With almost 60,000 plugins to choose from on WordPress, it can be daunting to work out which ones are essential and which ones to stay away from.
As a rule of thumb, the indicators of a good plugin are: how recently it has been updated (the more recent the better), the reviews it has, and the number of activations the plugin has had (again, the more the better).
To help you navigate the plugin jungle, here’s a summary of the plugins we both like and use:
Yoast SEO
SEO is extremely important in today’s digital world which is why WordPress offers many different SEO plugins. We’ve found that out of them all, Yoast SEO is by far the best. It contains many key features such as generating sitemaps, adding meta-tags, redirect tools and social media optimisation.
Sucuri Security
Anyone with a website should know the importance of keeping the site secure and safe, and Sucuri is one of the best plugins around. Protecting your site from Malware, brute force attacks and everything else under the sun, you can be safe in the knowledge that your site is secure with Sucuri installed. If you want the full installation and setup for Sucuri, we can get this all done for you, get in touch here.
WP Smush
How many times have you become frustrated by a website’s speed? This is one of the biggest factors in a user leaving the web page. One of the most effective ways of reducing page speed is by compressing images that are stored on the site. This can be done with the excellent WP Smush plugin which optimises all the images whilst also keeping the quality of the images. I would say that WP Smush is a must-have plugin for your site.
Mailchimp for WordPress
Out of all the email marketing services out there, Mailchimp is by far the most popular. The plugin to integrate your Mailchimp account with your WordPress website is very easy and is also free. It has many features, such as creating sign-up forms and also supporting other Contact form plugins such as Contact form 7. Mailchimp for WordPress also allows you to create your own sign-up forms and opt-in forms in the form builder.
Classic Editor
Many users of WordPress are not huge fans of the Gutenberg Editor which replaced the classic WordPress Editor. Hence the creation of the aptly named Classic Editor plugin which will disable Gutenberg and give you the familiar surroundings you had before. Just like the good ol’ days!
Breadcrumb NavXT
Breadcrumbs allow users to navigate through your website and also find their way back to the page they started at. Breadcrumb NavXT gives you a highly customisable functionality, it’s easy to use, fantastic for SEO and, even better, it’s free.
Redirection
The Redirection plugin is extremely useful when migrating pages from an old website to a new site. It is also useful to manage 301 redirects and keep tabs of any 404 errors there might be. This plugin is a huge help in fixing these issues.
When it comes to plugins there are other things you also need to be aware of, and if your site has too many, they can decrease your site speed. Another thing to be aware of is that while updating plugins is essential for your site security and effectiveness, updating plugins can also lead to breaking a website, e.g. styling errors, contact forms not working and broken pages. If you would like us to help with your plugins, please get in touch!
