Installation of plugins depends on the requirement and nature of the blog. You can choose plugins according to your requirement. If you have some technical knowledge use code instead of plugin. More plugins affect your site performance. So choose advisedly. If possible avoid plugins and use custom code for general functions. Here is a list of essential Plugins for any WordPress blog those never ignored.
Most important plugins for WordPress
Akismet:
Akismet is most recommended plugin for any WordPress blog. It is an antispam that prevents your blog from being filled with spam comments. In below image, you can see the performance of Akismet which save one of my blog from 46000 spam comments. It let the option to review your spam comments. After installation of Akismet, you need to the API Key which is free provided by Akismet.
WordPress Seo By Yoast:
WordPress SEO by Yoast is one of another important plugin for WordPress blog. For better ranking and indexing, SEO is the major factor for any blog. It is a free plugin and widely accepted by top WordPress sites. It offers setting SEO for your entire website, and also individual pieces of content. It also provides XML sitemaps and ping services for faster indexing. For the complete guide for setting up Yoast plugin read the below article:
W3 Total Cache:
Site Speed is another factor for better ranking and getting organic traffic. Google loves fast loading sites and prefers them into search result. Slow sites get high bounce rate due to takes forever to load will result in visitors leaving quickly and likely not returning. W3 Total Cache allows the users to increase the site performance by improving the speed. It uses browser cache, Minification, and other optimization to decrease page load time while increase your entire website’s speed. For knowing about complete guide for setting up W3 Total Cache, read the below article:
Jetpack By WordPress:
This is the official plugin of WordPress and recommend by WordPress creator. It comes with WordPress installation. You have to activate it only. It provides many features like mobile theme, stats, contact form, social sharing button and many more.
Cloudflare:
CloudFlare plugin provides an interface on your WordPress dashboard to enable or disable services of Cloudflare. Cloudflare is free CDN which speeds up your site by serving your static resources. For detailed read the below article:
- What is the Best CDN for wordpress
- How to set up Cloudflare to speed up your site
Add This Social Share:
This is the social sharing plugin which allows you to show floating share bar, share bar on the below and top of the post and social follows button. Social sharing plugin is most recommended plugin for acquiring traffic from the social site but slowing the site speed. If you want to use your personal social bar, Below article helps you to create your own social bar with the help of CSS Sprits.
These are the most essential and recommended plugins for WordPress Blog.