These WordPress plugins will help you design, optimize, and add functionality to your site.
I included links to helpful tutorials and resources for each plugin. All are free but #4 (Gravity Forms) which is $49 but worth it if you want an advanced contact form. I’ve gone through a lot of plugins through my 5 years of WordPress design, SEO, and blogging, and these are the essential WordPress plugins I use most – hopefully they can help you too. Check them out and leave me a comment below if you have any questions or need help with setting them up.
Here they are…
1. Yoast SEO
Yoast is the most robust SEO Plugin for WordPress. You can break it down into 3 steps – configuring the settings, researching keywords, and optimizing content for green lights. Those links lead to tutorials for each step (leave a comment if you have questions). Yoast constantly updates the plugin so be prepared to update it frequently and learn new features. They also have a plugin for Local SEO, Video SEO, WooCommerce SEO, and Google News.
- Free
- Extensive SEO Settings
- Ability to assign focus keywords
- Content optimization checklist
- Social media optimization options
- XML sitemap
- Google Search Console verification
- Other Webmaster Tools verification
- Title tag / meta description structure
- SEO plugin migration options
2. Google Analytics
Use Yoasts’s Google Analytics Plugin to verify the UA code (or just add the tracking code to your footer without a plugin). Google Analytics is a big program and I recommend filtering your IP address so your data doesn’t get polluted when you visit your website (same with employees). I would also download these Google Analytics dashboards to segment data into specific metrics, then use those metrics to make improvements to your website and SEO.
- Free
- Use universal or asynchronous tracking
- Demographic and interest reports
- Tracks search results + 404 pages
- See (imited) metrics in WP dashboard
- Link tracking abilities
3. W3 Total Cache
If your page load time is bad in GTmetrix (look to see if the caching, minify, and gzip item is not 100%), you need to install a speed optimization plugin. Install it then see my best W3 Total Cache settings to configure the performance tabs on the left menu of your dashboard. Improving load times is one of the best things you can do to improve your site’s performance.
- Free
- Caching
- Minify
- Gzip
- CDN integration
- Cloudflare integration
4. Gravity Forms
Not your average contact form plugin. Gravity Forms can create everything from a simple contact form to a pizza ordering menu with conditional logic (certain fields show up if you select a specific option). Think “if this then that.” There’s a lot of form examples on the Gravity Forms website but my favorite is the pizza demo which shows the advanced add-ons.
- $49 – $199
- Highly customizable forms
- Spam protection (captcha)
- Adapts to your font/colors/CSS
- Customizable fonts/colors/CSS
- Optional autoresponders
5. Widget Logic
Free plugin that controls where widgets appear (specific pages, posts, categories, tags, etc). Once installed, go to your widgets and in each one you will see a “widget logic” field. Here you will enter one of the following conditional tags to control where that widget appears.
6. iThemes Security
WordPress is not secure by itself! You need to change the generic Admin username, but I would also install a security plugin – iThemes Security and Wordfence are both very good.
- Free
- 30+ features to defend website
- Brute force protection
- Password reinforcement
- Hide login and admin
- File change detection
- Lock out bad users
- Database backups
- 404 detection
- Email notifications
7. Fancier Author Box
One thing many people forget on their blog is to show the face of the person writing articles. This plugin adds an author profile box below each post. I used this before I switched to the Genesis Framework and now I use the Genesis eNews Extended Plugin instead, which is the first sidebar widget you see on the top right of this article. It combines a newsletter box with an HTML space where I added my photo/bio, but the eNews Extended Plugin is only for Genesis Themes only. Regardless of which theme you’re using, show your face on your blog!
- $49 – $199
- High customizable forms
- Spam protection (captcha)
- Adapts to your font/colors
- Customizable fonts/colors
- Autoresponders
8. Quick Page/Post Redirect
If you changed your permalink structure, individual permalinks, or a website migration caused your permalinks to change, you need to setup 301 redirects to direct visitors (and search engines) from the old URLs to the new URLs. Install this free plugin then go to “quick redirects” where you can add old URLs and new URLs. The plugin will create the redirects. You can find many broken pages in the crawl section of Google Search Console – do this!
