Best plugins for wordpress

Wordpress plug-ins to improve security, SEO and cockpit performance

See why it is important to carry out a selection of plug-ins installed in Wordpress and which are actually relevant and worth installing.

Table of Contents :

• What are wordpress plugins, how to choose a plugin ?
• How to install a plugin in wordpress ?
• How to choose a wordpress plugin ?
• Free or paid plug-in ?
• 10 best and useful wordpress plugins

Did you know that :

99% of WordPress plugins store data in the database, even after uninstalling the plugin the information continues to remain in the database ?

Every plug-in installed in Wordpress increases the size of the database. Even after the plug-in is uninstalled, the database accumulates unnecessary information, containing significant amounts of data in tables for plug-ins removed several months earlier.

Having worked with Wordpress for 10 years, we are able to assess the legitimacy of a particular plugin, its value, security and the usefulness it brings to your site on Wordpress. Wordpress optimization is no stranger to us, very often we have just carried out the work of speeding up sites and cleaning up the database after an overly extensive implementation of new features.

We are definitely not of the opinion that every functionality requires a plug-in, although there are those who install plug-ins for everything - a mistake

A plug-in that is legitimate, improves admin functionality, security or optimizes graphics makes as much sense as possible. It is worth noting that too many plug-ins or installing plug-ins from an unproven source or modus operandi can lead to slower page load times due to additional code and interference with its structure.

Installing plug-ins that are rarely updated or the last update occurred several months ago should also not be done

Wordpress is a very popular system that benefits from builder solutions, online wizards that allow you to 'create a site in 5 minutes' or a whole range of plugins that implement literally any functionality.

We offer Wordpress website development according to dedicated backend implementation and light integration.

Often low-cost websites are made precisely on the basis of plug-ins implementing the simplest functionalities such as scrolling up the page or animating the main banner.

Thus, over time, the database becomes inefficient and Wordpress slows down, and trying to save Wordpress, you end up replacing the coding and rewriting the site with new lighter code. Optimization plugins that perform cleanups are only a half-hearted solution that will improve the situation unfortunately for a while. See the post Wordpress database optimization

If you have a site with more than 10-12 plugins check if you definitely need all of them

See our Wordpress care service and :

1. How to make a website on Wordpress
2. Wordpress image optimization
3. What is wordpress hosting

How to install a plugin in wordpress

Installing plugins in Wordpress is very simple, just from the plugin menu, select the search engine and type in the desired plugin. The second way is to install a rar package downloaded from an external source such as: purchased plugin from WPDesk or other marketplace.

How to choose a plugin for wordpress ?

There are about 60,196 free plugins in the wordpress.org repository.

Often there are multiple plug-ins that duplicate a particular functionality on a clone basis of the base plug-in.

If you're looking for a plug-in, it's worth noting :

1. community evaluation of the plug-in,
2. plug-in description,
3. when the plug-in was last updated,
4. what version of Wordpress the plugin supports,
5. reviews of the plugin on wordpress.org
6. author's support and author's response to possible problems

See also Elementor technical issues

Free or paid plug-in ?

At 90%, a free plugin will completely suffice. The SEO plugin by Yoast, for example, does not bring much to the user other than the possibility of premium contact or additional insignificant functionality.

There is no rule that a premium plug-in will be better, usually a free solution will suffice completely. For our part, we advise you to start using the free version.

Based on CMS Wordpress, we implement individually

• websites,
• creation of web portals,
• Webdesign New York City

List of the best and useful wordpress plugins

Learn about our selection of plugins that we use in our own Wordpress site implementations.

The list of plugins is divided into several thematic groups, in which we give some alternative plugins to be used by the administrator. Of course, we do not istal all those available from the list, this is a list of those that are safe and carry real value for working with CMS Wordpress.

In addition to the standard plugins for Wordpress, we recommend if you are thinking about an online store the Woocommerce plugin implementing ecommerce solutions for your web store.

SEO plugins

A list of plugins that improve Wordpress performance for onsite optimization.

Yoast SEO Plugin

A plug-in that efficiently implements Google's basic requirements for SEO issues.

The plug-in helps :

• set simple URLs,
• create title and description descriptions
• analyze the content of the sub-page based on the set key phrase,
• gives you access to set up 301 redirects and htacces file
• generates an XML map of the site,
• responsible for crumbs on the page ie: breadcrumbs
• generates schema.org tags

Breadcrumb NavXT

Plugin responsible for generating crumbs ie: bread crumbs on the page.

In case if for some reason you are not using Yoast solution you can use this plugin. After installing the plugin, go to Appearance -> Widgets menu where you can add crumbs to the appropriate place on the page.

Broken Link Checker - find and fix dead links

The plugin will help identify and remove inactive links, useful when auditing a site for SEO. This is one of the best mechanisms for finding inactive links or misdirects on our website

Schema - all in one schema rich snippets

If you do not use the generated extended snippets that Yoast gives you, you can use this plugin.

See what rich snippets are (extended snippets)

With schema you will get additional possibilities to present data in search results such as : Review, Events, Recipes, Article, Products, Services, etc.

Cache plug-ins

Plugins that improve the speed of your wordpress site. With the help of a browser or server cache, they generate static HTML files of the page that load in no time.

