I’m pretty sure I know why you’re using WordPress to run your blog or website.
It’s because of plugins.
To date, there are 55,752 available WordPress plugins available for download. Most are free while some have trial versions.
However:
All of them can help boost your site’s performance and conversion.
You can download as many plugins as you please. But it doesn’t mean that you should do so.
In fact, downloading unnecessary plugins can slow down your site and threaten your security.
To help tighten the security of your WordPress site and clean up its clutter, you need to
simplify, simplify, simplify!
By using the bare minimum plugins for your WordPress site, you can boost your site’s performance while maintaining its quality.
To achieve this, here are the only five types of WordPress plugins you need to use.
1. WordPress Security Plugins
This type of plugin tops the list because your site’s safety is a priority.
You need to protect your site from malware and malicious attackers, which is precisely what a security plugin does.
It alerts you of any abnormal activities and gives you the opportunity to intervene before the problem escalates or even begins at all.
You need this type of plugin because you’re not safe from cyber attacks.
To get the best protection, you’d want to go with one of the best security plugins, and that is Wordfence.
Not only is it among the best in its department, but it’s also the most popular one. It features a malware scanner and an endpoint firewall that abides by the latest firewall rules and malware signatures.
2. List Building
According to Salesforce, email marketing has an average ROI rate of 3,800%.
To put things into perspective:
Every $1 you spend on this channel, you reap $38.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Of course, the rewards depend on the number of your subscribers, as well as the quality of your emails.
But this remains true: email marketing is a gold mine.
So from early on, start collecting email addresses with the help of a list building plugin.
Not only will it make the collection process easier for you, but it will also allow you to make eye-popping forms.
And you’d want that because the more attractive your forms are, the more signups you get.
Lucky for you, there are lots of list building plugins to choose from. Get one that matches your site well.
3. SEO WordPress Plugins
You’d want to implement SEO to further drive traffic to your website or blog. If done correctly, it can land you on the first page of Google.
If you play your cards right, it can even help you earn the all-elusive first spot!
So what’s the fuzz about ranking on top of Google search, you ask?
It’s because the first result generates 32.5% of overall clicks.
For every 1,000 searches your target keyword generates, you get at least 32 clicks to your site every month! That’s not bad!
When it comes to using SEO plugins, Yoast SEO happens to be one of the best.
With it, you get a powerful kit that allows you to gauge keyword usage, edit meta descriptions, and more. Since 2008, it’s responsible for the success of millions of sites.
4. Contact Form
The plugins mentioned above help you protect your website and reach out to as many people as you can. While all these factors are important, nothing is as crucial as building relationships with your readers.
That’s what contact plugins are for!
Some of your readers want to talk to you and express their reactions to your posts or send in their questions your way.
Using a contact form plugin, you bridge the gap that exists between you and your readers.
Sure, you could leave your phone number in case your visitors would want to have a word. But a phone number is practically useless if you can’t talk on the phone at the exact moment your visitors need you.
And yes, you also have the option of leaving your email address. They can reach you any time via email.
But if you do that, you’re somehow inviting spammers to do what they do best: scrape it and send you inappropriate messages.
So nope. A contact form is better.
All they need to do is fill out the embedded form on your contact page and receive their messages straight to your inbox.
There’s no substitute for the reachability and availability it offers.
I recommend you to use Contact Form 7 to build contact forms for your site. It’s one of the longest contact form plugins available which makes it one of the best.
You can create as many forms with different entries as you want and embed them on any part of your site using their shortcodes.
5. Caching Plugin
When it comes to websites, no one likes slow-loading sites!
In fact, if a site takes more than 5 seconds to load, 22.2% of initial visitors leave.
To counter this problem, you need to use a caching plugin.
What it does is save the data from your site to the visitors’ browsers. So whenever visitors return to your site, their browsers will load content locally, instead of fetching content from the server each time.
A tool like WP Rocket is one of the best caching plugins.
Apart from page caching, it features database optimization, concatenation, and more! It’s one of the best, and it’s easy to set up.
Conclusion
The best WordPress sites are those that practice restraint and maximize its resources. As the saying goes, “less is more.”
