I know what you are going to say. Yes, its another top 10 plugin list for WordPress. But since every online marketeer who builds websites has one, I figured I needed one too!
The plugins in this top 10 are what I consider absolute essentials for every wordpress website. As you will see, i focus more on functionality plugins instead of design plugins. I find functionality far more important, then i find design.
I also included 5 other plugins that I do not find crucial, but they are damn handy, so worth considering. Here we go!
WPS Hide Login
- Category: Security
- Link: https://www.wpserveur.net/
This is the first plugin I install whenever I start a new WordPress project. Changing the default login URL straight away, significantly reduces the chance of people with bad intentions trying to hack your website. and minimizing the chance of brute force attacks.
This simple plugin that replaces the default login extension, /wp-admin, of your WordPress dashboard, to a custom one you create. This light-weight security plugin does this for you. There are a few ways to change the URL, but installing this plugin is by far the most easiest i find.
Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (GADWP)
- Category: Performance
- Link: https://exactmetrics.com/
As a site owner, you need to know how your website is performing. Google analytics is the tool we use to get this information, about traffic, dwell time (time spent on site), bounce rates, click through rates etc.
With this plugin you can connect Google analytics to the back end of your site. You only need to paste in the tracking ID and you are done. Now, from the dashboard you can directly see how your website is performing on these crucial areas.
WordFence
- Category: Security
- Link: https://www.wordfence.com/
Hackers, malware, (D)DoS-attacks are common threats to WordPress websites. Luckily, there are powerful plugins available to help protect you. My favourite is WordFence.
After installing this plugin, you can let it scan your site for any vulnerabilities such as backdoors, malicious and suspicious code, MySQL injection, etc. your site may have. its main security feature is to traffic monitor, that shows who is coming to your site and with what intention.
WP GDPR Compliance
- Category: Law & Regulation
- Link: https://www.wpgdprc.com/
GDPR has been a huge issue last year where website collect personal data from their visitors. Basically, this law requires website owners to be transparent about the way they collect and store their information.
Although this plugin does not make your website GDPR proof, I does include features that help you get there. It includes the cookie notification bar you can install on your site visitors see, when they come to your website for the fist time.
It also checks on which locations your website is collecting personal information, and you can have it include the necessary unchecked checkbox, where consent is given that personal information is being collected.
OneSignal
- Category: Performance
- Link: https://www.onesignal.com/
Visitors who come to your website, get a small popup, asking if they want to be informed of future updates and new content. If they accept, they plugin sends push notifications, as soon as you have published or updates the content.
This is a perfect way to generate traffic, because the click through rate on these notifications is extremely high.
- Category: Backup
- Link: https://updraftplus.com/
This is a backup plugin that allows you to make backups of your website. This easy to configure plugin lets you store backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, have it emailed to you, or some other location.
With the premium version you can choose multiple. For me, the free version will do, since the only thing I want to do is to have a backup of my files somewhere just in case something goes wrong.
- Category: SEO
- Link: https://yoast.com/
This is the plugin you must install if you have got a WordPress site. This plugin is simply amazing and it allows you to configurate your article in a way that optimizes it for SEO. Through a useful interface, you get to see which areas you need to improve on and which are good.
The plugin is free, but you can also get a premium version for €79, which allows you to enter more then one keyword, inform search engines exactly what your page is about, get overviews of which pages do well for SEO instead of going on page by page in order to find out and some other stuff.
Insert Headers and Footers
- Category: Maintenance
- Link: https://wordpress.org/plugins/insert-headers-and-footers/advanced/
Afraid of inserting code into the header and footer tags because you can break something? Fear no more, This lightweight plugin inserts code into the header and footer of the site for you,flawlessly so you have nothing to worry about!
Many 3rd party functionality, like Mailchimp popup, analytics, Facebook Pixel etc, require you to do so, and for non techies, this can be a challenge. Insert this plugin and be on the safe side!
Insert Headers and Footers
- Category: Maintenance
- Link: https://managewp.com/
Say goodbye to broken links and 404 pages, because with this plugin, this is history. Broken links on your website are not only bad for user experience, they also have a negative impact on SEO.
This plugin notifies you when you have broken links on your site, by actively monitoring your site. It checks your pages, posts, comments, blog, custom field and it looks at links on your images. This is a must have plugin for site that are content heavy.
WP Optimize
- Category: Maintenance/Performance
- Link: https://getwpo.com/
Make your site fast and efficient! A great plugin, because it combines several functionalities into one. It cleans your database, compresses your large images and caches your site.
From the menu, you can easily select between these functions and gain almost an instant increase in site performance with just a few clicks.
No need to have large images anymore, because the image compression tool allows you to compress all the images in your media folder. You can set it up that it will compress all future images you upload. The database function scans all your crucial database sections and shows the number of files that can be cleaned and removed. The only thing you have to do for the caching, is to hit enable, and you are done!
