4 WordPress Plugins you must use with every Site
Starting a Website powered by WordPress is super easy.
First, you install the WordPress on your hosting. Find the right WordPress theme of your choice, and you upload your content to your website. Text, Images, Video etc.
In addition, you will install some WordPress plugins according to the need for your website. The main purpose of installing plugins to your WordPress setup is to extend and expand the functionality of the site.
You always try to keep the number of plugins on your site to the minimum. It is recommended that you should use necessary plugins only. But there are some plugins which are must for every WordPress site.
Here I’m list 4 WordPress plugins which we use with every WordPress website we build here at RiXOJ.
#1. Security Plugin: Wordfence Security
Why is Security Plugin most important?
WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS. It is widely used for all kind of websites, from a simple Blog to the complex Business Website. Because of the popularity, WP Sites are the target of lots of hacking and spamming attacks. And you will never want to compromise your hard worked website to the hackers or spammers.
There are many plugins for keeping your website safe. Check this article: 5 Best Security Plugins.
Here at RiXOJ we use Wordfence Security for almost every WordPress website we develop.
Wordfence is the most downloaded security plugins in the WordPress plugin repository. All major security features are included with the free version; such as Firewall, Advance Blocking, WordPress Login Security, Security Scanning and more. So you can rely on Wordfence whether your site is in the early stage or with the high traffic.
Wordfence offers a premium version of the plugin too. The premium version includes features like Country Blocking, Cell Phone Sign In, Advanced Comment Spam Filter, and Real-Time Threat Defense Feed.
#2. Caching Plugin: WP Rocket/W3 Total Cache
There is no question that your website’s load time should be the fastest possible. A fast loading site brings many benefits. It’s good for search engine ranking and better user experience.
Caching is very important part of your site’s speed. And when it comes to WordPress there are many plugins for doing the job right.
Top 3 caching plugins we prefer for our clients:
- WP Rocket: Premium (Starts at $39 for 1 Website)
- W3 Total Cache: Free
- WP Super Cache: Free
Our choice falls to one of above depending on the type of website.
Here is a good article to help you select a caching plugin for your site: 6 Best WordPress Caching Plugins Compared
#3. SEO Plugin: Yoast SEO
The SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
The major traffic source of most websites is Search Engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo). That is the reason SEO is very important for your website. WordPress is already a good platform for SEO but by using SEO Plugin you can improve it further. You may find this article helpful: 9 Best WordPress SEO Plugins and Tools That You Should Use.
We use Yoast SEO plugin for almost every WordPress site we build. Yoast SEO is the best free SEO plugin with 5+ million active installations.
Major features and functionalities of Yoast SEO:
- Helps to write better content
- Page Analysis
- Meta & Link Elements
- XML Sitemaps
- Breadcrumbs
- Edit .htaccess and robots.txt file
- Social Integration
#4. Image Optimization Plugin
What is Image Optimization?
Normally images carry a lot of extra data which is unnecessary for web pages.
By optimizing your images you can reduce the size of your images up to 95%. Image Optimization removes the unnecessary data and compresses your images.
Why should you optimize images?
It’s important for better user experience. When you use optimized images for your website it reduces the overall page size. And keeping page size low make your website load fast.
Using optimized images are considered as an important element of On Page SEO. It will help your web pages to rank well in search engines.
Our Recommendation: EWWW Image Optimizer
We recommend you to use EWWW Image Optimizer. We tried and tested many image optimization plugins and found ‘EWWW Image Optimizer’ is the best free plugin.
‘EWWW Image Optimizer’ will automatically optimize your images after uploading. You can also optimize your previously uploaded image with the ‘Bulk Optimize’ Feature.
Wrapping Up
Above recommended plugins are based on our experience with business WordPress Site development. While we think all of above plugins are must use but there might be some sites where you may skip 1 or 2 of them.
Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below. Which plugins you consider are must use.