I know the temptation of downloading lots of plugins. But given the risks each plugin poses, it’s best to limit your plugins to the fewest possible.
Therefore, you can’t go wrong with the five types of WordPress plugins mentioned above!
I’ve suggested some of the best types of WordPress plugins for round out your site. However, the beauty with plugins is there are alternatives for you to choose from.
So don’t worry if you’re not comfortable with the recommended ones above. By doing your own research, you’ll find the best ones that jive well with your site!
Latest posts by Christopher Jan Benitez (see all)
- How to Improve Website Performance the Right Way - December 10, 2019
- 5 Types of WordPress Plugins You Need to Use Exclusively - November 17, 2018
- What WordPress Theme Design Is Perfect for Your Website? - March 9, 2017
Plugins are very useful i am using Yoast seo and Contact form. yet to discover more plugin. your post is very informative and useful for seo freshers like me
Hello Christopher!
The WordPress plugins is kinda playstore to me. Whatever we need in our website we can just install it from the plugins section. Well, using WordPress is the simplest thing ever
Thanks for this post. I use wp rocket in my site & this plugin has improve my website speed
Hey, I know the post originally shared a few years back.
if you are to update the post, then Rank Math should be here.
it is definitely the best SEO plugin I ever used.
I’ve been using Yoast for a while and I tested Rank Math and its just amazing.
Nimesh Madushanka would love you to read ..How to Install WordPress On Windows 10 – A newbie friendly guide that will walk you through the process
HI,
I was looking for the help for securing my website.Thanks for the help.
Thank you for giving details about wordpress plugins
aditya agarwal would love you to read ..The Ultimate Guide On Website Malware Removal
I am really happy with articles quality and presentation.and I really enjoy reading this post. The points are clear and easy to implement. Adding value to your audience by creating quality and informative content is a unique way to stand out Thank you so much .
I am new in wordpress. thanks for sharing this wordpress plugins. really a useful information for me. thanks for sharing this information with us.
These plugins are really used to customize my blog. now my blog looks good and fast. thanks for this useful article sharing with us.
Hey Christopher,
solid plugin list here, thank you.
I didn’t know about Wordfence, I though security is your host’s job, because if they let your site become infected, they risk infecting the entire network.
How little did I know.
I’ll look into that Wordfence plugin you mention
Thanks again.
Nikola Roza would love you to read ..Jaaxy Keyword Tool Review and Analysis (2019)- Don’t Buy Before You Read!
you have amazing list of plugins. they are very helpfukl just like your blog. thanks for sharing that much of your knowledge with us.
Luckily im using all of these plugins but email marketing is kind of a old school way now.
Brand sms and RSS notifications makes difference these days too.
Thank you for sharing this helpful blog. It’s good to know that there’s a lot of WordPress plugins to actually choose from. All the best!
Hannah Lagdameo would love you to read ..How to Make a Visit to Your Blog Worthwhile
very helpful blog for new blogger and also all,thank u for sharing nice article.I’m already using 4 plugins, I need to use the remaining 1 plugins
zimmy sarkar would love you to read ..Top 10 very helpful google tools top 10 news
Totally agree with your content, i wonder without any wordpress plugin the creation of website becomes very hard to uplift the ranking
Thanks for the info. even Autoptimize is a great plugin to compress some CSS and javascript. Works charm with a total cache plugin.
Hello, Christopher Jan Benitez
This is a great article about WordPress plugins. I think these plugins play an important role for any WordPress blog or website. This article is very useful and admissible for liking and sharing.
Thanks for this amazing and useful information.
Hi ,
Thanks for the article, am new to wordpress but i got some new plugins from your post.
Hi,
This is nice post for types wordpress plugins and having right articles to see you here and thanks a lot for sharing with us.
Yoast SEO is undoubtedly the best in the industry. With some configurations, It makes your website SEO friendly. I use Yoast on all WordPress website I have.
Wordfence, I don’t know much about it. I think I have to try it on my website. Thanks for the tip. Cheers
Every single one of those plugins mentioned above either crashes my site or slow it down tremendously.
