20 Best WordPress Plugins You Need for Your Site in 2018

Reading Time: 13 minutes

If you recently started a blog using WordPress, then it became a great headache to choose Best WordPress Plugins. Because WordPress contains almost 48,000 plugins and it’s hard to find which one is perfect for your site. That’s why we collected some most useful and common WordPress Plugins that are essential for every website owners.

Installing too many plugins significantly create stresses in your Database, that increases your site’s loading time. So to keep your site fully optimized, remove unnecessary plugins and often Clean Up your WordPress Database. In this article, we listed 20 Best WordPress Plugins that are Essential for every Professional Blogger.

[clickToTweet tweet=””20 Best WordPress Plugins for Professional Bloggers”” quote=””20 Best WordPress Plugins for Professional Bloggers”” theme=”style3″]

20 Best WordPress Plugins(Expert Picked)

#1 Yoast SEO

Yoast is the best SEO plugin for WordPress. If you recently started a blog, then this plugin helps you to rank your site on Search Engines. After activating, you need to setup this plugin.

This plugin allows you to generate XML sitemap, which is required for submitting your blog sitemap to Google Search Console. You can also change your site structure from the plugin settings.

Furthermore, their snippet preview helps you to improve your contents that are SEO friendly. For example, it will show you either your post title is too long or too short, whether your meta description makes sense in the context of a search result and that Focus keyword that you want to rank up on Search Engines. So, this WordPress plugin worthy for your site and highly recommended.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#2 Akismet

If you check your comment section in WordPress, you will see there are a lot of comments are to be approved. Maybe you are very happy because you are getting comments on your site. But actually, 99% comments are SPAM. They are trying to get backlinks from your site. So, here comes Akismet plugin to prevent SPAM comments for WordPress site.

After installing Akismet, you need to login with your WordPress.com account that required for activation. Then you need to set it up. Here is a tutorial How to setup Akismet plugin.

Now you can see that those comments are marked as SPAM. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet Web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam. You can notice it under your blog’s “Comments” screen.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#3 Page Builder by SiteOrigin

Page Builder by SiteOrigin is the most popular page builder plugin in WordPress. It allows you to create stunning landing pages and you don’t need any coding skills for this. This plugin comes with a bundle pack which provides more options.

This plugin works on posts, pages and it also supports live editing. This tool lets you see your content and edit widgets in real-time. Besides, it works with standard WordPress widgets and gives you extra widget options that you always find the widget you need.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/siteorigin-panels/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#4 Jetpack

Jetpack is one of the Best WordPress plugins. When you install WordPress for the first time, you will see there are already two plugins already installed. Jetpack is one of them and has over 1+ million active installs.

It is the only one plugin that comes with multi features. Most of the users call it “All in One” plugin because it provides you:

Site stats and analytics
can highlight related posts
can protect your site from Brute force attack
can monitor downtime and uptime monitoring
Email subscriptions
and many more…

From the Automatic sharing option, you can link your site to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin etc so that when you publish a new post, it automatically shares your blog post to those social sites.

Although most of Jetpack’s features and services are free, it also provides Paid features. Paid features include advanced security and backup services, video hosting, site monetization, advanced SEO tools etc.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#5 W3 Total Cache

With a good web host, you must need a Caching Plugin. A cache is a temporary storage area that stores your static files which include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Images etc. Those web pages are stored on your hard disk in a cache subdirectory. So, when a user revisits your site, your web browser get those files from the cache rather than the original server. This way you can save your bandwidth and also increase site loading speed.

W3 Total Cache is one of the Best WordPress plugins. It improves the SEO and user experience of your site by increasing website performance. With their content delivery network (CDN) integration, you can speed up your website easily. Besides, it Minifies your HTML, CSS and JavaScript, enables browser caching, database caching etc.

