What makes WordPress a great platform is its ability to extend its core functionality through tons of WordPress plugins. Whether you have started a small business website or a hobby blog, WordPress plugins allow you to take the website to the next level.
While there is a WordPress plugin for almost every feature you might require for a website. In this article, I am going to focus on the absolute must have plugins required for a new WordPress website.
These plugins would save you ample time and speed up your website development process for your new client or personal website.
Must have plugins for new WordPress website list
1. Yoast SEO
If you want your new website to be SEO friendly, you need to take care of a lot of search engine optimization parameters like generating sitemaps, robots.txt, pretty urls and many other things.
Thankfully, you have a plugin for that in WordPress. Yoast SEO does all the SEO heavy lifting for you on your WordPress website.
With more then 5 million + installations, you are in good company for you WordPress SEO requirements.
What Yoast SEO can do for your new WordPress website
• Generate XML sitemap that you can then link with Google search console
• Write great meta titles and meta descriptions for search appearance
• Generate robots.txt
• Tool for SEO analysis while you write the content
It has both free and premium version. The free version is sufficient for taking care of the SEO activities for new WordPress website.
2. Really Simple SSL
The trust and authenticity you build with your website visitors will determine whether they would be buying a product or service from your website. If your website is not secured via ssl, it can have a negative impact on your website visitors.
Really simple ssl automatically detects ssl and converts your site to https in one click. A really simple and essential plugin you must have for your new WordPress website.
3. Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is my go-to plugin to add enquiry forms on my client’s website.
An easy to use plugin, Contact Form 7 allows you add and customize the desired fields and build the contact form as required.
It also allows you to configure your email on which you want to receive the enquiries generated from the contact form on the website.
This is another must have plugin for a new WordPress website you can’t do without.
4. WP Super Cache
Speed is a critical factor for your WordPress website. The site needs to load quick to retain your website visitors who have a very short attention span.
WP Super Cache takes care of the technicalities involved in speeding up your WordPress website with a simple and easy interface.
It generates static files from your WordPress website which are then served to your website visitors. This saves your server resources for more critical tasks and boosts your website performance.
5. All-in-One WP Migration
Moving a website from one server to another is a pain if it was to be done manually. You have to take care of the website files, database, wordpress site url, image paths and a lot of other things.
Enter All-in-One WP Migration, a website migration plugin that automates all of the above. Once installed, you can move your entire website from one server to the other in a few clicks.
6. Duplicate Page
You might require to duplicate pages and posts for several reasons like copying the structure of a page you have worked on or tweaking the content of a post into a new post.
While WordPress does not have an inbuilt tool to copy a page or a post, Duplicate Page is a handy plugin that fills that void.
Conclusion
With a huge number of WordPress plugins, the possibilities of creating a website tailored to your needs are endless.
However, the above essential plugins for WordPress are a bare minimum you should install for a new website that will make your website development process smooth and easy.
