Abu Zar Mishwani
WordPress users have access to vast numbers of plugins. There are so many that it’s difficult to tell which ones are effective and which are overhyped. Many provide niche solutions, but just a few are actually essential WordPress plugins for all sites.
You’ll want to install some plugins regardless of the type of site you’re running or the niche to which it belongs. And those are the things we’ll talk about in this guide.
We’ll introduce you to 9 must-have WordPress plugins and describe what makes each one unique in this article. We’ll provide you with accurate data to explain why we think each plugin is essential.
#1. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is by far the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress, and it’s simple to understand why it’s one of our must-have plugins. It can help you enhance your SEO, but it can also evaluate the readability of your content. Because 79% merely scan your articles and pages, the more readable your content is, the more likely you are to keep their attention.
There are a lot of strategies to attract visitors to your website in terms of SEO. Few, however, have the same potential as search engines. Google alone processes almost nine billion queries every day. It’s no exaggeration to say that organic traffic can significantly affect a website, and in most cases, you won’t be able to purchase your way to the top. Only 5% of search engine traffic directs users to sponsored results, emphasizing the point. As a result, optimizing your keyword approach is crucial for every website.
Key Features:
- Use keywords and meta descriptions to optimize your WordPress posts and pages.
- See how effectively your content is optimized right now and make changes as needed.
- With a few basic steps, you can improve the readability of your article.
Pricing:
Yoast SEO’s base version is absolutely free, and a premium version with advanced features is also available. The price for the premium Yoast SEO Plugin is $99 per year.
#2. UpdraftPlus
Every day, an average of 30,000 websites are hacked. When you consider that WordPress powers over 40% of all websites on the internet, it’s easy to see why it’s a popular target. Furthermore, minor issues might cause elements of your WordPress website to stop running.
For example, if the majority of users use ten or fewer plugins on their sites, and half of those get monthly updates, it’s clear that compatibility issues are common. Whether you’ve been attacked, run into a compatibility issue, or just wish to relocate your site, a single recent backup can save you a lot of time and effort.
This is where the next WordPress plugin we recommend comes in handy. There are a lot of WordPress backup plugins out there, but few are as powerful and user-friendly as UpdraftPlus. It works with a variety of cloud storage services to keep your backups safe. You can even use a regular schedule to automate your backups.
Key Features:
- Make manual or automated backups of your website.
- Backups can be kept locally or on the cloud.
- Restore the previous state of your website.
Pricing:
UpdraftPlus is available in both free and paid versions.
- Enterprise – (unlimited) $195.00
- Agency – (up to 35 sites) $145.00
- Business – (up to 10 sites) $95.00
- Personal – (up to 2 sites) $70.00
#3. WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a powerful caching plugin that can help you reduce the time it takes for your website to load. It accomplishes this by making cached copies of each dynamically created page on your site, reducing the amount of work required of your servers.
We’ve already discussed the importance of fast page load times, and caching techniques can be even more beneficial than image optimization. The W3 Total Cache plugin, for example, can reduce loading times by over 43%.
WP Rocket works even better, reducing page load speeds by 63%. It isn’t free, but the benefits are well worth the investment, especially if conversions are at risk.
Key Features:
- Cache the dynamically created pages on your website.
- Improve browser caching on the user’s end.
- For quicker loading times, enable lazy loading.
- Use a Content Delivery Network to integrate your caching solution (CDN).
Pricing:
WP Rocket is a premium plugin that costs $49 for a year’s worth of use on a single site.
#4. Revive Old Post
Most websites receive over 30% of their referral traffic from social media.
That means if you don’t stay active on social media, you’re missing out on a lot of potential visitors. To give you an idea, around 2 billion and 300 million people visit Facebook and Twitter each month, respectively. If every post you make on social networks increases your chances of reaching even a quarter of those people, the plugin we’re recommending is well worth your effort.
Revive Old Post is another must-have WordPress plugin on our list. It’s intended to help you increase social media traffic to your website. The plugin accomplishes this by automatically sharing your site’s new and old publications on Twitter and Facebook.
Key Features:
- Automatically share your new and old posts on Twitter and Facebook.
- Create a posting schedule for your social media posts.
- Include hashtags and links to your website in your tweets.
Pricing:
Both free and a paid version of Revive Old Post Plugin are available.
- Personal – $75 (1 website)
- Business – $149 (3 websites)
- Marketer – $299 (unlimited websites)
#5. iThemes Security
According to Sucuri’s most recent hacked website report, WordPress websites are still the most popular targets for hackers. When you think about it, it makes sense. WordPress is the most widely used content management system (CMS) globally, and its faults are well-known. Why wouldn’t a hacker take the easy way out?
Just because WordPress has a target on its back doesn’t mean your clients’ websites have to be exposed to hackers. Here are some options:
Server-side measures, such as a firewall and SSL certificate, should always be included in a site’s overall security. Your first line of defense should be this.
To tackle this issue, iTheme Security is another must-have WordPress plugin on our list. A security plugin like iTheme Security can help protect WordPress against its specific vulnerabilities.
iThemes Security is an excellent option because it offers a wide range of security to a WordPress website. Once the plugin is installed, it immediately begins analyzing your site and performing all necessary security measures.
Key Features:
- A basic security check to determine existing vulnerabilities.
- To stop hacking bots, blacklists for banned users and IP addresses are used
- In case something gets through, file change detection is enabled.
Pricing:
This plugin is available in both a free and a paid version. You receive even more security and active monitoring with the Pro version. The price of the iTheme Security Plugin for one site is $80 per year.
