Are you ready to kick your ordinary website up a notch? By adding WordPress plugins, your website will instantly improve aesthetically, functionally, and efficiently – for yourself and your users.
WordPress plugins are strings of code installed into the backend of your website that affects its functionality. You can install WordPress plugins directly into your website with PHP programming without knowing code and integrate them seamlessly into your admin panel.
Choosing the Best WordPress Plugin
Plugins can add WordPress SEO optimization, email opt-in, security firewalls, e-commerce and more. With thousands of free and premium plugins available, you can truly say “there’s a plugin for that.”
However, all plugins are not treated equally. Some plugins have bad code that could mess with your WordPress theme. Others, can be bugged and not function correctly. Unfortunately, all it takes is one bad plugin to completely make a mess out of your entire WordPress site.
In an internet full of tantalizing plugins, it can seem like a daunting task to choose the correct one. It’s a lot to consider, right?
This is where we come in. We’ve pulled together a list of the 18 best WordPress plugins to consider integrating into your website.
1. Yoast SEO
In terms of on-page SEO, Yoast SEO is an absolute powerhouse for any WordPress website. It is a favorite plugin that helps businesses and blogs every step of the way to gain the #1 spot in search results. With over 135 million downloads and a 4.9-star rating, Yoast SEO is highly dependable.
Yoast SEO takes you step-by-step on how to better optimize any new content from titles, meta data, tags, and more. This plugin is an invaluable tool that will help you write SEO-friendly content for users and search engine crawlers.
Yoast SEO offers both a free and premium plugin download for WordPress developers, however, online support is only guaranteed for premium users.
2. WooCommerce
For businesses that opted to not use Shopify, WooCommerce is the most customizable platform on WordPress for e-commerce websites. Think of it as a one-stop-shop for all of your e-commerce needs.
WooCommerce is extremely customizable with features and extensions to help make selling through your website easier than ever. Extensions include Amazon Pay, Google Analytics, MailChimp, FedEx and more.
This plugin offers an abundance of templates to coordinate with your WordPress theme as well as various conversion optimization tools. With all of WooCommerce’s functionality and usability, it’s difficult to find another e-commerce WordPress plugin to match.
You can download WooCommerce for as little as $6.95 per month.
3. Wordfence
With cyber-attacks and hacks on the rise, protecting your website is more important than ever.
Wordfence includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner built to keep your WordPress website safe. Furthermore, it protects at the server level to provide a higher protection level than cloud-based alternatives that utilize end-to-end encryption.
Wordfence provides three famous features: WordPress Firewall, WordPress Security Scanner, and Threat Defense Feed. The plugin also offers leaked password protection, live traffic, advanced blocking, repair files, and two-factor authentication.
You can certainly rest easy knowing that Wordfence will secure your website’s integrity. Wordfence WordPress plugin licenses begin at $99.00 per year.
4. Google XML Sitemaps
Google XML Sitemap is a WordPress plugin that helps improve that way search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo index your website. With an organized sitemap, search engine crawlers can see the complete layout of your website and index it efficiently to improve SEO.
Google XML Sitemap is compatible with most WordPress pages and notifies the search engines every time your content is updated. This helps improve your SEO rankings with little effort on your end, and it speeds up the process of having your site crawled again.
Even better news? This is a free WordPress plugin feature for both personal and commercial websites.
5. WP Super Cache
We all have short attention spans on the internet, especially when it comes to slow site speeds. By installing the WP Super Cache you can easily increase your website’s speed.
This WordPress plugin generates static HTML files to 99% of your visitors instead of the slower PHP code, which can drastically slow your site’s performance down. WP Super Cache serves cached files in three ways ranked by speed: Expert, Simple, and WP-Cache.
WP Super Cache is a free and essential plugin for WordPress developers looking to increase speed without editing PHP code.
6. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP by ExactMetrics
Logging into Google Analytics and sorting through the information can be cumbersome when trying to monitor your WordPress site’s real-time traffic. This Google Analytics for WordPress plugin allows you to track and view your stats directly in your WordPress dashboard.
Along with the general Google Analytics stats you expect to see, like organic searches and traffic channels, this WordPress plugin offers detailed page reports, data segmentation, and performance monitoring for each website page.
This plugin’s code is completely customizable to allow advanced data collection through various options and webhooks. The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin is completely free with little risk.
7. WP Smush
Attention-grabbing images are essential for any website in order to be engaging for your visitors.
However, images can take up a lot of storage space and decrease your site-speed drastically. This is where the WordPress plugin WP Smush comes in.
WP Smush compresses and optimizes images without reducing the image’s original quality. Optimizing all image files, such as JPEG and GIF, this plugin utilizes multiple compression techniques in order to improve storage and speed before installing into your library.
You can install this WordPress plugin for free, and it will continue to help you make your website better – and faster – than ever.
8. MailChimp
MailChimp is one of the largest email marketing services to send emails, manage subscribers, and track campaign results. The MailChimp WordPress plugin helps integrate opt-in forms into your website pages and create better content to send to subscribers.
With this plugin, you’ll be able to seamlessly send emails to boost your website performance and overall digital marketing presence. In addition, MailChimp integrates with other plugins, such as WooCommerce, Ninja Forms, BuddyPress, Events Manager and more.
