- If you’re running a WordPress powered website or blog, then you’re always searching for a way to innovate and make your site easier to use for both you and your visitors.
- This is one reason why WordPress plugins are so unbelievably awesome, because they seem like quick little cheats and hacks that take little-to-no time to learn, install, and use.
- With over thirty thousand WordPress plugins listed in the official WordPress plugin directory alone, it is no surprise that WordPress users are a little unsure about what plugins they should be using. There are just so many to choose from which explains why there are so many plugins top lists online.
- Today, I would like to share with you a collection of plugins that are not necessarily The Best. This is more of a collection of what could be considered essential plugins, and not plugins that offer the most features
Top 10 WordPress Plugins
1. Elementor
- Elementor is one of the most popular WordPress plugins for page building. At its core, Elementor provides a drag-and-drop functionality so users can customize their pages and posts in no time.
- The plugin also offers more than 100 pre-made page templates to start any type of website. 90+ widget options help incorporate features like social media icons and a progress bar without installing additional WordPress plugins.
- Access the Elementor theme builder by getting a premium plan. This tool lets you create a theme from scratch by easily customizing essential parts of a theme, like the header, footer, and even product pages.
2. WooCommerce
- WooCommerce is the best eCommerce WordPress plugin. It provides essential eCommerce functionality such as storefront creation, product listing, and order management.
- Moreover, WooCommerce accepts major credit cards and bank transfer payments and integrates seamlessly with 140 region-specific payment gateways.
- It comes with a quick setup wizard that guides you step-by-step. All you have to do is answer questions and provide details about your store, and the website is good to go.
3. Wordfence
- Wordfence is the go-to WordPress security plugin for many website owners. It covers fundamental security aspects, including login security, malware detection, and malicious traffic prevention.
- Once you’ve installed the plugin, the Wordfence dashboard will display different data regarding website security, such as a firewall summary, attacks blocked, and security issue scans.
- The login security feature lets you set up two-factor authentication for the WordPress admin page. All you need to do is scan the provided QR code with an authentication app on your mobile device and enter the verification code.
- After you install the plugin, the firewall will be running on the learning mode so you can try all its features and prevent false positives, protecting your site more effectively.
4. AIOSEO
- AIOSEO is a beneficial WordPress SEO toolkit plugin that comes with many powerful features. Its TruSEO feature checks the keyphrase, meta description, links, and content length. It then gives an overall SEO score and recommends how to improve this score.
- Another notable feature is the redirect manager, it supports your site by ensuring that users are always directed to the right page.
- Lastly, the built-in schema markup provides snippets of useful information on search engine result pages with recommendations on how to improve your website’s rank as well as the click-through rate.
5. WPForms
- WPForms is a comprehensive contact form plugin. Its drag-and-drop form editor and pre-made starter templates help you create any form for your website in no time.
- In total, there are 22 pre-made templates for the free plugin version, including a contact form, registration form, and newsletter signup form. It’s also possible to create a form from scratch.
- Embedding any form to a WordPress page or post is easy, whether by using the included block or a shortcode.
- WordPress caching is essential to ensure the top performance of a website, and LiteSpeed Cache is one of the must-have WordPress plugins.
- This free WordPress plugin is easy to use, offering an intuitive interface to manage the site cache and advanced caching features.
- For example, there are several cache controls to turn on or off for specific aspects of the site, such as logged-in users, PHP resources, and the login page. There are even options to clear cache from specific URLs.
- MemberPress is a premium membership plugin to generate revenue from a paid membership site by selling online courses, membership-based digital downloads, and other exclusive content.
- This premium plugin has a professional support team and is easy to set up. It also integrates well with plugins like bbPress for creating a password-protected forum or Easy Affiliate for an affiliate program.
- The automated billing system makes it easy to remind the users when their plan is due for renewal. The plugin also will automatically revoke or renew the membership based on payments made.
8. bbPress
- While installing forum software is an option when creating a forum website, WordPress plugins are often sufficient.
- bbPress is a lightweight free WordPress forum plugin that integrates seamlessly with WordPress. Setting up and starting a forum with this plugin won’t take much time.
- bbPress has a theme compatibility feature that ensures all bbPress functionality and elements will work regardless of the site’s theme, even if it doesn’t include bbPress code or templates.
9. UpdraftPlus
- Backing up a WordPress site is crucial to prevent data loss in case of a system crash, hard drive failure, or security breach. UpdraftPlus is one of the best WordPress plugins to manage WordPress backups.
- Creating a backup and restoring your website data is easy, thanks to the plugin’s intuitive user interface. You can set files and database automatic backup schedules on the settings panel.
- UpdraftPlus Vault, the plugin’s remote storage, is available on the premium plan. It works seamlessly to back up and restore website data. Another great premium feature is database encryption to ensure the security of your website data.
10. Akismet
- Akismet is one of the best WordPress plugins to prevent spam comments on your posts. The plugin filters comments that may be spam and sends them to a queue for you to evaluate. This way, you don’t have to examine each post and delete such comments manually.
- The plugin displays URLs in the comment body to identify misleading links, as these are often present in spam comments.
- Its discard feature permanently deletes the worst spam messages right away, saving you disk space. Alternatively, set the plugin to store the spam messages for 15 days in the spam folder before permanently removing them.
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