Top 10 Must Have Plugins For WordPress 

plugin

WordPress Most Preferred CMS

WordPress is one of the most preferred content management systems that we have today. Even though WordPress was originally a blogging platform has come a long way and today it supports thousands of websites across the globe. There are many reasons why WordPress is highly favored by website owners. Firstly, it is very easy to deploy this content management system. Secondly, it is an open source platform, which means it is free. Thirdly, it is one of the well-supported open source content management systems. Fourthly, there are countless plugins to enhance the functionality of the content management system. Get a WordPress website for your business from a Professional WordPress Development Company. In this post our focus will be on the top ten must have plugins for WordPress.

Understanding The Challenge

There are literally hundreds of plugins for WordPress and each one of them with a special significance and use. Shortlisting the top ten from these hundreds of lenses could prove to be a very challenging process. Moreover, the needs will also vary from one website to the other and from one niche industry to the other. However, we will try to do as much justice as possible in giving you the top ten must have plugins.

Free vs. Premium Plugins

Before you go ahead and install any plugins or before we could list out the top ten plugins for WordPress, it is important to understand certain basics. WordPress plugins come in two forms namely free plugins and premium or paid plugins. Most of the premium plugins come with free trials. In many cases you will be able to use the premium plugins free of cost but with the branding. If you want to remove the credit logo then you may have to go for premium or paid version of the plugin. All these are pretty basic and anyone that has used WordPress and WordPress plugins should have a good grasp of these basics. Before you install any plugin you should make sure that you understand clearly whether you are installing a free plugin or a premium plugin.

List Of Top Ten Must Have Plugins For WordPress

The below plugins have not been listed in any specific order of importance. It is worth trying out all the plugins that we have listed below and to empower your WordPress blog or website.

1.WordPress SEO by Yoast

SEO rules the rooster when it comes to getting the attention of your target audience. Without SEO, you are not going to go anywhere. All these make WordPress SEO by Yoast very special and important. This is an SEO plugin that will help you optimize your web pages and make them very search engine friendly. WordPress in general is considered a search engine friendly content management system. However, certain bells and whistles are missing when it comes to SEO . WordPress SEO by Yoast will fill this gap and give you that SEO advantage. Using this tool you will be able to add search engine friendly titles to your pages and you will be able to get all the SEO tags that you need like you do with a regular HTML page. This SEO plugin is a very user friendly plugin and you could learn its features on the go. A must have plugin if you want your website to be search engine friendly. Millions of websites are currently using this plugin and it is by far one of the best SEO plugin for WordPress that you could find online today.

2.All In One SEO Pack

Another SEO plugin that you might want to consider is All In One SEO Pack. This plugin has been around since 2007 and since then its popularity has been soaring high. If you are looking for an end to end SEO plugin for your WordPress page then you have got what you are looking for. This plugin has been downloaded more than 30 million times. This plugin will help you make your website search engine friendly. This plugin comes loaded with numerous features. You will get Google analytics support with this plugin. If you are facing problems with your navigational links and if you want to make them more search engine friendly, you will be able to fine tune the links. This plugin is compatible with e-commerce sites too. One of the most important feature is that the plugin automatically optimizes your page titles as per Google’s requirements. All the meta tags are also automatically generated. If you want to set a distinctive meta description and meta keywords you can do that through the override feature.

3.Wordfence Security

One of the major concerns of any website or blog is its online security. People that use the website and the information that is stored on the server should be safe. The function of this plugin is to protect websites from the hackers and from malware installations. The plugin will continually protect you from the listed hackers. You can also keep track and block malicious IPs and visitors that try to visit your website will be blocked giving your website complete protection. Another important feature of this security plugin is the login security feature. You will be able to configure the login protocol and protect it with additional cellphone login feature along with your regular password login. This will further enhance your website’s security feature. This plugin also provides you with real time monitoring of your entire website. You will also have up to date information at your fingertips on the number of logins, data or content consumption statistics, besides other crucial statistics about your visitors. You will also get the latest information on the traffic rate in your website. The plugin also monitors unauthorized DNS modifications.

4.Contact Form 7

What is the use of launching a website if your website visitors cannot contact you easily? You can leave your contact number and your email address on your website but it is not as enticing as setting up a contact form whereby your website visitors could quickly contact you in easy few clicks within seconds. You will therefore need to setup and configure a good contact form that works accurately and consistently. Contact Form 7 is the easiest way out to configure contact forms in your WordPress website. You do not have to hire a programmer to program and activate the contact form. You will be able to make the contact form appear in any page you like by just copying and pasting a small piece of code to your web page where you would like the form to appear. You don’t need to write a single line of code to install your contact form. You will be able to customize the form easily by adding fields. You will be able to create multiple contact forms. You can also easily customize the content of the mails that your website visitors will get when they fill the form. A very simple but an essential plugin for your WordPress website.

5.RevSlider

This plugin will help you setup impressive sliders in your website. If you want to improve the engagement rate of your website, you will need to add a few dynamic elements to your website. RevSlider is a perfect solution that will help you add the best sliders to your website headers. You can configure impressive transitions with the built-in effects. This plugin will save you loads of money as you can setup your own simple animations without having to hire a company to animate the slides for you. This is a free plugin and it will do great wonders to your website in terms of getting the attention of your visitors.

