When we launched ProfitBooks in 2012, I had designed the website using plain HTML.

That time it didn’t have a blog and a lot of pages. But as we started to invest in content marketing, plain HTML website was just not enough. We had to move to WordPress.

It was a great decision as it also helped us tremendously in boosting our Google rankings.

While maintaining WordPress, I developed my love for the platform. I had launched numerous experimental websites using WordPress in last 10-15 years. I even got a dedicated hosting server for this.

In this process, I tested a lot of wordpress plugins. In this post, I’m going to share my highly recommended, must have, most essential wordpress plugins that you should install on every new website.

These plugins are free to install. Most of them offer a paid upgrade but their free plan is good enough for most the  users.

Here is a list:

1) Jetpack

This useful wordpress plugin comes from the creators of WordPress (Automattic) and offers many useful tools. It’s good for boosting site speed, loading images faster (by image compression), securing the website managing various small but useful site settings.

Jetpack has recently launched these separate plugins – Jetpack Boost (for improving performance) and  Jetpack Protect (for security).

2) Google Sitekit

This free wordpress plugin by Google gives you access to website insights, page speed and analytics right into the wordpress dashboard.

Very useful plugin.

3) WP File Manager

This file manager plugin helps you upload, download, edit, delete, zip files in WordPress directory durectly from the WordPress Dashboard.

It comes handy when you want to make changes to configuration files such a .htaccess.

4) All-In-One Security (AIOS)

Even after so many years, wordpress is still vulnerable and a soft target for hackers. It’s important to protect your wordpress installation using this best security plugin.

It comes with a lot of tools such as firewall, login security, content protection, system file protection and many more to help you secure your website. There is a small learning curve but if you set it up properly, you don’t have to worry about losing your website content to hackers.

I would also like to mention another plugin – Wordfence. It also does a great job in protecting your website. You can install either one of these.

5) UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus, the superhero of WordPress backups! This plugin is your ultimate savior when it comes to securing your website. With just a few clicks, UpdraftPlus automatically backs up all your website data and files, so you can sleep soundly knowing that your website is safe and sound.

Plus, if you ever need to restore your website to a previous version, UpdraftPlus makes it a breeze!. This plugin lets you set up automatic backups and store them on different cloud services, like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3.

You can also move and copy your site with the premium version of UpdraftPlus. A must-have wordpress plugin.

6) Yoast

If you want your WordPress site to shine in the search engines, you need Yoast. This trusty plugin helps you optimize your website’s content for search engines like a pro.

With Yoast by your side, you can easily boost your website’s SEO by optimizing your titles, meta descriptions, and even the readability of your content. Yoast also provides helpful suggestions to improve your website’s overall SEO performance, making it a must-have for any website owner who wants to dominate the search engine game!

Yoast is also created by a bunch of SEO wizards who know all the tricks and secrets of the SEO world. So, go ahead and install it.

7) AMP

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, a web component framework that helps you create fast, beautiful, and user-friendly web experiences.

With AMP plugin, your website can load at super-speeds, keeping your audience engaged and happy. This plugin helps you optimize your website’s pages for faster load times on mobile devices, so your visitors can get the information they need in the blink of an eye.

Plus, with AMP, your website is more likely to be featured in Google’s “Top Stories” carousel, giving you a superhero-level boost in visibility!

8) Broken Link Checker

Broken links are bad news for your SEO and user experience, so you want to get rid of them as fast as you can.

Broken Link Checker is the vigilant guardian of your website’s links! This plugin works tirelessly to scan your website for any broken links that could lead to a frustrating dead end for your visitors. With Broken Link Checker, you can quickly identify and fix broken links, making sure that your website doesn’t have any dead ends.

You can then change, remove, or ignore the links from the plugin dashboard. Broken Link Checker can also stop search engines from following broken links, and optionally make broken links look different with custom CSS styles.

9) WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers

Insert Headers and Footers is a WordPress plugin that allows you to add custom header content to each page of your site. You can use it to insert custom CSS, JavaScript, meta tags, or any other code that you want to show up in the head section of your page.

It is super easy to use, as it adds a new box to your page editor, where you can type in your custom header goodies.

10) Yoast Duplicate Post

Yoast Duplicate Post is the magical clone-maker for your WordPress pages and posts! This plugin lets you quickly and easily duplicate your existing pages or posts, saving you time and effort when creating new content.

With this plugin, you can duplicate posts with all their content intact, including metadata, categories, and tags. You can use it to create duplicates of your existing posts or pages, and then tweak them as you wish.

11) Akismet

Akismet is a WordPress plugin that helps you get rid of comment spam and contact form spam from your site.

This plugin works tirelessly in the background to filter out spam comments, trackbacks, and contact form submissions, saving you from the annoyance of sifting through a sea of unwanted messages. It scans all your comments and contact form messages against its huge global spam database, and kicks out the ones that look like spam.

Akismet also shows you the status history of each comment, and the URLs in the comment body to expose hidden or sneaky links.

It is the most popular WordPress comment spam buster, and it comes ready to use with every WordPress site. All you have to do is to activate it.

12) Joli Table Of Contents

Did you notice that shiny block about ‘Topics Covered In This Post’ in the first part of this blog? That’s called the ‘Table of Content’ block and I’ve made that using Joli Table Of Contents plugin.

This plugin automatically generates a table of contents for your WordPress posts or pages, making it easy for your readers to navigate through your content and find exactly what they’re looking for. With Joli Table of Contents, you can customize the look and feel of your table of contents, as well as choose where you want it to appear in your content.

There are couple of more plugins like this and most of those work fine. I found this one to be more feature-packed and customisable.

Final Thoughts

So, in summary, we’ve covered some of the essential WordPress plugins that every website owner should consider.

By utilizing these essential plugins, you can take your WordPress website to the next level, protecting it from potential threats, optimizing it for search engines, and creating a better user experience for your visitors.

Do you know any interesting plugin? Share it in the comments section below.