Mailchimp is free for lists up to 2,000 subscribers, making this email-service plugin the choice for thousands of businesses and blogs.
9. WPForms
Forms are an integral part of a website in order to create communication with your site visitors. WPForms is a drag and drop form builder that allows WordPress developers to quickly create powerful contact, subscription, and payment forms.
Integrating with popular marketing and payment platforms, WPForms makes form building easy and fast with a wide variety of customizable features to choose from. WPForms are mobile ready, WordPress SEO friendly, and optimized for speed.
With over one million downloads from the WordPress plugin store and a 4.9 rating, WPForms is a great way to build your business. WPForms offers both a free and premium version.
10. UpdraftPlus
With server crashes and cyber hacks, the UpdraftPlus WordPress plugin safely backs up your WordPress site to remote locations like Dropbox and Google Drive.
UpdraftPlus is easy-to-use and trusted by the WordPress community to safely deliver comprehensive features.
Backing your WordPress site up is important to ensure your information remains safe and secure. UpdraftPlus performs scheduled and manual backups of your entire WordPress site, along with providing migrator clones with exceptional customer support.
UpdraftPlus is the most popular backup WordPress plugin and offers both free and premium packages.
11. Beaver Builder
If you’re looking for complete control over your WordPress theme or have limited developer skills, a drag and drop page builder is essential. Beaver Builder allows you to create beautiful web pages without needing to know code or hire a developer.
Beaver Builder integrates within your WordPress theme to build custom layouts in minutes with their easy drag and drop interface. By working with child themes, this page builder can be used with any template without losing your content.
Beaver Builder packages start at $99.00 annually.
12. MemberPress
MemberPass allows you to create, manage, and track membership subscriptions. By creating online communities and membership sites within your WordPress theme, you’re able to restrict content to users based on their subscription plans.
MemberPass includes many features such as payment integration with other popular plugins, affiliate marketing programs, theme compatibility, and community forums. With thousands of sites integrating MemberPass, this WordPress plugin has proven to be robust, but still user-friendly.
The MemberPass basic package start at $129.00 annually.
13. SeedProd
Even if your website is under construction, it’s still important to collect leads and data to use for future marketing programs. As the #1 coming-soon page and maintenance WordPress plugin, SeedProd allows you to grow subscribers and rank in Google while you are working on your website behind the scenes.
With SeedProd, you can build customized landing pages that seamlessly integrate with all the popular email marketing plugins. Additionally, SeedProd allows you to limit or allow access to users who visit your website.
SeedProd packages start at $29.60 per year for one website.
14. SEMRush
SEMRush is an all-in-one marketing toolkit for digital marketing professionals who are looking to improve WordPress SEO, paid traffic, social media, and content. This plugin is a must-have tool if you want to gain a competitive edge and improve your website practices.
SEMRush gives you competitive intelligence, backlink audit, position tracking, keyword management, brand mentions, promotion opportunities, and so much more. Used by companies such as eBay and OverStock, this WordPress plugin drives powerful results.
This WordPress plugin starts at $99.00 per month.
15. LiveChat
If you want to connect with your visitors, LiveChat is the best live chat support WordPress plugin for businesses and e-commerce websites. With LiveChat, you’re able to upgrade and streamline your customer service efforts by always staying connected to your services via desktop or mobile app.
LiveChat offers a lot of customizable options and integrates easily with most support software programs. This plugin loads quickly and helps create an unforgettable user experience.
You can try LiveChat for 30-days free. After that, pricing starts at $16.00 per month.
16. Shared Counts
Shared Counts is the best WordPress plugin to create social sharing buttons and displays “share counts” on your website. Unlike other social plugins, Shared Counts does not use cookies, tracking scripts, or store any user data. You will also not lose your shares when upgrading your WordPress theme.
Shared Counts has exceptional WordPress developer-friendly code as it was designed with site performance and customization in mind. With many large-scale websites adopting this plugin, Shared Counts is a preferred choice to display social sharing buttons.
This plugin is completely free.
17. Grammarly
If you’re trying to avoid having the “grammar police” visit your site, Grammarly is the best WordPress plugin to check spelling, grammar, and other errors throughout your content. As both a plugin and a browser add-on, Grammarly is convenient for those looking to ensure their posts are error-free.
Grammarly will protect your website’s credibility and eliminate customer reading-errors by verifying that your content is crystal clear every time.
This company offers a free version from the WordPress plugin store as well as premium packages.
18. TablePress
TablePress is a top WordPress plugin that allows you to easily create, display, and manage tables in your site. You can embed tables simply into posts, pages, and widgets with a user-friendly shortcode.
To make things easier, your data is edited in a spreadsheet interface so you don’t need to know code to include organized tables to your WordPress site. Additionally, they can be exported or imported into Excel.
With a five-star rating, TablePress is a great free feature to add to your WordPress plugin toolbox.
Which WordPress Plugins Are Right For You?
With so many WordPress plugins on the market today, it can seem hard to choose the right ones for your website. To be successful, you need to think about your business goals and how your website can help achieve what you need.
Plugins are tools to help transform your website into something great. While you might not use all the plugins we listed, most will truly help boost your ordinary website into an efficient, functional, and stunning site.
Have you used any of these WordPress plugins? Did we miss something?
Post in the comments below!
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