9. Broken Link Checker
This free plugin detects broken links so you can view and correct them. It is blocked by some hosting companies like WP Engine but I’ve never had trouble with it (though I delete it once I’m done using it). Install it, scan for broken links, correct them, then delete this plugin.
10. Updraft Plus Backup And Restoration
If you’re on a cheap shared hosting plan, chances they won’t take automatic backups – I would check with your hosting to find out. If they don’t, you can use this free plugin to schedule an automatic backup to be taken once a month, once a week, or whatever you choose. Please don’t be the person who lost their website because they didn’t have a backup.
Related Articles
- 10 Genesis Framework Plugins For Customizing Themes
- WordPress Speed Optimization Plugins
- WordPress SEO Plugins
- How To Find WordPress Plugins Slowing Down Your Site
- 25+ SEO Friendly WordPress Themes For Everyone
Hope you found my list of essential WordPress plugins helpful in designing/optimizing your WordPress site! Have questions? Leave a comment. Enjoyed my article? Please share it.
Cheers,
Moses Brodin says
A very handy – and useful – list of plugins. It always amazes me how differently some plugins work. Best as they work well, WordPress issues an update, and then a plugin is incompatible with a new version… So it can be cumbersome to find the plugin that causes trouble when no errorhandling is shown. [Especially thinking of the loss of the DashBoard as sudden screen of death… :’-(]
Eve Hunt says
Really nice layout and excellent content , absolutely nothing else we need : D.
iosyar says
thank you, very very nice
aditya says
The best list I think, But you could have added some more. Quite helpful. Thank you for sharing.
Gregory Lucy says
Hey Tom,
Thanks for your nice article on 10 Essential WordPress Plugins (For SEO, Analytics, Security, Speed Optimization, Backups, And Web Design).I think these plugins are really essential and users will be benefited from your write-up.
Danial Wilson says
Great listing. Thanks for sharing.
I am using User Activity Log Pro Plugin. It has great features and very helpful to monitoring and tracking of all the activities occurs on the admin side.
Evan Ross says
Thanks for sharing this article with us, this is very helpful. I surely try these plugins for my website. Out of all these, I found Quick Page/Post Redirect more useful, it will help us to redirect our visitor to our website.
Tom Dupuis says
Yep, a redirect plugin is definitely needs if you’re not doing it through .htaccess. Glad you found it helpful.
samdani says
Thanks for your great list and I also would like to share with you some valuable plugin. Here is my listed wordpress plugin>>>>>
Most popular free wordpress plugin:
Contact Form 7
W3 Total Cache
Jetpack by WordPress.com
Yoast SEO
WP Super Cache
All in One SEO Pack
Akismet
Google XML Sitemaps
No Follow All External Links
Noindex duplicate page types
Use a CDN to boost your site’s performance
Switch to a better web host
Ultimate Nofollow
7 Best AdSense Plugins>>>>>>>
Google AdSense
Ad Injection
Easy Plugin for AdSense
WordPress Ad Widget
Google AdSense by BestWebSoft
Ad Inserter
Google AdSense Click-Fraud Monitoring Plugin
Fred Griffin says
Outstanding article! I also contacted the guys at my host about the caching plugin and they recommended the W3 Total Cache plugin. They installed and configured the caching plugin on my website and I noticed a huge improvement in the loading speed.
Thanks again!
Samdani says
What plugins have been denied here ? My answer is nothing at all as per i see . But there have some of plugins that may be conducive for making the site more dynamic such as : Logo slider plugin, anti spam plugin , notification plugin to get more and more traffic .
Mohd Arif says
I had my blog for over two months before I realised how to back up my computer. I am always wanting to follow the rules because if something goes wrong I turn into a mess. Then I got some advice on how to do it, reading another post. But that was a different process to yours, so I will do my back up with my web host. I like the idea of having more than one copy somewhere. Not sure if I would know what to do if I needed it, but would wait until that happens. Thanks for this informative post.