W3 Total Cache comes with a lot of features, so properly setting up is kinda difficult. Read this tutorial about How to Setup W3 Total Cache.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#6 Broken Link Checker

Broken Link Checker Plugin scan your website for broken links. For example, your blog post contains external links and images. So sometimes those images get corrupt and links get invalid, then this plugin will highlight you those broken links and it’s source.

It monitors links in your posts, pages, comments, the blogroll, and custom fields and detects links that don’t work, missing images and redirects. Then it notifies you either via the Dashboard or by email.

As broken or missing links bad for SEO, so using this plugin you can rewrite those missing URL and prevent search engines from following broken links.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#7 Google Analytics Dashboard for WP

Google Analytics Dashboard for WP plugin allows you to track your site’s traffic easily. After installing this plugin, you will get all traffic details in your WordPress dashboard. Using this plugin, you can monitor real-time number visitors, traffic sources, GEO locations, referrals, page views, bounce rate etc.

This plugin totally free and works same as any other paid tools. Besides from the dashboard, you can check sessions, users, bounce rate, organic search, page/session and all traffic details from last 30 days, even up to 3 years. So you can check your site traffic from last 3 years with just one click.

Their plugin dashboard fully optional and can be integrated with Google Analytics code easily. So you can monitor your site stats without opening any tab in browser.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-dashboard-for-wp/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#8 Ninja Forms

Want to make beautiful Contact Forms? Then Ninja Forms is a good option for you. It is totally free and you can create an unlimited number of forms. You can build forms within minutes using their powerful drag-and-drop form creator.

This form comes with popular Add-Ons, which are available in Pro version of plugin. You can also Import/Export form from the plugin settings and can view total form submission. You can use shortcodes or directly put forms into your posts/ pages to show your contact forms. To use reCAPTCHA, you need to get site key and secret key from Google reCAPTCHA.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/ninja-forms/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#9 bbpress

bbpress is a forum making WordPress Plugin. bbpress is very simple and lightweight plugin that works on any shared hosting. This plugin also comes with its own themes and plugins like WordPress.

You can build any kind of forum using bbpress. For example, you can build a forum like WordPress.org. But if you want a forum for bigger community, then phpBB, myBB will be good. Check how to integrate forum into WordPress.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/bbpress/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#10 Securi Security

Securi is one of the most powerful security plugins for WordPress. It prevents your site from brute force attacks, DDoS attacks. Securi keeps you site 24×7 safe by their powerful malware scanner and Security Hardening.

Securi service is free for all WordPress users. Their seven key security features are security Activity Audit Logging, file Integrity Monitoring, remote Malware Scanning, blacklist Monitoring, effective Security Hardening, post-Hack Security Actions, security Notifications.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#11 Social Warfare

Social Warfare is the best social sharing WordPress plugins. Social Warfare allows you to share your page/ post content on Social networking sites in a better way that get more shares and drive more traffic.

It is very lightning fast and highly customizable social share plugin that loads quickly on your site. You can add a social share button on your page, post and left side that attracts your visitors to share.

This free version of plugin comes with limited features but paid version will give you advanced sharing options.

[thrive_split_button left_color=”green” right_color=”green” left_text=”Get Free Version” right_text=”Get Paid Version” left_link=”https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-warfare/” right_link=”https://warfareplugins.com/?ref=1431″]

#12 Pricing Table by Supsystic

Pricing Table by Supsystic allows you to create responsive pricing tables or comparison table in WordPress. It comes with drag and drop table builder that helps you to create any kind of pricing table without any hassle.

You can use a different type of table template and create unlimited pricing tables, columns and rows. Multiple buttons, text, CSS styles available for any pricing list and can be integrated pricing table by using short-codes.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/pricing-table-by-supsystic/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#13 BJ Lazy Load

BJ Lazy Load is one of the best Lazy Loading WordPress plugins. It lazy loads all your site images as it gets visible to browser window when the visitor scrolls the page. This way you can both save your server bandwidth and improve your site loading speed.

