage top real later.
Whatthefont:- To identify the font, color scheme of any webpage. Just Hover on the page & it will show you all the details.
AwesomeScreenshot:- For capturing screen, pics, and video.
One quick question, Is LastPass secure & Have face any problem till date?
Thanks, Sumit for bringing this out
Thanks for sharing Amol! I have been using SnagIt for screen capture for many years. Tried AwesomeScreenshot and it’s good too. I have been using LastPass for 3 months now and have not faced any issues.
I would add ‘Add to Pocket’, by far the Chrome extension I use most. If you are unfamiliar with Pocket, it is a tool that saves web articles so you can read them later, even without an internet connection.
I have tried most of those you have listed and I have found them very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Very very useful Chrome extensions. This has made my experience with Chrome more user-friendly. Thanks!
Hi Sumit,
Great Chrome Extensions, Thanks for sharing this article.