Wordfence crashed my site about six or seven times, Yoast SEO leaves a never-ending string of orphaned tables and remnant files in my CPanel WordPress folder.
Plus I hate the annoying suggestions Yoast SEO keep prompting whenever I post an article especially with this transition word and passive voice scoring.
I wrote somewhere that you cannot automate intent nor can you automate emotional expressions… and guess what? It’s true…
Thanks for your comment! Yoast SEO is a polarizing plugin for the reasons you just mentioned. Personally, I enjoy using it for the very same reasons. Ultimately, it’s up to the user to decide whether the plugin is the right one for him/her.
Also, haven’t had an issue with Wordfence. Maybe it’s a hosting issue? Try contacting your web host’s support for it.
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..How to Get Blog Traffic (and Turn them into Freelance Clients!)
This is good platform for wordpress new users, I find new vision of wordpress plugin.
Thanks blogger for efforts.
These plugins are really very helpful for my word-press website ! i will recommend these word press plugins to friends who are dealing in web development..
rohit bajpai would love you to read ..Top 50+ Free High PR Indian Business Listing Sites List 2018
I got to know about important plugins after reading this, this will surely help us alot. Amazing Tips! Thankyou for sharing. Keep sharing!
I am using Yoast Seo and its a great plugin. Its basic plan supports all the features. Nice blog! Thankyou for sharing ..
Great article… For making good and attractive website plugins are very helpful by using different plugins we make our website very attractive.
Thanks for sharing this nice article.
Hello Christopher,
Your article is amazing. You have targeted the most important plug-in which are the soul of the WordPress. Without plug-ins , it would not be possible to work on the WordPress. These plug-in helps in efficiently running of the website. There are unlimited plug-ins are available on the WordPress. You have listed one of the best plug-ins which are recommended by most of the people. Right now, I am using all the plug-ins that you have listed above.
You can add the social sharing button as they are most important plug-in and makes the sharing the article with just one click. It is the crucial plug-in which are required to be in the website.
Thanks for sharing such prestigious information and make the path of the beginners easy.
This is true Gail. Always that trade off we make as bloggers, moving away from static sites to something more dynamic. My developer likes to add some from time to time but I delete a handful that are not necessary; I love simple and functional, without all bells and whistles.
Ryan K Biddulph would love you to read ..By: Ryan Biddulph
I think most of these plugins should always be integratad as basic stuff on your wordpress website! Good article.
I noticed that most plugins and different themes always have some conflict by using them. For example im using the7 theme on some websites but there Contactform7 is not working correctly for javascript output. So i always have to modify the themes. Thats some kind of bad but what could be the solution for this?
Hi Mike,
If you like that theme you may want to choose a different plugin. Otherwise, use a better theme.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..How to Stay Organized While Juggling Many Responsibilities
These are good source to buildup a new website. Could please tell me which plugging is most suitable for competition (sport) including receiving online payments with different account.
And thanks for your nice blog.
Hello, Vijay!
The plugins you will use for your site depends on what you want to achieve with your site.
For accepting payment, there are plugins that let you accept payments and donations via Paypal.
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..How to Get Blog Traffic (and Turn them into Freelance Clients!)
Hello,
Like before, your article is always fabulous. I am using many of the plug-in that you have mentioned. And they all are amazing. Instead of Yoast plug-in, I use Ultimate SEO plug-in but I am thinking to switch to Yoast plug-in. As it gives the more information about the SEO and tell us through the color indicator.
Thanks for sharing the wonderful article with us and have been privileged us to read this article.
Hey,
Thank you for this valuable knowledge. I was searching for a long time about plugins and you have shared this post.
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A veary usefull post with some needfull Informations.
Tanks a lot for your great Work. Currently i am Building a new Website with WordPress and there can bei this article veary helpfull to improve my Site.
DA from Germany.
Great thanks to you. Now I got the top 5 WordPress plugins. I hope it useful for me.
Thank you. Keep sharing.
this is useful content for new WordPress users like me and others if you can provide Advance WordPress plugin who can manage a speed of the website and more like lead generation etc. That’s more useful
Shivam would love you to read ..Customer Service – Brand Reputation Management
You can check out this post for advanced WordPress plugins: https://growmap.com/wordpress-site-innovative-plugins/ These might help you for now.