6.Google Analytics Dashboard for WP

Google Analytics is the best known website analytics software known to us. However, if you want to use this software, you need to login to your analytics account and get the updates. On the other hand, if you don’t want to shunt between your WordPress dashboard and analytics account then here is a solution. You will be able to get your Google analytics data displayed in your WordPress dashboard by using the Google Analytics Dashboard for WP. This plugin certainly adds convenience and makes it easy for you to access your Google analytics data right in your WordPress account. The installation is very simple and quick and you will be able to install the plugin with few simple clicks. This is a very user friendly plugin and it does not require any special technical skills or knowledge.

7.Shareaholic

This is becoming a very popular plugin among website owners. Today social media marketing is key to the success of any business online. If you want to take your brand to your target audience then social media is certainly one of the best avenues. Shareaholic is a perfect plugin for your website if you have social media marketing in mind. You will be able to add your social media buttons for Facebook, LinkedIn Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. This plugin will certainly add value to the aesthetic appeal to your pages with its user interface.

8.Akismet

If you have been bogged down by the spammy comments that flood your blog posts then you are going to breathe a sigh of relief when you install Akismet. If you want to deal with your spam comments effectively then go for Akismet, which is one of the most popular plugins for WordPress spam control. This plugin comes with various settings. You will be able to moderate all your comments before they plague your blog. This plug in comes with single click installation. Over a period of time the plugin learns to filter the spam more effectively in a progressive way.

9.Broken Link Checker

When you were using a blog or a website how many times were you annoyed with those broken links? If you do not want your visitors to experience the same when they are browsing your website then the Broken Link Checker is the plugin you need for your website. You could check the links manually if you have just a handful of pages. However, if you are going to have hundreds of pages with countless links to images, pages and other resources cross linked within your website and links pointing outside the website then you will have a tough time keeping track of these links. How are you going to handle all these links? The Broken Link Checker will do the job for you. It is now possible to spot all the broken links in just a few quick links. Search engines certainly do not like broken links. To falling out of the good books of Google, you need to constantly monitor your website for broken links and this plugin will do a marvelous job. Moreover, you need not have to manually change the link in every post but it could be changed in one shot right from the plugin interface.

10.W3 Total Cache

Not many webmasters are aware of the importance of optimizing their page load speeds. This could be a killer when it comes to Google ranking of your website. W3 Total Cache will help you increase page load speed. It is not just the search engines that don’t like slow loading pages but also your human visitors are going to have problems with your page loading speed. If the pages are going to take too long to load then your visitors are going to be frustrated. W3 Total Cache will save the day for you by bringing down the server download times. The overall browsing experience in your website will be boosted making your visitors happy. This plugin is found to be highly effective during times of high traffic. This again is a must have plugin for your WordPress website if you have performance in mind.
These are just a handful plugins amidst thousands of plugins. Many new plugins continue to emerge completely sweeping the market. Keep a close watch on the plugin market and you are likely to come across some of the most impressive plugins that will add special features and functions to your website. The best part is that most of these plugins are very easy to install and they are free too. What is stopping you then from installing these top plugins for WordPress that will make your website or your blog special?

A Word Of Caution

Though we have been encouraging you to explore various WordPress plugins that are available online and to try various plugins that will improve the functionality of your website and to make your WordPress website or blog highly engaging, we would like to leave you with a word of caution. There are numerous safe and proven plugins that are downloaded over and over by millions of users but at the same time, you should also take cognizance of the fact that there are also some dubious plugins which you need to be cautious about. Do not go about installing the plugins in your WordPress website or blog without any discretion. You are required to take time to review the plugins. First check how many people have used the plugin. If the plugin has over one million active installs then here is an indication that this is a trustworthy plugin. If the plugin has been downloaded or used just by few hundred people then it is best to stay away from such plugins. You could also minimize the risk levels by reviewing the feedback left by the users. The online forums for WordPress plugins also will have loads of discussions on the various aspects of popular plugins. Taking a few minutes to review all these information that are already online will certainly do you good.

Instead of installing and uninstalling the software tools randomly, it is best to first make a list of top plugins that you would like to install in your WordPress website. The list we have given above will serve as a good starter. This however need not be the be all and end of all list. Start exploring the WordPress plugins section and you will certainly come across numerous useful tools that will make your website or blog highly interesting for the users. List the plugins under various categories such as performance based plugins, SEO based plugins, feature based plugins, additional tools such as visitor count, calendar, etc. Making a list in advance will also help you minimise the chances of installing multiple plugins that accomplish the same task.

When you are installing your plugins, you need to also take into account the WordPress version so that there are not any compatibility issues. Very often webmasters install plugins and forget about them. You need to constantly review whether the plugin is useful and whether it is adding any value to your website or not. If it is not adding any special value then it is best to have the plugin uninstalled or disabled so that it is not clogging your website and unnecessarily slowing down your website.

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