WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. It is a popular blogging and website publishing tool that is used by millions of people worldwide every day. It’s also simple and easy to use: creating your own blog or website is as simple as creating a WordPress.org account with no coding knowledge required. The website you are reading this article from was also made with WordPress.
The reason why WordPress is so popular is that it has a simple and intuitive user interface, it makes it easy to create pages, posts, and images, as well as add widgets and plug-ins to expand the functionality of a website, again, with no coding knowledge.
If you wish to start a WordPress website or make sure you have not missed essential plug-ins you might want to have a look. Here are the 7 essential plug-ins you will need.
Wordfence Security
The most important thing after creating a website is to keep it secure from attacks and malware. Wordfence Security contains an endpoint firewall, malware scanner, strong login security, live traffic views, and other capabilities. Wordfence is a free service but for users who might wish to have additional support can purchase the paid version as well. Wordfence is especially needed for services that rely on the internet to make a living.
Wordfence Security WordPress plugin store page
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO ensures that your site fulfills the most rigorous technical SEO standards. In summary, SEO is essential because it increases the visibility of your website, which means more visitors. Yoast also provides tools for optimizing your content for readability. For example, it checks to see if you’ve used a keyword frequently enough. However, it also matters whether it appears in your SEO title, meta description, photos, or subheadings. Yoast SEO provides guidance to fulfill those requirements which will help you show up on higher ranks on search engines.
Yoast SEO WordPress plugin store page
Popular Yoast SEO Alternatives:
Akismet Spam Protection
Akismet Spam Protection can automatically check all comments and filter out the spam, help you see which comments are actually genuine or an attempt to post ads on your site and it also has a discard feature that outright blocks the worst spam, saving you disk space and speeding up your site. Once activated, you’ll be requested to obtain an Akismet.com API key. For personal blogs, keys are free; premium subscriptions are available for companies and commercial sites.
Akismet Spam Protection WordPress plugin store page
Contact Form 7
Since the target of most websites is to get in touch with their target audience, providing an easy way to contact might be crucial. One of the easiest ways to contact is through contact forms. Contact Form 7 supports multiple contact forms and allows you to easily change the form and message contents with easy markup. Contact Form 7 supports Ajax-powered submission, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering, and other features.
Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin store page
WP Rocket (Paid service)
WP Rocket is a premium WordPress caching plug-in. It is suitable for both expert and inexperienced WordPress users due to its large range of choices and automated optimization tools. It enables suggested WordPress caching settings such as gzip compression, page caching, and cache pre-loading. To further enhance page load times, you can enable optional features like lazy loading images.
Click To Chat App
WP Social Chat for WordPress enables your customers to open a chat from the website immediately to your “WhatsApp” or “WhatsApp Business” phone number by clicking a button. This plug-in contains a Whatsapp button that allows you to insert a pre-set message that will be the initial message in the chat. Formerly known as “Social Chat,” this plugin was renamed.
Click To Chat App WordPress plugin store page
Imagify
Imagify is an image optimization plugin that allows you to resize and compress images. You can now leverage its capabilities directly in WordPress to optimize image files and lower the weight of the photos you wish to add to your site. The plugin’s mass optimization option allows you to optimize photos all at once. You can always restore your photographs to their original state if necessary. Imagify also supports the WebP image type; converting .jpg and .png images to more efficient WebP images.
Imagify WordPress plugin store page.
Bonus – WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source WordPress e-commerce plug-in that is very popular. It is intended for small to medium-sized online shops that use WordPress. It delivers almost all of the things you will need when launching an e-commerce website. WooCommerce Admin, a customizable central dashboard for your business, allows you to keep track of the performance indicators that are most relevant to website admins.
WooCommerce WordPress plugin page