This plugin works any kind of site. You can apply it to your page content, images, post thumbnails, Gravatars etc. In case, this plugin doesn’t work properly, you can use another Lazy loading plugin.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/bj-lazy-load/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#14 Redirection

Redirection is the best plugin for managing 301 redirects. Sometimes, when you update any URL, then you will probably get 404 Page not found error. So in that case, you can easily redirect all 404 to 301, that means redirecting old URL to new URL.

In the case of you are getting too many 404 errors, you can “fix Error 404 Page Not Found” them right away.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://www.wpmyweb.com/plugins/free-404-redirect-plugin-wordpress.html’ target=’_blank’ size=’medium’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#15 WordPress Importer

If you want to import or move your posts, pages to a new WordPress site, then you can do that by using WordPress Importer plugin. It allows you import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-importer/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#16 BackupBuddy

Backupbuddy handles your WordPress backup. You can create a complete backup or only database backup and restore them again.

BackupBuddy also offers backup schedules, remote destinations, migrate site etc. With Backupbuddy, you can backup or restore any individual file in real time. Besides, you can store your backup files to any online storage like Google Drive, Dropbox etc.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’http://shrsl.com/?gh1w’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Get BackupBuddy[/thrive_link]

#17 WP Sweep

WP Sweep Cleans Up your WordPress database by removing unnecessary database tables, revisions, deleted comments, unapproved comments, spam comments and more. With that, you can also optimize WordPress database that helps to load your site faster.

See, How to Optimize WordPress Database Using WP Sweep.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-sweep/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#18 Slider by Soliloquy

If you are searching the Best WordPress slider plugin, then Soliloquy is the best option for you. With the Drag & Drop responsive slider builder, you can create beautiful image slider with just a few clicks.

Soliloquy Slider is 100% responsive and mobile-friendly. You can easily customize your Soliloquy slider with their built-in templates or create your own. It also works great on WooCommerce sites and you can create beautiful product sliders for your store.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/soliloquy-lite/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#19 MailMunch

Mailmunch is the best free WordPress plugin to get more email subscribers. With the beautiful opt-in forms, you can easily add to your sidebar widget. It can be integrated with MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, Campaign Monitor email marketing services.

They provide four different type of opt-in Form i.e Popup, Embedded, Top Bar, Scroll Box, and Sidebar. MailMunch form comes with beautiful customizable themes that make your forms more amazing. From the dashboard, you can run A/B test and view email subscription analytics and statistics for all time.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailmunch/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

#20 Clef Two-Factor Authentication

Clef Two-Factor Authentication provides password-free, two-factor authentication that is highly secure and enjoyable to use. It is very useful if you can’t remember your site password, even if you change your password frequently.

So using this plugin, you can login to your site with the help of your phone. Just download phone app from play store or apple store. Then you can login to your site by a scanning a bar.

Their Clef mobile app provides passwordless two-factor authentication that is highly secure and enjoyable to use. You don’t need to install any 3rd party software, just use your smartphone to allow you to log in. With the single sign-on/off feature, you can sign out from all your sites with one-click any time and can schedule a time to log you out automatically when you’re done working.

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpclef/’ target=’_blank’ size=’small’ align=”]Download[/thrive_link]

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we created a list of 20 Best WordPress Plugins that must have on your site. It is usual that new WordPress users have less idea about which plugin they should use or shouldn’t. This way plugin’s unnecessary files are stored in your database and make your site a bit slower. That’s why we suggested 20 Best WordPress Plugins

That’s why we suggested 20 Best WordPress Plugins that are useful for your site. If you install too many plugins in your site, your site gets lots of load at the same time and this causes slow page load. So you always should try to keep a minimum number of plugins, that will be good for your site.

I hope this “Best WordPress Plugins” list helps you to find your needy plugin. If you have any queries about any WordPress Plugins, please let us know by a comment. We are also available on Facebook, Twitter, Google+.