So, you finally got your WordPress website up and running. Now you need to install some essential WordPress plugins to make your site better.
What are WordPress Plugins?
Plugins are tools you can install on your WordPress site to add or enhance features and functionalities.
You can install SEO plugins. Plugins that can make your site load faster. Even plugins that can turn your site into an e-commerce store and many more.
How to install WordPress Plugins?
On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New
This will take you to the “Add Plugins” section where you can upload or search for your specific plugin.
From here, you simply search for your plugin and click install, and then activate it. Simple as that.
Remember that the more plugins you install, the slower your blog will load. This will hurt your search engine rankings.
So, make sure that you only install the plugins that you need and serve a purpose for you.
With that said, here is a list of essential WordPress plugins that will give you extra features and make your site faster.
Must-Have Essential WordPress Plugins
These are the plugins that I personally use on my blog.
Wilber's Take
This is the first plugin I install, always. I recommend this plugin to anybody who doesn’t like the Gutenberg Block Editor. I think this should go back to being the default WordPress editor.
With the release of WordPress 5.0, the Gutenberg Block Editor became the default post and page editor. While it is a more powerful content editor, I find it more challenging and harder to adapt to.
The classic editor plugin brings back the normal editor, which is simple and easy to use.
So, if you’re getting started with WordPress and are having a hard time with the Gutenberg editor, install this plugin and get back to normal.
2. Rank Math SEO
Wilber's Take
Rank Math is my default search engine optimization plugin. It’s a lightweight, yet powerful SEO plugin that lets you easily optimize your site. I recommend this plugin to anyone looking to take full advantage of SEO on their site.
You can’t have a list of essential WordPress plugins without an SEO plugin. And Rank Math is the one I recommend.
The Rank Math SEO plugin offers a powerful set of on-page SEO features. It includes a real-time content analysis tool that provides suggestions to optimize individual posts and pages for target keywords.
The analysis covers various aspects, including keyword density, meta tags, headings, images, and readability.
Additionally, Rank Math SEO integrates seamlessly with popular page builders, like Elementor, allowing you to optimize your content within the builder interface.
You need an SEO plugin, and Rank Math SEO is the best for optimizing your WordPress website for search engines and improving organic traffic.
3. Akismet Anti-Spam
Wilber's Take
Without an anti-spam plugin, your comments will get flooded with all sorts of unwanted comments. This plugin will take care of it. I recommend this plugin because it works and gets the job done.
Akismet Anti-Spam, developed by the creators of WordPress, blocks and even deletes spam comments submitted to your WordPress site.
Akismet Anti-Spam provides a simple interface that displays the status of each comment, indicating whether it has been flagged as spam or considered legitimate. This allows you to review and moderate comments efficiently, focusing only on genuine engagement from your audience.
Install and activate this plugin to keep your comment sections clean and free of spam.
If you’re still getting too many spam comments with this plugin, you can try Antispam Bee, another popular anti-spam plugin.
4. Pretty Links
Wilber's Take
In this blog, we talk about affiliate marketing. And affiliate marketing means affiliate links, a lot of affiliate links. I recommend this plugin because it makes it easy to clean, track, manage, and insert affiliate links.
Since you’ll most likely be monetizing your blog with affiliate marketing, this plugin will make it easier to manage all your affiliate links in one place.
One of the key benefits of this plugin is that it lets you create clean, short, and memorable links for your blog.
Usually, affiliate links are long and complex, Pretty Links allows you to generate shortened links that are easy to share and remember.
This plugin also offers link tracking. You’ll be able to see which links are the most clicks.
5. WP Rocket
Wilber's Take
If you want to rank high on search engines, you need to make sure your site loads fast. I recommend this plugin because it’s easy to use and does what it’s supposed to do. Make my site faster.
WP Rocket is a caching plugin that makes increases website speed and performance.
The main feature of this plugin is page caching. This generates static HTML versions of your blog’s pages and serves them to visitors, reducing load time.
I like the fact that it starts to work right away with the default settings. But also has advanced features and options to get even better performance.
Although this plugin does not have a free version, the value you get for the price is definitely worth it.
If you’re on a budget and need a free alternative to WP Rocket, you try W3 total cache or WP Super Cache which do offer a free version.
6. Easy Table of Contents
Wilber's Take
We are writing long-form content with many topics and sub-topics. Having a table of contents plugin will make it easier for readers to navigate our blog posts and articles.
Easy Table of Contents is a lightweight plugin that simplifies the process of adding a table of contents to your WordPress blog posts and pages.
This plugin is easy to configure. You simply choose to include the table of contents before or after whichever header tag you want (such as H2, H3, etc.). And the plugin will insert the table of contents automatically.
With Easy Table of Contents, you can improve the user experience and make it easier for visitors to navigate and engage with your content.
7. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
Wilber's Take
As you already know, website speed is a major search engine ranking factor. Large image sizes are one the top culprits for slow-loading pages. This plugin will help you by compressing your images without losing quality.
ShortPixel Image Optimizer offers powerful image optimization features to help improve website performance by reducing image file sizes without compromising quality.
You’ll be writing long-form content full of images. So, having a plugin that compresses your images automatically will help you save time and also make your site load a lot faster.
With this plugin, you’ll be able to enhance your website’s loading time and provide a better user experience. by optimizing your images.
8. Elementor Pro
Wilber's Take
You can use a theme or use a page builder to create a fully customized blog. I recommend this plugin to anyone that wants to be able to customize every aspect of their WordPress website.
Elementor is a drag-and-drop page builder plugin that lets you create fully custom websites. I created this entire blog using ElementorPro.
Elementor integrates with all major plugins (such as Rank Math), so you won’t be having compatibility issues.
You can get started with the free version. But, if you need more advanced features you can upgrade. The Pro version gives you advanced widgets, theme builder, dynamic content capabilities, forms builder, and more.
Final Thoughts On: Essential WordPress Plugins
This is not an extensive list of essential WordPress plugins, these are just the plugins that I use and recommend because of their usefulness.
Make sure that you don’t install too many plugins or your blog will be slow. This will hurt your search engine rankings.
Also, make sure not to install plugins that you don’t need. For example, I don’t need a forms plugin because ElementorPro has forms built-in.
Let me know which plugins are in your essential WordPress plugins list in the comments below.
If you still haven’t created your blog yet, make sure you check out my guide on “how to start a blog” to get started creating your site.
As always, thanks for reading my blog and good luck.
