WordPress plugins are small software programs that can be installed on your website to enhance and expand its functionality. They are built in the PHP programming language and work hand in hand with the WordPress platform. However, the official WordPress directory has almost 52,000 plugins. So, which ones are you going to need?
Every business has unique requirements, but there are a few plugins that every WordPress website, regardless of industry, should include. In the last blog, we already discussed how to install a plugin to your WordPress site, now this blog will cover the “Top 10 essential plugins for WordPress Websites”
Top 10 essential plugins for WordPress Websites
1. Jetpack by WordPress
Jetpack is the ultimate WordPress toolkit. It has everything you need in one place to secure, speed up, and expand your website. It includes features to assist you in designing your website, tracking data, increasing social sharing, and preventing threats. Some features are:
- Secure logins and brute-force protection will make your site safer and more secure.
- With its lightning-fast CDN, your website pages will load faster and make your visitors delighted.
- Automatic social sharing, related content, site search, and customer management can all help you increase your traffic.
Characteristics
- Automatic back-up
- Malware scan
- Spam protection
- Auto-update individual plugins
Pro Version
Jetpack Pro gives unlimited access to over 100 premium WordPress themes for use on your website. All themes are compatible with Jetpack’s customization tools, and the theme designers provide priority support. Jetpack Pro also includes unrestricted access to our marketing automation tools, SEO preview tools, and high-speed image and video CDNs. Once you have installed Jetpack, it will appear on your WordPress dashboard.
2. Elementor Page Builder
The WordPress page editor is not so attractive, so if you want to create a wonderful-looking page you either should know how to code or you can use this page builder to swiftly generate the layout you want.
Elementor is one of the most innovative plugins in our list of “Top 10 essential plugins that every WordPress website should have”. It’s a visual page builder that allows you to create unique page designs that aren’t completely dependent on your current theme. This is the most powerful mobile site builder for constructing excellent responsive websites, with features like varying font size, padding, and margin per device, as well as reverse column ordering.
Characteristics
- Live drag and drop editor
- 90+ widgets
- Pixel perfect design
Pro Version
Elementor Pro comes with 50+ powerful pro widgets, advanced website builder capabilities, and human-powered customer support. With the Pro version, you’ll also control and manage the entire website from one place. It includes a lot of fantastic responsive settings, and they just added mobile editing as well. Install the Elementor page builder plugin on your WordPress site to create attractive, user-friendly designs.
3. Rank Math
Want to make your website get higher in the search results?
But for that, you’ll have to get a good understanding of SEO. Sounds difficult?
No worries, here’s the best plugin for your website.
Rank Math is a WordPress SEO plugin that makes it simple for anybody to improve their content using built-in recommendations based on generally acknowledged best practices. With Structured data, you can easily modify crucial SEO parameters, such as which pages are indexable and how you want your website to appear in search.
Characteristics:
- Optimize WordPress pages and posts
- Google Search Console Integration
- Easy to Follow Setup Wizard
- Advanced SEO Analysis Tools
- Helps t;o improve content readability
Pro Version
Rank Math PRO is built on top of the free version to keep the plugins robust and lightweight. It’s the most powerful SEO plugin without any high costs involved. The pro version includes Google Analytics and Search Console Integration, Advances Schema Builder, Automated Image SEO, 24*7 support by dedicated support managers, etc.
4. Akismet Anti-Spam
As soon as your website gets live, you may expect spam comments to start appearing and the worst part is many of these spam comments may appear to be real.
The comment spam clogs up your site and degrades your viewers’ experience. And if it isn’t handled appropriately, you risk losing readers and perhaps harming your business.
Akismet analyses your comments and contact form entries against our worldwide spam database to protect your site from posting harmful information. On your blog’s “Comments” admin panel, you may evaluate the comment spam it has detected.
Characteristics:
- Filter out the comments that look like spam.
- To disclose hidden or misleading links, URLs are displayed in the comment body.
- A discard function that removes the worst spam from your site, saving you disc space and speeding it up.
Even so, Akismet’s free version is great, the Pro version has some additional amazing features too!
Pro Version
Akismet Anti-Spam Pro provides spam protection with up to 60K API calls/month, unlimited sites, and priority support. Install this important plugin to prevent comment spam and improve the user experience on your website.
5. Fluent Forms
A contact form on your website is one of the simplest methods for visitors to reach you. No one wants to email you by copying and pasting an email address, especially on a mobile device.
Using just a few clicks, you can create contact forms, email subscription forms, online order forms, payment forms, surveys, polls, and virtually any other sort of online form with our drag-and-drop online form builder. WP Fluent Forms is the most user-friendly, customizable drag-and-drop WordPress Contact Form Plugin that includes all of the premium features plus a handful of new ones.
