Among the tens of thousands of existing CMS, WordPress is absolutely the most popular. And this is not surprising, because today everyone can freely find a WP friendly hosting, install the desired theme and get a modern site – without layouts, codes and other troubles.
But will the standard functionality of the CMS satisfy everyone? For one user, this may be a trifle, and for another, a necessity for work or business. For such cases, there is a huge range of additional modules called “plugins”.
What are “Plugins”?
WordPress plugins are add-ons that allow you to extend the functionality of your site. Their diversity allows you to increase the security of the resource, backup, integrate with social networks and much more. Without exaggeration, they can be called the foundation of the site, since they perform all the important functions that are used by both administrators and visitors.
In this article, we have made an overview of 10 useful WordPress plugins that every developer or site owner should pay attention to.
WooCommerce
Suitable for: who want to turn their WordPress site into a platform for selling goods or services.
Installs: 4+ million
Rating on WordPress.org: 4.5 out of 5.
WooCommerce is a free wordpress plugin with which you can easily organize the sale of goods or services from your website. WooCommerce is rightfully considered the best plugin in its class, which provides online store owners and developers with a wide range of functions. With great flexibility, the plugin is compatible with hundreds of free and paid WordPress extensions. Today it is used in 30% of all online stores, ahead of all other plug-ins of its class in popularity.
The plugin allows:
- choose a theme for the design of the online store;
- add products, images, etc. in unlimited quantities;
- set up automated emails, free shipping, built-in payment processing, and more.
Yoast SEO
Best for: Creating search engine optimized content.
Number of installations: more than 5 million.
Rating on WordPress.org: 5 out of 5.
Yoast SEO is not just an SEO plugin, but a whole set of tools to optimize your website. With it, you can add titles and descriptions of articles, as well as Open Graph metadata, perform page analysis, post an XML sitemap, and much more. It is easy to install and configure.
Yoast SEO benefits include:
- easy setup, the process of which is accompanied by tips;
- the ability to be constantly aware of whether the site is indexed, thanks to the integration of the Internet resource with OnPage.org
- the ability to confirm the rights to the site for Google Search Console, Yandex and Bing.
W3 Total Cache
Best for: Website owners of all kinds who want to speed up their website.
Number of installations: 1000+
Rating on WordPress.org: 4.5 out of 5
The W3 Total Cache plugin allows you to:
- speed up the site loading process;
- save money by reducing data exchange traffic between the server and the Internet resource;
- provide access to the site of users, for example, in the event of a temporary suspension of its operation.
W3 Total Cache does not depend on hosting features and is great for advanced users.
The benefits of this plugin also include:
- ease of installation;
- minifying HTTP, CSS, JavaScript and database files;
- customization facilitated by the presence of the FAQ section;
- support for mobile gadgets;
- availability of Secure Socket Layer certificates, which increase the security of cached data;
- compatibility with the Genesis Framework, which leads to an increase in the overall download speed of the latter up to 60%.
Contact Form 7
Best for: creating contact forms.
Number of installations: more than 5 million.
Rating on WordPress.org: 4 out of 5
A handy tool to simplify the process of working with suggestions, comments and other messages.
Has the ability to support captcha, Akismet and Ajax. Their use will help prevent unauthorized access to your personal data and spam mailboxes.
Key features:
- Allows you to manage multiple WordPress contact forms.
- Offers the ability to customize the feedback form.
- Helps prevent spam with CAPTCHA and Akismet.
Wordfence Security
Best for: Hacker protection, also blocks bot IPs
Installs: 3+ million
Rating on WordPress.org: 5 out of 5
Wordfence Security is one of the most popular comprehensive plugins to protect your WordPress against a wide range of online threats.
The plugin checks:
- all links outgoing from the site (those that lead to an infected Internet resource from an article or comment should be removed);
- each page through the Google service Safe Browsing;
- CMS-antivirus WFS.
Wordfence Security allows you to:
- view the behavior of visitors to the Internet resource online;
- block users from certain countries by IP;
- identify the IP from which an attempt was made to log in to the administrator console;
- receive information by e-mail about suspicious changes on the Internet resource.
An important advantage of Wordfence Security is that it works with a regularly updated malware database, which increases its effectiveness.
Jetpack
Suitable for: a plugin with a huge amount of functionality in one set
Installs: 5+ million
Rating on WordPress.org: 4 out of 5
Jetpack is a plugin from the WordPress developers that allows you to get as much traffic as possible, secure your site, monitor its performance, and much more. Contains many modules that can be activated at your discretion.
The main features are completely free. There is also a premium version that provides backup options and additional layers of protection along with a host of other features.
Key features:
- Protects your site.
- Analyzes and provides site statistics.
- Monitors website uptime.
Allows visitors to interact with you through social networks, an improved comment system, and stylish feedback forms.
Sumo
Best for: Web site owners doing online marketing who want to increase their traffic.
Installs: 90,000+
Rating on WordPress.org: 4 out of 5
The Sumo plugin is designed to organize interaction with site visitors.
Main features:
- 100% optimization for any mobile devices;
- HTML content control;
- the ability to enable certain functions at your discretion;
- the ability to create an unusual and attractive pop-up window;
- seamless integration with any WordPress theme;
- the ability to delete unwanted tweets;
- asynchronous loading that does not affect page loading speed.
Akismet
Suitable for: cleaning blogs from spam comments
Installs: 5+ million
Rating on WordPress.org: 4.5 out of 5
For WordPress site owners, there is a very easy way to get rid of unwanted comments – the Akismet Anti-Spam plugin. This module will automatically find spam comments and delete them.
Migrate Guru
Best for: Owners who want to move to another WordPress host and freelance WordPress developers
Number of installations: 30,000+
Rating on WordPress.org: 5 out of 5
Migrate Guru is a fully automated and free WordPress migration plugin. With it, you can securely move any WordPress site or WordPress multisite network.
This plugin runs on the BlogVault server (the team that creates the plugin). Running on external servers, Migrate Guru does not overload the WordPress site and ensures that 200 GB sites can be moved without any issues. What’s more, it has three simple processes that are easy to understand even for WordPress newbies.
Key features:
- Can move a resource up to 200 GB in size
- Works on external servers
- Easy to use
WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress
Suitable for: site protection strengthening
Number of installations: 1000+
Rating on WordPress.org: 4.5 out of 5
It is very important to use reliable protection methods for your site. One of the most popular methods is two-factor authentication, which allows you to verify your identity using a mobile device. The Keyy Two Factor Authentication plugin is one of the very best solutions available.
Once installed, the plugin will allow you to log into your WordPress dashboard using your smartphone. You will also need to download the appropriate application in which you can create a PIN code or register your fingerprint. When logging into the control panel, simply open the app and point your phone at the code that appears on the screen.
Key features:
- Eliminates the need to enter a password.
- Generates and stores a 2048-bit RSA key on the mobile device.
- Protects against hacking attempts.
- Allows you to access all your WordPress sites in one click.
After reviewing 10 popular plugins for WordPress, we can be summarized that improving your site is not so difficult. In just a couple of clicks, you can make your work much easier by extending the functionality of your site with the right plugins that you can choose based on your goals and wishes!
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