Many of the websites online today are created in WordPress, it’s very easy to build a WordPress site and one of the reasons why WordPress is the best and the easiest platform to use for building your websites, is the ability to customize any part of your website without doing any coding, This is made possible by many plugins and themes. So in this article, we are going to look at the top 10 WordPress Plugins 2020.

These plugins that I am going to feature in this article are plugins that I am using on my websites so I know how they work and how they improve your website. We are going to look at plugins that are absolutely mandatory especially if you don’t have any experience in creating HTML codes.

We are also going to look at plugins that make the user experience of your website a pleasant one which will encourage your visitors to stick around and read more of your content, which will make Google your best friend 🙂 OK I am done with the intro, let’s do this.

Top 10 WordPress Plugins 2020 You Need These Plugins For Your blog

Number one, and this is a must have. Organic traffic is essential for long term success of any website so our number one plugin is absolutely mandatory.

Yoast SEO,

This is an SEO optimization plugin that helps you use your keywords properly by making suggestions on how and where to use your keywords on your page, it also helps you in creating the best meta titles and meta descriptions as well as meta tags for your post. Yoast SEO is a free plugin with an option of an upgrade for even more advanced features, but the free version will provide you with the things you need for SEO optimization.

There is also another plugin that you can consider which works the same way, I am also using this one on one of my website and it’s doing the same thing although most people prefer the Yoast, I think Yoast is simpler to use, anyway the next option is called All In One SEO Pack.

There is a free version and a premium version, I am using the free version and it’s getting the job done just fine, but if you want advanced features, then you can upgrade to the premium version.

Invite Search Engines to Your Website

Another plugin that you must have is the Google XML Sitemaps,

you need this plugin so you can be able to submit your site map to Google and Bing, by submitting your sitemap, you are giving the search engines the ability to crawl your pages, so they can index them and rank them which will make it possible for your content to be found by your readers. It’s like saying hey Google welcome to my website, and please feel at home, feel free to check out my new content 🙂

This plugin is a must-have, there are many site map plugins but this is the one I am using on all my websites and it’s working great and it’s free.

Jet Pack

 

this is another plugin that you will definitely need on your website, it monitors your website, the jet Pack has many features including security, image optimization, it also monitors your website performance by checking for downtime and notifying you if there is a downtime.

Insert Headers and Footers

This is a must have plugin especially for someone who doesn’t know how to place codes into you the HTML file of your website, trying to palace codes into your website without knowing what you are doing could result in a catastrophic outcome, like destruction of your website.

If you place the codes at the wrong place or delete some codes, then your website will be ruined and you will either have to find a website tech person to fix it all you will lose your website, so in order for you to avoid this kind of damage, WordPress has made it very easy for you to place your HTML codes effortlessly. The Insert Headers and Footers plugin make it possible for you to place codes on the head or footer part of your website with no worries.

Most of the codes that you will get from Google like the Google Analytics or Google Adsense, they will give clear instruction as to where to place your HTML codes, which is on the header tag of your website. And it’s the same with Bing and Pinterest. So all those codes you will place them on the upper part of the plugin which is marked clearly header.

I think this plugin is a must-have because you will have codes and you do need to place those codes on your website and this plugin makes it so easy, all you have to do is copy and then paste the code in the plugin and click save, that’s it.

Smush Image Optimization

 

One of the reason for a website to lose speed, is heavy image files, when you use large images on your pages, it slows down your websites and in this era where everything has to be super fast, you can not have slow-loading pages on your website because people are not going to wait for the slow loading page, they are just going to hit the back button and that means loss of visitors.

So what do you do to make sure your images are light and not slowing down your pages? you install and activate a plugin called Smush Image Optimization that’s what you do, since I installed this plugin, I have noticed a drastic improvement on my pages especially the load time and the visibility on mobile devises.

This Plugin reduces the size of your image without compromising the visual quality, it just reduces the image file making the image lighter and fast to load, and there is even a feature called lazy load which maximizes the page load speed by slowing the image load and accelerating the content load which means the reader will have the text super fast like instantly.

When you install this plugin make sure you activate the lazy load feature unless you have a lazy load plugin installed already. there are lazy load plugins but I think this one is the best because it does more than just lazy load which reduces the number of plugins you will have to install, because if you have to many plugins on your website, again you could make your website too bulky which means again slow speed.

