Best WordPress Plugins: My Top 6 Picks
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If you are using WordPress for your blog or website you might be puzzled about the best wordpress plugins to use for functionality and efficiency. Here are my top picks.
WordPress plugins are like cocktails, you need enough to get the party started but not so many that you all (or at least your website) falls down in a big heap at the end of the night. Yes, plugins are there to make your website functional but you don’t want to overbloat the site with too many.
Here then are my top picks to get your site purring along. Most are free, a couple are paid or at least have paid upgrades, and all I use on my own sites.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
You want your website page and blog posts to rank as highly as possible in Google and for that it’s going to be vital that you use an SEO plugin. The best, and easiest to use, I have found is Yoast SEO. This does have a paid upgrade but I only use the free version and it’s enough for all my needs and probably will fulfill all your requirements too.
Yoast SEO helps you to add targeted keywords and gives you space to add your meta descriptions so Google, and potential users, can understand what your site is about. This really is a must-have plugin so make sure you download it and install it on your site. If you want to understand a little more about how to use it for targeting keywords (and therefore getting more visitors), you can check out my course here.
Backups
It’s imperative that your site is updated regularly as if there is ever an issue you don’t want to lose weeks, months or even potentially years of content. I use Blogvault for my backups as it is so easy to restore data.
If you are looking for a free alternative then one of the best is Updraft Plus. Just remember, be careful if you are relying on the backups being emailed to you because if the size of the file goes over 25Mb most email providers will stop sending the file to you. So in that case choose one of the options where you can back it up to the cloud.
Security
You would be surprised how many people are trying to hack into websites every day and if you want more info on keeping your site secure then read my blog post here.
One of the best things you can do is install a plugin on your site to help with this. A free option is Wordfence. One with both free and paid options is Sucuri and they can also help with cleaning your site up if it already has malware on it.
Comment Spam
If you have comments turned on on your blog posts you will most likely get a ton of spam comments. The free plugin Anti-Spam Bee does all the hard work for you and filters out anything spammy and lets you approve those comments which look genuine.
Duplicate Post/Page
If you ever want to duplicate posts or pages on your site and then rejig them, this free Duplicate Post plugin from Yoast is super helpful. It can come in handy for example for sales pages or anything where you have the layout done but just want to swap out the content.
Faster Site
This plugin is a premium one but it’s the best in terms of speeding up your site. Plus it’s super easy to use and ready out of the box. Find out more about WP-Rocket here.
A fast site reduces your bounce rate and keeps people browsing for longer so make sure yours is the best it can be, If you want to check the speed of your site use this free tool.
My pick of the best WordPress plugins will get you off to a great start. If you have any questions about them or are wondering what plugin to use for a certain task, then feel free to leave a comment below and I will get back to you.
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