#6. Elementor
Elementor is one of the trendiest additions to our must-have WordPress plugins list, with over 5,000,000 active installs. It’s a visual page builder that allows you to create unique page designs that aren’t completely dependent on your existing theme.
This means you don’t need to be a web developer to add creative effects like background overlays, hover effects, animation, etc. Anything can be done with just a few clicks. It works perfectly with the Gutenberg editor and the rest of the WordPress plugins on this list.
Elementor is a handy tool for individuals who wish to make an excellent landing page for their company. It’s also a fantastic option for people who want a custom design for a section of their website but don’t have the funds to hire a developer.
Key Features:
- Choose from the Elementor library’s 150+ attractively designed templates.
- With a simple drag and drop, you can create a value proposition.
- Create unique designs for your website.
Pricing:
The basic Elementor plugin can be found in the WordPress directory for free. If you want more features, you’ll have to pay to upgrade to the premium version:
- Personal – $49 for a single site each year
- Plus, for three sites, it’s only $99 per year.
- Expert – $199 for 1,000 sites per year
#7. WPForms
WPForms is a fantastic WordPress plugin for creating attractive forms (contact forms and other). This plugin is the ideal combination of useful functionality and ease of use. It’s very user-friendly and mobile-friendly.
One of the main reasons over 3 million websites already use this plugin is the ability to create eye-catching contact forms without working with any JavaScript or other coding.
WPForms provides you with a customizable, contemporary contact form that increases engagement while also increasing conversions, survey results, and more.
Key Features:
- Create a professional-looking contact form absolutely free.
- Pre-built form templates will save you time.
- With the team’s immediate form notification feature, you can respond to leads promptly.
Pricing:
WPForms Lite is a free plugin that works well for sites that want to use it as a contact form. WPForms Pro will get you access to more features and integrations. For $39.50 per year, you’ll have access to many form templates.
#8. WP 301 Redirects
Since we’re talking about must-have WordPress plugins, WP 301 Redirects is an obvious option. It’s a WordPress redirect manager. WP 301 Redirects allows you to create custom 301 redirects on your website and maintain track of all hits. You can also use it to keep track of your website’s broken URLs.
We’re all aware of Google’s (and other search engines‘) sensitivity to poor user experience. A 404 error or a broken website might exacerbate the problem. However, you won’t be able to manually examine every single post or page on your website, especially if you have hundreds of them. Simply installing the WP 301 Redirects plugin will provide a list of 404 pages, and all you have to do now is input the URL where you want the visitor to be redirected.
Key Features:
- Instead of landing on the dreaded 404 page, visitors will be redirected to the webpage they requested, while malicious bots will be ignored.
- It doesn’t matter whether your URL structure has changed or if you require attractive, outgoing affiliate links. Handle any redirection with ease.
- Your site will be penalized if you link to bad sites! Check each outbound link on your site to see whether it’s broken or leads to a dangerous website.
Pricing:
There is both a free and paid version of this plugin available. The paid version is divided into the following categories:
- Personal – $49 (Lifetime License)
- Team – $59 (Lifetime License)
- Agency – $99 (Lifetime License)
#9. MonsterInsights
I have a hard time suggesting this one since adding the Google Analytics code to the backend of your website is so simple. This also means you’ll have to install one fewer plugin. But…
I’d want to think about your clients’ experiences as well.
One of the most common complaints I get from business owners is that they don’t know how well or poorly their website performs. They’re aware that Google Analytics is monitoring its performance, but they’re confused by the amount of data they’re provided.
However, using MonsterInsights‘ Google Analytics plugin, that data is displayed more directly.
Right from their WordPress dashboard, business owners can observe the most vital data about website traffic and how favorably people are responding to their content. On the other hand, the Pro upgrade grants access to additional tracking for publishers, eCommerce, and contact forms, among other features.
This plugin will help you remove the uncertainty and dissatisfaction that your clients may feel after the launch.
Key Features:
- With just a few clicks, set up universal website tracking with Google Analytics 4 across devices and campaigns (without any code).
- Enable file download event monitoring to know which files are receiving the most downloads, from which webpages, countries, and so on.
- Enhanced eCommerce tracking for WooCommerce.
Pricing:
This plugin is free to use; however, some paid versions are available to offer you some advanced tracking.
- Plus – $99.50/year
- Pro – $199.50/year
- Agency – $399.50/year
A Quick Recap:
As discussed in this article, these nine plugins are our top recommendations for a must-have plugin list.
- Yoast SEO: Simple SEO techniques that can help you increase your organic traffic.
- UpdraftPlus: Any website requires backups, and this plugin makes them simple.
- WP Rocket: This is a robust caching solution that will significantly improve the speed of your website.
- Revive Old Post: This plugin can help you use social media to attract visitors to your website.
- iTheme Security: This is a powerful plugin for all of the security issues on your website.
- Elementor: A page builder that allows you to create personalized pages with unique designs.
- WPForms: It allows you to design attractive contact forms with only a few clicks.
- WP 301 Redirects: With only a few clicks, you can create custom 301 redirects.
- MonsterInsights: This plugin will help you analyze your website traffic and users behavior.
Conclusion:
Several plugins are always worth installing, regardless of the type of website you’re running.
When it comes to designing and developing a WordPress website, there are many options, and plugins are frequently the most excellent method to attain this diversity in design and development. The 9 essential plugins listed above, on the other hand, are the ones you should start with when it comes to the essential plugin functionality that every website needs.