The beautiful thing of WordPress is that there is a plugin for almost every problem imaginable. But with thousands of plugins available, it can be hard to figure out which one you need.
- For example, there are numerous plugins that secure your website and ensure that spam is warded off
- There are several plugins that can help you SEO-proof your WordPress website
- There are also plugins that can add pop-ups, sliders, forms and cookies to your WordPress website.
In short, a lot is possible and this creates overchoice. Fortunately you do not have to download every plugin available. Because every plugin takes up space and makes your WordPress website slower. And this has a big impact on your SEO. Therefore, you need to be frugal and critical when picking plugins. Hence, a statement that is very applicable to plugins: less is more.
Of course this does not mean that you should not download any plugins at all. How much a plugin slows down your WordPress website depends on the plugin itself. A plugin that adds a form to your website is usually a lot less slowing down than a plugin that integrates various webshop functionalities.
To get you started, we have listed our top 7 plugins below. The nice thing is that these plugins are not slowing down your WordPress website and certainly are a must-have for every WordPress website owner.
The best WordPress SEO plugin: Yoast SEO
SEO plugins are specialized in making your WordPress website rank higher in Google. There are many good SEO plugins available such as All in One SEO and All-In-One SEO Pack. Yet one plugin in particular stands out and that is Yoast SEO.
Why? Because of its many features. Of course it allows you to customize your titles and meta descriptions per page. But you can also have the title and description tag generated automatically for all pages. Moreover you can adjust URL-structures and the plugin has a tool for making your texts SEO-proof.
The plugin also generates sitemaps, has a link to Google Webmasters and allows you to configure your permalinks. In short, exactly what you need for the search engine optimization of your WordPress website!
The best WordPress redirect plugin: Redirection
Redirection does an excellent job in coordinating the 301 redirects on your website. As a result, this prevents 404 errors.
As soon as you change the permalink of a page/post, this plugin automatically creates a 301 redirect, which is placed in the .htaccess file. This is ideal if you are less technical and don’t know how to place a 301 redirect in your .htaccess file yourself.
The best anti-spam and security WordPress plugin: Akismet
Because 40% of all websites run on WordPress, it is an enticing target for hackers and spammers around the world. Not one WordPress website owner is waiting for spam responses under articles about soccer or cryptocurrency.
Fortunately, through a security plugin, you can nip most spam in the bud. Akismet is the mother of all security plugins for securing your WordPress website and reducing spam responses. It was developed by the company Automattic and has been around since 2005.
However, you do need an API key to use this plugin. Fortunately, the API key is available for free and for non-commercial use.
The best WordPress speed plugin: WProcket
WProcket is an all-in-one tool for optimizing the speed of your WordPress website. With this plugin you can not only combine and compress scripts, but also empty your cache. It can also help you remove and/or move render blocking resources. This plugin is not downloadable for free, but it is certainly worth the investment.
The best WordPress form plugin: Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms allows you to create forms. The plugin offers great flexibility to build complex forms. And with it you can greatly improve your landing pages and calls to action on your website. It is even possible to use the plugin to sell products. In our opinion, if you take your WordPress website a bit seriously, you can’t do without this plugin.
The best WordPress multilingual plugin: WPML
Building a multilingual website is always tricky. Often you mistake how much time it takes. So for us as a company, it’s clearly a detriment. However, since we purchased the plugin WPML (a while back), building multilingual websites has become much easier. WPML is very flexible and stable when it comes to translating pages, menus, widgets, themes, plugins, etc. And it is also very user friendly. We can’t imagine building another multilingual website in WordPress without WPML.
The best WordPress analytics plugin: Monster Insights
The second plugin developed by Yoast SEO that we recommend is MonsterInsights. This plugin allows you to configure your Google Analytics code in an advanced way, allowing you to measure in Google Analytics in an even more targeted manner. A must-have for marketers and website owners engaged in website optimization.
Not found what you are looking for?
Is the plugin for your specific solution not listed? Then take a look at the very comprehensive article from our hosting partner Kinsta. They have over 50 valuable WordPress plugins that can help you improve your WordPress website.