WP Fastest Cache

The plug-in allows :

• gZIP compression,
• minification of css and js files,
• Loading the page files into the cache,
• caching,

The operation of this plugin is really simple. All you need to do is install it and in the configuration check the appropriate boxes in the cache settings for the site.

WP Super Cache

Like Fastest Cache, the plug-in allows generating static HTML files and compressing css, js scripts. It has slightly more configuration options.

LiteSpeed Cache

The plugin requires a LiteSpeed-based server to take full advantage of its capabilities. It is compatible with other plugins discussed in this post and WooCommerce.

The plug-in provides :

• Optimization for sites that are smaller but also have high traffic,
• Ideal for a site with more than a few hundred subpages,
• has an object cache,
• server-side supported cache,
• lots of CSS / JS optimization options,
• WebP image optimization,
• database optimization
• QUIC.CLOUD service

Backup plug-ins

BackWP Up

It makes it easy to back up your site and set up recurring backups on the server, in the cloud or in a dropbox folder.

Forms plugins

Contact Form 7

A popular plugin for creating forms. Fully editable. Easily gives you the ability to create additional fields, send email notifications to the administrator, send the user back to a thank you subpage or create step forms. Read more about Contact Form 7 plugin and possible extensions.

Technical optimization plugins

Easy Converter for Media

The plug-in easily allows you to change image formats, performs compression to WebP.

Regenerate Thumbnails

If you change the size of the used thumbnail and image formats on the site, the plug-in resets the already once-generated image formats in Wordpress to the new sizes.

Autoptimize

A plugin that optimizes CSS and JS code, we should not combine its functionality if we already use a cache plugin such as: LiteSpeed. The plugin implements:

• A combination of CSS and JS files,
• HTML minification
• Moving CSS and JS to the footer,
• CDN file handling,
• CSS loading delay

WP Mail SmTP by WP Forms

A fairly common Wordpress problem is handling email sending. The plugin uses more than 3 million sites on Wordpress to send emails from forms safely and without problems.

WP Mail SMTP fixes the email problem by reconfiguring WordPress settings. It uses the appropriate SMTP provider when sending emails.

WP Optimize

This is another plugin for optimization. It improves Wordpress performance, optimizes the database, compresses images and caches the page. However, we recommend using plugins from the cache section.

Orphans

A plugin that implements the useful functionality of putting conjunctions on a new line. A common problem for sites with long texts and blog posts.

WP - Smush

Used interchangeably with the Easy Converter for Media plug-in. The plug-in allows you to automatically downsize and optimize and compress your images.

Security plug-ins

All in One security

Multi-tasking combo. The plug-in allows you to set, among other things :

• changing the wp-login login page,
• changing database prefixes,
• Right-click security and key functionality,
• Login and registration limits,
• No automatic registrations,
• No access to the PHP files of the template,
• No Wordpress information in the site code,

Language version plug-ins

Loco Translate

Content translation plugin for wordpress. It gives you the ability to translate phrases that are written in the theme or hard to find in editing.

The plugin is useful for translating additional functionality or for example: form field descriptions or CTAs

Polylang

In case if you want to create a site in several languages is a basic plugin that will allow you to include additional language versions.

Once installed, you will get the ability to translate posts, pages, categories, menus, media. post tags, custom post types and taxonomies, RSS feeds.

The version language is set via the language code in the URL.

The plug-in also provides :

1. Automatyczne kopiowanie kategorii, tagów postów i innych meta podczas tworzenia nowego posta lub tłumaczenia strony.
2. Tłumaczenie menu i widżetów.
3. Konfigurowalny przełącznik (switcher) języka dostępny jako widżet lub element menu nawigacyjnego.
4. Kompatybilność z Yoast SEO

Dostępna w wersji darmowej i płatnej.

The paid version is useful here especially if you want to do Woocommerce integration.

Just add the appropriate languages in the settings and you can start translating the site.

Plugins for creating pages

ACFpro

This is a plugin on which we create authoring and dedicated page implementations. Unlike builders, it gives technically better resulting code and lighter integration of HTML code with Wordpress. Depending on the implementation, it gives extremely many possibilities to configure the site, build predefined layouts and modules for later use by the administrator.

Elementor lub Divi builder

Populadic builders to create pages comprehensively with built-in themes and oneclick solutions.

Other useful plugins for wordpress

See also the best Woocommerce plugins to install on your online store.

Cookie Notie for GDPR & CCPA

Plugin to implement a cookie and RORO information bar on the site.

Duplicate Post

Useful plugin for repeating and duplicating posts, entries, pages in the admin panel

Cooming Soon mode

If you create a site and it is to remain hidden, this plugin will display the information in the build. You can freely set the information on the 'cap', a version with a photo, logo and contact information.

Site analytics

Measure your site's performance directly in the Wordpress dashboard.

MonsterInsights

The plugin allows you to connect Wordpress with Google Analytics and gives you the ability to check statistics directly in the Wordpress panel. With this plugin, you don't need to check statistics in Google panel.

WP Power Stats

It gives basic statistics. It will give you statistics regarding:

• inputs from specific browsers,
• inputs from operating systems,
• The number of visitors and the most visited subpages,

For our part, analytics plug-ins are not particularly important to implement in the Wordpress panel, a much better idea is to build reporting directly in GA4 or using Google Data Studio.