Looking for plugins to use on your WordPress website? Well, there are thousands and thousands of plugins for just about anything you can possibly imagine.
However, there are some Must-have plugins for any website whether it is a News Website, Business Website, Blog Website, or Personal Website. We have gathered must-have plugins in this article so that you can run your website smoothly.
As we know, plugins are add-ons that help you extend what your website can do. It makes things easy for you, helps in making an excellent user experience for site visitors, and similarly, helps you rank higher in the search along with security and backups.
Primary Motive of any Website
1. Website Optimizing
By website optimizing, it means to make your website light and fast. There are so many factors which could slow down your site’s loading time. As we know, people will usually wait for about two to three seconds maximum for your web page to load, if it takes any longer they will just leave your site.
Therefore, there are plugins which will effortlessly optimize your website. You can benefit from such plugins.
2. Security
Security is another part which is essential for any kind of website. It must be a primary motive of the website to create a secure site where the viewers feel safe to view your site. We know that everyday hundreds of websites get hacked.
Therefore, to keep your site from getting hacked we need the help of trusted plugins which we have listed for you.
3. Search Engine Optimization
Search optimization is the act of getting websites rank higher in search engines like google, bing etc. It’s important because one of the main ways of people discovering your content online is through ranking higher in search engines which leads to an increase in traffic to a website.
Therefore, we have listed some plugins which will be in use for the purpose of search optimization.
4. Communication
Communication is a key to engage the viewers for a longer period of time. It also gives viewers a reason to visit your site as it builds trust between you and the visitors.
Therefore, communicating parts like forms, emails, and live chat can be added to your website with add-ons(plugins).
5. Backup
Backup comes in handy in critical times when we unfortunately lose our necessary data. So, backup helps to recover our lost data and it is important to backup.
Therefore, there are plugins to easily back up the data and be prepared for any kind of risk.
Hence, these were some of the primary parts we needed to focus on while creating a website.
The Must-have Plugins for Every Website
1. WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a powerful WordPress caching plugin to boost your loading time, page speed. Overall, optimize your WordPress website and have over 1 million Active installations.
It is great if you want an all in one speed solution and you don’t mind paying for it. It will cost you 59 bucks a year.
Key points:
- Page caching makes your site load ultra-fast.
- GZIP Compression, decreases the size of your files and loads the content quicker.
- Automatically preloads the cache every time you make changes on a web page.
- Stores the frequently accessed resources of your sites.
2. WP Fastest Cache
WP fastest cache is another plugin to optimize the website. It has a special feature – an assembly process that happens just once and that same saved version, the pre-assembled version, is served up to every visitor which is a faster way to load your page.
It has over 1 million active installations. It has a free as well as a premium version with many additional features compared to the free version.
Key points:
- All cache files are deleted when a post or page is published.
- Block cache for specific page or post with Short Code.
- Cache timeout for specific pages.
- Cloudflare support.
3. Wordfence Security
WordPress websites are actually vulnerable to hackers and this plugin helps to wreak havoc on your website. Hence, Wordfence security plugin focuses exclusively on securing WordPress websites.
With more than 4 million active installations, it comes in the free and a premium versions.
Key points:
- Login security controls.
- Centralized security events and template-based security configuration management.
- Two-factor authentication.
- 24/7 incident response team
4. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is one the most downloaded plugins of all time with over 5 million plus active installations. It works in search engine optimization of your website.
Yoast SEO has a free version containing everything that you need to manage your SEO and also a premium version whose extension unlocks even more tools and functionality.
Key points:
- Gets more visitors from Google and social media.
- Automatically takes care of a site’s technical SEO.
- Prevents visitors from ending up on dead links.
- Helps with optimizing posts for the desired keyphrases.
5. Rank Math SEO
Rank Math SEO is an “All in one” tool that helps you optimize every single page of your website so you can rank higher in those google searches. It is another search engine optimization tool with over 1.7 million plus active installations.
So you can either choose Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO plugin. However, Rank Math SEO plugin gives you tighter control over important SEO settings on your site including local signals.
You can download a free version of rank math and install it on your website and to unlock more features you do require a premium version.
Key points:
- Clean and simple interface.
- Built-in advanced SEO analytics module.
- Ranking keywords for posts.
- The most advanced schema generator.
6. WP forms
WPForms is a WordPress form plugin available which will lead us to build the forms quickly and easily. It lets you embed a contact form to engage the visitors. You can customize what information you want to ask for, and how it looks and it’s going to send right to your email. This plugin has 5 million plus active installations making it the most trusted plugin.
You can get WPForms lite for free and if you were to have access to more advanced features you may upgrade to paid service.
Key points:
- Easy to customize.
- Drag and Drop form builder.
- Smart conditional logic
- Marketing and subscriptions
7. Tidio
Tidio is another way of getting in touch with your readers. You will be able to ask questions on your website. As some of your readers will be more likely to engage with a live chat, this plugin enables you to add the live chat feature in your website.
With active installations over 10 thousand, it is a very useful plugin to your site. It comes in the free as well as paid versions.
Key points:
- Ticketing system that controls the queue.
- Third party apps integration.
- Get the visitors info.
- JavaScript API to manage the advanced behavior of the live chat.
8. UpdraftPlus
There are plenty of backup plugins in WordPress, one of the most powerful and easy to use is the UpdraftPlus plugin trusted by over 3 million WordPress sites. This plugin helps to restore the data if your site ever suffers a crash from malware or hacking.
UpdraftPlus has the free version with enough to save your website, however, a premium version offers more features and functionalities.
Key points:
- Restores backups directly from your WordPress control panel.
- Daily backup schedule.
- Allows you to backup and restore with a single click.
- Designed to run everywhere that WordPress runs
Hence, these were the Must-have WordPress plugin for your website. With the proper use of these plugins you can run the site smoothly and decently. Here , there are some things you need to look for when selecting a plugin.
Things to look for when selecting a plugin
- Active Installations
- Reviews
- Frequent updates
- Support
- Compatibility
- Listed in the official directories
Conclusion
WordPress straight out of the box is a great platform but it does have a lot of deficiencies and these plugins could help with those deficiencies. Regardless of what type of website you’re running, there are certain plugins that are always worth installing.
Therefore, we now have come to an end of our article. So, all you need to do is take your time to define what is your website’s utmost need and make the choice accordingly.