It requires a lot of efforts to make a website stand out. However, if your website is lacking functionalities or appropriate design, you are just shooting an arrow in the dark.
Though WordPress is a powerful tool to build a website today, it cannot always do everything you want. And as a matter of fact, it’s a good thing because if it were able to do everything, we all would have to stick with the same thing.
Fortunately, WordPress comes with unlimited Plugins to help you extend the functionality of your website and make it stand out.
Since there are millions of plugins available today, we have gathered 17 essential & must-have WordPress Plugins for 2016 to help you figure out which ones are best for your website.
1. Akismet
If you are planning to start your own blog, then you must be looking forward to having comments from your target audience. Not all the comments would be genuine and valuable. You may notice many scam comments. Akismet is what you should consider first as it lets you distinguish between spam and genuine comments. Not only scam comments make it difficult for you to distinguish between positive and negative feedback, but also for your website to rank higher in the search engine.
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2. Jetpack
It is an all-in-one plugin that provides a wide range of features from security to user retention to content. You can customize your site, add themes, manage content, implement secure logins, analyze the performance, and know the user retention with just this powerful plugin. By default all the features are enabled but that makes your website heavier to load. To prevent that situation, disable the features you do not need.
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3. Wordfence Security
This is a savior for your website as it prevents all your data and stuff secure from the evil eyes of the hackers. One of the most downloaded plugins of WordPress, it offers a deep server-side scan of the entire source code. Once it cleans out all the malware, it eventually speeds up your website. It is completely free but you can get the premium services like Country Blocking, Scheduled Scans, and Password Auditing etc. by paying the associated amount.
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4. UpdraftPlus Backup and Restoration
This plugin simplifies the idea of keeping the backup of your site. You can easily backup all your data into a cloud, both manually as well as scheduled. Restoration can be done in just a single click.
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5. Breadcrumb NavXT
This plugin has proved to be the best when it comes to navigating users to your website. The majority of the users do not land on your website directly. It is either through some search engine results or links given in ads or some other indirect resources. So, in that case, Breadcrumb Navxt helps the user to explore the entire website other than the current page.
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6. WooCommerce
If you are planning to make an online store, then WooCommerce is definitely a must have. It provides features like standard PayPal integration, reviews and sales reports, easy coupon submission, various shipping methods, and handy inventory management. It can be customized as per the needs of your business. Other than Woocommerce, you can also use WP e-commerce plugin for your e-commerce website.
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7. Yoast SEO
Every website wants to rank higher in the search engine results. The website needs to be fully optimized in order to rank higher. Yoast SEO does this for you by making you able to write better content. From Meta titles to the whole content, it helps you choose right keywords to be used for your website.
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8. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP
The website is nothing until you get the traffic on it. Google Analytics lets you manage the user involvement on the pages. You can know the number of real-time visitors, traffic source, and many other parameters determining the popularity of your page.
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9. YouTube Embed
A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a thousand pictures. Everybody prefers to watch videos over reading lengthy posts. So, Youtube Embed is a must have for your WordPress website to embed the Youtube videos. It has no premium versions so you can use the complete plugin for free.
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10. BuddyPress
Socialization in today’s generation means creating a social network over the internet. Buddypress is a package of features that lets you establish a social network over your WordPress website. With Buddypress installed on your website, your members can interact with each other. It also provides a feature to form a community. You can have a friend list, private conversations, make groups and everything you do on social media networks.
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11. W3 Total Cache
Time is money, and nobody wants to waste their time on the things that take too long to load. W3 Total Cache helps in loading the pages faster and speeds up your website. The smooth transitions from one page to another increase the efficiency and the user experience.
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12. Polylang
This plugin is for those who want to have a bilingual or a multilingual website. Polylang supports almost all languages. You just need to type your post and then select the desired language. It automatically translates the content for you.
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13. Floating Social Bar
With the era of social media, you can’t afford to miss out on this plugin. Floating Social Bar is the best plugin to integrate social media icons in your website. The plugin enables you to add few most important social media icons that actually matter.
» Full Details & Download
14. SumoMe
SumoMe is one of the most popular WordPress plugins. It provides too many features, justifying the word Sumo in it. Easy sharing on social media, optimization using the analytics and e-mail integration with MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor, Sumo Me gives you all. Other than this it also takes care of the efficiency and performance of your website.
» Full Details & Download
Wrapping up
This is the list of top 14 WordPress plugins according to us. We have tried to cover as many categories we could, however, the final call is yours. Before choosing a plugin, make sure you have researched well.
We’d love to hear your opinion in the comment section which plugins you use on your own WordPress website and can’t do without?
- 14 Essential & Must-Have Free WordPress Plugins for 2016 - 8 November, 2015
6 comments
“Everybody prefers to watch videos over reading lengthy posts.”
Just for the record, this really is not true. I know I’m not the only one who immediately clicks away from a page where the only way to get information is a video. It’s a simple reason — I can read much faster!
Thanks for sharing this information
Thanks for these updates, love the WordPress Fence recommendation, especially since it’s a free plugin lol. Certainly worth a premium price.
Great Blog Nirdosh 🙂
Ralpheal
Cant agree that. Few are to “heavy” and increase size of websites: Jetpack. Wordfence really “do” some work?
As a wordpress user, i have some of those plugins you suggested, and they are really useful. Thanks for your helpful wordpress plugin list.
Let me start with this, the author did a great job by sharing this knowledgeable and helpful article. Currently, I am using 8 plugins for that and hope so in future I’ll be using rest of 6 plugins.
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