So if you have a plugin that has many features, rather than installing a plugin to perform a task, just activate the feature in the plugin you already have installed. I put my list at 10 plugins because in my experience, if you have more than ten plugins, it could slow your website, depending on the type of plugins you have of course.

Moving on with our top 10 WordPress Plugins

Vaultpress

 

The security of your website is very important which means you need a plugin that will ensure security and protection as well as backup and support.

Number 7 is all about the security of your website, it provides backups and protection from attack and also it has a strong anti-spam, this is one plugin that I would recommend that you get the premium version because you can not play with the security of your website.

Mail Chimp

 

Email marketing is very important when you are running a business website, but how do you collect email addresses and build your email list without spending too much money on expensive email list tools? you install the mail Chimp plugin, this plugin allows you to collect up to 2000 emails for free, but after that you have to upgrade to collect more emails, honestly by the time you get to 2000 emails you would have made sales so I think]k the plugin will pay for itself.

I think Mail Chimp is very suitable for beginners because it gives you opportunity to build your list without the pressure of time because other tools will only give you 30 days and then you will have to upgrade, with mail Chimp it’s about the emails you collect.

Broken Link Checker

 

This is a very important plugin especially if you are doing affiliate marketing, The issue of broken links can cause loss of revenue, because if you have reviews on your website and your affiliate links are not working, that means you are losing commissions.

And going through your links manually could take forever especially if you have lots of content on your website, and this is when the Broken Link Checker plugin comes in handy because it will go through your pages and your comments and check your links for you and notify you of any broken link which makes your job much easier because all you have to do is go in and fix those links.

Sassy Social Share

 

Sharing your work on social media is mandatory, because that’s how you promote your content for free. Now making it easy for your readers to share your content on social media platforms, will generate more visits which means more shares and more exposure, which translate into growth for your business.

When you have a social media share plugin like Sassy Social Share, you are setting up your business for success. I like this plugin because it covers all the social platforms that are out there, to be honest some of them I have never heard of 🙂 The next thing I love about Sassy Social share, is that it’s super light so It will not slow down your site.

Its also easy to customize and super beginner-friendly, after installing and activating, you just choose where you want the share buttons to appear and how many you want, and you also chose the action you want the user to perform for example, like, share, pin, etc.

Pinterest Pin It Button On Image Hover And Post

 

Speaking of pin, I think having a pin it button on your website is very important especially if you are in niches like food, fashion, beauty, parenting, and weight loss, those niches are very popular on Pinterest and having a pin it button will make it easier for your readers to share your content on Pinterest and as we all know Pinterest is the best friend of bloggers especially newbie bloggers because it’s great source of organic traffic.

Bonus WordPress Plugin That I Have To Mention

Before I conclude this list I must mention one more plugin, the All In One Schema org Rich Snippets it’s a free plugin that helps you create rich snippets and helps you add features like star rating in your reviews which makes your reviews pop when someone lads on your post in Google search.

If you don’t already have too many plugins on your site I highly recommend you try this plugin.

A Word Of Caution Before Installing A New Plugin

Although I haven’t had any problems with the plugins in this list, I would advise you to always back up your website before trying a new plugin, because there are some plugins that could mess up your website, always choose the plugin with the highest number of active installations and highest score in reviews and has many reviews.

Also always install a plugin that is compatible with the version of WordPress that you are running, it’s also advisable to use plugins that have been tested in your version of WordPress.

Also you should not use the two SEO plugins in the same site, I mean don’t install the All In One SEO Pack and Yoast SEO in the same website, you have to choose just one. If you have two websites, you can install each plugin on each website and see which one you like better. For me I think they are just the same it’s a question of preference.

Conclusion

There are thousands of WordPress Plugins out there and it’s very difficult to decide which one is the best, in this article I have compiled a list of plugins that I am personally using and I am happy with, You don’t necessarily have to install all the plugins I have mentioned because the choice of plugins also depends on your niche.

But there are some mandatory plugins like those that help with SEO and also the ones that help with optimization and security, I have tried to incorporate the most relevant plugins regardless of your niche, because even though I have mentioned these plugins, it does not mean that I have all of them in every one of my sites.

I am involved in different niches and that means I need different plugins for different websites, I am using all the plugins that I have mentioned just not all in one website.

OK, Your turn to share now, which plugins are you using on your websites and what are the benefits? I am curious to hear what you prefer. Leave your comments below, also did you find my list helpful? if so then please share this post on your social media, it will make my day when you do 🙂

Thank you so much for your time and for your comments

Rose

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