{"id":49,"date":"2019-01-17T07:18:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T07:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mandywebdesign.com\/mandy\/?p=49"},"modified":"2025-11-28T06:21:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T06:21:37","slug":"20-must-have-wordpress-plugins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mandywebdesign.com\/mandy\/20-must-have-wordpress-plugins\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Must-Have WordPress Plugins"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A brief profile of plugins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you are searching for the simplest, most popular way to create your blog or website, then WordPress is the simplest tool. WordPress offers you a multitude of option like you can create your business website, blogs, E-commerce stores, forums, social networks, portfolios, membership sites and pretty much anything else that you can dream up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, a plugin is a piece of software that can be added to WordPress website for serving a certain group of functions. The plugin in wordpress<\/a> can add new features to your websites or can extend the functionalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WordPress plugins integrate seamlessly with WordPress and are written in the PHP programming language. Without knowing a single line of the code, the plugins make it easier for users to add features to their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a site administrator, you can easily install\/uninstall plugins from the admin area whenever you want as per your convenience. You can also manually install the plugins after you have downloaded them using an FTP client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a myth that plugins slow down your site.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well if your plugin is doing so then maybe you have chosen one from the bad ones. If you possess a high-quality plugin, then it can virtually do anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the choices to be made?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To choose the right plugins, you have to ask yourself or web development expert<\/a> a couple of simple, relevant questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the plugin compatible with the latest version of WordPress?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How long has it been since it was updated and are people getting answers to their support questions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What type of rating does the plugin have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also important to note that whether the plugins come with tech support or not as the vast majority of the plugins are free. If you have a WordPress blog, there are certain plugins that you will need to install to make blogging easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the most recommended plugins for WordPress development include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Proven – Social Proof WordPress Plugin<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Proven.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an essential plugin if you are running one e-commerce site. If finding a plugin to help increase conversations is a challenge for you, then Proven is the one-stop solution for you. It integrates with Woocommerce, MailChimp etc. and displays recent customer activity on your site leveraging social proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Page Builder by SiteOrigin<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: SiteOrigin.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a kind of content plugin that is proficiently used in WordPress development to craft post and page layouts that were previously not possible to achieve with your current theme, and it\u2019s for free as well. This is the reason why this drag-and-drop content builder is a must have a plugin in this day and age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Shortcodes Ultimate<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: GetShortCodes.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This plugin gives you access to non-standard content blocks and site elements through easy to use shortcodes. Plus this content plugin is free which makes it one of the most wanted plugins over WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. TablePress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: TablePress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The default installation of WordPress doesn\u2019t come with the classic HTML tables. TablePress allows creating these tables in a user-friendly and functional way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Envira Gallery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: EnviraGallery.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This content plugin is the most powerful and easiest gallery plugin for WordPress out there. This is a gallery builder with drag and drop facility that makes photo and video galleries available. With this plugin, everything is responsive and mobile friendly, and there are pre-built gallery templates to serve the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. JetPack<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Jetpack.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a must-have a plugin for your WordPress site that connects you to official WordPress.com for enhanced security, traffic and customization tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Max Mega Menu<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: MegaMenu.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you know what the mega menus in WordPress are and what function they serve then this plugin is a boon for you. Fundamentally a mega menu is a large menu that features a custom layout and consists of multiple diverse elements, and Max Mega Menu helps to create these Mega menus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Google XML Sitemaps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supported since over 9 years, Google XML Sitemaps is one of the most popular WordPress plugins with a 5-star rating from over 1,925 voters. As the name suggests, this plugin automatically creates a fully-functional sitemap for your website without hampering the site speed or annoying the users. This sitemap gets automatically updated whenever a new post or page is removed or added to the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With such a great plugin it is very much easier for a crawler to understand the structure of your website and access the web pages more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Really Simple SSL<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more than 2+ million downloads, Really Simple SSL is a key performance plugin that everyone must have. Even without the knowledge of SSL configuration, a person can easily integrate SSL certificate in the website and run website over HTTPS with just one click.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Plugin Performance Profiler or P3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This speed plugin keeps your other plugins in check and ensures that they\u2019re not causing your site to load slowly. Enabling P3 once in a while removes every plugin that is low or finds a quicker alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. W3 Total Cache<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: W3Edge.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

W3 sets all the technical exhausting details aside and makes the WordPress site to load faster by storing the already executed static image of your site, rather than forcing WordPress to generate it on the fly, and that is to work on the default settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. WP Smush<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WPMUDEV.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is another optimization plugin that optimizes your images making your website to consume less disk space and that too without having any significant effect on the quality of the images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. WP-Sweep<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are into WordPress development then WP-Sweep is the ultimate option for you to clean up your WordPress database by getting rid of all the junk data that\u2019s cluttering your database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14. Wordfence Security<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordFence.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This security plugin gives you enterprise-level security for free and keeps track of everything that\u2019s going on in your site and alerts you if anything shady takes place over your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15. Yoast SEO<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Yoast.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This SEO plugin is in the top 3 most popular WordPress plugin that makes sure if your site is optimized for the search engines or not providing easy setup and top-of-the-line functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16. Linker<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to track the outbound links for your website, then Linker is the one-stop solution perfect for affiliate links and another kind of links that you want to control and have stats on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17. Disqus comment system<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It enables the Disqus on your WordPress site and is elementarily used as a replacement for WordPress\u2019 default commenting system. Essentially it is the overall better looking and user-friendly plugin that users can use for WordPress development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18. Broken Link Checker<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most popular search engines like Google doesn\u2019t like to stumble up upon the broken links on your site. Broken link checker helps to remove these links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19. Social Metrics Tracker<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: WordPress.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is used to track your content\u2019s performance across social media platforms to give you a great overview of what\u2019s popular and what\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20. SumoMe<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source: Sumo.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a great all in one online marketing tool that can be integrated with ay website system and gives you the myriad of useful features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, check out best WordPress themes for SEO<\/a> and try these 20 amazing plugins and see the difference!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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