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..11 Killer Ways to Build a Good Rapport With Your Audience Using Your Website
Hello Christopher,
Great list of plugins,
nowadays I am regularly facing website loading speed. I am stuck in WP Fastest Cache v/s WP Rocket, Can you share some of your tips about that, which one should I use?
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Cant’ really comment on WP Fastest Cache since I haven’t used it yet. Aside from being caching plugin, WP Rocket also lazy loads your images and cleans up your database. Personally, WP Rocket is a no-brainer!
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..How to Get Blog Traffic (and Turn them into Freelance Clients!)
Thanks for sharing this wonderful plugin. I am going to be use this . I really impressed with your article, so great & useful knowledge you mentioned here
Glad you enjoyed it, Alisha!
Thanks for sharing this information. I always used three plugins what you said. but I did not understand clearly for caching plugin uses. please tell me the importance of that plugin.
Hi Vignesh,
Check with your hosting company as many of them do enough caching that it really isn’t necessary anymore to use a plugin. Also, if you ever have a technical issue on your site, suspect the caching plugin as the cause and temporarily disable it to find out if it is.
It is common for caching plugins conflict with other plugins.
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Sir ple suggest me what is the best plugin to load faster website I use w3 cache plugin pls suggest me
Personally, it’s all about which among the different caching plugins you’re most comfortable with. You can’t go wrong with W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache if you don’t have the cash to shell out for WP Rocket.
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..5 Best SEO Writing Tools for Optimized Content
Good list.
I don’t like CF7 as it loads scripts for every page of your site, irrespective of whether that page hosts a contact form or not. I just don’t think that can be justified when we are all worried about page speed and loading times. I suggest an alternative that only loads required scripts on pages that host a contact form.
Cheers!
Mark would love you to read ..The Weekly Review: Conquer your Overwhelm in an hour each week!
Fair enough, Mark! I personally like CF7 because of its integration with other tools like ConvertKit (my email marketing platform of choice). But your concerns about it is valid nonetheless. What contact form plugin would you suggest?
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..11 Killer Ways to Build a Good Rapport With Your Audience Using Your Website
Integrations are important. I use another tool for sign-ups etc with Active Campaign (my ESP) so I don’t need my contact form to integrate with AC.
Thus, I use Lightweight Contact Form which is simple and lightweight (as the name suggests). It doesn’t do anything except send contact forms to me though 😉
Mark would love you to read ..Create a Personal Mission Statement for the Life YOU Want
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Really helpful!
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..StoryChief Review: The Content Marketing Automation Tool You Need
Hi Mark,
Thank you for sharing that. I agree that would be an unnecessary burden to a site.
Gail Gardner would love you to read ..How to Get Recommended: Recommendations ARE WHAT WORKS to Grow Your Small Business or Blog
I’m already using 3 plugins, I need to use the remaining 2 plugins.thank you for providing useful information on WordPress plugins.
John would love you to read ..3D Flip Book
You’re welcome, John!
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..11 Killer Ways to Build a Good Rapport With Your Audience Using Your Website
Thanks, Ryan! some people run the risk of keeping their site from being secure and slowing down its loading time due to the quality and volume of plugins they have. And it’s easy to go crazy with the plugins to download because they’re so easy to use. But as a site owner, you need to strike the balance of speed and functionality. And having lots of WordPress plugins can’t help you achieve that. That’s why moderation is key – find the least WordPress plugins for your site that will have the most impact.
Christopher Jan Benitez would love you to read ..11 Killer Ways to Build a Good Rapport With Your Audience Using Your Website
Rocking list here Christopher. I use a handful to increase the functionality of my blog. No brainer. The key is to pick plugins that do not weigh down your blog.
Ryan K Biddulph would love you to read ..By: Ryan Biddulph
Hi Ryan,
Yes, it is always a trade-off between adding compelling features and slowing down your site. A blog can’t really be as fast as a static site with no upgrades.
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