So you’re looking to quickly and easily improve your WordPress website through the use of a plugin, but don’t know where to start or which plugins provide more benefit than negative impact? Look no further, we will walk you through what a plugin is, what to consider before installing it, and provide you with our suggestions for which plugins are the most important when getting started with your new WordPress development project.
What is a WordPress Plugin
A really great analogy to understand the relationship between plugins and a WordPress website is to consider them like the apps on your mobile device. Given the right requirements and permissions, they are add-ons that expand what you can achieve from your WordPress web design.
With any simple solution, plugins can come with some disadvantages. Be sure to check out our post here that further explains what a plugin is and outlines some of the key pros and cons related to installing plugins on your WordPress website.
What to consider before installing a plugin
While a plugin can easily and quickly improve your website, there are a handful of considerations that you need to keep in mind before adding a wide range of plugins. We suggest that a site shouldn’t have to rely on plugins for every day-to-day function, but that the use of the right plugins can have a great positive impact on your web design and user experience.
Below we outline some of the plugins that we have heavily vetted and suggest all WordPress websites could benefit from.If you’re looking to install a plugin for a specific function on your site, you should do your own research before installing the plugin. A few key details that will help you ensure you’re setting yourself up for success can be found in the overview of any plugin, which will resemble the following image:
What you should consider when reading these details is how recently the plugin was last updated, how many active installations there are, and whether or not it’s compatible with your WordPress and PHP versions. A plugin that has been recently updated is a sign that the developers are committed to the longevity of the plugin and the number of active installations is a great indicator of how it performs for other users.
In addition to the above details, plugins have a helpful rating system that will allow you to see the experience of other users with that particular plugin:
Top 5 plugins suggested for your WordPress website
While we suggest proceeding with caution while choosing which plugins to add to your site, we suggest the following plugins’ benefits far outweigh any concerns and expand your website’s functionality with key tools for success.
- Wordfence:
- Used for security and monitoring WordPress website; Wordfence has free and premium services available that help secure your site. The free version is suitable for managing your site’s firewall, login security and monitoring user activity. The premium version extends the functionality to provide you with more settings and controls at the website level.
- Yoast:
- Used to manage your WordPress search engine optimization (SEO); Yoast also comes with both free and premium versions. Not only does Yoast SEO provide you with the controls to tailor and customize your search efforts, but it also provides you with technical recommendations and guidance to improve your daily efforts. This powerful tool is extended by the premium features which include access to training courses and improved monitoring.
- Gravity Forms:
- Used to manage and maintain your web forms; Gravity Forms is a paid plugin that provides an intuitive interface to manage your own forms, notifications, and submissions. The interface features an easy to drag-and-drop system to adjust your form fields and a simple entries table to manage and review all form submissions. The limits are endless on your WordPress site when you use Gravity Forms to manage communication.
- WP Super Cache:
- Used to improve your WordPress website performance; WP Super Cache is a free tool that reduces server load using cache. If you’re not familiar with what a cache does on your site, it temporarily stores your information so that your servers don’t have to load all files and content every time the site is visited. This is a very powerful tool that can help improve your web development performance.
- ShortPixel:
- Used to improve your WordPress performance; Short Pixel compresses images and manages serving the best version of your photos based on the user’s device and screen size. To process images you are required to set up a paid account that runs on fixed plans or credit-based payments based on your usage.
You’ll notice that our five top plugins all have specific focus on improving your WordPress site’s SEO, performance, or security. This is intentional as these are key factors in maintaining your site and ensuring your customers have a positive web experience while navigating your content.
While plugins exist for all kinds of solutions and added functionality, you should always consider the impact that any install will have on your site before adding anything new to your website.