In this article, I will list my favorite and must-have plugins that every WordPress website should have. These plugins are essential to help you create a website that is not only up-to-date but also optimized for a better experience for your site visitors.
Whether you are a beginner, a freelancer, or an advanced blogger, if you are looking for a way to increase your productivity, these plugins should be able to help you.
I tried to include various plugins so that there is something here for everyone. The list includes productivity tools, SEO tools, security, and other helpful utilities that can help you improve your WordPress blog or website.
Table of Contents
1. SEO Plugins
A great way to increase your chances of success on Google or any other search engine is to install SEO plugins on your WordPress site. These plugins allow you to easily manipulate important aspects like titles, descriptions, and snippets of content that can affect how users find your page.
Here are some of the top SEO plugins on the market. They vary in price but all come with great features. You can use whichever plugin you like best!
1a. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is now a well-established WordPress plugin and it’s completely free. I think it’s the first plugin to be used for WordPress and with its simple interface, it usually works smoothly. It often has updated features and bugs fixed as time goes on.
In the paid version of the Yoast plugin, everything is bought separately. Therefore, I do not recommend the paid version of this plugin if your budget is not very high. And since there are often major changes every year.
If you are stepping into WordPress for the first time, you should definitely use this plugin. It has an interface that is easy to understand and learn. You can easily optimize your website with this SEO plugin.
If you’re new to WordPress, you should definitely use this plugin. It has a simple and user-friendly interface so you can focus on optimizing your website. You can optimize your website easily with this SEO plugin.
1b. All in One SEO
All in One SEO used to be difficult and had a complicated interface, but the updated version was easier and displayed well. It’s currently in 2nd place on my list of recommended SEO plugins.
As your SEO strategy becomes more complex, the number of plugins that you’ll need to use multiplies. If you are starting with the All in One SEO plugin, I recommend upgrading to the premium version, which can offer different packages at a single price. One of the premium features is that it has multiple plugins in one – which is really attractive for bloggers or business.
1c. Rank Math
Rank Math has not been on the market for long, but it has made great strides since its launch. It is an excellent free SEO plugin, which used to be lacking updates, but it is now in good shape. Features include the ability to generate sitemap files and provide easy linking building.
The free version is a lot better than I expected. Sure, it doesn’t have some cool professional features, but for casual writing, it’s pretty ok. At the same time, the paid version also works wonders. You can access great features by paying $59 + tax per year.
The free version is also good enough. It might seem a little confusing at first, but
2. Cache Plugins
Cache plugins can help improve visitors’ experiences by providing faster login speeds and general browsing. As the user finds something they want to revisit, The plugin stores data and makes it available during a later visit.
Websites with fast loading times have a better chance of generating higher profits, which is why they need to have sufficient caching memory.
2a. WP SuperCache
This plugin generates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress site. Once an HTML file is created, your web server will serve it instead of processing the relatively heavy and expensive WordPress PHP scripts.
This plugin, which is popular with WordPress users, doesn’t get updated very often. However, it always does its job well. I’d recommend using an optimizing plugin in addition to this one.
2b. LiteSpeed Cache
LiteSpeed is a plugin that works well on the server. It comes with not only cache memory but also many performance optimizations. It can also be used to compress codes such as HTML compression, JS, and CSS. You do not need to use an additional plugin alongside this plugin.
This plugin packs a lot of features. One of them is image compression, but it also allows conversion to WebP format. It’s at the caliber where it can optimize fonts and other elements on your site. It has enough power to blow up your site by itself.
2c. WP Fastest Cache
WP Fastest Cache does a great job. With its very simple interface and usage, it can make your site 2x faster than before with a few clicks.
Fastest Cache is divided into two versions: free and paid. While the free version does a good job on its own, you can have many features with the paid version. You can add power to your site with options such as more compression, image optimization, and database optimization.
2d. WP Rocket
WP Rocket plugin is a paid WordPress plugin. It speeds up your website but it depends on your installed theme plugins.
WP Rocket is being used by around 2 million WordPress users worldwide. It has a lot of awesome features that are designed to speed up your website. The plugin speeds up the website by compressing images, caching web pages, minifying CSS and Javascript files, removing query strings from static resources like images, scripts, and stylesheets.
3. Security Plugins
One of the most important aspects of maintaining your website is also one of the most overlooked – security. Hackers are always looking for ways to attack your site and steal your data, so it is vital to secure your site as much as possible. WordPress has several plugins that are designed for this exact purpose.
WordPress has partnerships with security providers such as Wordfence and Sucuri, which can provide valuable protection against malicious attacks on your website. These companies provide high-quality products such as malware scanning, firewall protection, and vulnerability scanning.
Wordfence
Wordfence provides a powerful and efficient way to manage the security of many WordPress sites or blogs. Not only does Wordfence provide strategic insights into the performance of your site, but it also can actively block bad guys in real-time. Wordfence is compatible with virtually any hosting provider, including popular hosting platforms like Bluehost, Hostinger, Siteground, WPEngine, and more.
4. GDPR Plugin(s)
Ultimate GDPR & CCPA Compliance Toolkit for WordPress
“Please note: you may know the GDPR under different names, like AVG, RODO, “Cookie law”, DSG, DSGVO, RPDG, RGDP, “data protection law” – all these names refer to the same law and are covered by our Ultimate GDPR & CCPA WordPress plugin” For more information, click here.
