The success of WordPress is largely due to its ease of use. Everyone loves this software for its ability to transform according to the needs of the user. This flexibility is due to the extensions that are quickly reaching six thousand. Among so many choices which are the TOP of WordPress plugins.
Keep in mind that each site has its own specific topic, the classic niche that needs its own particular plugins that are useful only for that area such as a law firm. The topics covered by the plugins such as security, SEO, loading speed, and others of this kind, should not miss on your blog, simply because they improve performance and give you the peace of mind of thinking only about the content.
WordPress extensions are so many that many features are developed by multiple plugins at once, but they are not duplicates, just extensions that can improve some aspects rather than others.
You can find free or paid plugins, but there are also those called freemium, i.e. free plugins with additional advanced features and only available for a fee.
1 – JETPACK
The name suggests the potential of this extension. Jetpack automates many functions such as security, site performance, facilitates traffic growth, optimizes images, an aspect that is becoming increasingly important, and more.
With Jetpack you are immediately in touch with the main search engines in order to maximize indexing and ranking in the rankings. Automatically generate the sitemap.
The security it offers against brute force attacks is important. Always pay attention to this specific point, because especially at the beginning you tend not to take it into account. As time goes by, your site will become more visible, not only to the good people, we understand each other!
Your site is checked every 5 minutes to check for problems.
2 – AKISMET
This extension comes with all WordPress packages, even the basic ones. It is an anti-spam, it checks all comments and filters them automatically.
If you have entered the comment function of your blog, then Akismet will help you get to know better those who leave, or rather, would like to leave an intervention. The moderator of the site has the possibility to have an overview about who comments and what writes, and then approve it or not. Not infrequently you use comments to enter a URL for advertising purposes, Akismet detects and blocks them. This plugin is free, for commercial sites you need a subscription, because it activates advanced security features.
3 – EVEREST FORMS
A site that wants to establish relationships with its visitors needs a contact page. The reason why being contacted through the site can be varied, such as commercial or simply for suggestions or even for classic feedback.
A nice contact page facilitates the function and is what Everest Forms intends to do. It’s very easy to build the contact form yourself with intuitive commands like drag & drop.
Choose between two available designs to use as an interface on the modules you want to activate. Given the amount of options it offers it is useful to take a look at the demo.
It’s a complete and free plugin, it provides among other things also the reCaptcha module.
It is simply the reference for the contact modules.
4 – W3 TOTAL CACHE
Another plugin that you should not miss. It is essential that a website is fast enough to be opened in a matter of seconds. It is said that after 6 seconds an average user abandons that search result to switch to another, it is the so-called bounce.
With W3 Total Cache, caching is carried out, which consists in making a web page visible simply by accessing the cache data, where images and texts of the searched page are temporarily stored. In this way it can be generated in much less time. The performance of the site in terms of speed of visualization will be significantly improved and with them the SEO in general.
It also acts in terms of reducing the weight of various files by up to 80%.
5 – WP SMUSH to reduce images
Another WordPress plugin not to be missed. When you upload a post you usually insert images, these make the article more captivating and readable. If they are not carefully reduced in weight, the images, risk slowing down the display of the page.
WP SMUSH compresses the images for you and does it automatically. Compression, without losing quality, is what it takes to have a good performing site. JPEG, GIF and PNG photos optimized and beautiful as in their original format, with the SEO effect ensured by the loading speed.
6 – WORDFENCE SECURITY
Unfortunately, hackers exist and can do serious damage. You can’t think that it won’t happen to you because you just don’t know it.
A hacker acts with robots that go around the net, so they can very well attack your site too.
There are many plugins that deal with the topic of security, this that I show you is considered very reliable.
There are many features including firewall protection, malware scanning, increased connection security, and real-time traffic scanning. It’s a kind of antivirus that shows you the problems live.
Brute force attacks are the most feared because they involve different techniques to penetrate the administration panel of the site. The plugin implements controls making it difficult to insist on robots. It does so by selectively checking all access passwords, evaluating their defensive strength.
7 – MAILCHIMP FOR WORDPRESS
MailChimp is a very popular plugin for those who want to use active marketing services, to establish contact with their users who may be subscribers.
Adding it is simple and free. There is also a premium version to use for commercial purposes.
Creation of mailing lists inserted in variable modules and customizable at will. It supports other plugins such as Contact Form 7, WooCommerce.
For your email marketing campaigns there is nothing better !