Characteristics:
- Build Forms- Faster
- Fully Mobile Responsive
- Smart conditional logic form fields
- Drag and drop contact form builder
- Spam protection with Google Recaptcha
Pro Version
Fluent Form is a free plugin that works well for sites that want to use it as a contact form. Fluent Forms Pro will get you access to additional features and integrations. It includes file and image upload, rating form field, checkable grid, Paypal and credit card payments, and much more.
6. MonsterInsights
The best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress is MonsterInsights. It enables you to “fully” link your website to Google Analytics, allowing you to monitor how visitors find and use your site. The best thing is that it shows all of the relevant statistics directly in your WordPress dashboard. You may use this information to capitalize on what your site visitors enjoy to keep them coming back for more.
Characteristics:
- Universal Tracking
- Real-time Stats
- Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking
- Affiliate Links and Ads Tracking
Pro Version
While the Lite version has a lot of useful features, you can quickly upgrade to MonsterInsights Pro to have access to even more useful information. You may, for example, look at your top landing pages to discover which material works best. You obtain more features, tracking choices, and a user-friendly experience in the Pro version than you get with any other WordPress Analytics plugin. This makes MonsterInsights well worth the price.
7. UpdraftPlus
Nothing is more irritating than losing all of your website’s content due to a hacker, server crash, or another website failure. That’s why it’s essential to use a free auto-backup solution like UpdraftPlus. It’s on our list because it’s the best WordPress backup plugin on the market.
UpdraftPlus is the most widely used WordPress backup plugin. It enables you to create automatic backups and securely save them on Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, Rackspace, FTP, email, and other services.
Characteristics:
- Automatic Back-ups
- Backups are restored directly from your WordPress control panel
- Get an email notification whenever backup complete
- Cloud Storage
Pro Version
UpdraftPlus is a great free plugin that every WordPress blog and website should have. They also offer a premium plan that includes more features and priority support. The Pro version includes Cloning and migration benefits, Incremental backups, fast personal support, lock settings, and more database options.
8. Wordfence Security
Wordfence includes a built-from-the-ground-up endpoint firewall and malware scanner to secure WordPress. Wordfence follows the latest firewall rules, malware signatures, and malicious IP addresses from the Threat Defense Feed, so it can keep your website safe. It is the most comprehensive WordPress security plugin available, with 2FA and a range of extra features.
Characteristics:
- Leaked Password Protection
- Live Traffic
- Advanced Manual Blocking
- Country Blocking
- Repair Files
- Two-Factor Authentication
Pro Version
Wordfence Premium provides the real-time endpoint protection you need to protect your mission-critical website. It has advanced features like Real-time IP Blacklist, Reputation Checks, Country Blocking, etc. It also provides excellent customer service and is easy to use.
9. WP Limit Login Attempts
Login Attempts are limited to protect the site from brute force attacks. Brute Force Attack strives to be the simplest method of gaining access to a website: it repeatedly tries usernames and passwords until it succeeds. The WP Limit Login Attempts plugin restricts the number of login attempts and temporarily blocks IP addresses. Captcha verification is used to identify bots.
Characteristics:
- Login Security
- Captcha Verification
- Lightweight plugin
- Mechanism to slow down Brute Force Attack
Pro Version
WP Limit Login Attempts is a limited version of WP Limit Login Attempts Pro. You must upgrade to the Pro version of this plugin to have access to all features and support for changing the default settings. It is set to prevent fraudulent individuals and robots from making incorrect login attempts. Our WordPress site will be protected against brute force assaults owing to this limitation provided by this plugin.
10. Live Chat
LiveChat is the best live chat support plugin. It’s simple to set up and allows you to rapidly integrate live chat into your WordPress site. It comes with a mobile app that allows you to give real-time help and has a lot of customizing possibilities. It works with your existing customer service software, CRM, email marketing, and other marketing platforms. The most essential thing is that it loads fast and gives a great user experience.
Characteristics:
- Balanced AI Automation
- Integration with 200+ tools
- Chat widget customization
- Gives good customer engagement
Pro Version
The live Chat free version has many amazing features, but pro adds some more sparkle to it. It provides unlimited chat history, ticketing system, work scheduler, product training, etc. We would recommend you install this plugin to give a better and more engaging that ser experience.
Conclusion
That’s all there is to it! WordPress plugins are essential whether you need to optimize your site for search engines or improve the user experience. You now have a better understanding of the “Top 10 essential plugins for WordPress Websites”. We hope that this list will assist you in improving your website and achieving your business objectives.
So, what do you have to lose? Begin using the most effective WordPress free plugins right now.
If you have any questions or any more recommendations about “Top 10 essential plugins for WordPress Websites”, do contact us or share them in the comments section below.
HAPPY VOOTPOOLING…