Tom Dupuis says
Anytime! Yes, backups are super important. Some hosting companies have an option for automatic backups (which is the best method since plugins do slow down your site to some extent), or the option to take a backup even if it’s not automatic, but it depends on your host. If you can take automatic backups through your host that is probably the best option.
Adam Williamson says
Hi Tom,
This is an interesting article. Basically I am new WordPress user. This is very helpful information to me. I already started using Yoast SEO plugin. But for contact form. currently I have installed WPForms Lit. It is much easier than others. Check it out:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpforms-lite/
Brenda Smith says
There is no doubt that These are the must have WordPress plugins for every blogger.
Currently I am using few of them like Yoast SEO, Jetpack, W3 Total Cache, Redirection, Wp Smush.it.
For WordPress security, I am using ” iThemes security ” also known as ” Better WP Security “.
Thanks for sharing this list with us.
Tom Dupuis says
Better WP Security is awesome, thanks for sharing Brenda. WP Smush.it just didn’t work well for me, had to use other image optimization plugins to bulk compress images.
James Hilton says
Great list… I only knew 5 of them! I’ve been using them for a while… they do work just fine!
I want to ask something about SEO plugins, please tell me can I use two SEO plugins at same time. I want to use Yoast and Easy SEO plugins.
Tom Dupuis says
Hey James.
I would only use 1 SEO Plugin (Yoast). I have pretty extensive tutorials (and a video) for it under my “guides” section. There’s 3 parts: configuring the settings, researching focus keywords, and optimizing content. Let me know if you have any questions about it.
John Crooks says
I installed anti spam plug in that you recommended and in the last few days I have no spam in my folder to get rid of. This is great, as I was constantly emptying my spam folder, and now I can devote my time to other things. Thanks so much for the tip. I will be trying others…..
Tom Dupuis says
Glad to hear that John, thanks for sharing that. Spam is a huge problem in WordPress so make sure you also keep your wordpress core/theme/plugins updated too.
Sareeka Gupta says
Great list. This post has made things easy for me . Can you suggest an alternative to seo by yoast. I am using it but I feel its not working…because some of my pages ate not getting indexed
Tom Dupuis says
Sure, All In One SEO Pack is good but it sounds like it’s an indexing issue, not necessarily anything to do with Yoast unless your pages are set to be noindexed in the Yoast settings. Have you tried submitting your Yoast sitemap to Google Search Console and seeing if there’s anything crawl/indexing errors?
Let me know if that works.
Hamed says
Thanks Tom for your answer . i have a problem , plz see this permalink :
how can i remove these from the permalink ( .pagespeed.ce.Zc-OkiHwXW.png ) ?
i already disabled all of my plugins but it didn’t work out .
i’m so sorry to ask you this here .
Tom Dupuis says
Not a problem. See here: http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Page_Speed_Optimization and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4997217/pagespeed-caching-css-annoying-to-develop
Looks like people have found the answer there. On a side note, I know WordPress doesn’t allow people to use “WordPress” in their domain name :/
Hamed says
Very good , thanks . what about google xml site maps or contact form 7 ?
Tom Dupuis says
Hi Hamed,
The Yoast SEO Plugin takes cares of the XML sitemap for you (see here). I think Contact Form 7 is the best plugin for standard contact forms – Gravity Forms just has more advanced functionality but also costs $.
sivan says
What about sitemap plugin?? it is also good for SEO.. right??
Tom Dupuis says
The Yoast SEO Plugin actually comes with a sitemap, so no need to use another plugin for that. See the XML sitemap section of my Yoast tutorial.
Farooq Marwat says
Nice list of usable plugins Tom,
Tom Dupuis says
Thanks Farooq.
Dennis says
Thanks for the list but i wish you could extend it to 15. What’s your opinion abut super cache ? some say it’s better than w3 total cache.
Tom Dupuis says
Sorry for the late reply Dennis. I have used WP Super Cache on websites that don’t work well with W3 Total Cache and it does the job too.