There are thousands of plugins to choose from, depending on your industry and needs. Different plugins come at different prices, but almost all of them offer some of their services under a free version (aka freemium).
But how do you know where to start and which ones to use? It’s a matter of choice really, but you really should already be using the 10 plugins in our list. These are must-have WordPress Plugins that can make your marketing and optimisation efforts so much easier.
1. UpdraftPlus
It’s easy to get carried away with development and content creation, forgetting all about backing up your precious data. With over two million installs, UpdraftPlus is the most popular scheduled backup plugin.
We hope that you will continue to develop and grow your website without ever having to worry about crashes and hacks. UpdraftPlus can back up all your website’s data with a single click.
2. Yoast SEO
Chances are your business relies on SEO to increase organic traffic by ranking higher on the SERPs. Yoast SEO is the number one and most downloaded WordPress SEO plugin.
If your WordPress site’s not utilising Yoast then you’re most likely missing out on potential traffic. Why spend hours trying to get everything optimised properly when Yoast SEO can easily manage it all for you?
Yoast SEO is your one-in-all SEO toolkit. The free plugin optimises for keywords and keyphrases while the premium version takes it one step further, optimising for synonyms and related keywords as well.
Yoast will tell Google exactly what your page is about and will make sure that your content passes the readability check. It will also check for duplicate content and work on the technical stuff in the background. The premium version comes with some extra features, but you can do almost everything with a basic free account.
3. iThemes Security Pro
With hackers lurking in its every corner, the Internet can become a terrifying place. Make sure you’re protected from attacks with iThemes Security Pro. It may not be free, but this premium plugin will keep hackers, attackers and bots out of your website.
iThemes comes with more than 30 security features, including brute force protection from repeated failed login attempts, 404 error detection, file change detection, strong password enforcement, and more!
4. Wordfence
Wordfence is another reliable security plugin. It even comes with its own firewall and malware scanner that was specifically designed to protect WordPress websites from cyber attacks.
The free version will get you started and keep you protected. If you want maximum protection, additional features, and 24-hour support, you can upgrade to the premium version. Keep the bad guys out with real-time introduction of firewall rules and malware signature updates.
5. Really Simple SSL
The SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol is used to establish encrypted links between a web server and a browser. Even if you’ve recently activated an SSL certificate, you may still receive mixed content warnings and have your website flagged as ‘Not Secure’ by Google.
Broken links or non-HTTPS links still present on your website may trigger such warnings. A tool like Really Simple SSL can detect images, styles or scripts that are called over an HTTP connection, moving them to HTTPS dynamically without making changes to the database.
Doing this manually can take days, especially if you’re not too familiar with the technical side of things. Really simple SSL really does make things simple. Try it out for yourself today!
6. MonsterInsights
The stats never lie. Knowing how people find and use your website is crucial to success. Connecting your WordPress site with Google Analytics and tracking all the data used to be quite difficult.
With MonsterInsights, however, tracking has been made easy. Everything you need to know is now one click away, with reports and statistics that you can view inside WordPress; no coding required!
7. WpRocket
No one likes a slow website. It doesn’t matter if your website is fully optimised and secured with HTTPS. If it takes 30 seconds for your page to load, then rest assured that 95% of users will not ever make it past your landing page.
That’s not good for your business. Use a cache plugin like WpRocket to properly optimise your page for speed. WpRocket comes with many great features, including page caching, sitemap preloading, GZIP compression, browser caching and more.
8. WpSmush
When it comes to website loading speed, large images are often the main culprits. Resizing images while also making sure that they retain their quality can be a challenge. WP Smush resizes, optimises, and compresses all of your images for free.
If you’d rather spend less time optimising images and more time creating content and further developing your website, you may want to look into WP Smush Pro. The premium plugin can automatically resize all existing images in the database as well as any new images that you upload.
9. MailChimp
Looking for ways to generate leads and increase sales? Well, it’s probably time to look into email marketing. The MailChimp plugin connects WordPress with your MailChimp account and allows you to add sign up methods to your site.
With MailChimp, you can create user and mobile friendly forms that can be fully customised and shown anywhere on your site. Grow your subscriber list and write better newsletters with this amazing little plugin!
10. Easy Social Share Buttons
For maximum engagement, you need to make sure users know how to find you on social media. There are many social media sharing plugins out there, but no one does it better than Easy Social Share Buttons.
This plugin will let you add social sharing buttons to your pages or posts without slowing your website down. Other sharing buttons require that you download javascript, CSS, and image files to add to your code. Easy Social Share Buttons does it all on its own!
These were the 10 must-have WordPress plugins of 2019! Continue on your path to success with digital marketing tips that make a difference. Check out our blog today!
